Stories WWE Can Tell With Gunther In 2026

At WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event XLII, Gunther made history by defeating John Cena in his retirement match. Not only did Cena lose to Gunther, but he also lost via submission. With Gunther securing perhaps the biggest win of his WWE career, he is now a person fans should never take lightly.

On this past week’s WWE Raw, Gunther made it known that he had beaten Cena by gloating about his victory. With 2025 coming to a close, Gunther will undoubtedly have a big year in 2026. Here are some stories that WWE can plan for Gunther next year.

Rivalry with AJ Styles

This past Raw, Gunther was gloating about beating John Cena. He made sure his voice was heard throughout the whole arena as he received an extremely hostile reception. When Gunther was exiting the arena, he encountered AJ Styles. Gunther, using Cena’s movements to taunt Styles, planted the seeds of a feud in the future.

Currently, Styles is one-half of the World Tag Team Champions with Dragon Lee. Gunther and Styles could begin their feud sooner than expected, leading to WrestleMania.

One thing about Styles is that he won’t take any form of disrespect lightly. Styles could gain the chance of getting one up on Gunther in the Royal Rumble Match. Styles can eliminate Gunther to ignite their possible rivalry. The elimination can drive Gunther furious by costing Styles and Lee the tag team titles.

Styles made it clear that he will be retiring at some point in 2026. An excellent way for Styles to go out is by wrestling his final match at WrestleMania and suffering a loss to Gunther. Retiring Styles would be another name added to Gunther’s list, as he already conquered John Cena and Goldberg.

Revamp Imperium

Since Gunther is on his way to becoming the most destructive and dominant star of WWE, he will definitely need one or more people by his side. What Gunther can do is revive Imperium. Usually, he had Ludwig Kaiser by his side. Currently, Kaiser is portraying El Grande Americano, where he has his own allies.

Instead, Kaiser can reunite with Gunther, but this time bring Pete Dunne (Rayo) and Tyler Bate (Bravo) alongside. If WWE wants to go this direction, they should wrap up the El Grande Americano storyline at WrestleMania and have Kaiser, Dunne, and Bate join Gunther afterwards.

Having a revival of Imperium can make Gunther a much stronger force than he already is. It can also give the idea that Gunther’s rivals compete against the proposed Imperium members before getting through Gunther. Doing so is an excellent way of presenting Gunther as that “Final Boss”, due to the difficulty of defeating him.