GUNTHER has explained the thinking behind the body transformation he undertook when he was called up to WWE’s main roster in April 2022, saying his old indie-circuit physique would have read as out of shape to a wider WWE audience even if he didn’t see himself that way.
GUNTHER, who spent over 15 years on the independent scene and, in the early portion of his WWE run, carried a heavier frame, has maintained a leaner build since his SmackDown debut the night after WrestleMania 38 on April 8, 2022. The lost size has not changed the hard-hitting in-ring style or the intimidating presence that defined his WALTER years.
Speaking with Enry Lazza, GUNTHER said the decision was not driven by physical limitations or by any discomfort with how he had looked before, but by his read on how a Netflix-era WWE viewership would interpret it.
“I was the person I wanted to be a lot, because in my case, I never felt uncomfortable before or anything, and my wrestling idols were butch-looking heavyweights from America that went to Japan and beat up all of the Japanese babyfaces and they were all, as they call it, barrel-chested with a little bit of gut. So I always had that romantic thing for those guys because I watched it a lot and liked it and I thought like, ‘Ah, (I’m) in that category, I’m one of them.’ But obviously, in WWE, we’ve expanded so much, and now with Netflix, there’s such a different viewership on it that’s so much wider. So, I thought that’s going to be necessary.”
He framed the call-up itself as the moment he made the decision.
“So when I went to the main roster, I made the call, like you know what, it’s time to change it up because there’s a difference. Up until WWE, I only wrestled for hardcore wrestling fans that were die-hards basically, and they can understand. But in reality, for the major public I would have looked like somebody out of shape and doesn’t look like a champion. So I knew I had to adjust it and find a way to still stay myself, but just give it a fresh look.”
GUNTHER then walked through what he says was the hardest part of the transition, reaching for a specific German term to describe it.
“What I think I was battling the most in German we have a word for that its called: ‘schweinehund’, which is basically like a pig dog, as we call it. The inner pig dog that tells you that you have to fight all the time. That’s basically the devil that sits on your right shoulder that makes you do the wrong things. And I think that’s what I had to fight the most a little bit when it comes to discipline and stuff like that. But once you manage that you beat the schweinehund basically, then yeah it becomes routine.”
GUNTHER has previously said he lost around 60 to 65 pounds during the transition, crediting his Imperium stablemates Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci for the support system once the group moved to Orlando. He has held the NXT UK Championship for 870 days, the Intercontinental Championship across two record-setting reigns, and is a multi-time World Heavyweight Champion.
