Gunther has officially arrived on Friday Night SmackDown, and he has already blown fans away with his performance and significant weight loss.
The former WWE NXT UK Champion had waited for his opportunity to dance with the big boys, and now he’s finally got it. The Austrian powerhouse impressed on the yellow brand, having held the record for the longest title reign of 870 days.
Furthermore, he captivated fans through his rivalry with LA Knight, in addition to terrorising the roster with Imperium.
The wrestler, formerly known as WALTER, exploded onto our screens on April 8 to a massive pop from the fans. He made easy work out of Joe Alonzo in a squash match designed to show how fearsome he is.
Gunther looked fantastic as he dismantled his opponent with an array of brutal kicks and thunderous slaps before finishing him with a powerbomb. After the contest, Michael Cole stressed: “Gunther has put the entire locker room on notice.”
Since then, the Austrian has been on an upwards trajectory. On June 10, he defeated Ricochet to win the Intercontinental Championship – his first WWE main roster title.
But as impressive as his performances have been, fans have been blown away by more than his athletic prowess.
Gunther has lost an outrageous amount of weight
WWE have always created opportunities for various body types competing at the top level. It doesn’t matter if you’re as small as Rey Mysterio, a muscular powerhouse like John Cena or as imposing as Big Show, you can still reach the pinnacle of the sport. However, it now seems like Vince McMahon has gone down a more specific route in terms of the physique he’d like his athletes to have.
Prior to his victory on SmackDown, Gunther reportedly lost a whopping 30 pounds. In his NXT days, he performed with a slightly fleshier build. Now, he’s sporting a much more typical athletic physique.
Why did Gunther lose the weight?
Esteemed journalist Dave Meltzer revealed on Wrestling Observer Radio that the terrifying sportsman lost weight at the request of the company chairman. He also doesn’t like the idea of the 264-pound beast competing in a tag team.
He said: “It’s interesting that they’re going with them as a tag team and not Gunther as a single, which surprises me greatly. Especially because the original plan was separate brands. And then, the other one is if they were going to do the tag team, they kind of like aced out Eichner. I think that Barthel and Eichner are the better idea of the team.
“Yes, it probably is a size thing. Maybe an idea that they don’t have faith in Gunther as a singles guy yet. I think that, you know, he can be a top singles guy, although I think the loss of weight hurts him a lot. I know he was told, and he listened, unlike other people who thought that being big was really good and were told and didn’t listen and now is somewhere else, which is Keith Lee.
“I’m not beating around the bush on that.”
Meltzer added: “Vince wants slim people on TV. I could see from the Vince perspective, telling the guy, ‘Hey, drop 30 pounds,’ right? I thought what made him special was the idea that he’s a 290-310 pound guy who can fly around and can move and hits really hard and looks like a powerhouse. Now he’s just a 6 ft 3 guy.”
Gunther has seen disputed these claims, stating that it was his own decision to drop weight.
Featured Image Credit: Joel Zietcer
