After finally breaking the glass ceiling set by The Honky Tonk Man to become the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion of all time, WWE had one last question to answer regarding the “Ring General” Gunther: Who would end his reign with the title?

As Cody Rhodes said on the penultimate edition of Smackdown before Backlash, winning a championship is hard, but retaining it is even harder. But a deceptive part of that sentence is the punctuation, as the final match of any run plays a massive role in the overall evaluation of the run. Would Gunther drop the strap to Chad Gable, his unlikely rival? Would WWE call in a legend like, say, Randy Orton to guarantee the booking felt justified? Or could it go to a debuting star in a shocking way to immediately get them over?

Well, as it turns out, the man given the honor was none other than the “Underdog from the Underground” Sami Zayn, and in Gunther's opinion, he was the perfect opponent to end Imperium's run on top, as he noted in an interview with Gorilla Position.

“I don't think there was one right person. I think there would have been a few options. Chad is the other one that would have made a lot of sense. Sami is definitely one of those where it was ‘He's the right guy to do it.' He's absolutely a fantastic professional wrestler. He has the natural connection with the audience,” Gunther explained via Fightful. “He's really the underdog that people can connect with and understand the struggle. It's naturally the personality he is. He doesn't look like the perfect athlete. That's not who he is or ever was. That also adds to the people having a connection because basically nobody in our audience is a perfect person. It's a very human thing to not be perfect. It's very easy to connect with it and to go through those struggles with that person. On top of that, he's fantastic in the ring and has been for years. To do the match with him at the biggest stage possible and go out in the biggest way possible, I was very happy with that. It was a very successful ending to that reign.”

A very successful end to that reign indeed, Gunther; while some fans may argue that it should have been Gable, including the leader of The Alpha Academy, who has since turned heel as a result of being overlooked at WrestleMania and losing to Zayn in his first match with the title. In the end, WWE picked a story they wanted to tell, established it over multiple months, and paid it off in the City of Brotherly Love a few miles down Broad from where Rocky Balboa trained to fight Apollo Creed.

Booker T wants Gunther to link up with Ilja Dragunov

With Gunther no longer the Intercontinental Champion and Giovanni Vinci effectively kicked out of Imperium, it's clear “The Ring General” has some business to attend to before gearing up for his next big run at the King of the Ring contest in Saudi Arabia next month. Could that include adding another member to the stable? In Booker T's opinion, the answer is a resounding yes, as on his Hall of Fame podcast, he named the perfect person for the job: Ilja Dragunov.

“I’ll tell you what, man, it would be a great spot for him. Being in that faction right there, he won’t get lost in the shuffle or anything like that. He’s really, really good,” Booker T explained via Fightful. “You’re gonna be looking and see who can we put him with? Him being a part of that group right there, you can put him against anybody and he can definitely go out there and shine, no matter who you put him against because he’s going to have backup. So yeah, I can see that happening. That would be a great faction for him to be a part of.”

Is Booker unique in his suggestion that Dragunov should join Imperium? No fans have been making this suggestion for years due to their previous connection in NXT UK, and will probably keep making it for as long as the duo aren't connected in WWE. And yet, whenever he's been asked about the prospects of joining Imperium, Dragunov has been outright dismissive, suggesting that what made the duo's matches so compelling was their contrasting styles, with Gunther being a tactical powerhouse while the “Mad Dragon” is fueled by a near limitless reserve of passion. Even if Dragunov does end up in Imperium, expect it to be more of a pitstop rather than a long-term destination, leading to one of the most highly anticipated rematches in the WWE Universe as the endgame.