Jim Cornette Praises WWE’s Gunther – “He Makes Me Smile”
Jim Cornette has heavily praised a WWE superstar because the legendary wrestling manager was very impressed by the WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther following an incredible match.
The WWE Intercontinental Title was on the line at Clash at the Castle when Gunter defended his championship against Sheamus. The two Europeans went on to have a very physical, hard-hitting match as expected that has been praised heavily as one of the best WWE matches this year.
Gunther picked up the win over Sheamus, who was selling a back injury throughout the match. When Sheamus tried for his finishing move, the Brogue Kick, he collapsed while holding his back, which allowed Gunther to hit a Powerbomb followed by a hard lariat for the win. The Clash crowd in Cardiff, Wales was really loud for the whole match while giving both wrestlers a standing ovation and Sheamus got his own standing ovation after the match as well.
While speaking on his Experience podcast, wrestling legend Jim Cornette praised the match heavily while adding that watching the talented Austrian Gunther makes him smile.
“So the Intercontinental title match let’s talk about that. Sheamus and Gunther and I tell you this got me into the program, at least I was like after this I was like okay, I will be optimistic for what lies ahead. I can’t remember what his name was originally, but now they call him Giovanni Vinci, the other cohort of Gunther with Ludwig Kaiser, he’s back.”
“So now Gunther has both of them again, another Triple H thing. And their entrance is fabulous. Ludwig is perfect for the introduction, now the facials and the voice and the way delivers it. And then when Gunther comes out, did you see the choreography? And I’m not talking about dancing, but he comes out and they automatically snap to attention to the side and put their arms behind their back and all that stuff.”
“They look like a bunch of goddamn World War Two movie soldiers. He makes me smile, Gunther, just the whole presentation. And this is an example of guys being cool with their gimmick and their entrance and not corny or silly or whatever.”
Cornette used the Jim Ross term “slobberknocker” to help describe what he thought of the match while mentioning that while they worked stiff, they were also safe during the match:
“They still do the thing where the stooges get in a fight while Gunther and Sheamus face off. But it worked better here than on television because at least they’re in the match finally, and they’re going to do something but the stooges fought off.”
“The crowd] were into, you know, almost everything, but especially the good stuff. And I was afraid that they started at 100 miles an hour, and they’re obviously trying to have a fight, a slobberknocker as they might say. And it was a little sloppy-ish first I wish they’d settled down but Gunther hit a big boot and slowed it down and then they kind of did. And they worked stiff but it was safe and they weren’t dropping each other on their head all the time.”
“But they worked stiff and did slow down after the first few minutes, and then when Gunther takes over the pace of things, I just I love the way he works but as well I was gonna say Sheamus, everybody was saying on Twitter ‘I hope that you know Sheamus got over with Cornette.’ He did. I’m still not saying that he’s [ugly], he’s visually off-putting because of the brightness of the hair and the glow of the skin. And he’s not smooth like Jack Brisco but he worked his ass off here and it was a slobberknocker so I do have to respect him for that.”
The match between Gunther and Sheamus was praised heavily by critics as well with the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer rating it five just stars just like TJR’s John Canton in the live review of the show.
If you use any quotes from this article please credit original source and then h/t with a link back to TJRWrestling.