As seen on last night’s NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia, new WWE signees War Machine, Ricochet and EC3 were introduced by being shown in the crowd between matches.
It has previously been reported that WWE planned to rename the tag team upon their debut in NXT, and that is still the plan. Dave Meltzer reported on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio that the company made the decision to introduce them last night under their War Machine name so that they could get a good reaction from fans in attendance. They are operating under the impression that nobody would have recognized them under any other name, so they decided to go with War Machine for the cheat pop. The plan is still in place to repackage the team under a new name once they make their in-ring debut on weekly NXT TV.
In regards to Ricochet, Meltzer indicated that the company will definitely be giving him a new name once he debuts. However, as far as EC3 goes, it appears as though they will use some form of the moniker going forward. Meltzer added that he can see them keeping the name because it is already well established, but no word yet on what the EC3 abbreviation may stand for going forward in NXT.
