Real Reason Behind Gunther's Incredible WWE Body Transformation
Why Gunther lost an impressive amount of weight ahead of jumping from NXT to SmackDown.
New WWE SmackDown call-up Gunther has undergone an impressive physical transformation in recent months, shedding weight to sculpt a leaner physique ahead of his shift from NXT UK, to NXT's United States imprint, then up to the main roster.
Per Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, this may have been the product of a request from Vince McMahon himself.
Speaking following Gunther's main roster arrival, which happened via jobber squash on last week's episode of SmackDown, Meltzer stated that the Austrian was told to lose weight - and listened. Ultimately, McMahon wants slimmer people on his television shows. Unlike other larger athletes who didn't act when requested, Gunther underwent a transformation.
Speaking with Wrestling Inc. last week, Gunther said the following of his physical transformation:-
“I guess I eat less. I always worked out a lot, but for the first time, I have really focused on my nutrition. These guys really pushed me. I’ve got to say, when I was a wrestling fan, I always liked the look of the solid heavyweights in Japan who had a little bit of a gut carrying around, just brawls and stuff like that. But, at the end of the day, you’ve got to go with the times, and evolve a little bit, and that’s what I did.”
Debuting new red ring attire for his SmackDown debut, Gunther's long-standing Imperium stable was recently split apart. Ludwig Kaiser, the former Marcel Barthel, has joined him on SmackDown, though Fabian Aichner remains on NXT, despite his tandem with Kaiser being more established in WWE than Gunther's. Nonetheless, this is the direction WWE has chosen.