I'll go ahead and name one of them because I'm 99.999999999999% sure it's not real or a stand in for someone else and, honestly, I'm just kind of tired of this whole damn thing. Remember how I mentioned that only one other Western had been heard? Well, that character is Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher series. Golly, what a revelation! Not really... The problem with this is that the Witcher actually started as a Polish novel series and Geralt's first appearance goes back to 1986. Since then, the series has been adapted into a buttload of stuff including comic books and movies so saying Geralt getting into Smash would be about the same as saying that Batman could get into Smash... it's not happening... The name hasn't exactly been super persistent or commonly heard (I think the last time anyone heard it was like the mid summer) and has always been like "wow! That's really cool, oh... wait... he goes against Sakurai's rules..." Beyond this, Geralt's copyright is all over the place and legal battles about it have been super heated and expensive.
Why has the name been held onto then? Again, possibly a stand in for someone else but, more likely than not, was just another case of Smash rumors being stuck onto real rumors back during the spring and summer that we heard about Witcher III coming to Switch (which it did). Another reason it's been held onto is because, it shares similarities with Bethesda properties and the two are very often compared with each other. This potentially bring ups the tin foil theory that Geralt's a stand in for a Bethesda character or was mistaken as one. One thing we do know is that Bethesda has talked to Nintendo about Smash as evidenced here:
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20..._bros_future_nintendo_exclusives_are_possible
On that note, we have no idea how far the talks went. Nintendo may have just nodded and smiled like a parent listening to their kid describe an imaginary friend and never took the talk seriously or we might be getting a Bethesda character later. Again, we don't know but, if it happens, it's 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% not going to be Geralt (who, once again, doesn't belong to Bethesda). From there, it's just frustrating because Bethesda has a ton of big properties but no Bethesda characters have been heard with supporting evidence. Like I told the group, Doom Guy only entered the conversation because of the whole Jiggle Mallow thing but was never heard in insider circles. You also have big contenders like Fall Out and Elder Scrolls. Again, a lot of this is shaky, but notable.
It's kind of similar to Lloyd, Dante, Sol, and Nightmare in that all these characters had other rumors tied to them aside from Smash but relating to Nintendo. Dante came true, Tales stuff is hard in limbo but supposedly still coming, Guilty Gear for Switch was announced late November, and Soul Calibur on Switch are currently MIA and may ultimately not be real. As you all remember, Half Life was in the same boat recently too, fake Smash news attached to real news. Like I said, the Witcher III did happen for Switch and it was known for a few months behind closed doors before it was made public. Tracing back, Geralt could be a case of mistaken identity (or company in this case) or was another example of Smash just casually being stuck on something true so that it would garner more attention.