GUNTHER went through one of the most talked-about physical transformations in WWE over the past several years, and during a conversation with Enry Lazza, the Ring General explained why moving to WWE’s larger global audience forced him to rethink his appearance.
While many fans focused on the dramatic weight loss, GUNTHER revealed that he never actually felt uncomfortable with his old body type because the wrestlers he admired growing up looked very similar. He explained that he always loved old-school heavyweight wrestlers from America who wrestled in Japan and carried a rougher, more rugged appearance.
“So I was the person I want to be a lot like because in my case I never felt uncomfortable before anything and my wrestling idols were always like to butcher looking heavyweights from America that went to Japan and beat up all the the Japanese baby faces and uh they were all as they call it barrelchested little bit of a a gut.”
“So I always had that romantic thing for those guys because I watched it a lot and liked it and I thought like ah in that category I’m one of them.”
However, GUNTHER explained that WWE’s expansion to a much larger mainstream audience changed how he viewed things. Once WWE’s reach exploded globally — especially through Netflix — he realized the average viewer would not look at him the same way hardcore wrestling fans did.
“But obviously WWE we yeah we expanded so much and now with Netflix there’s like such a different viewership on it and so much wider.”
“So and I thought that’s going to be necessary. So I went to the main roster I made the call and I was like you know what it’s time to change it up because there’s a difference up until WWE I only wrestled for hardcore wrestling fans that were die hards basically and they can understand.”
GUNTHER admitted that while hardcore fans understood the old-school heavyweight image he was going for, mainstream audiences may have simply viewed him as out of shape rather than championship material.
“But in reality for the major public I would have looked like somebody out of shape and uh doesn’t look like a champion.”
“So I knew I had to I had to adjust that and uh had to find a way to still stay myself but just give it a a fresh look.”
GUNTHER also opened up about the mental battle behind the transformation, explaining that the hardest part was fighting the inner voice that pushes people toward bad habits and a lack of discipline.
“But I think what I was battling the most is like the in German we have a word for that. It’s called which is basically like a pig dog as we call it the inner pig dog that tells you that you have to fight all the time.”
“That’s basically the the devil that sits on your right shoulder that makes you do makes you do the wrong things.”
“And I think that’s what I had to fight the most a little bit when it comes to discipline and stuff like that.”
“But uh once you manage that and you beat him, you beat the shrine hound basically. Then uh yeah becomes routine then it’s good.”
GUNTHER has since become one of WWE’s most dominant stars, with his transformation helping elevate his presentation while still maintaining the same old-school mentality that made him stand out long before reaching WWE’s global stage.
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