I'm not sure if it was Boon or the fans that gave him the name "Torch". But Ed said around that time that the guy would appear in a future MK sometime. His appearance (now renamed Blaze) in MKDA is basically justan little extra for the die hard fans who remembered this, and his storyline had him present at MK2's bridge.

By the way, the green Liu Kang guy standing by him was given the name "Hornbuckle" by fans. Please don't ask me why this stupid name, I've no idea,and I don't think we'll ever see him turn up for MK.

in one version of the MK2, when Jade pops out she sometimes says Hornbuckle who? so I think it was the staff that named him

I believe the "Hornbuckle & Torch" sort of led to some of the story for MK:DA. If you notice, Hornbuckle resembles Spirit Liu from MK:D, so could this have been a warning that Liu would get killed off in a future MK game? Also in that very game you unlock blaze "torch". So i believe it was sort of a preview to future MK games.

"Hornbuckle" was just a Liu Kang pallete swap in a green outfit. Nothing very spirit about him. And I really don't think they came up with killing Liu off back in 1993/1994 or it'd happened sooner.