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Gunther's status for WrestleMania 42 is up in the air. (Credit: Joe Maher/WWE via Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
WWE is just a month away from WrestleMania, and yet somehow some way, one of its biggest stars is stuck in no man’s land.
That star is a former two-time World Heavyweight Champion and a King of the Ring Winner. Oh, and he just so happened to retire both John Cena and AJ Styles in a two-month span. That star, of course, is Gunther.
According to a report from BodySlam (h/t WrestlingNews.co), Gunther was originally slated to face Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania 42, but with Mysterio currently injured, “The Ring General” may not be on the card at all: “Gunther’s feud with Dragon Lee on Raw was designed to set up a match with Mysterio heading into WrestleMania 42. Mysterio’s rib injury, which occurred before the Royal Rumble, forced WWE to change course, and Gunther’s direction for the show has not been determined since. It is currently unknown whether Gunther will compete at WrestleMania 42 unless Mysterio is medically cleared in time.”
Last December, Gunther defeated Cena in the 17-time world champion’s retirement match in Washington, D.C. Then, just over a month later at the 2026 Royal Rumble, Gunther beat and retired Styles at the Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia. Likewise, Gunther also sent Goldberg into retirement in July 2025 with a decisive win over the WCW icon at Saturday Night’s Main Event.
And yet, with all the momentum and heat Gunther built up on the heels of retiring Cena and Styles, WWE has inexplicably found a way for Gunther to get lost in the storyline shuffle.
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Although Mysterio, Gunther’s original planned WrestleMania opponent, has targeted WrestleMania 42 for a potential return, Gunther’s sudden disappearance from Monday Night Raw suggests that the company’s creative team has no backup plan in place.
The former World Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion has not been since since Raw on March 2nd. Not in a vignette, a promo package, an in-ring promo or a match. He just, poof, vanished into thin air.
WWE had clearly set the stage for Gunther vs. Mysterio in the weeks following Gunther’s win over Styles at the Royal Rumble. Gunther had targeted Mysterio’s protege Dragon Lee on Raw in what was obviously meant to be a stepping stone to Mysterio vs. Gunther at WrestleMania 42.
Even that, however, felt like a big letdown.
While a match with Mysterio would make sense for Gunther’s new “Career Killer” gimmick, Mysterio has not been pushed at anywhere near the same level as Cena or Styles in recent years. In a sense, Gunther vs. Mysterio felt more like a major Raw match or a potential show stealer at a non-WrestleMania pay-per-view.
Instead, WWE, partly due to Mysterio’s injury but also due to a lack of quality storytelling, inexplicably can’t seem to come up with anything for Gunther to do at WrestleMania 42. That’s, well, borderline baffling given that no heel in WWE has been pushed nearly as strongly as Gunther over the past year.
In a six-month span, Gunther retired three of the biggest and most important stars in pro wrestling history in Goldberg, Cena and Styles. But most of WWE’s other top stars, ranging from Roman Reigns to CM Punk to Brock Lesnar to Cody Rhodes, have significant matches either confirmed or teased for WrestleMania 42, leaving Gunther out of the loop.
In the event that Mysterio cannot return in time for WWE WrestleMania 42, the lone possible backup option for Gunther that would fit the bill as a major match is one with Seth Rollins. While Rollins is currently feuding with The Vision, he’s actually in a similar predicament to Gunther with no clear spot on the WrestleMania card.
Rollins had been scheduled to face Bron Breakker at WrestleMania, but Breakker is also injured and may not be ready in time for WWE’s flagship PLE. In actuality, Rollins recently said he’s not actually cleared to wrestle yet either. In the event, however, that Rollins is cleared while Breakker and Mysterio aren’t, a Rollins vs. Gunther match is a potential “break glass in case of emergency” plan.
It’s not perfect, but hey, it’s better than Gunther being left off of WWE WrestleMania just a couple of months after retiring two of the greatest wrestlers of all-time.
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