WWE has made big changes in recent months. If you have been watching the weekly shows, you have probably noticed the changes with the lighting, the ringside area, the stage set up, wrestler promos, and the commentary, among other things.
During the WrestleMania post-show press conference, Triple H stated that fans will see more changes coming to the product in the coming months with things being slowly rolled out. So far those changes have been met with mostly positive feedback from fans on social media and there appears to be another change in philosophy that fans will probably like.
As seen last Friday night on WWE SmackDown, Tama Tonga made his WWE debut and he joined Solo Sikoa in what seemed to be the formation of a new Bloodline or some sort of an offshoot of the faction that seems to be headed towards a collision course against Roman Reigns, Jimmy Uso and possibly others.
It should be noted that Tama Tonga was allowed to keep his name. When Vince McMahon was in charge, wrestlers coming from other promotions were forced to change their name from trademark/merchandising purposes. On rare occasions (see Ronda Rousey, for example) wrestlers could keep their real names but it was rare to see someone get to keep their gimmick name (Tama Tonga’s real name is Alipate Aloisio Leone).
Fightful Select reported today that Giulia is expected to keep her name and the expectation is that she will have her debut match at NXT Heatwave on July 7th. We’ll see if this continues for future signings but right now, it looks like WWE is backing away from complete gimmick overhauls. Under Vince McMahon, the company rarely referred to a wrestler’s past. That has also changed. Michael Cole recently referenced Sting’s retirement. NJPW and CMLL have also been mentioned on WWE TV in recent months. It truly is a new era in WWE.
