‘Gunther Stark’ trademark abandoned by WWE

As previously noted, WWE filed a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the term ‘Gunther Stark’ which was the name of a U-boat commander for the Nazis during World War II.

During the January 18th 2022 edition of WWE NXT, WALTER announced that his new name is Gunther. The name change was met with criticism from fans and the name change also received mainstream publicity in Germany. On January 19th, the trademark filing for ‘Gunther Stark’ was updated with the following information: Status: Abandoned because the applicant filed an express abandonment.

WWE’s official website has WALTER’s name changed to “Gunther” without a last name. An old tweet of Kyle O’Reilly referring to WALTER as Gunther from late 2019 recently resurfaced…

Ha, that’s assuming between now and then GUNTHER doesn’t get distracted by a chocolate river, falls into said river and the Imperiumpa Loompas do some weird German dance number. Highly likely scenario. https://t.co/HdHkmJoRfm

— Kyle O'Reilly (@KORcombat) December 26, 2019