David Vs Goliath is one of the classic stories told in wrestling down the years and this week on Smackdown we were treated to a enticing version of it with two guys born to play the roles perfectly. Rey Mysterio has been billed as 'The Biggest Little Man' by WWE for the best part of 20 years and is undoubtedly one of the best underdog babyfaces the world has ever seen. Gunther meanwhile has made a name for himself over the last decade as a fantastic 'final boss' style wrestler, walking into numerous promotions worldwide, destroying the competition and winning their top championship from PWG to Progress to OTT, and later NXT UK where he held their title for over 2 years before he dropped it ironically to another great 'David' in Ilja Dragunov. On paper this felt like a perfect casting for a main event match. For me this match takes on extra intrigue as Walter and Mysterio are two of my favourite wrestlers ever so to see them finally share a ring together made for a special night.
The match starts off with some nice cat and mouse teases, with Rey even in his late 40s using his quickness to avoid Gunther, but it wasn't long before he was caught in the mouse trap, hung over the top rope with Gunther's boot on his throat. This started a period of control from Gunther with the highlight being an powerbomb on the ring apron to set up a countout tease once we came back from the commercial break. Mysterio has plenty tricks up his sleeve to turn the tide against bigger opponents, but I didn't expect to see him block a scoop slam attempt and turn it into a crucifix to take Gunther off his feet. Gunther knew what to do to counter Rey's sleeper though - climbing up to the second rope and launching himself backwards with Rey taking the worst of the damage on the landing.
Something I loved about this match was the way they cleverly sprinkled in the counters, and sometimes a counter the counters. When Rey goes for his first 619 attempt, Gunther isn't dazed enough and leaves the ropes, only for Rey to kick him back into the ropes immediately before connecting with the 619. Later when Rey headbutts Gunther in the gut on the top rope, it seems to set up for a big frankensteiner; Gunther holds onto Rey and tries to reverse into a powerbomb, but it's reversed again into a mid-air rana. The way they pulled the audience this way and that way was brilliant and not too telegraphed. When Gunther nails the John Woo dropkick into the corner and follows it up with the big powerbomb, it's a totally convincing nearfall - but Rey survives. The beauty of Gunther is that any move he does, no matter how basic, is a convincing nearfall because he comes across so powerful in everything he does. Against Ricochet and Nakamura he won with your standard powerbomb, In Cardiff he finally defeated Sheamus with a clothesline. Here he picks Mysterio off the ground with his left arm, and kills him with a clothesline using the right.
Looking towards the future in WWE, I feel like Gunther is a more exciting 'final boss' wrestler than Brock Lesnar and that should be an avenue explored by Triple H. With Gunther you get the aura of him being this monster of a competitor, a huge dragon for any hot dragon slayer to come up against and try to defeat, but you don't get the same old formula match we've seen for 8 years, stale matchups and a part time schedule. Take this match for example. It might surprise you to hear that Gunther threw exactly one chop in this match, a stark contrast to his strike heavy match against Sheamus at Clash at the Castle, or his plunder filled performance in the six man tag at Extreme Rules. I've long banged the drum that Gunther is the best wrestler of his generation and I'm loving the versatility we're getting from him in this main roster run.
Triple H is currently receiving a lot of criticism for how he hasn't really grabbed the opportunity to put a positive stamp on WWE, and rightly so because bringing back one of his NXT children every week isn't a drastic enough change from Vince's vision of the current product, but the one thing he should be praised for is the booking of Gunther. Since Triple H took over the company, Gunther has been reunited with Giovanni Vinci to bring Imperium back to full strength, had a stellar feud with Sheamus and the Brutes, and his Intercontinental Championship feels like one of the biggest prizes in the company, further backed up by this great TV main event with Mysterio. Long may all of that continue. If only Trips had taken over at the start of the year and we could have done without all the unnecessary Imperium name changes.
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