Gunther recaptured the World Heavyweight Championship from Jey Uso on RAW earlier this month, and he'll have his first defence against WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg at the upcoming Saturday Night's Main Event show on July 12.
That will be Goldberg's retirement match and comes after the two men had a verbal confrontation at last year's Bad Blood PLE in Goldberg's home of Atlanta, Georgia.
While Gunther needs to focus on the WCW icon, he also has Money in the Bank briefcase holder Seth Rollins looming in the background. However, for The Ring General, the concept is one that he sees as a "shortcut" responsible for cheapening championship wins.
"So, first of all, I wanna express my disgust for the Money in the Bank briefcase," he stated. "I remember back then when some of those big cash-in moments happened and some of those guys won a big title for the first time in their career, and it’s because they run out with a briefcase and there’s an already beaten opponent. I never found that very gratifying. So that’s never something I was interested in participating in."
Talk soon turned to his match with Goldberg, and the Austrian WWE Superstar managed to find plenty of respectful things to say about his opponent.
"You can say whatever you want about him but, he’s one of the most outstanding guys in the history of this business," Gunter shared. "And seeing a lot of the guys that he had before, it’s a great opportunity for me to step into the position now to be his last opponent because with all due respect, that’s what it is."
"I gain from that, being in the ring with Bill Goldberg because when he shows up, there’s a lot of interest in that and yeah, happy I got that opportunity," he added.
It's proving to be very difficult to predict how Gunther's match with Goldberg will play out. The latter could win the title in his retirement bout, but what would that mean for the championship and should Gunther really be defeated by the 58-year-old veteran?
Elaborating on how he feels about the match, Gunther admitted that it's not something he ever expected for his career. "I feel like it’s a little bit out of the blue because it’s nothing I would have expected. And also, obviously, I don’t know — how I got up in wrestling, how I got brought up, I feel like Goldberg is the complete opposite of how I would have imagined a wrestler that I really look up to."
"There’s different styles. And just over here, there’s the showmanship, the looks of a person are maybe sometimes more important than how technical finesse we are in the ring," he said of how Goldberg differs from those he grew up admiring. "And that’s like, I don’t want to judge that. That’s the style. And it’s very successful."
You can listen to the full interview with Gunther in the player below.