Backstage Update on Who Owns Rights To United Empire Name & Will Ospreay’s Usage Of The Name In AEW

As noted before, Will Ospreay formed a new United Empire stable in AEW earlier this month. This group currently features AEW World Champion Ospreay, AEW National Champion Andrade El Idolo, “Speedball” Mike Bailey, Francesco Akira, and The Brawling Birds (Alex Windsor & Jamie Hayter). This new group is separate but associated with the version of United Empire led by Callum Newman in NJPW.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Ospreay currently owns the rights to the United Empire name and has the freedom to use it in AEW.

Those spoken to familiar with the situation reportedly confirmed that Ospreay controls the name and had trademarked it earlier this year.

It was reported that this is a different situation from when AEW had to rename Jay White’s Bullet Club Gold group to its current name of the Bang Bang Gang due to NJPW owning the trademark to the Bullet Club name.