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Pat McAfee and Michael Cole entered a storyline with Gunther after WWE WrestleMania 41. Former writer for the Stamford-based promotion Freddie Prinze Jr. predicted why the company had The Ring General go in that direction.
Gunther lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Jey Uso at this year's Show of Shows. Two days later, The Ring General surprisingly attacked Cole on RAW. When McAfee came to his commentary partner's aid, he was choked out by Gunther. The 38-year-old had to leave the show and head to a hospital for medical care.
On his Wrestling with Freddie podcast, Prinze Jr. predicted why WWE CCO Triple H and his creative team decided to have Gunther go after the two commentators. He claimed it was the only way for them not to weaken The Ring General's character further after his loss at WrestleMania 41:
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"So, Gunther loses that match, which weakens his character. To have him just demand a rematch would be weird. To have him have to work his way back up would be weakening the character even more. So, what could you do with him? Maybe you do something so out of f**king character that he loses it when he's getting criticized or even ridiculed by the commentary crew and he goes out and he f**king assaults somebody, physically assualts to different people and f**king loses his sh*t," he said. [18:42 - 19:13]
Check out his comments in the video below:
WWE analyst thinks Gunther must squash Pat McAfee
Although Gunther was suspended after he attacked Michael Cole and Pat McAfee, the latter demanded that it be lifted last Monday on RAW to allow him to fight the former champion. SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis, who'd replaced Adam Pearce for one night only, made the match between Gunther and McAfee for Backlash after revealing that he'd discussed the matter with his counterpart already.
On his Cheap Heat podcast, WWE analyst Peter Rosenberg claimed The Ring General must destroy the former football player at the upcoming premium live event in St. Louis:
"There's only two possible conclusions to Backlash. One, someone gets in the way and stops it and saves Pat. And the more likely and I think probably better option is Pat leaves in an ambulance. Like, that's the only way. There's no reason that Gunther should do anything to Pat. I mean, Pat is an athlete, and Pat has wrestled before. So, it's not like it's a match with Michael Cole. Like, Pat could literally go hard in the gym right now for the next two weeks, even, and probably come out looking pretty toned and ready in a couple of weeks. But he should still get absolutely smoked by Gunther," he said.
Pat McAfee sent a warning to Gunther ahead of their anticipated clash at WWE Backlash next Saturday.
Please credit Wrestling with Freddie and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription, if you use the quote from the first part of this article.
