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Butch’s Name Change Confirmed on WWE SmackDown
At WWE SmackDown New Year’s Revolution, Butch reunited with his old tag team partner, NXT’s Tyler Bate, against Pretty Deadly. Pretty Deadly had been harassing Butch about having nobody in his corner, but that all changed when the “Big Strong Boi” made his main roster debut. The two came out of the match victorious and on last week’s episode of SmackDown they celebrated their win at a coffee shop. While Bate attempts to cheer a stewing Butch up, he admits he’s excited about the idea of the two teaming together again. Butch isn’t really interested in tagging anymore after confirming that Brawling Brutes are no more. He thinks the both of them should go their separate ways. Bate presses the issue, knowing he isn’t himself and tells him to make a name for himself and to remember who told him that back in Blackpool. The camera zooms in on Butch’s face just as it appears he’s going to say “Pete Dunne.”
WWE didn’t make fans wait for confirmation of the name change for long. On this week’s episode of SmackDown, Bate and Butch wrestled Pretty Deadly in a rematch but this time he wasn’t coming to the ring as Butch — he’s Pete Dunne again! The rebrand follows a report from Fightful Select that stated a change back has long been discussed within WWE and that they received some of the most incredible resistance for the change in recent memory. Some insiders noted that it was mostly due to the fact there is already a wrestler named Butch in the WWE Hall of Fame. Bate and Dunne picked up a win after Dunne hit the Bitter End.
Dunne’s name was first changed after he made his way to the main roster from NXT after a loss to former NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes. After a successful run in in NXT UK as a former WWE United Kingdom Champion, Dunne made his way over to the United States to wrestle for the flagship NXT show in 2019. The Bruiserweight had a dominating run during his time in NXT where he also became an NXT Tag Team Champion with Matt Riddle. He would be featured regularly on television before his official call up in April of 2022.
Are you happy to see the Pete Dunne name return? Let us know in the comments!
