Gunther reflects on Europe’s influence on his rise in WWE

Gunther has explained that he enjoys playing a villain and causing chaos, something that was particularly evident after the negative reaction from the audience to his victory over John Cena in the American's retirement match. For him, these kinds of reactions are part of the job and, far from bothering him, they are motivating.

In an interview with Enry Lazza, the wrestler pointed out that many of his colleagues struggle to deal with the rejection from the stands, but he prefers to embrace it and use it to his advantage. He also highlighted that his role in that story with Cena worked precisely because he knew how to generate tension and stir up the audience.

Beyond his character, Gunther also spoke about the change that WWE has undergone in terms of detecting European talent. He recalled that for years the continent was largely off the radar, but that changed with Triple H taking over NXT and a more open strategy towards international scenes.

Yes, it was definitely difficult, especially because WWE wasn't as open back then. That really changed with Triple H when he took over NXT, where they modified the strategy and basically started looking all over the world. And I think Europe went unnoticed for a long time, especially Italy; I remember that when I started, around 2008 or so, there was already a really good wrestling scene.

The Austrian emphasized that he arrived at the right time, when the independent European scenes - including the Italian one - were growing again and WWE began to pay more attention. In his opinion, his success helped open the door for other wrestlers from the region.

Gunther also reviewed his journey before WWE, with stints in Japan and wXw in Germany, in addition to his reign as NXT UK champion before the integration of that brand with NXT. Once on the main roster, he solidified his image with the longest Intercontinental reign in history, lasting 666 days, and then expanded his reputation as the "career killer" by retiring veterans like Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles.