“I outgrew it a little bit” - Gunther on his recent move to WWE’s main roster

WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther (formerly known as WALTER) recently opened up on his departure from NXT UK and joining the main roster.

The Ring General held the NXT UK Championship for 870 days before dropping it to Ilja Dragunov at TakeOver 36. He made his main roster debut on the April 8, 2022, edition of WWE SmackDown alongside Ludwig Kaiser (f.k.a Marcel Barthel). Upon his move to the main roster, he defeated Ricochet to win the Intercontinental Title.

The 34-year-old recently joined Ryan Satin on an episode of Out of Character and discussed why it was time for him to move on from NXT UK.

Gunther spoke about his rivalry with Dragunov and how their match during the COVID-19 pandemic stood out.

"During the COVID time was my title match with Ilja [Dragunov], and I think we really benefitted from the empty arena, that there was no crowd noise or anything like that. We both had a very intense style and stuff like that, and that match really stood out, and yeah, it put us in a position where a lot of eyes were on us." [H/T Fightful]

He noted that he did his part to keep NXT UK going during the pandemic and felt he outgrew the promotion.

"But I feel like I did my bid in NXT UK during the pandemic and gave my best to keep it going, keep it interesting during the time. I outgrew it a little bit, and I felt like it was time to move on."

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What has Gunther been up to on WWE's main roster?

Since joining the blue brand in April, Gunther has made a name for himself in a few short months.

After winning the Intercontinental Championship from Ricochet, he is seemingly in a feud with Shinsuke Nakamura but refused a title match against the latter until he proved himself. Nakamura has since taken on Ludwig Kaiser over the past two weeks, where they are one-all against each other.

The Ring General is growing frustrated with Kaiser over his inability to deal with the threat of Nakamura. He is teaching his associate some lessons via chops to the chest on a weekly basis.

Despite the brewing feud against Nakamura, The Ring General is currently not scheduled for a title defense at SummerSlam. It remains to be seen whether that changes on the upcoming episode of SmackDown.

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