Summary

Gunther said his physical transformation after reaching WWE's main roster came down to understanding how much wider the audience had become.

While speaking with Enry Lazza, Gunther said he never felt out of place in his previous form because many of the heavyweight wrestlers he admired had a similar build. He said the move to WWE's main roster changed that calculation, especially as the company expanded its reach and prepared for an even larger audience in the Netflix era.

Gunther said he believed hardcore fans understood his presentation before WWE, but he felt a broader audience might see him differently. That led him to change his look while trying to remain the same performer underneath.

Quote from Gunther

"In my case, I never felt uncomfortable before anything. And my wrestling idols were always, like, the butcher-looking heavyweights from America that went to Japan and beat up all the Japanese babyfaces. They were all, as they call it, barrel-chested, little bit of a gut.

So, I always had that romantic thing for those guys because I watched it a lot and liked it. And I thought, like, ah, in that category, I'm one of them.

But obviously, WWE, we expanded so much, and now with Netflix, there's such a different viewership on it and so much wider. So, I thought that's going to be necessary.

So, when I went to the main roster, I made the call and I was like, 'You know what? It's time to change it up.' Because there's a difference, up until WWE, I only wrestled for hardcore wrestling fans that were diehards, basically, and they can understand. But in reality, for the major public, I would have looked like somebody out of shape and, doesn't look like a champion.

So, I knew I had to adjust that and, uh, had to find a way to still stay myself but just give it a fresh look."

Gunther later went on to say:

"But I think what I was battling the most is like, in German, we have a word for that. It's called Schweinehund, which is basically like a pig dog, as we call it. The inner pig dog that tells you that you have to fight all the time. That's basically the devil that sits on your right shoulder that makes you do the wrong things.

I think that's what I had to fight the most a little bit when it comes to discipline and stuff like that. But, uh, once you manage that and you beat him, you beat the Schweinehund, basically, then yeah, it becomes routine."

What Gunther's comments mean for his WWE presentation

Gunther made it clear that the change was about presentation, and that has mattered as WWE has pushed him in front of a larger mainstream audience. His explanation also lines up with the kind of main roster adjustment questions that have come up in other interviews, including Killer Kross' comments about his NXT rise and the main roster.

The bigger point is that Gunther did not describe changing who he was as a wrestler. He described refining how that identity would read to viewers outside the diehard fan base, which helps explain why his core presence stayed intact even as his appearance changed.

Sources

Gunther while speaking with Enry Lazza