Now a few days removed from his win over the now-retired John Cena, Gunther has provided some time to reflect on the performance.
Gunther, who forced Cena to tap out at Saturday Night’s Main Event last weekend, believes that the match in Washington, D.C. was the most meaningful victory he has earned in his lengthy career as a professional wrestler.
“The Ring General” provided some thoughts about the event in a recent interview with TMZ.
“It was definitely the biggest, most meaningful win of my career,” Gunther said. “Or the win with the biggest reaction afterwards. It’s hard to compare to anything else because John Cena has been such a legendary figure in WWE and the wrestling world in general. It’s really hard to compare. The whole day I could tell like people were really tense and serious about everything. It almost felt like more important than Wrestlemania, to a lot of people backstage.”
The win against Cena was not the first time this year that Gunther had retired someone. He previously also appeared against Goldberg, similarly submitting him. When asked to compare the two matches, he noted that Cena’s was more high-profile and less limited in terms of in-ring work.
“Goldberg was way more limited than John was, and John was just a better wrestler overall his whole career,” Gunther said. “It’s not like a dig to Goldberg, he didn’t get famous by putting on in-ring masterclasses. That was never his thing. It was a very different situation, but also the magnitude of it. Obviously, Goldberg is a big name, but it’s not comparable to what John Cena represents and the following he has and what he carries with him, the connection pe0ple had to him.”
Gunther is happy with how Cena’s career wrapped up, and is satisfied that a future Hall of Famer like him is walking away on his own terms – even if some fans are upset about how the last match played out.
“It’s just objectively was a picture-perfect ending for a career. I mean, the guy was on top for, how long did he do it? Like 25 years or something. He called his quits, had his own decision more or less to [say] ‘Okay, that’s my tour.’ He’s retiring now, a made man, set up for life. I think that’s the ideal outcome you would wish for every wrestler when they end their career. So I don’t know what everybody’s crying about actually to be honest. It’s the ultimate achievable outcome I think. People need to learn to live with that. I don’t think it was a sad occasion. Life goes on.”
