WWE Quietly Changed a Superstar’s Name This Week

WWE has made news quite a bit lately regarding its spree of changing names of Superstars on the roster, though the latest name change was relatively under the radar. WWE quietly changed the name of Legado Del Fantasias Raul Mendoza evidently, as during last night’s episode of NXT WWE slipped in the fact that Mendoza was now named Cruz Del Toro. Fantasma wasn’t in the Tag Team Gauntlet match for that 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 would appear to be set in stone now (via Cageside Seats).

As for why his name was changed, that is anyone’s guess, but it is typically something done before a star moves to another brand from NXT or shortly after they move. With The Creed Brothers now the babyfaces against Pretty Deadly’s heel Tag Team Champions now, it’s unclear where Legado Del Fantasma sits within the NXT landscape, so perhaps this is a step towards them leaving for Raw or SmackDown.

It is interesting that only Mendoza’s name was changed as opposed to any of his faction partners, which include Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde, and Elektra Lopez. They very well could be getting name changes down the line, but for now, it is just 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 in his SmackDown debut. The same was true of Raquel, who is now Raquel Rodriguez and that was revealed during her first SmackDown appearance too.

Walter was actually changed to Gunther while he was still in NXT, but Barthel was changed to Ludwig Kaiser during his SmackDown debut. As for Theory, that was kind of random, since he’s been on Raw for a while now, though it also fits with WWE’s pattern of shortening names, which they also did for Shotzi Blackheart (Shotzi) and Tegan Nox (Nox).

Do you want to see Legado Del Fantasma jump to Raw or SmackDown? Let us know in the comments!