JBL Endorses Gunther As John Cena’s Final Opponent

On the latest episode of Something To Wrestle With, JBL gave his full endorsement to the idea of Gunther being John Cena’s final opponent, something reported by Dave Meltzer this week. You can check out some highlights below:

On Gunther being the right guy: “Yes. You need somebody that can carry what he’s going to be given, being that last match. Whether he goes over or not, that is a huge honor to be Cena’s last opponent. And you’re going to have a lot of stuff that is transferred to you, a lot of equity from Cena transferred into that opponent. Especially depending on the finish, into Gunther if Gunther is the guy.”

On Gunther: “Gunther can carry it, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. That guy is a freaking worker. He’s a great worker, he has a great presence about him. He’s a terrific heel. I think Gunther will be able to do a lot with it. Not just have a good match. I mean, because I believe — I can’t read John Cena’s mind. But I feel like I know what he’s thinking that, you know, ‘I want to give something to this guy.’ Because we all kind of feel that way when we’re going out of the business. Or at least I think we do, and John’s one of those guys, I’m certain that does. That’s why he’s put over so many guys in his career. He’s very unselfish, probably to a fault. But can he carry that once he’s gotten it? And I think the answer is going to be yes, if that’s Gunther. I think he’s that good to me. I’m a huge fan of Gunther.”

On if Gunther can become a babyface: “Oh, no doubt about it. There’s gonna be a great babyface run in the future. Once you’re a heel long enough, people love you because of your work. You know, I saw ‘Killer’ Tim Brooks be a heel one night in the Sportatorium. Fritz Von Erich — you know, not just to choose because he had a German character, but Fritz was a great heel, and became a terrific babyface in the same German character that he was as a heel. Not to draw a comparison just because they’re both German, but the same type of heel. Gunther could be a terrific babyface in the same version as the heel that has gotten him over.

“So, yeah, 100%. If that’s the run that they so choose, I think it’d be terrific for him. I think he can stay a heel; I think he’s that good. It’s hard to stay heel. It’s hard to stay heel for a long time. You gotta constantly figure out, what can you do to make people dislike you rather than just be entertaining? You know, Vince and I used to have this talk all the time about JBL. He’d tell me at times, ‘Don’t be entertaining out there tonight, just be heel.’ Because he could sense that I was being too entertaining in my promos. You know, sometimes when you have an opponent, that’s not that great. You know, not a future Hall of Famer, not — you know, you would sit there [and] try to make chicken soup out of chicken s**t. And you’d be entertaining as you can be, because you’re carrying the weight for both of you. And Gunther, he can do that, but he can also, I think, carry that being a heel. I think he can stay a heel if he wanted to, which would be hard to do, but I think he also could easily switch to be a babyface in time.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something To Wrestle With an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.