My plan for 2023 was to review anything I felt was MOTYC worthy and keep an ongoing list on the blog to make things easier on me come the end of the year when I'd rather be diving into a box of Quality Streets watching shite on TV than trying to rack my brain as to how to rank matches I watched 10 months ago and write about what made them so special. There's been a lot of high profile matches so far in the first two weeks of 2023 that I've liked well enough, more so than this match in some cases, but I've not been drawn in to write about them. However if there's one thing I think I can be relied upon to do this year on the blog, it's review my man Gunther and his IC title matches.
Gunther's latest Intercontinental Championship defence saw him come up against his biggest opponent yet in Braun Strowman. So far this run has seen Gunther defend the title against a wide variety of wrestlers, but in most settings he is always the bigger, stronger wrestler. It's only really against Sheamus where he came face to face with an equal. Here he's an underdog against the 6`6" monster among monsters which was a dynamic I was really interested in seeing as it's one he's not used to performing and I wanted to see how he'd tackle that role. Other than maybe facing Keith Lee in EVOLVE I can't think of a time when Gunther would have faced someone THIS big before.
A few weeks ago Imperium triple-teamed Strowman and injured his shoulder in a collision with the ring steps to try and tip the balance back in the Champion's favour. Early doors though it didn't seem like this would be enough as Braun was still strong enough to fling Gunther out of the ring with ease when the champ went after the pre-existing injury. This set up a little flurry of offence outside the ring from Braun ending with his Strowman Express to barge Gunther over the announcers table.
Coming out of the first commercial break, Gunther gained some footing in the match pushing Strowman shoulder first into the ring post, and then slamming his arm into the steps and edge of the ring apron. Once back in the ring Gunther kept trying to lock in Nigel's old submission move the London Dungeon to put some significant pressure on his left shoulder. A lot of this 'middle-third' of the match was based around Gunther zooning in his attacks on the shoulder, and Braun having to fight out of them, including a brilliant counter where Braun did a backwards roll and then deadlifted Gunther over his head - it took a few extra seconds to get there, but it was still an impressive feat of strength. The shoulder focus worked as a good equaliser strategy, but it was hard to see how it would result in a victory for Gunther because big men like Braun don't tap out in WWE, and this isn't a sleeper hold, you aren't going to pass out because of a bad shoulder. I figured they were going to go with the DQ route to keep the belt onto Gunther but when Imperium came and went without really effecting the match, the interference finish was off the table.
The best part of the match to me was the twists and turns the fans were taken on in the closing stretch because Gunther was quick to cut off any of Braun's big moves, but he was struggling to keep him down with moves that had previously won him these title defences like the clothesline or big splash off the top rope. When Braun attempts a superplex in the final few seconds, you assume he's gonna hit it because he only just got to his feet and this was his final bit of shine to land a big move for a respectable nearfall, but instead Gunther cuts him off quick with some laser focused attacks on the arm - an arm wringer, a chop to the shoulder blade and then yanking the arm down onto the ropes as he jumped off himself. The superplex tease then made sense as the big finish of the match was Gunther powerbombing Braun and Gunther presumably needed the assist of Braun being on the turnbuckles to hit it. Even with that help, the powerbomb came off looking about as graceful as Ronaldo's exit from Manchester United and ended the match on a bit of a bum note.
Look this was nothing to cancel your plans and watch immediately form, but it was another neat chapter in the IC title reign of Gunther and perhaps slaying the giant here is all in preparation for the rumoured match with Brock Lesnar. My takeaway from the match is that we have further proof here that Gunther can nail the WWE house style heel performance and is showing more variety to his work than just being the hard hitting, chop heavy, final boss style wrestler he was typically booked as. It's not peaking as high as those great Ilja Dragunov matches were, but I've really enjoyed this last six months of Gunther's career and think it adds to his case of being one of the best wrestlers of his generation.
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