Gunther explains why retiring AJ Styles “almost felt more important” than John Cena’s last match
While speaking on WWE Retrospective, Gunther discussed his momentum after retiring Bill Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles…
“Obviously, after John Cena, my mojo was through the roof. So everybody kind of knew backstage—it was kind of an open secret that AJ was going to hang up his boots at some point. That’s what I wanted to do next.
AJ is kind of different. You had Goldberg, the WCW legend, and then you have John Cena, who represents WWE. And then you have AJ—who’s a little more similar to me when it comes to his career. He had a great run in WWE, but a lot of the stuff people love him for happened before WWE.
He’s one of those guys from the generation I came up with—we looked up to guys like AJ Styles. I remember when he was in New Japan, and we always watched his big matches there. They were fantastic. When I was really grinding and developing, that was the stuff I would watch. So I always had a ton of respect for AJ’s work.
From a wrestler purist’s perspective, that almost felt more important to me than the Cena match. But onscreen, being able to rub it in and try to ruin the last run he has—that was a lot of fun.
AJ’s such a skilled wrestler that you can do everything with him. He’s very creative as well. Even something as simple as running him into the barricade a few times—it was easy, it was fun. I was able to lose myself. And the crowd was really good that night too. In Saudi Arabia, every time we’re there, the crowd is fantastic.
Then once it was over, just the reaction of disappointment—to it. And I’ve got to give props to the referee in that match too, especially in the finishing stretch. Even the referee was disappointed. And if the referee is disappointed, that means something.
That’s the beauty of it. With Goldberg and Cena, everybody knew it was their last match. But with AJ, people weren’t too sure. I think a good chunk expected him to win and carry on.
But he went out on his own terms. That’s something a lot of wrestlers don’t manage—they come back, leave, come back again.
That’s something I want to achieve for myself too. It’s always best to go at a point where people are still going to miss you—not at a point where they’re like, ‘Ah, it was time.’
So yeah, hats off to AJ. Great career, fantastic wrestler—but I took it away. What can I do?
And right now, I don’t think there’s a guy more disliked than I am—and that’s a very good spot to be in. I’m very content with that, and I plan on adding more to that list.”