The clear favorite from the overall bracket made his claim for WWE’s yearly crown almost immediately after the promotion announced its King and Queen of The Ring event. With his promo and an impressive 666-day run as Intercontinental Champion, WWE made the case for Gunther to win King of The Ring.
After taking some time off post-WrestleMania, Gunther has returned with a vengeance. Of course, there are a lot of talented and well-liked stars vying for the crown in 2024. Gunther, though, has the intangibles necessary to clear the field and take the proverbial throne atop the WWE Universe.
A WWE Title Gunther Doesn’t Need to Drop
Gunther was a dominant champion, but all championship reigns must end. The era of years-long championship runs dissipated and has not yet returned to mainstream wrestling.
His own two-year journey as Intercontinental Champion is an outlier as it stands in 2024. Even after taking the Intercontinental belt to new heights, money was to be made and tickets to be sold with his defeat. Likewise, he needed to lose the title to reach the next layer of the WWE hierarchy; that is how it goes.
Lucky for WWE, people will always, eventually, root against the big guy. It is a straightforward story that resonates across cultures. Having lost the belt, Gunther is free for a change, providing fans with that moment they crave. That is a good thing in the long term. However, losing will always lower your stock for a bit. This was always the problem with Gunther. He had to lose at least once to get to this point.
The King of The Ring is different than a title. It is an annual award that, frankly, doesn’t even happen every year. So, you can’t ever be challenged for it beyond the year-long uninterrupted reign. Some superstars made this win their entire identity, to varying degrees of success. None of them needed to cede way for another “king.”
Winning King of The Ring gives Gunther the only accolade in the company that can’t be lost, the only one that he doesn’t have to crush other people’s momentum to keep.
That sort of prize is precious when building an unstoppable monster. After he gets the big victory, he can coast a little, with his position secure the entire time. Now, he can win the title without separating himself from the crown to make way for the next winner, who will be crowned the following year regardless of Gunther’s status.
It is perhaps the best option WWE has to portray Gunther the way he and they like, without keeping him tied down and suppressing other talents around him.
Gunther to Win King of The Ring Building to Berlin
The WWE Universe doesn’t need to wait a whole year for Gunther as king, either. Instead, Gunther’s win will become a distant memory by time the next tournament is announced. That isn’t an issue either; it’s just that WWE has a second coronation planned for Gunther. When Gunther returns home, he will almost certainly win the real crown in WWE, the World Heavyweight Championship.
This upcoming summer’s Bash in Berlin is building around Imperium and Gunther, who is Austrian-born but plays an obvious and sometimes problematic German heel. His winning the title in front of his compatriots and their German neighbors is clearly the hook WWE has set for their Bash this August.
🇦🇹 @Gunther_AUT kommt nicht allein nach Wien! Auch @wwe_kaiser 🇩🇪 ist kommende Woche bei #WWELive am Start!
Tickets für den 2. Mai:
👉 https://t.co/mh2ar9aClK#WWEVienna #Imperium pic.twitter.com/ZXxKykEkcF— WWE Deutschland (@WWEDeutschland) April 25, 2024
The creative team, looking to avoid some “senioritis” booking, must prioritize Gunther. Yes, he is likely to win the title in August. That is still several months away. Without a championship, Gunther has been bogged down in Imperium and New Day antics. All of them are talented, but those feuds don’t prepare him for his upcoming run as Raw’s top champion.
That would also be fine if there were any other reasons WWE had given fans to expect he may be in the hunt for the world title. Winning King of The Ring will elevate his position and give him the stature he needs to stick around these lower-card feuds, pay them off, and use those wins as fuel for his title match.
A hot world title story is often about momentum, which winning the crown will likely give Gunther in abundance.
A Glorious Gunther Celebration on Raw
Looking at some of the King of The Ring, the best winners did roughly the same thing: cut some memorable promos after winning. Gunther has had genuinely iconic matches throughout his WWE tenure.
He has yet to have a moment on the microphone or backstage that establishes his skill in that area. Gunther’s role is that of a massive wrestling machine and, truthfully, a foreign heel. Yes, the Ivan Drago comparisons don’t just stop after WrestleMania leaves Philadelphia.
Obviously, Gunther isn’t getting boos because he is Austrian or German. However, fans subtly observe his heel qualities in a way clearly meant to relate to his background. This explains the ease with which he entered into the part of Drago in the Rocky IV redux at WrestleMania 40. That character is timeless in some ways.
Gunther allows simple stories like David and Goliath and, of course, the evil foreign fighter to play out with some nuance. His mastery is that he does this while making us modern fans feel less uneasy about cheering.
Sadly, this entire set of stories doesn’t typically work at the top of the card. This is extra true in a promotion like WWE that gave fans The Bloodline and the Cody Rhodes redemption arc. That said, his lack of standout memorable moments is a liability in the WWE context. Without a ringbell chiming, Gunther could be anyone in WWE from somewhere else.
That isn’t the end of the line; it is a perfect opportunity for this tournament to improve the near-perfect game on a fantastic performer.
Winning means a coronation and a live microphone. It would be hard to speculate what he does or whether it works now. However, just winning the throne finally gives him the platform to have a standout segment. It gives him the stage needed to enter the main event like Stone Cold Steve Austin or Booker T.
Easy to Choose Gunther to Win King of The Ring
The prohibitive favorite, most fans online would pick Gunther to win King of The Ring later this month. He feels like the most dominant competitor in the field on either brand. Booking “king” Gunther would feel the most like a coronation of all this year’s hopefuls. Apart from Roman Reigns‘ run on Smackdown, his dominance has been peerless.
The first-round match between Sheamus and Gunther was a snapshot of the carnage that Gunther could bestow upon the roster. There may be more exciting options in the field, such as new stars like Carmelo Hayes, who could launch his run with a win. However, smart money means that the ring general will take the throne.
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