AEW trademarks The Swirl tag team ahead of All Out

All Elite Wrestling filed to trademark the name The Swirl with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on September 2, a move that appears to formalize the on-screen identity of a recently formed tag team and to protect the promotion's commercial rights ahead of upcoming events. The filing covers entertainment services for tag team wrestling performances and was submitted as AEW continues a Philadelphia residency and builds toward its All Out pay-per-view on September 20.

The Swirl has been used on television and live shows by Blake Christian and Lee Johnson, who first teamed at AEW Revolution in March and have worked together on both AEW and ROH programming. The pair most recently competed as a unit at ROH Death Before Dishonor on August 29, defeating the returning team of The Kingdom. Following that match, Christian and Johnson repeatedly referred to themselves as The Swirl in a postmatch interview, a usages that AEW's trademark application now appears to formalize.

The company's filing description with the USPTO specifies entertainment services in the nature of live professional wrestling exhibitions and performances by a tag team of wrestlers during professional wrestling...