GUNTHER On Potentially Surpassing Honky Tonk Man’s IC Title Reign

According to GUNTHER, his historic Intercontinental Championship reign was never planned, either by himself or WWE.

As of this writing, GUNTHER won the IC title 435 days ago when he defeated Ricochet on the March 4, 2022 edition of SmackDown.

Since then, GUNTHER has gone on an incredible run that few people believed would ever reach such heights. His reign includes thirteen successful title defenses in matches that, on many occasions, stole the show on which they took place.

Many fans have hailed his singles match against Sheamus at Clash at the Castle 2022 and his triple threat match against both Sheamus and Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 39 as some of the best matches in modern WWE history.

The fact that GUNTHER has put so much effort into these big matches and has made every title defense matter has, according to many fans, restored the value of the IC title after years of neglect and questionable presentation.

But none of this was thought out before he won the title. During an interview with Steve Fall of WrestlingNews.co, GUNTHER noted that everything surrounding this reign just happened and none of it was ever planned ahead of time.

“Yeah, that’s crazy, right? It’s nothing that I ever, like, wrote on my wall and be like, you gotta achieve that. It’s just more or less a side effect of it, but that’s still the future. I still gotta go through Saturday first.”

Who else has GUNTHER defeated in title defenses?

Aside from Sheamus and McIntyre, GUNTHER also holds successful title defenses against Shinsuke Nakamura, Rey Mysterio, Braun Strowman, Xavier Woods, Madcap Moss, Mustafa Ali, and Matt Riddle.

His next big title defense will be on next week’s RAW when he defends his title against Chad Gable.