Zelina Vega appears to have settled on a new identity, and the timing is not an accident.
The former WWE Women’s United States Champion filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the term “Xelina” on Monday, July 20, as first reported by PWInsider’s Mike Johnson. The filing arrived three days before her 90-day non-compete clause lapses.
Thea Trinidad Budgen becomes a free agent at midnight on July 23, per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. She’s part of a loaded class hitting the market the same night, alongside her husband Tom Budgen (Aleister Black), Kairi Sane, Bo Dallas, Joe Gacy, Erick Rowan, Dexter Lumis, Santos Escobar, Zoey Stark, and the Motor City Machine Guns’ Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley.
The one-letter swap is doing real legal work. WWE owns the trademark on “Zelina Vega,” along with “Queen Zelina,” which the company filed for in 2021 after she won the inaugural Queen’s Crown tournament. “Xelina” gives her a phonetically identical brand she can own outright and carry to any promotion without a cease-and-desist landing on her doorstep.
The USPTO description covers the standard ring-name categories: wrestling performances and exhibitions, wrestling news and information services, event management, online newsletters, and short-form video distribution via social media. That last category matters for someone with an established Twitch following.
Vega and Black were among roughly 23 talents cut in WWE’s post-WrestleMania 42 roster reset on April 24. Vega said she was informed of her release directly by TKO rather than WWE, a distinction she pointed out publicly, and confirmed the 90-day term on her Twitch stream shortly after the news broke.
She isn’t the first from that wave to move on the paperwork. Nikki Cross filed for her pre-WWE ring name days after her own release, and Black has been in active AEW negotiations since May.
This is not new territory for Vega. WWE released her in November 2020 and re-signed her less than six months later. During that window, Tony Khan publicly acknowledged waiting on her non-compete to expire before making contact. The trademark filing suggests she isn’t counting on a similar round trip this time.
