Add as a preferred source on Google WWE’s 2022 decision to rename WALTER as Gunther is back in the news after Dave Meltzer explained why Vince McMahon dropped a name already familiar to fans.
The change took place on the January 18, 2022 episode of NXT. After beating Roderick Strong in the main event, WALTER interrupted the post-match result announcement and said he would be known as Gunther from that point forward.
Meltzer said McMahon thought fans might start calling WALTER “Wally,” which did not fit the image planned for a main-event heel.
“The reason for the change was Vince. He believed that people might start calling him Wally and that is not a name he wanted for a main event foreign menace heel.”
The explanation was not entirely new. In February, Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that the same reasoning led to Antonio Cesaro being shortened to Cesaro. McMahon also feared fans would call Cesaro “Tony.”
That was not the only factor behind the change. It was also reported in 2022 that McMahon had sent a memo barring new talent from using their real names or names they had used on the independent scene. Walter was the real first name of Walter Hahn, and WALTER was the ring name he used before WWE.
WWE filed to trademark “Gunther Stark” on January 13, 2022, then abandoned the filing six days later amid attention over its connection to a Nazi German U-boat commander. Only Gunther was used on television.
Gunther later admitted he would have preferred to remain WALTER. But after all the work that went into his new presentation, he said he would not want to change back.