A WWE Superstar will make championship history, and it’s not Roman Reigns. Gunther, the reigning Intercontinental Champion, held the title for 453 days as of Wednesday. He’s one day away from tying the Honky Tonk Man for the longest Intercontinental Championship reign in WWE history. Gunther competes on WWE Raw and clinched the record after defeating Chad Gable on Monday It was the last match on the show, meaning WWE knew how important the match was for both competitors.ย
Gunther won the title on June 10, 2022, after defeating Ricochet on WWE SmackDown. Since winning the title, Gunther, 36, has been a dominant force in WWE and is putting himself in a position to be one of the top stars in the company. The title run for Gunther is big as The Honky Tonk Man set the record set the record in 1987.
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Earlier this year, Gunther spoke to My San Antonioย about potentially breaking the record. “Obviously, it’s nice to hear that or read that somewhere,” Gunther said. “But I’m not a big numbers and statistics guy to be honest. So, it’s like never, on my mind a lot. But obviously, when you read it or somebody tells you it’s nice to put that stamp or my own stamp on it in the history of it.”
Gunther (real name Walter Hahn) joined WWE in 2019 and first competed in NXT UK. He won the NXT UK Championship in April 2019 and held the title for a record 870 days. Gunther made his main roster debut in April 2022 and competed in the Royal Rumble match in January this year. Gunther had a strong showing in the match as he was the first entrant and the last person eliminated from the match.ย
WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray Spoke about Gunther on Busted Open Radioย and gave him high praise. “The real Intercontinental Championship and champion to me was Pedro Morales, and now second in my eyes is GUNTHER,” he said, per Wrestling Inc. “The only reason I say second in my eyes is because Pedro was the guy I grew up on. He set the tone, he set the standard, and he became a World Heavyweight Champion. So yeah, I understand the amount of days as champion that GUNTHER is number one, but GUNTHER is my number two right now, only because Pedro was, always was my one.”
