A new world heavyweight champion has been crowned—or, better yet, the belt's gone back to it's previous owner—as Gunther defeated Jey Uso to win the title in the main event of the June 9, 2025 episode of WWE Monday Night Raw.
How We Got Here:
This match had been announced several weeks ago, and has been the subject of speculation over what twist World Wrestling Entertainment would deploy.
Of course, most of the build for this go-around surrounded Uso beating Gunther for the title back at WrestleMania 41, which was their third encounter after Gunther had previously beaten Jey twice before—once to retain his Intercontinental Championship and once to retain the very same World Heavyweight Championship at Saturday Night's Main Event in January.
Match Details:
Despite all the possible options put out there for what we could expect, ranging from Seth Rollins cashing in his newly-won Money in the Bank contract after grabbing the briefcase this past Saturday night, to a surprise appearance from Goldberg to possibly set up a match against The Ring General in the future, WWE instead opted to go with a straight-up no-nonsense finish of a title change.
There is no questioning it, either. No shenanigans took place like interference to call into doubt who the better man was, or distractions that put Uso at a disadvantage. Instead, just as Gunther was in all their other encounters other than when he lost the title, he was simply the conqueror, winning the title with his patented sleeper hold.
This is the same move Uso used to beat Gunther at WrestleMania, so it appears WWE is effectively just hitting the reverse button and going back to a reset before "Main Event" Jey ascended the throne.
Personal Reactions & What Happens Next?:
This is odd, not just because it was a straightforward title change, but because so much seemed to be revolving around Uso as a target for Seth Rollins and the Money in the Bank contract. Nothing at all points to The Visionary going after Gunther or John Cena, so that briefcase might be sidelined for quite some time.
This doesn't rule out the idea that Gunther vs. Goldberg is still in the cards, either. In fact, there's a chance this title change happened specifically because WWE wants to make that match for the title, rather than for it to be just a non-title grudge match for the sake of it. Then again, maybe everyone is looking in the wrong direction, and Goldberg's final match will be against Cena, instead.
In all likelihood, Gunther is going to be holding this title come SummerSlam, and the winner of the King of the Ring tournament will challenge him if it ends up being someone on the Raw side. If not, SmackDown's got Cody Rhodes, so that could be the method to have their rematch, while Gunther starts a feud with someone else.
This is quite surprising, so we'll have to see what WWE has in store, or if this ends up being one of those messes where they did a surprise for the sake of a shock and have no real ideas of where to go next.
Tell us what you think about this title change by leaving a comment below! Who do you think will be the next in line to challenge for the title, or possibly even win the belt next? Keep the discussion going!