A current champion was heading towards an on-screen “burial” until Triple H took over as WWE’s Head of Creative.
It has been well documented that the management reshuffle at the top of WWE has provided lots of new possibilities for underutilised and even former stars. The likes of Dakota Kai, Karrion Kross, Scarlett, Dexter Lumis and Hit Row have all returned to the company, while Ciampa and Mustafa Ali have been featured more heavily.
It seems that the change in management may have also helped save the WWE career of one current champion. After a record-breaking run as NXT United Kingdom Champion, WALTER, who would later become known as Gunther, impressed in NXT before moving to SmackDown on April 8th 2022.
The star earned plaudits for his body transformation as well as his in-ring performances and became Intercontinental Champion on June 10th.
The giant Austrian then made an appearance on the 4th of July episode of Raw where he attacked R-Truth who was dressed as Uncle Sam. However, it has been reported by Wrestle Votes that the segment didn’t go down well with “those in power” at the time. Furthermore, Gunther was set to be buried on television as a result, before Vince McMahon retired.
Following his appearance on RAW on 7/4, those in power at the time really soured on Gunther for whatever ridiculous reason. To the point where a burial on TV was coming. Just a month later and quite the difference…
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) August 13, 2022
A little over a month later, Gunther defended his Intercontinental Title against Shinsuke Nakamura in the main event of the August 12th edition of SmackDown.