It's officially been one calendar year since Pete Dunn was elevated from NXT to the WWE main roster and officially became Butch, the smallest, angriest member of Sheamus' faction, The Brawling Brutes, and the fan reaction to the change has been… interesting.
To some, Butch is a fun, humorous character that younger fans have come to love for his comedic antics, while other fans familiar with Dunn's “Bruiserweight” gimmick from NXT, 205 Live, and the UK indie scene have been sorely disappointed by the run, as it's turned an ultra-serious, ultra-violent technician into Elmer Fudd with longer hair and a fascination with joint manipulation.
Well, if you fall into the latter category, you may be in luck, as according to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, there have been conversations about bringing back “The Bruiserweight” in a return to NXT Drew Gulak/Apolo Crews/Jinder Mahal-style.
“Butch has teased going back to the name Pete Dunne and go back to the Bruiserweight gimmick,” Meltzer said via Wrestle Purists. “It’s said Paul Levesque has the idea of him dropping the current gimmick and doing the gimmick in NXT, which makes sense.”
On paper, the decision to bring “Pete Dunne” back to NXT is an interesting proposition, as it would split up The Brawling Brutes and leave Sheamus with just Ridge Holland as his wingman, who isn't exactly popular with the WWE Universe for the part he played in breaking Big E's neck on SmackDown. Still, if the company wants to move more towards Sheamus as a solo act instead of, say, bringing up Gallus to provide McIntyre with a faction of his own, placing Butch back in NXT under his previous moniker would be a happy byproduct of a definitive creative choice.
Pete Dunne explains Butch's surprising connection to the WWE Universe.
After taking part in an Imperium vs. Brawling Brutes Good Old Fashioned Donnybrook six-man tag match at Extreme Rules, Dunne made an appearance on The Ringer Wrestling Show with David Shoemaker and was asked about the decision to radically change up his character from a sadistic fighter to a cartoonish brute. Interestingly enough, Dunn wasn't as sour on the idea as some may assume, noting that to younger members of the WWE Universe, Butch is one of their favorite parts of professional wrestling.
“That was the goal for me to get it to my point,” Butch said. “And here's the thing, anybody who, I bump into people all the time and they'll tell me ‘I want you to go back to being Pete Dunne, I want you to be the Bruiserweight' that kind of stuff, and I'm never going to get frustrated with those people or feel like ‘just focus on what I'm doing now' because I'm grateful for the fact that they followed me for the last five or six, or sixteen years, who knows, but I'm always greatful for that and they have the right to feel that way they might watch it and may not connect with it and that's one thing, but those who do, and we travel around and do all of these live events and Philadelphia is one thing, it's a wrestling town, but we travel around and do wrestling event all over the world, and, you know, like popping up in France, and hearing the reactions for the Butch character itself, and going to all of the small towns we go to across the states and seeing the reaction that gets. Like this is the first time in my career I've had people say ‘you're my kid's favorite wrestler.' Like before that it was a lot of adults, or even like teenagers, the Philadelphia crowd, those kind of people, but now, I bump into people it's like ‘you're my son or daughter's favorite wrestler,' and I see how the kids react to me now and like I said these are the little wins I hold onto now.”
Would the benefit of bringing back Dunne outweigh the loss of Butch? It all depends on the booking, but based on Butch's comments on the matter last October, it sounds like he's willing to do just about anything to keep making a living, as, in his humble opinion, there's no spot in professional wrestling for egos.
“I think for me as well, it's important to take the ego out of it,” Butch noted. “You know, I have a daughter, and that's my biggest concern in life is my wife and my daughter, and that side of things, so a lot of times I just try to take any ego or any of that stuff out of wrestling and just try to look at it as what it is. We're making an amazing living doing this, we're getting to go out there in front of a ridiculous amount of people and be a part of WrestleMania, and we get to do so many amazing things, and it's because of the job that we do, so any opportunity that I get I'm going to smash it to the best of my abilities as long as I can provide for them and give them a fantastic life and enjoy what I'm doing then I'm happy.”
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