Cody Rhodes will probably be making his third defense of this WWE Championship reign against GUNTHER at Clash in Italy, having dethroned Drew McIntyre for the title in March and seen off Randy Orton at WrestleMania in April.
GUNTHER will probably be difficult for the lineal World Championship for the primary time, having previously held the World Heavyweight Championship twice after setting a 666-day record with the Intercontinental Championship. He retired John Cena via submission in December, then AJ Styles in January, after which answered Paul Heyman’s call to motion against Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 42, defeating him and supposedly cashing in his favor to secure a move to “WWE SmackDown” and a WWE Championship contract at Clash in Italy. Seem straightforward enough?
Well, GUNTHER had attacked Rhodes before the contract had been presented to him, thus confirming to the fans that this was the trail forward – GUNTHER vs. Rhodes for the title. He was the following week presented with the contract, which he refused to sign because Rhodes had come out through the signing to say address the attack from the week before.
Thus ensued weeks of Rhodes and General Manager Nick Aldis chasing a signature from GUNTHER to cement the match, to which Royce Keys sought to utilize and threw his own hat within the ring. GUNTHER then beat Keys in a Number One Contendership match and still refused to sign the contract, despite the match already being announced, advertised, and definitely going to occur.
Step by step because the shenanigans have gone on, any interest on this match for the marquee title bout it’s has diminished. GUNTHER is legitimately among the finest wrestlers on the earth, a natural villain, and Rhodes can also be no slouch within the ring and just so happens to be objectively the most important babyface in wrestling today. Rhodes is certainly one of the rare few to carry a clean win over the “Ring General” in WWE, with just Ilja Dragunov, Bron Breakker, and Sami Zayn before him.
That might have been enough to justify much of the rhyme and reason behind this match being made. GUNTHER would have been a reputable enough challenger even before he had retired Cena, Styles, and beat Rollins at ‘Mania. However the route has been so long-winded that this match seems like mercy somewhat than spectacle. GUNTHER is finally facing Rhodes after a frankly nonsensical construct for no reason aside from to kill time.
That is the kind of stuff that Nick Khan is drawing on in Senate Hearings to justify why boxing is broken, and here it’s being scripted right into a show that is selecting to be difficult to follow. That is a dud, unlucky as it could be.
Written by Max Everett