WWE Files To Trademark “Naraku”, The New Name For Former NJPW Star EVIL

WWE

WWE has filed a trademark application for the term “NARAKU”, which has been confirmed as the NXT name for the former NJPW star EVIL.

The star formerly known as EVIL debuted on last week’s WWE NXT, with Tuesday’s (May 5) show introducing him, in a vignette, under the name of Naraku.

In a new filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office – also made on May 5 – WWE submitted an application for the term “NARAKU”.

Filed under Serial Number 99804739, the Goods and Services category for the application covers:

IC 041: Entertainment services, namely, wrestling exhibitions and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer rendered live and through broadcast media including television and radio, and via the internet or commercial online service;

providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network; providing information in the fields of sports and entertainment via an online community portal; providing a website in the field of sports entertainment information; fan club services, namely, organizing sporting events in the field of wrestling for wrestling fan club members;

organizing social entertainment events for entertainment purposes for wrestling fan club members; providing online newsletters in the fields of sports entertainment; online journals, namely blogs, in the field of sports entertainment.

Following a prior application for the term “Nox Raijin“, previous reports indicated that this was the name for the former NJPW star, with EVIL now being re-introduced as Naraku on this week’s episode of WWE NXT.

It’s Time To Play The Name Game

For years, WWE have renamed stars, with some joining the company having had storied reputations elsewhere. Finn Balor was previously Prince Devitt in NJPW, while, more recently, Ricky Saints was previously Ricky Starks over in AEW.

Name changes don’t always happen, and sometimes it can be down the star performing under their real name, Jade Cargill, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Matt Cardona, for example, with the latter having previously been Zack Ryder in WWE. For some, they get to bring in their name from elsewhere, continuing to perform under that monicker throughout their WWE careers – Austin Theory, save for a period where he dropped his first name, AJ Styles, and Ethan Page as three examples from different eras.

The real-life Takaaki Watanabe may have been EVIL since 2015, but he has left behind NJPW and has now been introduced to NXT fans as Naraku, having been one of six stars to have debuted last week.

Could a WWE star called EVIL have worked? Sure, for many fans, his history in NJPW speaks for itself, but for fans unfamiliar with his past work or just eager to follow a new NXT star, is EVIL, taken on its own, a bit on the nose when it comes to a character?

WWE did give us The Rock and Edge, both of whom have names that are hardly common in the same way that a Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels may be, yet some of the newer crop of names are following a first-name/last-name format that sounds far less like something one may hear every day.

An NXT name isn’t set in stone when it comes to a future in WWE. Having seen success on the independent scene and in NXT UK, WALTER would be reborn as GUNTHER on the main roster, while Marcel Barthel would become Ludwig Kaiser and now the second El Grande Americano. Raquel Rodriguez would debut as Victoria Gonzalez in 2017 before moving to Reina Gonzalez, becoming the name which she is now known back in 2022.

Regardless of how fans may feel about a name change, controversy aside, it’s unlikely that WWE will roll back on a name that the former EVIL himself has embraced.

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