Forgotten WWE Promo With Kenzo Suzuki As WWII Japanese Emperor's Grandson Resurfaces
Another boneheaded WWE idea from back in 2004.
With many wrestling fans raising an eyebrow at WWE's recent decision to rename WALTER as Gunther, this isn't the first time that Vince McMahon's sports entertainment juggernaut has caused major controversy with the moniker they've opted to bestow on one of their talent.
For those who missed it, last night's NXT broadcast saw WALTER announce that he's now to be known as Gunther. This comes at the same time that WWE has trademarked the name Gunther Stark. Why is this such a big deal? Well, that's due to Gunther Stark being the name of a very real U-boat commander for Nazi Germany back in World War II.
Going back 18 years, though, WWE had the utterly boneheaded decision to promote the impending debut of Kenzo Suzuki as the arrival of a character called Hirohito. This initial plan was for Suzuki to take on the gimmick of the grandson of Emperor Hirohito who ruled Japan from 1926 up until his death in 1989.
With one solitary vignette airing on Raw, 'Hirohito' was intended to be on a mission of vengeance against the United States on behalf of his deceased grandfather for the events of World War II. Mercifully, WWE realised what an outright idiotic idea all of this was, with Suzuki and his wife Hiroko both informing the company that this was not the way to be going.
Hirohito would never be mentioned on WWE programming again, and Kenzo Suzuki and Hiroko would soon debut on the SmackDown brand under their real names.