Gunther was sure at one point that he would never end up in WWE.
When Gunther arrived in WWE in the late 2010s, it was a surprise to many as his style was seen as too aggressive for the company at the time.
That being said, now years later, Gunther has been WWE Intercontinental Champion for over 500 days and is one of the most over talents on the WWE roster at this time.
While speaking to Chris Van Vliet for a new interview, Gunther explained that he didn’t believe at one point in his career that he would ever end up in WWE.
“Yeah, always, I was sure. 2005, I had my first training, right. Then a few years in, the wrestling scene in Europe, especially the German speaking countries was so small. Nobody gave a dang about it. It wasn’t on free TV, like in general, you get looked at weird when you watch wrestling. Most people didn’t know what’s going on, like it was not a topic in the mainstream entertainment world. All of that was so far away, even like ten years ago, somebody from England — I think Sheamus and Drew [McIntyre] and Stu were one of the first exceptions for Europeans to go there and actually make it or be somebody, or Cesaro. Then, for a long time, there was nothing and it was just something that’s not realistic, so don’t aim for it. My goal was always I want to make a living off of being a professional wrestler. That was always my goal. I want to make this my profession because I know some about it now, I have a passion for it, and I don’t want to work a job that bores the hell out of me. I always wanted to make it a profession. When I achieved that, that was already something unheard of. When I became a full time wrestler, I had to be self-employed basically. To every agency or every government body I had to go for, whatever it was pension or health insurance and all of that stuff, I got looked at like an alien. I think at that time, I was the only person in Germany that was a wrestler by profession. That was already a big step and then everything else just fell into place over the time. The indies changed big time, it was before COVID, there was such a big boom in the indie scene in England especially, but all in the states as well. WWE decided to open the doors to the independent wrestling world and also to Europe so that brought up a lot more possibilities obviously. It was never my big dream to go there, I think I was more passionate to wrestle for All Japan at some point as like a big dream then being with WWE.”
Gunther
Gunther is set to defend his Intercontinental Championship at Survivor Series when he takes on The Miz in a one on one match.
H/T to Fightful for transcription
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