GUNTHER etched an important place in history. A week ago, he retired John Cena at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event. He sent Cena home with his first tap out in more than 20 years. He also sent millions of wrestlings fans to bed sad that their hero was done. He’s embraced this role and if it becomes the next character arc of his WWE run, Gunther should go all out. Here are three men who should be next to fall at Gunther’s feet.
R-Truth
Gunther retiring R-Truth makes sense. After he gloated about dispatching Cena, R-Truth was one of the first people to confront him for it. Everyone knows that Cena was R-Truth’s childhood hero, and he’d be the first person to defend his honor. Set this up as a match on either WWE Monday Night Raw or SmackDown and it would fit into the narrative.
Now, there’s another way this works. WWE made headlines earlier in 2025 when R-Truth was set to see his contract expire. Fans erupted in anger. So much so that WWE changed course and signed him to a one-year deal. Setting Truth up to take a violent beatdown at the hands of Gunther would be an easy way to write Truth off of television and make it easier to remove him from the roster in 2026.
AJ Styles
AJ Styles has opened up about his retirement tour. While fans want to see him on top one last time, it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. However, Styles should still be in relevant angles and this would certainly be one of those stories.
WWE has already hinted at the idea that Styles is up next for Gunther. With 2026 on the horizon, Gunther versus AJ Styles is a big match that would fit on any WrestleMania or WWE PLE. If this was set up in 2026, fans would be invested. That investment would only grow if they put Styles’s career on the line.
Chris Jericho
Fans are expecting Chris Jericho to return to WWE in 2026. The Royal Rumble is right there to make it happen. That could also be the match where an angle between Jericho and Gunther begins. Imagine a world where Jericho pops up and is the reason Gunther is eliminated. It would make sense for Gunther to put a target on Jericho’s back, one that would lead to a huge match between the two. Jericho has nothing to offer Gunther physically and it should be a smashing to watch, but the build between the two would be fun and it would be another “feather” to add to Gunther’s cap.