The WWE has filed to trademark the term "Vice City," just months before Grand Theft Auto VI returns players to the city of the same name, as reported by Fightful. On the surface, it looks like a wrestling company trying to grab a piece of the most valuable name in gaming right as the hype peaks, but the truth is actually far less boring. The filing has nothing to do with the game. It is about a wrestler.
The WWE filed the "Vice City" trademark on August 4 and it is tied to Lola Vice, a rising star who just wrapped up her run in the company's developmental brand and looks set for a move to the main roster.
Vice is from Miami, the real city that Rockstar Games fictionalized as Vice City decades ago, and "Vice City" is a nickname tied to her hometown roots. The trademark is branding for her, and it's most likely the reason why WWE will get to use it. WWE filed "Vice City" for wrestling and live entertainment. Rockstar's Vice City exists in video games. Those are different lanes and a trademark in one does not block the other.
WWE owning "Vice City" for a wrestler does not stop Rockstar from selling a game set in Vice City any more than it stops the actual tourism board of Miami from existing. The two can coexist without ever touching.
All of this is likely a formality though. Rockstar and the WWE are already on the same team, in a way. Rockstar is owned by Take-Two Interactive and the WWE's video games, the WWE 2K series, are published by 2K, which is also owned by Take-Two. Both are also close partners with Netflix, with WWE's biggest events and weekly shows streamed live on the platform while Rockstar has a handful of games and its upcoming GTA VI reveal on it.
The idea of these two picking a trademark fight over "Vice City" is almost comical when they already share a corporate parent on the gaming side. If anything, they are closer to family.
The likeliest outcome is that it either goes through quietly for wrestling use or gets nudged back on a technicality, and either way the next Grand Theft Auto is entirely unaffected.
Of course, we wouldn't put it past these two companies to work together to advertise GTA 6 in some way or form. TTWO CEO Strauss Zelnick did already promise that GTA 6 marketing will be unlike any other, shorter than every game before it, and most likely, be everywhere all at once. WWE is one of the biggest spectacles in sports entertainment, with several confirmed and potential events lined up between now and then.
With GTA 6 on Netflix already, wouldn't it only be natural for these companies to work something out that benefits all four of them?
For now, this is mere speculation. The only thing we can confirm is that WWE and Rockstar aren't beefing at all.
