Ex-World Champion Paid To Win Title, Claims WWE’s Gunther
Gunther has stirred the pot surrounding an issue involving a former AWA Champion.
The 38-year-old star recently won the right to challenge John Cena in his final wrestling match by winning the ‘Last Time Is Now’ tournament.
In the final, he faced LA Knight, whom he forced to tap out using the cravat submission.
The Ring General has since claimed that Cena will endure a similar fate at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13.
Reports are doing the rounds that the two superstars will compete in the first match of the night.
Meanwhile, the Austrian heavyweight has been on media tours, promoting his upcoming bout against the 17-time world champion.
While appearing on The Rich Eisen Show, Gunther spoke about transitioning into wrestling after quitting football, which he played as a goalkeeper, at 17 years old.
He also discussed being big physically before dropping weight, comparing himself to the infamous Otto Wanz, who has often been accused of paying money to the American Wrestling Association to win the AWA World Championship in 1982.
I was like the…see, that’s the other thing, like, in Europe where we grew up, our main guy in Austria was Otto Wanz. [Former AWA Champion.] He paid actually to have that title. That was a smart market. He wasn’t the only one who did that. [6:44 onwards]
Gunther Reveals Gaining Weight Before WWE Return
Gunther continued discussing the wrestling market in Austria growing up, also citing Japanese wrestling, where the heavyweights were big men, who looked like “next door butchers.”
Being a heavyweight himself, he never minded how he looked because he felt good athletically, with good stamina, to put up long matches.
He also revealed gaining a little weight during his brief time away from WWE post-SummerSlam, stating that he might have found his sweet spot.
At some point before I came to the main roster, I was like, “Okay, it’s time to adapt a little bit.” Bring the best version of myself to national television, and yeah, I gained a little bit again since then, and I found my sweet spot now.