GUNTHER Makes WWE History at SNME, Reacts to Goldberg’s Retirement – Following his hard-fought victory over Goldberg at Saturday Night’s Main Event on July 12, GUNTHER reached a rare milestone, etching his name alongside WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan in the history books.
With this latest successful WWE World Heavyweight Title defense, GUNTHER became only the second wrestler in WWE history to defend a world championship three or more times on Saturday Night’s Main Event. Hogan, who was synonymous with the program during its original run in the 1980s and early 1990s, is the only other superstar to accomplish this feat. GUNTHER is now the first to do it in the modern era, following the program’s 2024 revival as a premium live event.
Speaking on the Saturday Night’s Main Event Recap after the show, GUNTHER gave Goldberg his due following what was billed as the final match of the WCW icon’s career.
“Goldberg’s not a Mount Rushmore wrestler of this business or anything. But him as a person, as a character, as a brand in this business… he’s a Hall of Famer already but a Mount Rushmore character, Mount Rushmore personality in this business, and that’s what made him just special is he never needed to be a good technical wrestler, he never needed to have a lot of finesse. Everything he did — and it’s almost a little bit similar to what I do — he’s very straight to the point, he’s very straightforward. So that guy was not easy to handle for anybody he ever stepped in the ring with. So, I expected that. But, to be honest, today, it caught me by surprise. I was out there with him for 15 minutes or maybe a little bit longer. I don’t think anybody really expected that out of the match and I expected it to be shorter, so that was a big surprise to me and so that being said, after it’s all said and done, I can pay my respects to him, to Bill Goldberg. He came back for the right reasons. To fight for what’s near and dear to him. Obviously, it was for the World Heavyweight Championship but I would say, going into that, you could tell it was about something way more personal than a championship so, I gotta pay my respect to him.”
The match, which saw Goldberg donning a heavy knee brace and taking Gunther to the limit, ended with the 58-year-old legend passing out in a sleeper hold. It was Goldberg’s first match since February 2022 and served as his official retirement bout.
Later in the interview, GUNTHER also commented on his recent run-in with CM Punk on RAW, where Punk shoved the champion during an intense segment.
“Didn’t look too good for Seth Rollins today. We’ll see about that, and yeah, you touched on CM Punk but… I know that moment (when he shoved me to the mat) and that will be addressed in the future. But for now and for today, I achieved something far greater than Bill Goldberg ever achieved,” GUNTHER said with a smirk. “So I gave him the honor of being retired by one of the greatest to ever do this. I’ll leave you guys with that.”
GUNTHER’s dominance as WWE World Heavyweight Champion continues to be one of the standout stories of 2025. With CM Punk now clearly on his radar, the WWE Universe may not have to wait long for another blockbuster clash.
GUNTHER Makes WWE History at SNME, Reacts to Goldberg’s Retirement
