{"id":155119,"date":"2026-03-22T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T10:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=155119"},"modified":"2026-03-21T07:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T11:30:24","slug":"top-picks-for-gunthers-wrestlemania-42-opponent-if-rey-mysterio-isnt-cleared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/03\/22\/top-picks-for-gunthers-wrestlemania-42-opponent-if-rey-mysterio-isnt-cleared\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Picks for Gunther\u2019s WrestleMania 42 Opponent If Rey Mysterio Isn\u2019t Cleared"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gunther, the Career Killer, is currently directionless on the road to WrestleMania 42 after retiring Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles. Granted, Dragon Lee has been attacking Gunther out of frustration that he retired his former tag partner and friend, AJ Styles.<\/p>\n<p>However, that is clearly not the WrestleMania match after Gunther demolished him in an absolute show-stealer on Raw. Due to Dragon Lee&#8217;s association with Rey Mysterio in the LWO, Rey Mysterio was the original plan to battle Gunther at Mania with his career on the line.<\/p>\n<p>However, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.f4wonline.com\/news\/wwe\/rey-mysterio-injured-during-wwe-raw-match\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rey Mysterio<\/a> got injured on Raw in his match against Austin Theory, which completely derailed his road to Mania. Since it&#8217;s likely Mysterio won&#8217;t recover in time for Mania, WWE needs to scramble and find a new opponent for Gunther. It would be criminal if <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/03\/20\/5-wwe-stars-in-danger-of-missing-wrestlemania-42-and-how-they-can-make-it\/\" target=\"_self\">Gunther<\/a> is left off WrestleMania after the iconic year he has had in the WWE. Could he retire another legend? Could he get a title match? Without further ado, here are three alternative opponents for Gunther now that Rey Mysterio is off the table.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WWE PPV Predictions - Mark Justice\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/videoseries?list=PL4Cbox4S9rfPQAIqd77dztP3geVc0ymXs\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Stone Cold Steve Austin<\/h2>\n<p>Since Gunther is the new Legend Killer, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/03\/16\/wwe-raw-predictions-3-16-26-stone-cold-steve-austin-will-raise-hell-on-brock-lesnar\/\" target=\"_self\">Stone Cold Steve Austin<\/a> would be the ideal opponent for him at WrestleMania 42. This is not far-fetched since Austin is actually scheduled to be in WWE for WrestleMania Weekend. He has been talking about having one more match with guys like CM Punk and Brock Lesnar, but Punk is preoccupied with Roman Reigns, and Lesnar is busy with Oba Femi.<\/p>\n<p>If Austin really wants a match at Mania, he can steal the show with Gunther and call it a career. If not, Gunther can also chase gold.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_145999\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-145999\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/11\/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin_4840634636-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of WWE legend &quot;Stone Cold&quot; Steve Austin.\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" class=\"wp-image-145999 size-large\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/11\/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin_4840634636-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/11\/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin_4840634636-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/11\/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin_4840634636-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/11\/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin_4840634636-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/11\/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin_4840634636-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/11\/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin_4840634636-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/11\/Stone_Cold_Steve_Austin_4840634636-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-145999\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: By <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=22897893\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gage Skidmore<\/a> from Peoria, AZ, United States of America &#8211; Stone Cold Steve AustinUploaded by maybeMaybeMaybe, CC BY-SA 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=22897893<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Penta<\/h2>\n<p>Since all the world title matches are set, Gunther could always chase a title in the mid-card. Granted, Gunther has already graduated from the mid-card and is above the Intercontinental Title, which he has already held for 666 days. However, now that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/03\/14\/3-potential-top-challengers-for-penta-at-wrestlemania-42\/2\/\" target=\"_self\">Penta<\/a> is the champ, it would make sense for Gunther to chase him for the title due to his association with Mysterio and Dragon Lee.<\/p>\n<p>This match between Gunther and Penta was supposed to happen in the &#8220;Last Time Is Now&#8221; John Cena tournament, so this would make sense to revisit.<\/p>\n<h2>Michael Cole<\/h2>\n<p><span>This may seem out of left field, but Gunther actually threatened to retire Michael Cole in an interview. The seed was planted there, and WWE can make it a reality. Bayley will be jealous of Gunther in this regard because she has been asking for a match against Cole for years. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Nonetheless, the idea of Cole returning in his iconic orange suit to defend his 1-0 WrestleMania streak would be entertaining. Besides, Cole is a legend in his own right, so Gunther would fit this role of ending yet another in-ring career as the Career Killer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If you\u2019re not down with just that and would like even more WWE PLE Coverage from <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/letthemwrestle.com\/author\/markjustice\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span>Mark Justice<\/span><\/a><span>, check out more of his articles right here on LWOS and subscribe to his popular YouTube channel by clicking\u00a0<\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@MarkTBKJustice1327\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span>HERE<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gunther, the Career Killer, is currently directionless on the road to WrestleMania 42 after retiring Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles. Granted, Dragon Lee has been attacking Gunther out of frustration that he retired his former tag partner and friend, AJ Styles. However, that is clearly not the WrestleMania match after Gunther demolished him in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5747,"featured_media":152912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,4,3],"tags":[8238],"class_list":["post-155119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-gunther"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155119"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155248,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155119\/revisions\/155248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}