Report: Potential Name Change For Popular NXT Duo

A popular NXT tag team are reportedly set to receive new names.

Although they haven’t officially been featured on NXT 2.0 since April, PWInsider reports that the Grizzled Young Veterans Zack Gibson and James Drake will now be known as ‘Rip Fowler’ and ‘Jagger Reid’ respectively, with ‘Fowler’ likely a nod to Liverpool FC legend Robbie Fowler.

The former NXT UK Tag Team Champions are widely believed to be the cloaked Dyad who have been stalking NXT 2.0 for several months on Joe Gacy’s behalf, with the Dyad promising to reveal their identities on the upcoming July 19 edition of NXT 2.0.

If the name changes come to pass then it will come as no surprise, as WWE have been increasingly changing the names of established acts, disavowing monikers that were used outside of the WWE. Gibson and Drake used those names on the UK indies, so it seems this name change will reflect this policy change.

Other WWE and NXT acts to have received name changes in recent months include A-Kid becoming Axiom, Austin Theory becoming just Theory, and WALTER becoming Gunther, amongst many others.