The former EVIL has been revealed as Naraku on WWE NXT, but according to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, that may not have been the plan as recently as days before the reveal.
On Tuesday’s of NXT, a vignette aired in which the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion repeated his intentions to pursue the NXT Championship before his new WWE ring name Naraku was officially revealed.
Sapp reported that internal WWE materials for the former EVIL still referred to him as Nox Raijin as recently as Sunday, suggesting the name change to Naraku was made at the last minute. “There were internal materials for EVIL with the trademarked Nox Raijin name as recently as Sunday, so it seems like the name adjustment was recent,” Sapp wrote on X.
WWE had previously filed to trademark Nox Raijin with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on April 28. Naraku is the Japanese word for hell, while Naraku also refers to the underground passageway beneath the stage in Japanese theatre, making it a thematically appropriate name for the character. Raijin, the name used in the original trademark, is the Japanese god of lightning, thunder, and storms.
The former EVIL signed with WWE following the expiry of his NJPW contract at the end of January 2026 after spending his entire career with NJPW since debuting in 2011. He requested to begin his WWE run in NXT rather than on the main roster.
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