Gunther, formerly known as Walter, is now part of the WWE SmackDown brand. On Friday’s SmackDown, Gunther beat a local wrestler, Joe Alonso, with Marcel Barthel by his side, renamed Ludwig Kaiser.
It was reported earlier this week that there had been internal discussions about moving Gunther to SmackDown alongside Barthel, but not Fabian Aichner.
Once Gunther moved to the United States, WWE had plans to bring him to the main roster.
This would explain why Gunther was booked to lose to NXT Champion Bron Breakker in the main event of Tuesday’s NXT. Aichner and Barthel dropped the NXT Tag Team Titles in a triple threat match to MSK this past Saturday at Stand & Deliver.
Watch Gunther’s WWE SmackDown debut:
WWE Name Changes
The name change for Barthel is a Vince McMahon decision as he likes to change wrestlers’ names and ignore their past accomplishments in NXT.
WWE has changed the name of many former NXT stars, including Pete Dunne, who was renamed to Butch. They’ve also done it with Mia Yim to Reckoning, Dijakovic to T-Bar, Piper Niven to Doudrop, and Chelsea Green was supposed to be named Victorious before she was injured.
