WWE has been making quite a bit of news lately regarding their Superstars name-change spree on the roster, although the last name change has been relatively under the radar. WWE quietly changed the name of Legado Del Fantasias Raul Mendoza, as happened during last night’s episode of NXT WWE due to the fact that Mendoza became Cruz Del Toro. Fantasma hasn’t been in the Tag Team Gauntlet match for long, so it was easy to miss, but now his name has also been changed on the official roster page on WWE.com, so it looks like he’s now consistent (via Cageside Seats).
As for why he changed his name, that’s anyone’s guess, but it’s usually done before a star transitions to another brand from NXT or shortly after his move. With The Creed Brothers now facing Tag Team Champions from Pretty Deadly now, it’s not clear where Legado Del Fantasma sits within the NXT scene, so perhaps this is a step toward their departure for Raw or SmackDown.
It is interesting that only Mendoza was renamed unlike any of his faction partners, including Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde and Electra Lopez. It is very likely that changes will be made to the names, but at the moment, it is only Mendoza.
We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for Legado Del Fantasma and Cruz Del Toro, but other recent name changes include Pete Dunne, Raquel Gonzalez, Walter, Marcel Barthel and Austin Theory. Dunne was changed to Butch and his new name was revealed on his SmackDown debut. The same was true of Raquel, now Raquel Rodriguez, and it was revealed during her debut on SmackDown as well.
Walter was actually changed to Gunther while still in NXT, but Barthel was changed to Ludwig Kaiser during his SmackDown debut. As for the theory, this was kind of random, given that it’s been on Raw for a while now, although it also fits into the pattern of WWE names abbreviation, which they also did with Shotzi Blackheart (Shotzi) and Tegan Nox (Nox).
Want to see Legado Del Fantasma jump into Raw or SmackDown? Let us know in the comments!
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