No, in walking dead, Night of The Living Dead was never even thought about in the mind of George Romero. That movie was the birth of the American zombie legend, and thus the world. Without that movie, no other zombie artform would exist, not the word, not the image of an undead loved one, absolutely nothing.

In the walking dead, nobody knew a headshot would put them down for good until the dead actually went down for good, nobody knew it was "more than a bite" that would transform you until it actually happened.

There for, from here on out, nobody uses the word zombie, or references zombie pop culture