On the December 30th episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci came to the ring with Gunther to praise the Intercontinental Champion.
Kaiser and Vinci hailed Gunther as an unbeatable champion and commended him for brining class back to the Intercontinental Championship. To hammer the point home the pair showed a video of the giant Austrian’s numerous title defences. However, the Gunther love-in quickly went off the rails.
Gunther Rushed Backstage Following Brawl
Braun Strowman came to the ring and said he wasn’t in the video because Gunther hasn’t beaten him. The former World Champion then challenged his rival to a match but Imperium laughed it off and turned to leave.
Unsurprisingly, the snub didn’t sit well with Strowman who quickly flattened Vinci and Kaiser, but Gunther side-stepped the charging star who crashed through the barricade. The leader of Imperium grabbed a chair and commenced a beatdown on Strowman and was quickly joined by his teammates.
However, with Strowman struggling Ricochet arrived in the ring with a steel chair of his own. The high-flyer was striking anything that moved and appeared to crack the Intercontinental Champion in the head.
It has now been reported by PWInsider that Gunther was rushed backstage by a number of officials clutching towels to stem the flow of blood.
The injury comes just 24-hours after AJ Styles appeared to suffer a leg injury at a WWE live event following a spot where he went over the top rope. The match was quickly brought to a close and Styles was helped to the back.
Meanwhile on SmackDown, Charlotte Flair returned to action for the first time since May and defeated Ronda Rousey to win the SmackDown Women’s Title. The victory came after Rousey had already retained the gold with a win over Raquel Rodriguez.
With the win Flair became a 14-time Women’s Champion.