Gunther Recalls How He Used to Hate John Cena Wrestling in His Jorts, Says He’s the Greatest Wrestler in the World Today

The final opponent of John Cena, former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Gunther, joined ESPN’s First Take earlier today to discuss the upcoming matchup. Below are some highlights:

Gunther on Enjoying Being the Villain

“Yes, I do. I enjoy it a lot. I’ve uh uh Yeah. I enjoy getting underneath people’s skin and rile them up. And I’m\ not a very not a very big people’s guy. So, I like to rile them up a little bit, and yeah, that’s when I thrive.”

If He Views This as a Passing of the Torch Moment

“Yeah, quite traditionally, it’s always a passing of the torch when somebody really established retires and gets in a ring with somebody from a different generation. Definitely isn’t that case, too. I think John Cena, yeah, represents a certain generation of WWE Superstars, and I represent the newer generation. I think a lot of lot has changed in WWE. It’s a very international roster now, very diverse, and I think I represent that very well. So in that sense, it definitely is a passing of the torch for the future.”

Gunther Shares His View of John Cena

“I mean, I can only speak for myself, and I haven’t really like I shook hands twice with him. I didn’t really have any interactions with him otherwise. I just remember when I was like when I was started wrestling, like 20 years ago now. I remember that I hated that guy in jorts on that TV week by week, and I always thought it doesn’t belong in a ring. So I’m a very I’m a big purist. I’m a big traditionalist, and I said it on Monday. John Cena is definitely the greatest sports entertainer of all time. I’m the greatest professional wrestler there is right now. So that’s going to be the conflict.”

His Thoughts on the Current Popularity of WWE

“I mean, you said it right. It is more popular than ever before right now. It’s absolutely fascinating to see, especially when you follow the industry for such a long time, like what happened in the last years is absolutely incredible. The opportunities for us as wrestlers are incredible right now. To build up our lives, but I think also for the fans the yeah, the amount of content that is out there that WWE produces, but also the diversity of Superstars we have. I think we’re in a very special time as well, where we have a lot of those, like I don’t want to say old, but the past superstars that are still here. If you think about I mean, John Cena is there, but we still have Roman around. We have Randy around. We have Rey Mysterio around. AJ Styles is still there. CM Punk just came back. So I think that’s a very special situation right now because we have a whole group of the next generation already waiting there to get to the top as well. So I think that makes it very interesting.”

The Ring General, Gunther, faces John Cena in Cena’s final match later this weekend at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event. The card is scheduled for December 13 at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. It will air live on Peacock in the U.S. and on Netflix internationally.

If using any of the above quotes, please credit ESPN’s First Take, with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.