Gunther was supposed to walk into WrestleMania with one job: end Rey Mysterio’s legendary career. That plan never made it to television because Mysterio had a completely different ending in mind for himself.
Billi Bhatti revealed the scrapped direction while discussing Gunther’s recent booking on the Dirty Sheets Podcast. Bhatti said WWE’s actual plan was for Gunther to retire Mysterio, not face Brock Lesnar as some had previously claimed. According to Bhatti, WWE wanted to add Mysterio to Gunther’s growing list of career-ending victims.
“There were rumors that he was supposed to go in there with Brock Lesnar, and that got changed. That’s bullsh*t. Brock Lesnar was always going in there with Oba Femi.”
“Gunther’s actual original plan was to retire Rey Mysterio.”
Mysterio wasn’t ready to call it a career, and he certainly didn’t want Gunther to be the man who ended it. Bhatti claimed Rey already has his retirement match planned, and it involves his son Dominik Mysterio in Mexico.
“Rey Mysterio said, ‘I don’t want to retire yet. I certainly don’t want to retire to Gunther because my plan is to have my son retire me and to do it in Mexico.’”
That decision left WWE scrambling to find something else for Gunther. Bhatti said his WrestleMania program became a last-minute match with Seth Rollins after the Mysterio retirement angle fell apart. Bhatti said the problem continued after WrestleMania, despite Gunther previously retiring John Cena, Goldberg and AJ Styles.
“Since the Royal Rumble, they have had very little for Gunther to do. His WrestleMania program was nonexistent, a last-minute match with Seth Rollins.”
“I think it’s fair to say that the booking of Gunther since beating John Cena has been underwhelming. He retired Goldberg, he retired Cena. After that, he went on to retire AJ Styles. But since then, they haven’t really had anything for him.”
WWE later teased that Paul Heyman owed Gunther a favor, and Bhatti claimed that payoff was supposed to become a match against Brock Lesnar. That didn’t happen either because Lesnar wanted to keep working with Oba Femi.
“We had the whole thing where he stepped in and did a favor for Paul Heyman, and Heyman owed him a favor.”
“That favor ended up not being a match with Brock Lesnar like it was supposed to be because Brock wanted to continue working with Oba.”
Bhatti described Lesnar getting his preferred direction as a backstage political battle that left Gunther on the outside. With the Mysterio retirement match dead and Lesnar staying with Oba, WWE moved Gunther to SmackDown and placed him into a program with Cody Rhodes. That direction also failed to put a championship around Gunther’s waist before the company moved him into a feud with Nick Aldis.
“He won that political war, and Gunther was left out in the dark.”
“He had to have a forced program with Cody Rhodes, a forced move to SmackDown. He didn’t come away with the championship; Sami Zayn did.”
Gunther eventually blamed Aldis for his problems, giving WWE the setup for their SummerSlam match. Bhatti still praised both men for turning a backup plan into something worth watching.
“He blamed Nick Aldis, and now we have this Aldis match. But they’ve made chicken salad out of chicken shit.”
“Aldis has been great, Gunther’s been great. They’ve done well with it, and I think the match will deliver as well.”
Gunther’s WrestleMania road clearly went through several major changes. The biggest was Rey Mysterio refusing to let Gunther end his career because Rey wants that final moment saved for Dominik in Mexico.
Do you think Rey Mysterio should retire against Dominik in Mexico, or would Gunther have been the better choice to end his career? Leave your feedback in the comments.
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