Gunther Describes His Enjoyment of Being Hated

With his recent streak of beating outgoing fan favorites in retirement matches, Gunther has solidly established himself as a major villain, the “career killer,” in WWE. And what initially just seemed to him like a good business opportunity has turned into something else — a real joy at being able to disappoint the fans who cheer for his opponents.

On a recent episode of No-Contest Wrestling with O’Shea Jackson Jr. and TJ Jefferson, he was asked what sort of reactions he gets these days, after retiring all the heroes. His response leaned more into his own feelings on the matter.

On the Goldberg match that started it all:

“I wanted those opportunities because I think the Goldberg match got offered to me like a year before, and I heard that offer and right away was like, okay I enjoy riling up people, I enjoy being the one that creates situations or moments that people really don’t agree with or really dislike. So that was the biggest possible chance I’ve gotten and so I took it. I knew for me that would be career changing opportunities, and I don’t care about being liked, being, I don’t know, a fan favorite. I have zero interest in that. I’m here to do my thing to fulfill his responsibility as the one that protects his business. the one that still honors traditions and be the one that still executes the craft and the way it should be executed and be successful with it.”

On becoming emotionally involved when it was John Cena:

“There wasn’t really much emotion involved [initially]. To be honest, I got to say that with Cena it was quite [special] to catch myself in the middle of that, because at that night everything felt so important felt so heavy. I mean, you remember Cody staring at a pair of sneakers. Not even good sneakers. Cody staring on that and squeezing out another tear. Oh, it meant so much. And that was the feeling the whole night. It felt like almost more pressure than WrestleMania. And I was just in the middle of all of that, the emotional stone that I am. And I was just observing all of that and just knowing, like, tonight I’m gonna ruin all of your people’s nights. Um, yeah, it was maybe the most rewarding feeling I had in my career.”

On the Raw immediately afterwards:

“Like I say, I love bathing in the negative reactions, you know. There’s something to it that I really enjoy when somebody gets really riled up and they try to get to me, but they just can’t get to me. And just to sit through that situation, it’s just amazing. I had a little speech prepared, a little victory speech, that Raw after that match. And as I was out there and heard the reactions, there was only just one thing to say and I left it at that.”

“I like, as they say over here in England, taking the piss out of people. I enjoy that. It brings great joy to me. There’s also something in German, there’s a word for it. It’s called Schadenfreude. It means taking pleasure in somebody else’s misfortune. And yeah, that’s right down my alley. So I really enjoyed experiencing all those negative feelings towards me and take a bath in it, and when I could, I tried to enhance it even more obviously.”