Gunther suffered a uncommon defeat following Monday evening’s episode of WWE Uncooked.
After the November 9 episode of WWE Uncooked went off the air on the Bon Secours Wellness Enviornment in Greenville, South Carolina, Trick Williams defeated Gunther clear in a non-televised darkish match.
Fan footage from the match exhibits Williams connecting with a spin kick earlier than following up with a E book Finish to attain the pinfall victory in comparatively fast style.
The bizarre consequence has sparked hypothesis about whether or not it might be linked to Gunther reportedly declining to journey to Saudi Arabia for WWE Crown Jewel 2026 over the weekend.
In the course of the newest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio at F4WOnline.com, Dave Meltzer addressed the consequence and instructed there might be extra to the state of affairs, though he acknowledged that babyfaces sometimes win darkish matches.
“Gunther misplaced to Trick Williams tonight,” Meltzer stated. “Spin kick, E book Finish, one, two, three. But it surely’s attainable that is all coincidental. As a result of in a darkish match, the babyface does go over. That’s the rule. Normally with a man on the stage of Gunther, they’ll do a run in and DQ, as a result of they shield the highest guys in these kind of matches. So there’s most likely one thing to this.”
Bryan Alvarez pointed to Gunther’s historical past in non-televised WWE matches, noting that clear singles losses have been nearly nonexistent all through his primary roster profession.
“Properly, to the perfect of my data, Gunther has by no means, till tonight, misplaced a darkish match,” Alvarez stated. “A singles darkish match, by something aside from DQ. And he has solely misplaced one home present in his whole profession on the principle roster.”
Alvarez emphasised that the circumstances made Monday’s consequence significantly noteworthy.
“So I might say that by some means, that is uncommon,” he continued. “Uncommon that he would lose his darkish match clear to Trick Williams.”
The hypothesis comes simply days after stories surfaced that Gunther’s determination to not journey to Riyadh resulted in WWE scrapping a deliberate match towards Finn Balor at Crown Jewel.
The corporate had been constructing towards a showdown between “The Profession-Killer” and “The Demon,” with Balor’s alter ego returning throughout the October 30 episode of WWE SmackDown as a part of a storyline additionally involving Danhausen.
In keeping with a number of stories, the match was initially scheduled for the November 7 premium stay occasion earlier than Gunther declined to make the journey to Saudi Arabia.
There have been additionally indications that Balor was lower than obsessed with touring to Riyadh, though the idea inside WWE was that he would have participated had Gunther agreed to go.
The cancellation finally left Crown Jewel with a four-match lineup.
Whereas the timing of Gunther’s clear loss to Williams has raised eyebrows, there was no affirmation that the darkish match consequence was supposed as punishment for his reported determination to not journey.
