Gunther: Retiring AJ Styles ‘felt almost more important’ than John Cena
Gunther put an end to three wrestling veterans’ careers within the past year. From Goldberg in July to John Cena in December and AJ Styles in January.
Gunther revealed on WWE Retrospective that retiring Styles was a priority over Cena because he idolized his run before joining the company. He cited comparisons with Styles and himself in his early career and respected him.
“Everybody kind of knew backstage, it was an open secret that AJ was going to hang up his boots at some point, that’s what I wanted to do next.”
“AJ’s kind of different where it’s like; you have the WCW legend Goldberg, then you have the guy that stands for WWE, then you have AJ who’s somewhat more similar to me because he had a great run here but a lot of the stuff the people love him for happened before WWE.”
“He’s one of those guys that, the generation of wrestling I came up with, we looked up to guys like AJ Styles. I remember that when he was in New Japan and we always watched his big matches there, they were fantastic. There was the time where I was really grinding and developing, there was stuff I would watch.”
“I always had so much respect for AJ’s work. It almost kind of felt like, from the wrestler purist heart, that felt almost more important for me than the Cena match. But on screen being able to rub it in and try and ruin that last run he has was so much fun.”
He also added Goldberg and Cena’s retirement timeline was made public leaving an uncertainty around Styles’ match. The anticipation was heightened for the match given the stipulation that Styles’ loss would be the end of his WWE career.
“That’s the beauty of it because with Goldberg and Cena everyone knew it was their last match, and I think with AJ people weren’t too sure it was going to be his last match. A good chunk of them expected AJ to win and carry on with his career, but he went out on his own terms, that’s something a lot of wrestlers can’t manage, it’s always best to go at a point where people are still going to miss you, not at a point where people are like ‘ah it was time’.'”
“So hat off to AJ, great career, fantastic wrestler, but I took it away, what can I do.”
After December, Gunther bragged about making Cena tap out especially with his motto to ‘never give up’. An infuriated Styles confronted him leading to their match at Royal Rumble.
Styles will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this weekend, and Cena will host WrestleMania 42.
Gunther was scarcely seen on WWE TV in the aftermath of his attack on Dragon Lee in February. Last month he ambushed Seth Rollins during his confrontation with Paul Heyman. Ultimately, a match between the two was set for WrestleMania.
This week on Raw, Gunther revealed that his rivalry with Rollins was personal because he was determined to prove he was the better of the two.
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.