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Legendary wrestling booker Dutch Mantell recently gave his thoughts on the 2023 WWE Draft. The 73-year-old believes new RAW addition Gunther is destined to win a world title within the next two years.
The Austrian superstar has held the Intercontinental Championship since defeating Ricochet for the title on the June 10, 2022, episode of SmackDown. He was drafted to RAW alongside fellow Imperium members Giovanni Vinci and Ludwig Kaiser as part of the recent roster changes.
Mantell said on his Story Time with Dutch Mantell podcast that he views Gunther as a future world champion:
"You know you have all these armchair bookers? But I think he will have the World Championship one day, probably within the next couple of years, I would think (…) That [acrobatic wrestling] is the furthest thing from Gunther's style. Gunther, he'll just beat the living c**p out of you and the people watch it because it is brutal." [13:17 – 14:00]
The newly introduced WWE World Heavyweight Championship will feature on the RAW brand moving forward. Roman Reigns' Undisputed WWE Universal Championship will only appear on SmackDown.
Dutch Mantell enjoys watching Gunther's WWE matches
The 35-year-old has developed a reputation for being one of the hardest-hitting wrestlers of his generation. On April 2, he defeated Drew McIntyre and Sheamus at WrestleMania 39 in a match that was widely viewed as one of the best of 2023 so far.
Dutch Mantell usually dislikes three-way matches, but he enjoyed the Intercontinental Championship bout at WrestleMania:
"At Clash at the Castle, Gunther and Sheamus, they burned it down, and the three-way they had on the latest pay-per-view, they burned it down too. On WrestleMania, it was Drew and Sheamus in a three-way, and I'm not a fan of three-ways, but that was a good one." [14:02 – 14:27]
WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H announced at the Backlash press conference that a World Heavyweight Championship tournament would take place in the coming weeks. One superstar from RAW and one superstar from SmackDown will face off at Night of Champions on May 27 to determine the inaugural title holder.
It is unclear if Gunther will participate in the tournament.
Do you think Gunther will win a world title by 2025? Let us know in the comments section below.
Please credit Story Time with Dutch Mantell and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
