The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle.
It’s Gunther’s time and WWE needs to cement it.
It’s why the “Ring General” needs to beat Cody Rhodes to become the inaugural Crown Jewel champion in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday. While the title itself is basically meaningless — no matter how hard WWE tries to treat it like the Stanley Cup — a victory over Rhodes is not, even if Gunther gets some outside help.
We have seen Gunther, 37, truly come into his own as a performer. He has long been one of the best and most intimidating in-ring workers in the world, but his promo skills have risen to that special level over the past two years.
He’s witty, menacing, confident and condescending, all the things you need in a monster heel.
Gunther, currently the World Heavyweight champion, has more than held his own during his compelling promos with the Undisputed WWE champion Rhodes. He can belittle and bully you in a way that can make even the grandest of performers — even one who ended Roman Reigns’ historic reign — feel like the lesser man.
While short, it’s become my favorite feud Rhodes had had since becoming champion.
WWE has a shortage of compelling monster heels as they also try to build Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed.
Gunther is on the path to become the biggest of them all, filling a hole left since Brock Lesnar turned babyface.
Gunther has some similar characteristics as a performer to Lesnar, especially the ability to believably impose his will on an opponent during the match, physically and mentally beating you without the need for outside help or shenanigans.
It’s why he has to beat Rhodes.
Gunther’s loss to Sami Zayn at WrestleMania was already a slight dent in his armor of invincibility and a defeat at the hands of Rhodes would signal him being the lesser champion — not yet ready to hang with the biggest stars. Beating Gunther does nothing for Rhodes, who maybe needs the feeling of vulnerability more.
(The women’s champions match between Nia Jax and Liv Morgan feels like a good time for Tiffany Stratton to cash in her Money in the Bank contract, but WWE will probably have the attempt to do so on a beaten Morgan get cut off somehow.)
Defeating Rhodes, likely with help from the Bloodline or Kevin Owens, will allow Gunther to carry both belts around and boast about his win over the great Cody Rhodes.
More importantly, he will give Rhodes an insurmountable heel who already has a win over him to square off with down the road when he is done with The Rock and The Bloodline, whether he is champion or not.
It is why Gunther should leave Saudi Arabia with two belts and a rocketship worth of momentum,
A Knight’s Fail
L.A. Knight, wearing his United States championship while serving as special guest referee, completely sabotaging Andrade and Carmelo Hayes’ Game 7 match felt like something right out of the Steve Austin playbook to set up a triple-threat match at Crown Jewel. It just didn’t seem as effective in this scenario and era.
Knight isn’t as over as Austin was, and Hayes and Andrade aren’t hated heels that fans will easily excuse the babyface screwing them — and himself in the end. Also, in this era in which match quality is appreciated, we got robbed of a clincher of a series the audience was invested in. You would think WWE was trying to turn Knight heel.
The 10 Count
Say what you want about Chris Jericho, but he’s out here having these physical matches with crazy bumps at a point in his career where he doesn’t need to prove anything else.
R-Truth decking Miz after his betrayal was so important because you need the reminder that he is not a complete joke and will seriously fight back if provoked.
Is it me, or is WWE just becoming filled with too many matches, including important ones, that have to rely on outside interference and shenanigans in the finish? We got it on SmackDown in the main event and then again in Raw to allow Dominik Mysterio to roll up Damian Priest for the win.
Jordynne Grace losing her Knockouts World championship to Masha Slamovich at TNA Bound for Glory felt predictable and correct with the belief she will be heading to WWE when her contract is up. Grace already was back in NXT on Tuesday.
The TNA world championship booking has been anything but. TNA continues to keep the title away from Joe Hendry. This time JBL hit him with a Clothesline from Hell to cost him the win, despite a crowd eager to see it. Maybe they are hoping it turns champion Nic Nemeth heel and builds more heat for Hendry to overcome it and finally be crowned champ.
Rhea Ripley is going to cost Liv Morgan her match with Nia Jax at Crown Jewel now after Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez left her bloodied in the NXT parking lot. Like with CM Punk and Drew McIntyre, WWE grudges travel across oceans.
(Also, this feels like a good time for Tiffany Stratton to cash in her Money in the Bank contract, but WWE will probably have her attempt on a beaten-down Morgan get cut off somehow.)
Queen Aminata pushing Kamille and the look of concern on Mercedes Mone’s face will go a long way to raising her profile with the audience. Mone’s bump after Kris Statlander hit her made the former TBS champion look like the powerhouse she is.
Hook and Kip Sabian both getting a refresh while working with Christian Cage feels like a win. Sabian had been an under-used asset, so a move to the Patriarchy for relevance make sense.
Orange Cassidy really has no choice now but to be an AEW leader after the new Blackpool Combat Club’s attack on Chuck Taylor. Do we ever get a moment where the Elite actually don’t run and hide from them?
As good as Ricochet’s matches were against Nick Wayne and especially Lio Rush, he really should be a guy who isn’t overexposed in the ring on television.
Didn’t have William Regal returning on NXT TV to help Lexis King versus his son Charlie Dempsey on my bingo card. King, whose booking has been suspect at best and hasn’t gotten much traction, now appears to be trying babyface after refusing Regal’s brass knuckles.
Wrestlers of the Week
Matt and Jeff Hardy, TNA
The Hardy Boyz are carrying major gold for the first time since 2019 as they defeated The System (Brian Myers and Eddie Edwards) and Ace Austin and Chris Bey to become the TNA tag team champions in a wild Full Metal Mayhem match at Bound of Glory. At this stage of their careers you don’t know how many more title runs they have left, so getting one more while they can still deliver feels special.
Social Media Post of The Week
Match to Watch
Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens, Crown Jewel (Saturday, 1 p.m., Peacock)
Triple H added plenty of extra drama to this one, warning Orton on SmackDown of a different level of viciousness and hate coming from Owens — enough for him to worry about the Viper’s safety. From a storytelling standpoint, this one will go a long way to setting a foundation for where both of them and Cody Rhodes go moving forward. Owens has just one win in five tries against Orton in television singles matches.
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