Kyle O’Reilly First Called WALTER His New Name Gunther Years Ago

WALTER recently got a name change after coming to the United States to be a part of NXT 2.0. The Austrian monster called himself Gunther after defeating Roderick Strong on last night’s episode. WWE had recently trademarked the name “Gunther Stark.”

The name went viral for all the wrong reasons after it was reported that a Google search for the name revealed a Nazi U-Boat captain from World War II-era Germany. WWE did not use the “Stark” name on the NXT broadcast. WALTER has not had his name changed on the WWE website.

Kyle O’Reilly used the name as an insult all the way back in 2019. After a brutal match between WALTER and O’Reilly, Kyle commented on a tweet from WWE on Fox. Kyle was able to predict the future.

“Ha, that’s assuming between now and then GUNTHER doesn’t get distracted by a chocolate river, falls into said river and the Imperiumpa Loompas do some weird German dance number. Highly likely scenario.”

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Fans reacted very harshly to the apparent name change. Several former WWE wrestlers including Keith Lee also chimed in on the matter. WALTER was a long-reigning champion in NXT UK and the name is internationally known.

Time will tell if WWE makes any more tweaks to the plan to rename WALTER. The fact that the name was used as an insult by Kyle O’Reilly might just be an in-joke. We’ll have to see what comes next for Gunther.

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