Gunther is not winning the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam

In their first verbal confrontation, Gunther overshadowed Damian Priest, mocking the World Heavyweight Champion’s struggles and questioning his family’s support. While some viewed Gunther’s speech as being in poor taste, it established the Ring General as the villain and boosted support for El Campeón going into their title match at SummerSlam.

But Gunther’s brutal critique of Priest as the World Champion may have hinted at the outcome of their upcoming showdown. The former Intercontinental Champion was blunt, stating, “You’re not living up to it. Your reign has been nothing: no prestige, no contributions.”

Gunther’s dismissal calls to mind an anecdote shared by Chris Jericho regarding promos. In his 2007 memoir, A Lion’s Tale: Around the World in Spandex, Jericho discussed a painful lesson he learned after verbally thrashing his opponent, booker and wrestler Bulldog Bob Brown.

…I learned an important lesson — the first of three seminal moments in my promo development. I had done an interview about my first match with Bulldog and I was talking about how old and slow he was, just burying him. I thought it was pretty good, until I walked back to the dressing room and Bulldog stopped me in front of everyone. “What the hell are you doing? Yeah I’m old and everybody knows it. But I want you to think about this. If I beat you, and I WILL be beating you, then you just got beat by an old man. If you beat me, and you WILL NOT be beating me, then you just beat up an old man. If you talk about how much experience I have and then I cheat to beat you, then at least you got beaten by an experienced vet. The way it stands right now, you just pissed all over yourself. You look like a fool either way.”

By portraying Priest as an insignificant champion, Gunther diminished the value of his potential victory. Beating someone deemed as a “nobody” wouldn’t be impressive, and losing to such a competitor wouldn’t help Gunther’s reputation either. After WWE invested so much in Gunther, making him the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion and having him dominate the King of the Ring tournament, they can’t afford for him to look weak at their second biggest event of the year.

Given the stakes, it’s unlikely that fans will see a clear winner in their SummerSlam match. Instead, a draw or disqualification finish is the plausible outcome. That allows Gunther to avoid a damaging loss, while Priest proves he’s the tough street fighter he claims to be by beating some respect into his cocky opponent.

It also sets up a possible rematch at WWE’s next big event, Bash in Berlin, which is conveniently close to Gunther’s hometown in Vienna, Austria. Considering the reaction he would get by winning the title in Germany’s first-ever PLE, it’s practically a guarantee that Gunther will leave SummerSlam empty-handed.

And it’s what makes WWE’s attempt to guide the audience to this outcome an intriguing spectacle to look forward to.