WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther suffered a shock defeat on Monday Night Raw, picking up his first loss since 2022.
The Austrian has been on a tear since debuting on the main roster last year, immediately cementing himself as a dominant force on the WWE main roster.
He beat Ricochet in June last year to win the Intercontinental Championship, holding the belt for over a year, en route to The Honky Tonk Man’s legendary title reign.
However, Gunther’s reign nearly came to an end this week, as Chad Gable picked up a huge victory over Gunther on Monday Night Raw.
Gunther was just 18-days away from breaking the record for the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion ever, but had to get past Chad Gable, hoping to win his first singles title in the WWE.
Both men went hard throughout this match, with some huge suplexes sending them flying through the ring.
Gable tried to out-chop Gunther, which we all know was a fruitless effort. However, he hit some incredible supexes that showed the immense core strength the former Olympian possess.
These suplexes helped him win the match, inflicting Gunther’s first loss in WWE since 2022. He hit a German Suplex on Gunther over the barricade outside the ring, before running back inside the ring to win the match by count-out.
However, as you cannot win a title by count-out (outside very specific circumstances), Gunther remains the Intercontinental Champion.
This was the first time Gunther has lost a singles match since 2022, before he was called up to the main roster.
The last time Gunther lost by pin fall was when he was defeated by Bron Breakker on the April 5th,2022 episode of NXT 2.0.
In this match, Gunther failed to win the NXT Championship, and was called up to the WWE main roster just two weeks later.
Hamish is a writer and podcaster and wrestling fan who is a key part of the Atletifo team.
After playing countless hours of WrestleMania X8 on the Gamecube, he discovered Rey Mysterio getting his head crushed by The Great Khali, and thus a love for professional wrestling was born.
He is also a Media Graduate, as well as writing for multiple sites about Premier League football and the culture of Wales – his home country.