Finn Balor Sympathizes With Gunther Following Negative Reaction To Name Change

The artist formerly known as WALTER officially has a new name! The former NXT UK Champion revealed that his new name was Gunther following the main event of this week's NXT 2.0. Shortly after WWE made it official, Walter's fellow-European WWE Superstar Finn Balor chimed in.

"Everyone hated FINN too!" Balor wrote in a tweet on Thursday, January 20. Balor was referring to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to Gunther's name change from fans and comparing it to his own experience. Prior to arriving in WWE, Balor was known as Prince Devitt and performed under that name across the globe for some of the world's biggest pro-wrestling promotions including CMLL and NJPW.

It was nice of Finn to show some solidarity with his colleague, and he's right that the whole thing will likely blow over in a few weeks. But his and Gunther's situations aren't entirely comparable. Opinions will vary, but Finn Balor might actually be a better ring name than Prince Devitt, whereas Gunther is objectively a goofier name than Walter. It just is. Apologies to any Gunthers out there. We love you, thanks for reading.

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What's more, Balor has been known as Finn Balor for the entirety of his WWE career. Gunther has been involved with WWE for three years under the name Walter but will be referred to as Gunther moving forward, which is jarring.

According to a recent trademark filing, WWE initially wanted Walter's new name to be Gunther Stark, but it appears they abandoned that idea due to the fact that there was a Nazi U-boat commander with the same name.

Moniker aside, Gunther is one of the most entertaining wrestlers on the planet, and we can only hope that WWE has big plans for him. We're excited to see what's next for the gargantuan Austrian.

Auf Wiedersehen, WALTER. Guten Tag, Gunther.