Saw these two guys at the supermarket today here in San Jose. Will try the KC version tonight. Was surprised to see that the American Royal has sold the rights to its name to an outfit called BBQSpot and they're slapping it on sauces and rubs.
It's a good branding strategy (for both American Royal and BBQSpot) and it's likely a licensing deal where Royal gets a percentage of sales. These deals usually include some sort of quality criteria for the licensee to uphold. I wouldn't doubt that American Royal has the right to approve/deny recipes.