WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther has had his fair share of tough, physical matches, especially after his record-setting performance at the 2023 Royal Rumble, where The Ring General entered at #1 and participated in the match for one hour and eleven minutes, the longest time spent in a single Royal Rumble match. Even though Gunther considers a match with Brock Lesnar as one of his “end boss” goals, there’s one WWE superstar in particular that Gunther considers the toughest opponent he’s faced in the WWE.
“I would say so far, looking at last year, it was definitely Sheamus,” Gunther explained on WWE’s The Bump. “Very physical competitor, same as me. And I think that fed off each other pretty well. But it’s definitely – yeah, I can say after Clash at the Castle it was definitely an experience. It’s a big rush in the moment and stuff. But it was one of the most physical matches I had to go through so far. So I would say Sheamus.”
Notwithstanding, Gunther has also given the toughest opponent he’s faced in the WWE some disparagement after defeating him in their two matches with the WWE Intercontinental title on the line.
“I’ve beaten him twice now. I kind of, I don’t know, lost a little bit of respect for him in the last month,” Gunther continued. “He seems very desperate right now. He’s not on my radar, I’m obviously on his radar right now. But if he gets himself into a position again where he is a challenger again, I’ll give him another beating I guess. But as of right now, it is not my main focus.”
Gunther successfully defended his IC title against Madcap Moss last week on Smackdown. As of this writing, he’s now held the WWE IC title for 259 days, surpassing Shelton Benjamin’s reign of 244 days to become the longest reigning WWE Intercontinental Champion of the 21st century.
What do you think of the comments made by Gunther on the toughest opponent he’s faced in the WWE? Let us know in the comments.
Check out some of Gunther vs. Sheamus‘s physical match on the October 7th, 2022 episode of Smackdown.
