Former WWE Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER is just days away from the biggest match of his career, as he challenges Damian Priest for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam. "The Ring General" earned the match by winning the King of the Ring tournament in May, and has made it clear he is not going to go quietly when it comes to his bout with Priest. The reason for this is because he almost called time on his career after reaching a personal crossroads. 

"I had a day job working only night shifts for nearly three years and wrestling on the weekends. That took a toll that was hard to sustain," GUNTHER said to CBS Sports. "My goal was always to make a living off professional wrestling. That was not in sight so I thought I should call it quits and focus on a career in my real job." GUNTHER wrestled primarily for Westside Xtreme Wrestling [wXw] in Germany, where he was one of their top rising stars. However, they wanted to develop stars for the future, but didn't have any trainers, leading to GUNTHER coming up with a deal.

"I spoke with [wXw] and said, 'Either I run a wrestling school for you and that's my job, or I think I call it quits.' They were happy to do that. They wanted to have a wrestling school. They employed me and since then, professional wrestling has been my main profession." GUNTHER would end up winning the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship three times, as well as the wXw World Tag Team Championship four times before officially leaving to join WWE's main roster. As for the wXw academy, that still exists to this day, located in the city of Gelsenkirchen since 2022.