Gunther believes that the stereotypical “bad foreigner” trope should be consigned to history.
Throughout the history of pro wrestling in the United States, foreign wrestlers have automatically been given gimmicks that would see them run down the country until a patriotic hero could come in and defeat them to the delight of the audience.
As a native of Austria, Gunther has done everything in his power to go in a different direction. Speaking to Cody Rhodes on ‘What Do You Wanna Talk About?’, The Ring General explained he avoids everything to do with that sort of character, even getting rid of the flag that he had been asked to wear on his ring gear.
“No, I’m not a foreign menace. I always get a little bit annoyed because they go like, ‘Oh, he’s just a bad foreigner.’ I try to avoid everything that has to do with a flag or something.
“I mean, they put it on my trunks when I started out. They really wanted to have the flag on my — whatever, I got rid of it as soon as I could because it just doesn’t do anything. It’s not 1990 anymore. And I think today it’s about the person.”
For Gunther, America is now too diverse a country for such a gimmick to work in the modern era.
“I feel like now America is such a diverse country and stuff like that. I don’t know, depending where you’re at, but we had a place up, like, in the Northeast a little bit or something. I barely met an American person there. There’s always somebody from somewhere else. It’s such a diverse place, I think.
“It doesn’t matter where you’re born in the world. Home will always be home. And nothing will ever be able to replace it. It does not matter. Even if you come up in a country that’s poor and you didn’t have a good upbringing or something, that feeling of home, nothing can replace that.”
WWE Has Not Decided Gunther’s WrestleMania 42 Opponent
While Gunther is currently on a roll, having retired John Cena and AJ Styles in recent months, there has been no clear direction for the star heading into WrestleMania 42. According to a recent report on WrestleVotes Radio, that’s because WWE has yet to determine an opponent for The Ring General on the Grandest Stage of Them All.
Currently, there is speculation that the Austrian star could face anyone from Oba Femi or Brock Lesnar, to the likes of Dragon Lee or Rey Mysterio. With WrestleMania over a month away, there is still a lot of time for a rivalry to take shape.
H/T to F4WOnline for the above transcription.
