Hartwell details how she was able to get the rights back to her name post-WWE.
Indi Hartwell’s time with WWE came to an end when she was released from the company in November 2024. Fast-forward to present day, Hartwell is signed to TNA Wrestling and has wrestled for independent promotions in the U.S. and in her home country of Australia.
There was an interview with Hartwell that was pushed out by Chris Van Vliet. She shared that she sold her name to WWE as their NXT brand was rebranding into NXT 2.0. Hartwell stated that after her release, she asked for the rights to the name back and the two sides worked it out.
I just asked (to use the name Indi Hartwell after WWE release). Well, this is how it went: So, I’ve had this name my whole wrestling career. When I started at NXT, when you start wrestling on live events, they make you wrestle under your real name. So I wrestled under my real name for a bit and then I think I had a dark match at NXT, and I just asked Road Dogg, ‘Can I be Indi Hartwell for this?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll ask. Why not?’ And then, they let me be Indi Hartwell for the dark match and then it kind of just kept going and then I got on TV with it. I got my action figure with that name, I got in the game with that name, and then I think it was when NXT 2.0 started, they went through that whole weird thing of you can’t have your real name and you also can’t have a name that we don’t own. So they gave me the option to change my name or sell it to them. So, I sold it to them, and then, it was always in the back of my mind, if I get released, what name am I gonna be? That’s a big deal to me. So then, when I got the call that I was being released, they said, ‘Okay, yeah, we’re releasing you.’ I said, ‘Okay, cool. So I sold my name to the company. Is there any way I can get that back?’ And then, we got it all figured out. I got the rights and stuff to it. Yeah, I’m very lucky.
The 28-year-old Hartwell made her in-ring debut for TNA at their television taping in early May. It’ll air on an upcoming episode of their weekly TNA iMPACT program.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
