Indi Hartwell on keeping name after WWE release: ‘I just asked’

While appearing on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Indi Hartwell detailed how she was able to keep her in-ring name after being released by WWE. “Indi Hartwell” is what Samantha De Martin has been known as since starting her career on the Australian indies, but she sold the name to WWE during her time with the company. She explained on Insight how she was able to get the rights back after her release. “I just asked,” Hartwell responded when asked about keeping her name. “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, like, ‘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 like kept going. And then I got on TV with it. I got my action figure with that name