Former NXT UK and NXT Star WALTER, who had his name changed to Gunther, was called up to the main roster alongside Ludwig Kaiser, formerly known as Marcel Barthel. It happened on this week’s episode of Friday Night Smackdown. The former NXT UK Champion beat Joe Alonzo, a local wrestler, in a squash match.
Dave Meltzer talked about Gunther’s main roster debut on today’s Wrestling Observer Radio. He revealed that Vince McMahon told Gunther to lose weight as he wants slim wrestlers on television.
“It’s interesting that they’re going with them as a tag team and not Gunther as a single, which surprises me greatly. Especially because the original plan was separate brands. And then, the other one is if they were going to do the tag team they kind of like aced out Eichner. I think that Barthel and Eichner are the better idea of the team…Yes, it probably is a size thing. Maybe an idea that they don’t have faith in Gunther as a singles guy yet… I think that, you know, he can be a top singles guy, although I think the loss of weight hurts him a lot. I know he was told and he listened unlike other people who thought that being big was really good and were told and didn’t listen and now is somewhere else, which is Keith Lee, I’m not beating around the bush on that.
Vince wants slim people on TV. I could see from the Vince perspective, telling the guy, ‘Hey, drop 30 pounds,’ right? I thought what made him special was the idea that he’s a 290-310 pound guy who can fly around and can move and hits really hard and looks like a powerhouse and now he’s just a 6’3” guy.”
Vince McMahon has been WWE Chairman since 1982 when he bought WWE from his father Vince Sr and his partners. McMahon saw quite a few changes in his company over the last few decades on top of that. All through that, the WWE Chairman continued to adapt to the changing times. However, many fans now feel that he is out of touch and simply has no idea what is good for a WWE Superstar and their growth. The WWE Chairman is larger than life in many ways and he also has his own oddities and problems as well. He also threatened a WWE star in a recent gym video.
H/T to Ringside News for the transcription
