WWE’s Gunther Explains How He Created Ring General Gimmick

Gunther has revealed that the “Ring General” character was created thanks to help from other wrestlers and inspiration from a WWE superstar’s father.

Ever since he joined WWE in early 2019 using his real name WALTER, the current WWE World Heavyweight Championship has represented the business of pro wrestling as a great sport that honors tradition and respect.

For many years, Gunther led the group known as Imperium. Earlier this year, that group ended when his associate Ludwig Kaiser took out Giovanni Vinci in a heinous attack, but the “Ring General” and Kaiser remain close allies.

While speaking to Sports Illustrated, Gunther talked about the origin story of his “Ring General” person and how Kaiser’s father was a part of it.

“This gimmick was created at wXw together with Ludwig Kaiser and Timothy Thatcher, an American wrestler from the independent scene. At that time he was already betting on this realistic, pragmatic style with many handles, submissions and hard blows. He also came up with this classic piece as entrance music. In addition, we also had the influence of Axel Dieter Sr. Ludwig Kaiser’s father. He was a professional wrestler and represented a traditional style.”

“We also found old wrestling documentaries from the 80s and 90s to be very exciting. At that time, the wrestlers still wanted to sell their craft as a real competition. We found it so entertaining and thought we had to make it a gimmick. According to the motto: ‘In the past, everything was better.'”

“We then incorporated that into our look: black jacket, black boots, me in the general coat – and it worked great. The wrestling world was very spectacular, colorful, over the top. And we were the perfect contrast.”

Gunther Says WWE Never Told Him To Change Anything

Prior to winning the World Heavyweight Title from Damian Priest at SummerSlam, Gunther made it clear that nobody in WWE told him to change his character when he got there.

“Nobody ever in WWE told me to change anything. Nobody does [what I do] better than me. And that’s what I have to offer.

I’m not that wrestler that comes out of this system that something doesn’t work, and next week I have a new character; that won’t happen in my case because I’m myself.”

At WWE Bash in Berlin on August 31st, the World Heavyweight Champion Gunther defends his title against the former 14-time WWE World Champion Randy Orton in a match that could be the main event of the show.