10 Terrible Wrestling Moments (That Were Almost Even Worse)

8. If You Think Gunther Is Bad...

Erick Rowan Rat
WWE

Gunther is physically and figuratively unrecognisable from WALTER.

He was better as a slightly undefined colossus. The leaner, more shredded Gunther doesn't look like he puts as much behind his legendary chops, not that he would be allowed to unleash them to his fullest within the WWE system. There's a dispiriting, casually careless pattern to his matches now too. Getting any offence on the man used to mean something. His dominance used to build unreal drama. The aura is gone, and so too has the size of the fight in his opponents.

Between the weaker offence and the new physique, the man is quite literally diet WALTER.

That, of course, is WWE's very weird intention. They buy or used to buy great cars, and instead of driving the cars, they reupholster the cars, and make the cars less good. Just drive the car. Don't rename the car after a nazi U-boat commander.

Yes, WWE did one of two things here. At best, they were too inept and lazy to use Google. At worst, something very sinister happened before the massive backlash.

The 'Stark' surname was swiftly dropped before it made its way to television, but this remains an astonishingly dumb WWE thing even by WWE standards.

 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!