4 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Backlash 2025 (Results & Review)

3. The Right Result

For all the criticism leveled at Gunther versus Pat McAfee, there was one aspect that WWE got correct about the match and feud: the tone.

Gunther is flailing after losing a title for the second WrestleMania in a row. He’s underestimated Sami Zayn and now Jey Uso and paid the price on wrestling’s biggest stage. He can call himself the Ring General and back it up 364 days a year, but on that one night the past two years, he’s fallen short.

Rather than go after Jey to reclaim his title, Gunther has chosen to lash out at Raw’s announcers for pointing out that he tapped out and has struggled at Mania. All of that fed into Saturday’s match against McAfee.

The crowd chanting, “You tapped out” certainly didn’t help matters for Gunther, and neither did Michael Cole standing at the desk and yelling, and then going to ringside to cheerlead for McAfee. There’s an easy argument that Gunther should not have allowed McAfee to hang around, but the former world champion still hasn’t learned humility from his defeat. Instead, his arrogance shined through.

Hopefully, this little side quest is now over and Gunther can move on to more traditional wrestling matches. Hopefully, WWE is not going to have him doing sideshow bouts forever (though recent reports about Goldberg make one wonder).