GUNTHER Achieves Incredible WWE Milestone

Written by Alex Podgorski • Published 11th February 2023
Gunther

In the span of only a few years, GUNTHER has made enormous inroads in WWE. Despite being eliminated in short order at Survivor Series 2019, the Austrian wrestler bounced back in a major way.

His first major accomplishment came when he held the NXT UK Championship for a total of 870 days. This was the longest single title reign in WWE since 1988 and wouldn’t be matched until Roman Reigns surpassed him last month.

And while GUNTHER isn’t in the world title picture at the moment, he did manage another major accomplishment by breaking another title-related record.

GUNTHER now longest-reigning WWE Intercontinental Champion of the 21st century

As of writing time, GUNTHER’s current Intercontinental Championship reign has reached 246 days in length. This reign is now the sixth-longest in the title’s history, which goes as far back as 1979 when Pat Patterson was crowned inaugural champion.

The only reigns longer than GUNTHER’s as of February 11th, 2023 are as follows, listed in ascending order:

  1. The Rock’s second reign (264 days)
  2. “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig’s second reign (280 days)
  3. Greg “the Hammer” Valentine’s first reign (285 days)
  4. “Macho Man” Randy Savage’s first reign (414 days)
  5. The Honky Tonk Man’s first reign (454 days)

This reign began on June 10th, 202 when he defeated Ricochet in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Since then, he has defended the title numerous times, including on WWE TV, on PLEs, and at live events.

But perhaps his most well-known title defense was his widely-hailed battle with Sheamus at Clash at the Castle 2022 in Cardiff.

Some of the other WWE superstars whose own Intercontinental Championship reigns GUNTHER has since surpassed include Shelton Benjamin, Shinsuke/King Nakamura, The Miz, Cody Rhodes, Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton, The Ultimate Warrior, and Tito Santana.

However, in terms of overall/aggregate number of days IC Champion, GUNTHER still lags quite far behind.

Aside from the names mentioned above, other wrestlers that’ve held the belt for more days include Bret Hart (288 days overall), Chris Jericho (311 days overall), Dolph Ziggler (363 days overall), Shawn Michaels (403 days overall), and Pedro Morales (617 days overall).