New WWE Trademarked Name For EVIL Revealed

Former New Japan Pro Wrestling star and former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, EVIL, is officially apart of WWE. He made his debut last week on WWE NXT when he interrupted WWE NXT Champion, Tony D’Angelo.

Interestingly enough, there was no mention of his name, and that was intentional. WWE did the same thing with Ricky Starks, not mentioning his name until it was revealed to be Ricky Saints. Now, EVIL is in a similar boat. Today, Fightful Select has reported that a recently trademarked name is indeed for EVIL.

”On the April 28th episode of NXT on The CW, former IWGP Heavyweight Champion EVIL made his WWE debut and confronted the NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo. Commentator Vic Joseph did not call EVIL by his name directly, but used the word ‘evil’ as a play on words.

Fightful Select learned that EVIL is on WWE’s internal roster under his real name, Takaaki Watanabe. There was a trademark filed on April 28th for ‘Nox Raijin,’ and that is for EVIL in WWE. EVIL spent 14 years of his career as a member of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He wrapped up with the company in January 2026.”

Tune into WWE NXT tonight on the CW.

H/T Fightful Select