Gunther has emerged as an unstoppable force on RAW over the past year. He is gearing up to square off against Seth Rollins in a massive one-on-one match at WrestleMania 42 this weekend.

Between July 2025 and January 2026, The Ring General retired three of the biggest names in pro wrestling: Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles. He made Da Man and Styles pass out in a sleeper hold. However, The Cenation Leader was forced to tap out after being in the former World Heavyweight Champion’s vicious submission hold.

In a recent interview with WWE Retrospective, Gunther discussed how The Phenomenal One made his name outside the Stamford-based promotion. Styles worked for prominent companies such as WCW, ROH, TNA Wrestling, and NJPW, among others, in his career.

“AJ is kind of different, where it’s like, you had Goldberg and John Cena. There was the WCW legend Goldberg, and then you have the guy that [sic] stands for WWE, and then you have AJ, who’s somewhat a little more similar to me when it comes to his career. He had a great run here, but a lot of the stuff that people love him for happened before WWE. He’s one of those guys, what I talked about before.”

The Austrian Anomaly then explained why retiring Styles was more special to him than making Cena tap out in his final match.

“The generation in wrestling that I came up with, we looked up to guys like AJ Styles. I remember when he was in New Japan, we always watched his big matches there. They were fantastic and stuff. There was a time when I was really grinding and developing. There was stuff I would watch, so I always had so much respect for AJ’s work. (…) From the wrestler purist heart, that felt almost more important for [sic] me than the Cena match. But on-screen, being able to rub it in and try to ruin the last run he has, it was a lot of fun.” [H/T: WrestlePurists on X]

The Phenomenal One was part of WCW in 2001, primarily working in the tag team division on Thunder and Nitro.

Gunther made a deal with WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman

On the Road to WrestleMania 42, Seth Rollins terrorized Paul Heyman for orchestrating his exit from The Vision last year. With Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed sidelined due to injuries, Heyman was forced to deal with The Visionary alone.

While many expected Breakker to return in time for The Show of Shows to exact revenge on Seth Rollins, The Oracle had a different plan in mind. Heyman recruited Gunther to take out the former Universal Champion. The Ring General attacked Rollins, forcing Adam Pearce to book them in a singles match at ‘Mania.

Fans must stay tuned to find out whether Gunther continues his dominant run by possibly defeating Rollins in Las Vegas.