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WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther recently opened up on his name change after joining the main roster.
The Austrian Anomaly performed under the moniker Walter (stylized WALTER) during his time in NXT UK. He had a historic 870-day reign with the NXT UK Championship before losing the title to Ilja Dragunov in a classic encounter at NXT TakeOver 36. During his run at NXT 2.0, WWE announced that he would go by the name Gunther.
The Intercontinental Champion was on the Out of Character podcast this week. He mentioned that he was fine with the name change since he understood that the company wanted to take ownership of his character:
"I guessed it. Walter is my real name. And from the side of the company, it makes a lot more sense if you can actually have some ownership over the name of an athlete that you present or put out there to an audience. So I kinda expected it. But it was fine for me," said Gunther. (From 23:58 - 24:24)
Gunther spoke about the origins of his name
During the interview, the 33-year-old also spoke about the back-and-forth with WWE creative before closing in on a name. He mentioned that he had some input and shared his apprehensions with some of the names:
"My point was always like Walter is a very old name," he added. "Even in Austria, my dad is named Walter. So I'm basically Walter Jr. So it's more like an older people's name. Like nobody aged 30 is usually called Walter," he stated. "So at the end of the day, it was like to fit the character and stuff like that, it'll be some old German name. There were a few no-gos that I told them. Like Hans or something like that. But Gunther would be one of those that I thought would be a logical choice." (From 24:32 - 25:20)
The Ring General is currently feuding with Shinsuke Nakamura. He has also been punishing his associate Ludwig Kaiser for losing matches with chops to the chest. It will be interesting to see him inevitably lock horns with the King of Strong Style in what promises to be a hard-hitting affair.
Would you like to see the two men collide? Let us know your pick in the comments section below.
While using quotes from this article, please credit Out of Character and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling
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