During an appearance on the Mark Andrews: My Love Letter to Wrestling podcast, Pete Dunne talked about his WWE name being changed to Butch now that he’s on Smackdown brand:
“The thing is with me, whether it’s a name or whatever changes, that’s not what really endeared me to the audience in the first place, right? I’d like to think anyway it’s the quality of the in-ring work, and that’s what I’m going to keep the same, of course. And it’s going to get better, it’s going to improve as time goes. It’s exciting. I’ve been in NXT for five years now, so time to change it up and see what we can do and push it forward with a new challenge. It’s exciting, but it’s also just a little bit different. I think it’s time to change it up a little bit. Five years, fresh start, and why not try something a little new.”
“I was lucky to have as long as I did in NXT. And to be honest, there was a time there when I felt like it’d be a shame to stop being in NXT. Honestly, we always wanted to move on and be a part of WrestleMania and that kind of stuff. But there was a definitely a time there where NXT was rolling how it was, there was so many people to work with, every matchup was exciting when you were on the road, TV, pay-per-view or TakeOver special, whatever it was, and it seemed like a really sad thought to be out of there. But it’s definitely time to move up. So I’m grateful for five years, but definitely excited to see what comes next.”
