Originally published at Gunther wins WWE Intercontinental Championship
Gunther is the new WWE Intercontinental Champion.
On Friday Night SmackDown from Louisiana, the former “Walter” won his first main roster championship defeating Ricochet after connecting with a shotgun dropkick and powerbomb in a match involving former PWG champions.
The reign of The Ring General is upon us.@Gunther_AUT is the new Intercontinental Champion! #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/rQbxzyFjjY
— WWE (@WWE) June 11, 2022
Ricochet’s title reign lasted just over three months after defeating Sami Zayn for the title in early March. It was noted that he never defended the title on any of the premium live events while holding the title.
Gunther (Walter Hahn) started working with NXT UK at the beginning of 2019 and his involvement with the brand increased, eventually making the move to the domestic NXT brand and being re-named “Gunther”.
He previously held the NXT UK Championship for from April 2019 until August 2021, losing the belt to Ilja Dragunov at the NXT TakeOver 36 event.
He was called up from NXT 2.0 this past April alongside Ludwig Kaiser (formerly Marcel Barthel) and breaking up the Imperium unit of Gunther, Barthel, and Fabian Aichner.