In 2019, Gunther (formerly WALTER) dethroned Butch (formerly Pete Dunne) to win the NXT UK Title at NXT TakeOver: New York. For the next three years, Gunther defended the title on multiple occasions, thereby cementing himself as the longest-reigning WWE NXT UK Champion with a record-setting 870-day title reign. On April 8, 2022, Gunther made his WWE SmackDown debut by defeating Joe Alonzo in under three minutes.
In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Gunther reflected on adapting to the main roster following his WWE call-up earlier this year. The reigning WWE Intercontinental Champion also shared his thoughts on a possible appearance at the 2023 Men’s Royal Rumble Match on January 28th.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On potentially appearing in the Royal Rumble: “It’s around the corner… The Royal Rumble, in general, to have the chance to participate in the Royal Rumble would be exciting. Obviously. When you grow up, when you’re my age (35), that’s one of the most exciting pay-per-views you were watching. It’s one of the most iconic PLEs (premium live events) the WWE has at the moment. So, it will be very exciting to be part of that.”
On adapting to the main roster: “Yeah, I definitely think so. I feel very comfortable in the situation I’m in right now. It’s very demanding and very challenging on the body and life in general, I would say, but in a very positive way. So it’s a very exciting time for me right now. I feel like in NXT before, I kind of proved myself a while ago and outgrew it a little bit, if that makes sense. And being on the main roster, it was a completely new situation for me again and I again had to step up and prove myself and introduce myself to a wider audience. And I think I’m doing well so far. It’s going really good. I’m looking forward to every new challenge that’s in front of me. And I can’t really complain about anything to be honest.”
On being joined on the main roster by Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci: “First of all, it was, it was hard when only myself and Ludwig moved up and Gio kind of stayed behind. And being all together again is fantastic. Besides from the in-ring, it’s great to travel with your two best friends that you have and spend basically all day – if you travel a lot, that can be challenging at times, and it’s great that you can go through situations with two very good friends and you don’t have to do it on your own. So very blessed in that regard. In the ring, I’m extremely proud of both. I think they worked really hard in NXT for a very long time. And now they’re on the platform that they deserve, and they deserve to be seen. They’re both very good wrestlers. They’re excellent wrestlers in the ring, I think there are just a very few that actually are in the same league with them when it comes to the actual in-ring mechanics. And I’m excited to see where their path will go.”
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