WWE filed to trademark for "Vice City" months before GTA 6
WWE filed a “Vice City” trademark on August 4, weeks before GTA 6’s big August 27 trailer. It’s for wrestling, not games, and it’s almost certainly about a wrestler named Lola Vice, not Rockstar.
WWE filed to trademark the term “Vice City” on August 4, and the timing set off alarms.
It lands weeks before Rockstar puts out its biggest look yet at Grand Theft Auto 6, a game set in Vice City, the series’ fictional Miami. So a wrestling company grabbing that exact term right now looks like a collision waiting to happen.
It probably isn’t. The filing is for wrestling and sports-entertainment services, not video games, and it’s almost certainly about a wrestler.
Why WWE wants “Vice City”
The trademark points at Lola Vice, not Rockstar.
Vice, real name Valerie Loureda, is a former NXT Women’s Champion and ex-Bellator MMA fighter. She’s from Miami, the real Vice City, and the phrase has followed her for a while as a nod to her hometown. She just bid farewell to NXT after a match on August 4, the same day the trademark was filed, and multiple wrestling outlets report she’s being called up to the main roster, likely SmackDown.
So the likeliest read is simple: WWE is locking down a phrase tied to a wrestler it’s about to push. The GTA timing is a coincidence.
The trademark probably won’t succeed anyway
Here’s the wrinkle that makes it interesting, and it’s the detail most of the panic missed.
Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, owns the GTA trademarks and defends them hard. Back in February 2026, Take-Two opposed a filing for “Vice City Subs”, arguing a sandwich shop using the name would confuse customers and dilute its brand.
If Take-Two will fight a sub shop over “Vice City,” it’s hard to imagine it letting WWE register the exact term unchallenged, wrestling-only or not. The filing is currently pending, awaiting assignment to an examining attorney.
There’s an irony in the corporate family tree, too. WWE’s video game partner is 2K, which makes the WWE 2K series. And 2K is owned by Take-Two, the same company that owns Rockstar. So WWE’s trademark could end up opposed by its own game publisher’s parent.
What to actually watch
The GTA connection is fun to imagine but thin.
Could WWE and Take-Two have coordinated something, some GTA 6 tie-in with Lola Vice? Technically possible, and a few observers floated it, but there’s zero evidence for it, and the simpler explanation, a wrestler getting a trademark for her gimmick, covers everything without needing a conspiracy.
GTA 6: The Extended Look hits Netflix on August 27, with the game due in November. If anything actually links WWE and Vice City beyond a shared Miami, that’s roughly when the marketing noise would make it visible.
Until then, it’s a wrestler’s nickname paperwork that happened to land in the same week as the biggest game trailer of the year. Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence with good timing.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Kotaku (August 6, 2026), verified for the August 4 filing, the Lola Vice connection, her NXT departure, the Take-Two/2K corporate relationship, and the 15-weeks-to-GTA-6 timing
Cageside Seats (August 6, 2026), verified for Take-Two opposing the “Vice City Subs” filing in February 2026, the wrestling-only scope of WWE’s trademark, and the assessment that it’s unlikely to succeed without coordination
Fightful and F4W/WON (August 6, 2026), verified for the August 4 filing date, Vice’s real name and Bellator background, her Miami roots, and Bryan Alvarez’s reporting that the call-up decision was already made
GameRant (August 6, 2026), verified for the GTA 6 Extended Look arriving on Netflix August 27, the November release, and Take-Two’s ownership of the Vice City brand trademarks
Wrestlezone (August 6, 2026), verified for the USPTO accepting the application pending examiner assignment and Vice’s NXT farewell details