On paper, Gunther’s “Career Killer” run through Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles seemed like a logical way to cement Der Ring General as a WWE main eventer for years to come. In reality it hasn’t worked out that way, and the Austrian seemed a lot hotter when he was Intercontinental champ than he does now.
Recently on SmackDown, Gunther’s taken the pin in a Money in the Bank qualifying match and seems to be working a program with Danhausen…
It’s with that fresh in your mind we present you with this
John Cena quote* from his appearance on WWE Radio’s Busted Open today (Oct. 5). Cena was talking about his last match at Saturday Night’s Main Event last December, and the still-controversy decision to have Mr. Never Give Up tap out to Gunther with a smile on his face. As he has in the past, the Acme vs. Coyote and Matchbox star argued the polarizing response to the finish is a point in its favor, then added this footnote about the man he tapped out to:
“All you do is you do the best you can, and you hope that they carry — I know there’s sentiment out there that like, ‘Man, they’re wasting Gunther!’ Maybe currently they are. But we, I don’t see the view from the penthouse. I’m not in those meetings where they’re just looking at the whiteboard, connecting the dots. Maybe they’re just cooling him off? Maybe they’re putting him away from TV? I don’t know.
“What I am gonna do is, I’m not gonna challenge the opinion of, ‘Aye, I’m not gonna give this for this guy and you’re gonna forget him.’
“This is the work that I need to do for today, and we’re gonna make him look the best we can, and I’m gonna give him as much steam as I can, and what you do with it afterwards? That ain’t my call.”
I won’t swear to it, but I have been listening to and transcribing Cena as part of my job for the past 14 or so years and I think he means to say he would challenge anyone who says he “buried” Gunther with the grinning submission. The Never Seen 17 goes on to remind us that he devotes 100% of his efforts toward whatever narrative goal creative gives him, which in that case was to make Gunther “look the best we can”.
Of course, Cena’s long-standing “they deal ‘em, I play ‘em” philosophy also allows Cena to be remove himself from the aftermath by saying “wasn’t my call”. He doesn’t get into any specifics about what Gunther’s done since retiring him. But earlier when Cena was asked to predict Roman Reigns’ World Heavyweight title defense against LA Knight this weekend at Money in the Bank, he did compare Vince McMahon’s approach to booking with the man who signed off the finish to his last match, Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
Cena of course rides the fence about an actual prediction, though:
“I will say: now more than ever, I feel — just my perspective — the business is reactive to the audience, and reactive to zeitgeist moments in our audience. Vince was so steadfast in his direction, and that was very important to him and that’s how he ran things at the helm. And I respect that.
“I also respect Paul’s open mind, open ears, and open eyes. And I think, even though the math is heavily in Roman’s corner, I also think, if there was ever a moment that in the last minute before everybody went out of during the match, ‘Hey, we’re going to switch the decision we made back there,’ I think it would be a situation like it is now. But I’m with you, I think the math is heavily in Roman’s corner.”
Talk about Cena’s retirement tap out, how Gunther’s been booked since, or whatever else strikes your fancy about the above quotes in the comments below.
* Media tour. Told ya.
