Former WWE champion could undergo major character change; he has teased it

A WWE Superstar could be getting a makeover soon after he was brutally attacked by his former stablemate on a recent edition of RAW.

Imperium's Giovanni Vinci and Ludwig Kaiser lost to The New Day last month and it caused the faction to make a major change. Kaiser attacked Vinci and hit him with a running Dropkick while he was positioned on the steel steps. Gunther gave Ludwig a nod of approval backstage following the attack. Giovanni Vinci has since been drafted to WWE SmackDown and could be reverting to his NXT character.

The former two-time NXT Tag Team Champion has shared a graphic of himself on social media after it was announced he was drafted to SmackDown. The image looks strikingly familiar to his days in the developmental brand and seemingly shows that he has completely moved on from Imperium.

WWE RAW star Gunther thought about replacing Giovanni Vinci in Imperium for a long time

Former Intercontinental Champion Gunther was already thinking about removing Giovanni Vinci from Imperium last July.

In an exclusive interview with Riju Dasgupta of Sportskeeda Wrestling, Gunther was asked to comment on Giovanni Vinci's future with the heel faction. The interview took place shortly after the July 10 edition of WWE RAW where Imperium lost to Drew McIntyre and Matt Riddle in a tag team match.

The Ring General stated that Vinci's status would be evaluated and only the "absolute elite" deserved to be in the group.

"That's to be determined, I guess, how things go, especially us in Imperium, everybody in there wants to be the absolute elite and wants to be at the absolute top, and sometimes when you fail to deliver that, there are consequences for that and it's on you to make up for that situation. So far this hasn't happened," he said. [From 01:29 - 01:58]

You can check out the interview in the video below:

Gunther has already declared for the King of the Ring tournament later this month. It will be fascinating to see what WWE has planned for the former champion moving forward and if he will be going after a major title this year.