Gunther (fka WALTER in the NXT UK brand) has become the new WWE Intercontinental Champion on WWE Smackdown. During last night’s episode of the blue brand on FOX, Gunther defeated Ricochet to capture the mid-card gold in the WWE.
With Ludwig Kaiser by his side, the Austrian-born powerhouse avoided the 450-Splash as Ricochet landed on his feet. Ricochet went for a dropkick but Gunther planted him with a thunderous powerbomb to get the pin-fall win in this title match that took place on WWE Smackdown from the Raising Cane’s River Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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Thus, via pin-fall count, Gunther started his first championship reign in WWE on the main roster. Given his protective status, he is likely to have a dominant run with the prestigious belt for weeks to follow.
Gunther (as WALTER) made his WWE debut in January 2019 as he confronted the then NXT UK Champion Pete Dunne (now WWE SmackDown roster member Butch) at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool. Gunther would eventually defeat Dunne for the NXT UK Title at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, ending Dunne’s record 685-day title reign.
Gunther then also broke Dunne’s record by holding the NXT UK Title for 870 days before losing it to current champion Ilja Dragunov at WWE NXT TakeOver 36 in August 2021.
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Gunther has been part of NXT 2.0 before arriving on WWE Smackdown
Gunther would then make several appearances on the NXT 2.0 brand, and he also competed in a match against LA Knight at NXT Stand & Deliver, this past April. His final appearance in NXT happened when he faced NXT Champion Bron Breakker on the April 5 episode of NXT 2.0 which ended in a loss.
Then on the April 8 episode of WWE SmackDown, Gunther would make his main roster debut, alongside his Imperium faction Ludwig Kaiser (FKA Marcel Barthel). The other member of the Imperium Fabian Aichner is being repackaged on NXT as Giovanne Vinci.
Gunther’s final PPV opponent, LA Knight, now Max Dupri was to unveil the first client of his Maximum Male Models stable on WWE SmackDown, this week. However, the segment was scrapped and rescheduled for next week. WWE revealed that Dupri had travel complications in Europe and hence he couldn’t make it to the show.
