Indi Hartwell Reveals How She Got The Rights To Her Name Back From WWE

How did one former WWE superstar get her name back after she sold it to the company?

Indi Hartwell was released by WWE in October 2024 after a nearly five-year run, which included winning the NXT Women’s Championship and NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships with Candice LeRae.

Following her release, Hartwell wrestled on the independents before announcing that she has officially signed with TNA at the Rebellion pay-per-view on April 27.

The 28-year-old opened up on her WWE career and post-WWE goals in a recent interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, and one of the topics she discussed was the story of how she was able to keep her ring name.

That’s when Hartwell revealed that she had initially sold the name to WWE, but managed to get it back after her release.

How did she do it? Simply by asking.

“When NXT 2.0 started, they went through that whole thing where you can't have your real name or a name they don't own,” Hartwell told Van Vliet. “They gave me the option to change my name or sell it to them. I sold it to them. It was always in the back of my mind, 'If I get released, what name am I going to be?' That's a big deal to me.

“When I got the call that I was being released, they said, 'You're released.' 'Okay, cool. So, I sold my name to the company. Is there any way I could get that back?' We got it all figured out and I got the rights and stuff to it. I'm very lucky.”

WWE releases have been a hot topic the past week after another round of roster cuts last Friday.

I hope you stay on this journey with me x pic.twitter.com/EE0xrgRMSA
— 𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖊𝖌𝖎𝖗𝖑 🎮 (@ImKingKota) May 3, 2025

Main roster stars Braun Strowman, Dakota Kai, Shayna Baszler, Kayden Carter, and Katana Chance were released, as were several featured NXT talents, including Cora Jade, Gigi Dolin, Jakara Jackson, Eddy Thorpe, and more.

H/T Fightful for the transcription.

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