Before he won King of the Ring, the Intercontinental Champion, or even started going by Gunther, the “Ringer General” was known as Walter and was the arguably most prolific performer in the history of NXT UK.
Originally signed by WWE in 2019 after a fantastic indie run all over the world, Gunther formed Imperium in NXT UK, reshaped his physique, and held the promotion's top prize, the NXT UK Championship, for a record-breaking 877 days.
Now granted, some of that success was due to the COVID pandemic, which limited Gunther's title defenses to just ten but that doesn't mean he didn't earn the honor, as, after being apprehensive about moving his family to the US to become a main roster WWE Superstar, William Regal, and company simply allowed him to run roughshod over the UK-based brand, turning the online program into a much-watch spectacle for true fans of hardcore graps.
Originally slated to wrestle Gunther back in NXT UK after hinting at a title match pre-pandemic, Finn Balor, the former Universal Champion and one-half of the RAW Tag Team Champions, will finally get to throw down against the “Ring General” on the RAW before SummerSlam in a match that will check a serious bout off of his dream match list, as he explained on What's The Story earlier this month.
“Walter, Gunther, whatever you wanna call him, in my opinion, is probably the best performer on Earth right now. In my opinion, to watch in the ring. I get so oversaturated seeing so much stuff that I just kinda go ‘ahh can't be a**ed watching this'. I've not seen it all, but I've seen so much. I'm 43 now, so it's like watching wrestling for 35 years, so it's rare that I go. Ah, I'm interested in this,” but when Walter gets in the ring, I'm interested. I want to see everything that he does,” Finn Balor told What's The Story via WrestleZone.
“There's no bits where I know what he's going to do for the next five minutes… That's one of the few matches in my career that I want to have. We tried to set it up right before COVID in NXT UK, then the world had a different plan for us. Then we went different ways, and now, we're both heels, so I don't know how that would work. I've expressed my opinion to the office that I would love to get that match, and hopefully, we can get it done in the future.”
Unfortunately for Balor, he probably won't be coming out of this match on top, as giving Gunther a loss mere days before he wrestles Damian Priest for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam simply doesn't make much sense. Still, even if the outcome is more or less guaranteed, that doesn't mean fans won't be treated to something special, as the overall story told in the ring could still become a premier match for fans of true grasp, especially if both men come ready to rumble.
Finn Balor credits WWE for booking bangers for Gunther and co. on TV
Elsewhere on What's The Story, Finn Balor discussed WWE's willingness to not only book quality matches on television but actually give fans finishes on RAW and SmackDown, which was never the norm under Vince McMahon.
“I feel like we have to, to get the ratings. Also, we're really f**king good at what we're doing. We're going out there and having a match, but it's really good because we're really good at what we're doing. It's a byproduct of who is in the ring that the matches are good. It's not like we're going, ‘Let's have a f**king banger tonight' or ‘Let's call it in tonight.' No, we're going out there to have the best match we can. The only thing that kind of limits you sometimes is the time. That's the one thing we have no control over, the time on the TV show,” Finn Balor explained via Fightful.
“When you do this for ten years, you get good at it. That's the difference with lads like Seth, Roman (Reigns), Shinsuke (Nakamura), Cody (Rhodes), Sami (Zayn), Kevin Owens. We're doing these adjustments and people don't even know. We're talking to each other, adjusting, changing a match on the fly. I don't think people understand how skilled you have to be to do that on live television.”
Would WWE have booked Gunther versus Balor on television even three years ago? Sure, but the match almost certainly would have ended with Ludwig Kaiser and/or JD McDonagh forcing a no-contest with some outside interference. While that could still happen during their debut match on RAW, that would serve as a surprising finish, as opposed to the norm that made weekly television into nothing more than a PG-13 soap opera that advertised for the paid show.
Follow Us
Subscribe
