The Forbidden Lore Of WWE’s Gunther

WALTER WWE
WWE.com

WALTER could not have timed his own explosion in the indie boom any better. He set himself apart. He was a giant. He was doughy in his physique - a feature, not a bug. He had much in the way of weight to throw around. WALTER was a very different wrestler to most - the closest thing to peak Samoa Joe, albeit with a different sort of presence. He wasn’t cool or animalistic, but calculated, domineering.

In a massively ironic development, WALTER, the pure wrestler who deemed the “mat” so “sacred” that he at one point refused to contemplate heading to the cartoonishly theatrical world of U.S. cable wrestling, found his perfect home on WWE's main roster.

This stunned the wrestling world upon being announced in November 2018, even though the talk was that WALTER would be posted to NXT UK and stay there. Many hardcores mourned the idea of a fan-cast run in a NJPW G1 Climax tournament. That would have been a sensational prospect: imagine WALTER annihilating the sympathetic living legend Hiroshi Tanahashi, or unsettling Kazuchika Okada as a wrestler even more dominant and composed stares him down. It didn’t happen. He went to the Fed.

This felt like an imminent disaster, and it very nearly was. After the expected great NXT UK run, in which WALTER made the grim confines of a barren, darkened studio show halfway watchable, a change in his personal circumstances softened his stance on moving to the United States. This did not go well initially, and it should not have surprised WALTER; in a bizarre cameo at Survivor Series 2019, he was eliminated from the Raw Vs. SmackDown Vs. NXT Triple Threat elimination match within two minutes. The booking was horrendous and spiteful, very much an instruction for this internet darling not to get too big for his boring black boots. And, what’s worse, Drew McIntyre insisted upon throwing the very best chops of his career. Drew, as if to tell WALTER that the main roster already has a great working giant, thank you very much, was beyond motivated.

CONT'D...(3 of 5)

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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!