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WWE Announces Surprising First-Time Opponent For Gunther

By John Canton • Published Dec 31, 2025 12:05 EST
Gunther WWE

Gunther will be facing a new opponent at an upcoming WWE live event.

John Cena’s final WWE match took place at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13th when he faced Gunther in front of a sold-out crowd in Washington, D.C. While Cena put up a fight and nearly picked up the win, Gunther applied the deadly Sleeper, Cena had a smile on his face, and ultimately gave up.

The finish of Cena’s final WWE match upset a lot of people because, for years, Cena preached the phrase, “Never Give Up,” yet that’s precisely what he did in his final WWE match.

Since retiring Cena, The Ring General has become like a movie villain who gets booed heavily wherever he goes because he likes bragging about putting Cena to sleep.

On the final WWE Raw episode of 2025, R-Truth confronted the former 2-time World Champion about the way he has bragged about beating Cena. That led to a match, which Gunther won easily by making Truth tap out to the Sleeper just like Cena did.

Gunther Will Be In Action At Germany WWE Live Event

The Austrian-born Gunther has had a lot of success in WWE as one of the company’s best heels. Before working for WWE, The Ring General competed across Europe and lived in Germany for many years.

In January 2026, there will be a WWE live event tour across Europe, in addition to multiple episodes of Raw and SmackDown airing in Europe.

On the WWE Deutschland X account, it was announced that Gunther will face El Grande Americano in a first-time-ever matchup. The interesting thing is that El Grande Americano is portrayed by WWE’s Ludwig Kaiser, one of The Ring General’s closest friends and a former ally of Imperium. Of course, WWE doesn’t acknowledge that Kaiser is Americano. As always, the card is subject to change.

Meanwhile, the original El Grande Americano was Chad Gable, who suffered a shoulder injury in the summer. Gable is likely returning to WWE TV at some point in January, so it will be interesting to see how the company addresses the El Grande Americano situation.