WWE Reportedly Challenging Two of Cody Rhodes' Trademark Filings

The battle over trademarks between WWE and AEW's Cody Rhodes continued this week, as WWE reportedly filed a 90-day extension with the United States Patent and Trademark office for its notice of opposition on Rhodes' filings for "Slamboree" and "The Match Beyond." Rhodes first started acquiring trademarks for old WCW/Jim Crockett Promotions events in March 19 by picking up "Battlebowl," "Bunkhouse Stampede" and "Bash at the Beach," the latter of which saw a revival in AEW back in January much to WWE's reported frustration. Slamboree was a pay-per-view name created by Dusty Rhodes and used in WCW from 1993-2000, while The Match Beyond is another title given to the WarGames match "The American Dream" created.

Rhodes explained on AEW Unrestricted that his goal with the trademark filings is for the Rhodes family to once again own all of Dusty's creations from his time as a booker. He said his main goal is to get back Starrcade (which WWE has brought back as an annual house show/WWE Network event) and The Great American Bash (a pay-per-view WWE hasn't used since in any capacity since 2012).

"I don't know what my grand play is here, I just wanted to pick it up to have for my family. We're not merchandising it," Rhodes said. "I'm not making any money off the Bash at the Beach name. It's just to have it.

"Great American Bash and Starrcade are 100% his [Dusty's]," he later added. "I don't give a damn.... I would rather have those than a 100 Slamborees."

Rhodes explained in a media conference call back in February that AEW likely won't use any more WCW pay-per-view names going forward.

"I'd actually say it's unlikely you see any more of those. Maybe one — wink, wink wink," Rhodes said. "But I honestly think it's so much fun to have this EVP corpse, to have Tony Khan as this creative brain trust to come up with our own stuff. Bash at the Beach was just meant to be something fun, it wasn't meant to offend anybody and it wasn't done in a bitter way."

Though he recently claimed he could go by his full wrestling name if he wanted to, Rhodes recently filed for the trademark on "Cody Rhodes," which WWE held onto after he originally asked for his release. Rhodes said in a recent interview he prefers to go by "The American Nightmare, Cody" after getting used to it in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

This week's AEW Dynamite will feature the two semifinal matches in the AEW TNT Championship Tournament, featuring Rhodes vs. Darby Allin and Dustin Rhodes vs. Lance Archer.