7 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Feb 5)
4. Old Name, New Name
Throughout the years, we have seen popular wrestlers with one brand assume a new identity when coming to a new company. And we still see it today, as there are no Prince Devitt, Kana or KENTA in WWE, but rather Finn Balor, Asuka and Hideo Itami. At the same time, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode all carried their names over.
What is strange is that in introducing the new 205 Live GM to the Raw audience, Michael Cole said that fans knew him as Rockstar Spud before, but now he goes by Drake Maverick. There was no rhyme or reason for the name change given, just that he was now going by the new identity.
When Itami debuted in NXT, he was introduced as KENTA, but stated that he changed his name to honor a hero of his. Asuka was introduced as Kana, but also changed her name to honor another former wrestling great. At least there was a basis for each of those changes. Spud is now Maverick, with no reason given.
Nevermind that Spud’s new moniker sounds like it came out of a random name generator.