Just days after the Bullet Club “invaded” Monday Night Raw in Ontario, California, Pro Wrestling Sheet reported today that WWE actually issued a Cease and Desist to the Young Bucks in regards to using the “Too Sweet” hand gesture on merchandise or as part of their performance. The hand gesture – an iconic trademark of the WWE’s Kliq that followed members to the nWo and D-Generation X – has become an equally signature hand gesture for Bullet Club, primarily though the heavy use by the Young Bucks.
Last year in an interview on WWE.com, members of The Kliq (Triple H and Kevin Nash) and former Bullet Club members (Finn Balor, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows) discussed the origins of the hand gesture in pro wrestling history. According to Nash and Hall, it was created in the WWF in the mid-90’s. In the article, “The ‘Too Sweet’ History of WWE’s Most Iconic Gesture”, published on June 24, 2016, Nash and Triple H said the following about it’s beginning:
“KEVIN NASH: It came up during a European trip. X-Pac brought it to our attention. It was just one of those things where we got it and the five of us [Nash, Sean Waltman, Scott Hall, Shawn Michaels and Triple H] started to use it.
TRIPLE H: When we did it originally, we were sneaking it into places where we could get away with doing it. A lot of it was breaking the rules, anyway. It really was more about sneakily breaking the rules and seeing if anybody catches on that we’re doing it.
NASH: Whenever The Kliq was together, we’d throw it up. Whenever we were solo, we’d throw it up. When we split in ’96, it became a symbol of the unity of The Kliq.”
When Hall and Nash were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in back to back years (Hall in 2014 and Nash in 2015), The Kliq became hot property again, including a new DVD and merchandise. One of those was a T-Shirt with the Too Sweet hand sign (although Nash says The Kliq called it “The Turkish Wolf” not “Too Sweet”, after the original sign users, The Grey Wolves, a Turkish ultra nationalist militant group formed in the 1960’s).
That same year, the WWE filed a trademark on the hand gesture, but it was abandoned in December when the WWE failed to respond to an USPTO (US Patent & Trademark Office) inquiry within the six month time frame. There doesn’t appear to be any records of the WWE re-applying for the trademark.
The Bullet Club’s usage, much like how The Kliq’s pre-dated the nWo and D-X, began before the group’s formation, as Karl Anderson mentioned in the same WWE interview. “It started for sure with me and Finn in 2006, in Santa Monica in the New Japan Los Angeles Dojo,” Anderson told WWE.com. “We were just buddies and would Too Sweet each other for the hell of it because we thought it was fun. Then, as we progressed and moved into New Japan Pro Wrestling, we always did it to each other on the bus. It was part of our handshake.”
But during the same interview, AJ Styles drops a little bit of trivia that perhaps makes the WWE’s Cease and Desist to the Young Bucks seem a little…well…odd. From the same WWE.com article:
AJ STYLES: Everybody wants to take responsibility for it. Obviously, The nWo. If we want to go way back, who did The nWo get it from?
LUKE GALLOWS: Japan?
STYLES: Wrong. No, no, no, no, no. NC State. [The North Carolina State Wolfpack]
GALLOWS: [Scoffs] Who cares about that?
STYLES: That’s the Wolfpack. That’s a Wolf Kiss, bro.
Wait. What?
Yes, AJ Styles is absolutely correct. North Carolina State University football team has been known as “The Wolfpack” since 1921 and since at least the 1970’s, cheerleaders and fans have shown their salute to the players on the field with the “Wolf Kiss”, as AJ called it, as their show of team unity.
Kevin Nash even admits in the WWE interview that since they “were throwing the Turkish Wolf up, so it made sense that we were the “Wolfpack.” Since the Wolfpack was owned by NC State, we made it The Wolfpac, so we could register it.”
Ten years ago, Diamond Dallas Page set a precedent on the trademarking hand gestures, when he successfully sued Jay-Z for using his Diamond Cutter hand sign at shows and on merchandise. Jay-Z eventually settled out of court and DDP dropped the suit. So the WWE may have a legal foothold should they pursue the case further.
But if the WWE can sue the Young Bucks for using it, it just opens the doors for another battle. Could North Carolina State University turn around and sue the WWE for using their “Wolf Kiss” all these years?
