Gunther Says Working Under Vince McMahon Was Strange and Confusing

Gunther is holding nothing back when it comes to his early days on WWE’s main roster—and he’s not exactly singing Vince McMahon’s praises.

In a new interview on The Ariel Helwani Show, the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion reflected on his time working under Vince after being called up from NXT UK in April 2022. While Gunther quickly found success by winning the Intercontinental Title from Ricochet, it turns out things behind the scenes weren’t so smooth.

“I was under Vince for four months and it was a strange work experience,” Gunther admitted. “The direction was very confusing. It was hard to figure out what was expected of me.”

Things changed fast once Triple H took over creative in July 2022, and Gunther didn’t hesitate to give him credit for his rise.

“I’ve always been a Hunter guy. That’s been my whole career in WWE. My directions came from Hunter.”

When asked if he was happy working under Vince, Gunther made it clear he found the experience difficult to relate to.

“As a person, I struggle to go along with things if I can’t logically get them,” he said. “If there’s no objective reason for things then I struggle. I give up quickly. ‘Okay, I don’t want to bother with this.’”

Gunther also revealed he only had two brief conversations with Vince, and felt their interactions lacked clarity or depth. He chalked part of that up to cultural differences, comparing the experience to his upbringing in Germany and the more direct approach of NXT.

“It was just a little bit of a confusing time. I had two conversations with Vince, very brief. It was very hard to get to anything with him.”

Despite the early disconnect, Gunther has thrived under Triple H, becoming the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion in WWE history before moving on to dominate as World Heavyweight Champion.