It’s human nature to resist change. This is especially true when it comes to things we’ve grown attached to, and pro wrestling is no exception. Throughout the last few years, WWE has made some questionable rebranding decisions. Some of these decisions have paid off, while others are still up in the air.
A lot of WWE’s name changes have sparked that ever-present urge in wrestling fans to resist change; they’ll tweet about it for a few hours, only for the anger to wear off after a little bit of time. Many of these name changes elicited that sort of temporary outrage, while others simply cocked a few heads. In either case, these names outlasted any sort of fan reaction, and the WWE universe adapted and accepted them.
10 Doudrop
The name Doudrop was given to former NXT UK superstar Piper Niven by her best friend at the time, Eva Marie. The name was meant to belittle Doudrop, but the Scotswoman chose to embrace it and made it her own.
The name is a bit odd, to say the least. What exactly is a Doudrop, anyway? There’s never been a clear explanation on where the name came from or what it means. Still, fans eventually got adjusted to it.
9 Butch
The Bruiserweight Pete Dunne is an accomplished independent wrestler and a former NXT UK Champion. He has a very strong personality, so WWE’s decision to completely change his presentation was confusing.
Now he simply goes by “Butch,” and is literally always looking for a fight. Social media was outraged at this gimmick change at first, but predictably got over it pretty quickly.
8 Ludwig Kaiser
Ludwig Kaiser, formerly known as Marcel Barthel, was previously a member of the heel faction Imperium alongside Gunther. Before coming to SmackDown, Kaiser (Barthel at the time) was an NXT Tag Team champion alongside Fabian Aichner.
His new name, though it pretty much slipped under the fans’ radars, is admittedly pretty cheesy. It’s an incredibly cliched name for a German wrestler.
7 MACE
Before joining Mustafa Ali's Retribution, MACE (written in all caps, per his request) was known as Dio Madden. He competed on NXT and had a brief run as a commentator on Raw.
The name was annoying to some because it’s not even a name at all. It’s not even a nickname like Butch. Still, though, MACE embraced the change and fans had no choice but to follow.
6 T-Bar
This name change was arguably more upsetting than the rest of the Retribution name changes; before joining the main roster, Dominik Dijakovic was a rising star in NXT.
He’s an incredibly talented singles wrestler, and him becoming T-BAR was seen by many fans as a demotion. Still, T-BAR has worked to make the name his own and is trying his best to find his place on the main roster. A small sect of fans want him to return to his previous name, but most fans are used to seeing T-Bar these days.
5 Riddle
In recent years, WWE has had an odd fixation with cutting superstars’ names in half. For a brief stint in time, for example, Mustafa Ali was simply known as Ali. One of the weirder name shortenings has definitely been the change from Matt Riddle to just Riddle.
It was done due to the negative press Riddle had been getting, but it just makes him seem like the Riddler from Batman.
4 Theory
Here's another example of WWE cutting a superstar’s name in half. In NXT, and for a bit of time on the main roster, he was known as Austin Theory. For whatever reason, he decided to drop his first name after WrestleMania 38.
The best guess (or theory) is that WWE doesn’t want superstars to use their real-life names to any degree. WWE can't trademark wrestlers' real names, and we all know how much the company loves its trademarks.
3 Kelly Kelly
Sometimes a wrestler’s real name is cooler than any ring name a company could think of. This is the case for former WWE Diva, Kelly Kelly. Her real name is Barbara Blank, and she goes by Barbie Blank.
Instead of using this name, though, WWE decided to give her the same first name, twice. To her credit though, she made the name work.
2 Von Wagner
For his first couple of matches, Von Wagner was known as Cal Bloom. His name change came with the rebranding of NXT as NXT 2.0, a more colorful, sports entertainment-based show.
His name change didn’t trouble too many fans since Cal Bloom didn’t really establish himself or his identity yet. What puzzled fans more was how much the name sounds like something ripped from WCW, or maybe the Dark Souls franchise.
1 Gunther
The day WALTER became Gunther set wrestling Twitter up in flames. The Ring General made a name for himself as an independent wrestler and became one of the most dominant champions in WWE history during his title reign in NXT UK.
When he came over from NXT UK to the American-based NXT, the creative team apparently thought he needed a name change. They originally trademarked the name Gunther Stark, but dropped the last name when it came out that Gunther Stark was the name of a Nazi officer. Some fans, believing that Gunther was intentionally named after a Nazi officer, were even more outraged. However, if Twitter will do one thing, it’s forget. After a few days of discourse, fans moved on from their arguments. Gunther is here to stay, whether we like it or not.