Mia Yim Explains Changing Her WWE Name to Michin (Exclusive)

The HBIC is back in WWE. Mia Yim made her return to WWE programming earlier this month, aligning herself with The OC in their fight against The Judgment Day. Yim’s surprise appearance on the November 7th edition of Monday Night Raw marked her first time on WWE TV in over a year, as she had been released from the company in Fall 2021. She has spent the past couple of weeks taking care of The OC’s “Rhea problem” and will get the chance to fully solve that issue when she stands opposite Ripley inside War Games at WWE Survivor Series this weekend.

That said, Ripley will be dealing with a new version of the 33-year-old wrestler. As revealed on WWE’s roster page, Mia Yim will now be going by Michin, the Korean word for “crazy,” moving forward.

Speaking to ComicBook.com’s Liam Crowley, Michin revealed that her new name has a deeper meaning than just its English translation.

“I’m half Korean, half African American,” Michin said. “My mother is Korean, and growing up she would talk to me and my sister in Korean. We understand it. We could speak a little bit. Michin has kind of been a nickname at home because she would call both my sister and I crazy all the time with whatever stupid thing that we were doing growing up. To me, it’s a representation of my Korean heritage and a lot of people don’t understand because they don’t understand Korean [or] the Korean culture.”

Name changes have been commonplace in WWE for years, and most have been subject to criticism by WWE fans. Many initially resisted the likes of Walter moving to Gunther or Pete Dunne becoming Butch, but after a couple of months the change is typically accepted.

Minchin is no exception, as some have pushed back at the new name on social media.

“I get that the backlash of my name being introduced, but to me it means something special because it’s something that I grew up with,” Michin continued. “It’s something that my mom is proud of. As much backlash as I’m getting, all the Koreans on my feed are like, ‘Oh my God, this is really cool to just see on TV.’ That’s what I wanted. It’s a special nickname that I love and I hope that in time I can establish it to where other people can accept it and understand it and want to learn more about it.”

Minchin competes with her new name for the first time at WWE Survivor Series: War Games this Saturday, November 26th.