Hiromu Takahashi finally made his WWE debut on SmackDown, but fans barely had time to celebrate before one detail started getting absolutely roasted online. WWE introduced the former NJPW star as “KYOKI,” and plenty of people immediately hated the new name.
Takahashi appeared alongside Shinsuke Nakamura during the August 21 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, confirming weeks of reports about the identity of Nakamura’s mystery partner. Instead of simply arriving under the name wrestling fans have known for years, however, Takahashi revealed himself as KYOKI.
That decision quickly became the bigger talking point on Twitter. One fan couldn’t understand why WWE felt this was the best name they could come up with.
“Could they of not come up with a better name for him”
Another was considerably less polite about WWE continuing to rename established wrestlers.
“stop changing wrestlers f****** NAMES this company cant do anything right”
For another fan, the problem was seeing somebody with Takahashi’s reputation debut with a name they felt sounded more suited to a jobbr.
“What kind of jobber name is that???? This is THE HIROMU TAKAHASHI????? Dpmo”
The criticism didn’t stop at simply calling KYOKI a bad name. Another fan accused WWE of falling into an all-too-familiar pattern when naming Japanese wrestlers.
“WWE not coming up with racist names for Japanese wrestlers challenge:”
The reaction comes after WWE spent last week building mystery around Nakamura’s new partner. Following Tama Tonga and Talla Tonga winning the WWE Tag Team Championship, Nakamura warned that he had someone coming who was “experienced, vicious, deadly” and described him as chaos and a “ticking time bomb.”
That person is now officially Takahashi, and his arrival gives Nakamura the dangerous partner he promised. Unfortunately for WWE, plenty of fans came away from his first night talking less about the debut and more about what the company decided to call him.
What do you make of WWE renaming Hiromu Takahashi as KYOKI? Let us know in the comments below.
