As crazy as it may sound, considering he's been the Intercontinental Champion for 425 days and counting, Gunther has only been a member of WWE's main roster for 16 months, making his debut alongside Ludwig Kaiser on SmackDown following incredible careers in NXT.
Though a lot has changed since last April, with Giovani Vinci re-joining the faction and the entire Imperium act being drafted over to RAW from SmackDown, the difference between working on the main roster and developmental remains stark, as Gunther noted to Sean Ross Sapp in a special interview for Fightful ahead of SummerSlam.
“Overall, the travel was familiar, expect very different extent. It’s every week, we pop out a few days and wrestle, do live shows, do TV,” Gunther said via 411 Mania. “I also gotta say that flying in the United States is like driving a bus. It’s way more complicated. When you’re from Europe, flying still has that image of, it’s a little bit of a luxury experience, if that makes sense. But because of the size of this country, it’s very normal. So the miles on an airplane are racked up in the last year. It must have been more than my whole life before. It’s absolutely crazy. But also just in general, I think the speed of how fast everything happens, how many things you kind of have to wing to get into your day and get the job done, it’s very challenging sometimes, but it’s a great learning process, and the journey is a lot of fun to actually make those experiences.”
While Gunther may have come to WWE with far more experience than most, wrestling matches all over the world for dozens of different promotions, nothing compares to the workload of being a WWE Superstar, as the “Ring General” has wrestled 133 matches since last April, versus 900 over the previous 17 years. That sort of workload certainly takes some getting used to, especially for a fighting champion.
Drew McIntyre reflects on his workload amid feud with Gunther.
After taking a loss to Gunther in a three-way match also featuring Sheamus at WrestleMania 39, Drew McIntyre had to take three months off in order to get his body right and recover from the hard-hitting contest.
Asked if he'd consider taking on a lighter workload moving forward, as McIntyre has been a fixture of the house show circuit for years now, the “Scottish Warrior” admitted to Armon Sandler on Stay Busy that it's possible but only if it becomes “physically necessary.”
“It's possible. The only way I would do that is if it was physically necessary. Right now, even though I might not be on every Raw or every live event, I'm busier than I've ever been with other stuff that is going on. Since I've come back, I've hit the ground running and been all over the place. I know, in entertainment and this industry, you have to strike when the iron is hot and when opportunities are there. There are going to be peaks and valleys. How you deal with valleys is what defines you,” Drew McIntyre said via Fightful
“Even in the past year, I've been at the highest of highs, perhaps Clash at the Castle, but I knew we had to come down and there was going to be a low period. It's how you deal with that knowing you'll come back up if you work hard and give it your all and keep that belief. That led to a triple threat at Mania, and the time off was necessary, but as a side effect, led to hopefully the fans missing McIntyre. All the stories that came out, the response everybody had to these stories, it was a good feeling and reminded me of the connection I built with a lot of fans who were standing up for me and wondering what was going on with my future. That was cool to see. To return and get the responses that I've had since I returned and go right into this IC Title match is very exciting for me. I know, going forward, there is going to be a lot of fun, interesting, and different situations for me to get into.”
Though Drew McIntyre is only 38 years old, which is firmly in the prime of a wrestling career, he has a ton of miles on his proverbial tires, with 1,788 matches wrestled since 2002, 1,257 of which came as a member of the WWE roster. If McIntyre wants to keep going like he's 25, that's his right, but if he really wants to beat Gunther and recapture his IC Title, chilling out on the workload may be a good idea moving forward.
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