In a recent interview with Metro UK’s Alistair McGeorge, WWE SmackDown Superstar Butch, the former Pete Dunne, expressed his confidence in the new route he’s pursuing with his main roster gimmick and noted that a lot of that comes from being inspired by William Regal and Bryan Danielson.
“My biggest inspirations in wrestling are people like Regal – some of his best work was the straight-laced stuff later in his career, right? But earlier in his run he was the commissioner doing all sorts of funny stuff. People like Daniel Bryan, when he was here – part of what got him where he was, was the stuff with Kane. Everyone has variety, you can’t just be one thing forever and I’ve been with the company for six years,” he said.
With the exception of his WWE NXT tag team with Riddle, Butch stated that he has largely been treated the same since 2016, and he is now relishing the opportunity to change things up with Sheamus and Ridge Holland.
“It’s refreshing for me personally, to be able to focus on something else and have a different approach to it. And sort of broaden my horizons with wrestling because it’s been so long,” he said.
Butch feels that his current role is winning people over, despite the fact that he is grateful for the devotion of some of his fans to his work as The BruiserWeight.
“It will never be forgotten but people appreciate the Pete Dunne BruiserWeight stuff, and they will also appreciate the work that’s gonna be done under Butch,” he said. “I’m just looking at it as an amazing opportunity, and just embracing and having fun with it. Working with Sheamus and Ridge is great too, so I’m excited to see what the future holds.”
