AJ Styles Addresses Criticisms Surrounding GUNTHER WWE Booking Since Retirement Match

WWE

AJ Styles has addressed criticisms surrounding GUNTHER’s booking, after retiring at the hands of the Ring General earlier this year.

The Phenomenal One became the third star GUNTHER retired earlier this year, with Styles losing a match where his career was on the line at Royal Rumble in January.

With GUNTHER having previously defeated Goldberg and John Cena in their final matches in 2025, many fans expected to see the former World Heavyweight Champion receive a monster push to capitalise on that momentum.

This hasn’t exactly happened, with the Ring General suffering a number of significant losses since ending AJ Styles’ career.

Speaking on the Phenomenally Retro podcast, Styles’ co-host Tony Giles noted that he agreed with the sentiment that WWE’s handling of GUNTHER has been the biggest flop of 2026 so far.

Sharing his honest thoughts, on GUNTHER’s booking, AJ Styles said:

“I can see where you’re coming from, I do, but what do we do? We can’t just have him retiring people, that’s not going to work, but there’s always the chance that he could.

“I just don’t know what we’re trying to do, like he can’t retire everybody he wrestles.”

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When Giles suggested that GUNTHER could win a world championship, AJ Styles responded:

“Is that the one thing we don’t have right now, a heel champion? In the matches that we have, we’ve still not got a clear heel.

“With Seth (Rollins) and Roman (Reigns), there’s no clear heel there. With (CM) Punk and Cody (Rhodes), no real heel there. These guys are huge stars, but I wouldn’t say they’re hated heels. GUNTHER is a hated heel.”

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GUNTHER was in singles action at WrestleMania 42, defeating the returning Seth Rollins following interference from Bron Breakker.

The Ring General went on to lose every match in his Undisputed WWE Championship feud, with Cody Rhodes defeating GUNTHER one-on-one at Clash In Italy and on the June 19 SmackDown episode, and Sami Zayn winning the three-way bout to become champion on the June 27 Night of Champions show.

GUNTHER’s most recent match also saw him come up short, with he and Sami Zayn losing to CM Punk and Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night’s Main Event, following SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis’ interference.

Following GUNTHER and Aldis’ brawl at the WWE SummerSlam Kickoff event, Triple H announced that GUNTHER will face Nick Aldis one-on-one at the August 1-2 premium live event.

While the Ring General was in the Undisputed WWE Championship picture for a while, and most of his losses have been under suspicious circumstances and not entirely clean, fans can’t be blamed for expecting more of a follow-up, following GUNTHER ending the careers of three of the most decorated stars in pro-wrestling history.

It will be interesting to see how WWE handles GUNTHER in the latter half of 2026, where hopefully he will regain momentum ahead of WrestleMania 43 season.

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• wwe
• AJ Styles
• GUNTHER

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