Butch Is Grateful Fans Miss His Old Bruiserweight Gimmick

Pete Dunne was one of the best stars in NXT UK, where he held the NXT UK Champion for 685 days. He made his way to NXT, where he took part in several memorable feuds and matches.

The Bruiserweight made his way to Friday Night Smackdown back in March. To the shock of fans, his name was changed to Butch. Unsurprisingly, fans dragged WWE for the decision.

Butch previously hinted at returning to Pete Dunne now that Triple H is in charge. Speaking on The Ringer Wrestling Show, Butch noted that he’s grateful for the fans that have followed him since his Pete Dunne days.

“I bump into people on the street all the time and they’ll tell me, ‘I want you to go back to being Pete Dunne, I want you to be The Bruiserweight’ and all that kind of stuff.

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“I’m never gonna get frustrated with those people or feel like just focus on what I’m doing now because I’m grateful for the fact that they’ve followed me for the past five, six years, 16 years, who knows? I’m always grateful for that and they have the right to feel that way.

“They might watch it and might not connect with it but, those that do, we travel around and do these live events and Philadelphia’s one thing, it’s a wrestling town. But we do live events all over the world and popping up in France and hearing the reactions for the Butch character itself and a lot of the smaller towns in the States that we go to and see how well that connects and it’s the first time in my career I’ve had people say, ‘You’re my kid’s favorite wrestler.’

“Before that, it was a lot of adults. Or even like teenagers or a lot of people that — the Philadelphia crowd (at Extreme Rules), those kind of people.

“Whereas now, I bump into people and it’s like, ‘You’re my son or daughter’s favorite wrestler’ and I see how the kids react to me now and like I said, these are the wins I try and take from it all and don’t try and take it too seriously and realize we’re all making an amazing living doing what we love.

At Extreme Rules, Butch, Sheamus & Ridge Holland defeated GUNTHER, Giovanni Vinci & Ludwig Kaiser in a Donnybrook match. We will have to wait and see what WWE has planned for Dunne. Fans are certainly excited to see him back as the Bruiserweight.

Do you want to see less Butch and more Bruiserweight? Sound off in the comments!