-- On Monday, an online rumor gained traction indicating that WWE had changed their long-standing stance and were allowing talents to use their WWE names when they leave the company, implying that they were effectively turning over the trademark. This isn't true and multiple sources have confirmed that there has been no change at all to WWE's policy which is actually governed by greater trademark guidelines.
-- The general gist of the guideline is that if a talent was using a specific name before coming to WWE, the company would not have much of a legal right to enforce that they not use that name in the future after leaving the company. Wrestlers who would fall into this class include CM Punk, Samoa Joe, Chris Jericho, Mustafa Ali - all of whom used those names before they ever wrestled for WWE. The same would also apply for people who use their real names during their wrestling careers (John Cena, Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar, Jade Cargill, etc.) and it would be the reason why some wrestlers in the past changed their names legally to try and gain control of it and legally be able to use upon leaving WWE. Examples here would include Warrior, Ryback and Chyna.
-- Partial names are more of a gray area and the most famous example here would be Cody Rhodes who at one point wasn't able to use Rhodes outside of WWE before the promotion turned ownership of that name to him. Finally, there are names - whether real sounding or gimmicked - that WWE created strictly for character purposes - Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Braun Strowman or Kane, Undertaker - that the company fully owns and would not be able to be used in other promotions.
-- Under the old Vince McMahon regime, WWE would almost always repackage an incoming wrestler with a new name, character or gimmick so that the company would own the trademark perpetually, however, with the leadership team under TKO, Nick Khan and Paul Levesque, it appears to be more and more common that they are content in letting talent appear on WWE TV using names they have previously used elsewhere. Under these conditions, WWE would have licensing rights to use the name for things like merchandise, advertising, etc. while the talent are under contract to them.
