When WWE first began its expedition of worldwide domination during the 1980s, the reputation the promotion garnered was one of turning even the most grizzled of vets into household names.
It sounded easy: Get noticed by the McMahons, head up to New York, and sooner or later, you’re a star with your likeness on everything from a t-shirt to childrens’ lunch boxes. Whether the wrestlers were receiving their fair share of royalties is a different story, but they were big stars nonetheless.
But that doesn’t mean the machine can’t occasionally malfunction, and for WWE, the number of days without incident can be very, very low.
How many times have you seen someone who enjoyed great success outside WWE finally make their way to the promotion only to suddenly feel rather ordinary?
How many times have you seen someone have to change their name, attire or entire look at the behest of WWE and its supposedly all-knowing promotional machine, just to have the idea fall flat on its face in front of an international audience — and lower the value of the talent in the process?
So. Many. Times.
Wrestling fans had the same fears when it came to Gunther. Before WWE, Gunther was known as WALTER, a no-nonsense tough guy who simply beat the daylights out of everyone. There were no frills, no pomp or circumstance. Just a man named WALTER who beat people up for the sport of it.
And there was hope that he would continue to do so once he signed on with NXT in early 2019. Not only did WALTER arrive, so did his name and overall vibe. NXT’s philosophy was essentially, “If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it.”
Unfortunately, that isn’t always the philosophy of Vince McMahon. McMahon could look at the Mona Lisa and think of ways he could improve it. In wrestling terms, he routinely tinkers, adjusts, or outright changes a wrestler’s name or persona. Karrion Kross and his Demolition-esque helmet is a prime example.
And don’t even get me started on all of the last-minute changes McMahon makes to Raw and Smackdown on a weekly basis.
Call it relying on what brought him to the dance or an ego gone out of control, McMahon will find a way to take something and turn it into something he wants it to be — prior success be damned.
And low and behold, Vince got to work when he saw WALTER. When WALTER was called up to the main roster in 2022, the name quickly went out of the window.
Instead of WALTER, he’d now be known as Gunther Stark. However, WWE had to quickly ditch the last name after fans pointed out that it was the same name as a NAZI U-Boat Commander in World War II. Again, the promotional machine malfunctions from time to time.
But not only did his name change, so did his physique, which also had fans worried. Believe it or not, wrestling fans can have trouble adapting to change.
Fast forward to 2023 and those concerns are now a thing of the distant past. All of the adjustments and changes WWE has made since Gunther was called up to the main roster actually … worked.
And because of it, Gunther is now positioned to be a much bigger star than he was when he first joined WWE.
As of this writing, Gunther has held the Intercontinental title for more than 400 days, and is less than two months away from becoming the longest-reigning Intercontinental champion of all time. It is a record that has stood for 35 years. Since Honky Tonk Man’s 453-day reign ended in 1988, no one held the title for more than 300 days. That was, until Gunther.
The beauty of all of the success Gunther has enjoyed since joining the main roster is that he still has room to grow. There is still another step in his progression.
WWE made the smart decision of laying the groundwork of Gunther’s dominance as the Intercontinental champion, slowly building him up as the next big main event talent for when the time comes. By this time next year, we could be talking about Gunther as the promotion’s World Heavyweight Champion.
Like Gunther, the Intercontinental Championship has enjoyed an elevation of its own, and is now in its most prominent position since the 1990s when the title was seen as a stepping stone to greater things.
There have been plenty of fine Intercontinental Champions in recent years, but Gunther’s run has restored some of the luster from its heyday. Whether WWE can sustain it or not is a completely different story.
So many things could have gone wrong for Gunther. He could have responded poorly to the changes, and the controversy surrounding the original name change could have derailed his entire run.
Instead, he stood on top of the announce table on the most recent edition of Raw as proof that, for once, WWE’s promotional machine does indeed work … sometimes.
Maybe not all of the time and probably not even most of them, but in this case, it definitely has.