Why is WWE Wasting Gunther After Retiring John Cena and AJ Styles?

2025 ended with an emphatic statement, declaring Gunther the biggest heel in WWE with a dominant win over John Cena to send him into retirement.

To start the year, The Ring General taunted until AJ Styles stepped up and put his career on the line at Royal Rumble 2026, allowing Gunther to retire another legend.

That same night, Gunther was also the runner-up in the men's Rumble match, solidifying his direction toward top gold once again in the new year.

It is now October, and The Career Killer is the least relevant he has been in his main-roster run, feuding with Finn Bálor and Danhausen on SmackDown. What happened to Gunther?

After Royal Rumble, Gunther ran into an angry Dragon Lee, looking to avenge his retired friend AJ Styles.

This feud had some heat, but WWE never planned for Dragon to look like a serious threat to The Career Killer. Gunther would defeat and unmask Dragon, who would simply accept that loss.

This left Gunther without any direction into WrestleMania 42 until he abruptly revealed he was helping Paul Heyman to fight Seth Rollins.

Gunther did defeat Rollins at 'Mania, but the match was focused more on the return of Bron Breakker, transitioning The Visionary to another feud.

The Career Killer was already so lost that WWE decided to move him to SmackDown for a fresh start.

Gunther would quickly go after WWE champion Cody Rhodes, earning a shot at the champion at Clash in Italy.

The Career Killer lost to The American Nightmare but with controversy since Gunther's leg was under the bottom rope.

Less than three weeks later on SmackDown, the two fought again, but special guest referee Sami Zayn cost Gunther the match then caused a disqualification in the restarted contest.

At Night of Champions, Zayn pinned Rhodes to take the WWE Championship, going on to lose the title to CM Punk eight days later on Raw.

Time and again, The Career Killer lost without gaining any heat. His wins over John Cena and AJ Styles felt like a distant memory.

Twice after Royal Rumble, WWE teased the possibility of Gunther retiring someone else.

During his brief alliance with Paul Heyman, all signs pointed to Gunther eventually challenging Brock Lesnar. Instead, The Beast Incarnate chose Oba Femi as his final opponent.

Instead into SummerSlam, WWE set up Gunther vs. Nick Aldis. The general manager stepped out of his authority role to fight in a WWE ring for the first time.

All signs pointed to Gunther retiring Aldis after his first WWE match. Instead, despite The Career Killer winning, the talking point of the night was that Aldis looked good enough to wrestle multiple times in the future.

As a consolation, Aldis threw Gunther in a No. 1 contender match on Night 2 of SummerSlam. Kevin Owens would go on to win that contest and leave The Career Killer with no real direction since.

While Gunther has regularly appeared on television since SummerSlam, it barely feels like The Career Killer matters to the current product.

He is ostensibly feuding with Finn Bálor, but that story has gone nowhere since the two both failed to win triple threat matches that could have led them to another WWE Championship opportunities.

Instead of heating up this feud, WWE has forced Danhausen into the mix, who Gunther has been scheduled to fight twice in October despite he and The Prince never fighting one on one.

Unless the end goal is Gunther retiring The Prince at the end of this story, which is likely too early for Bálor, this rivarly would need to massively heat up quick to be worth the time wasted.

At this point, The Career Killer is no longer amongst the most hated heels in WWE, and no one has fought recently has cared that he retired any legends in the past year.

It is likely that WWE had to pivot from the original plan to continue the dominance of Gunther.

Rey Mysterio is close to retirement and was likely a potential opponent for Gunther, but it is hard to imagine The Master of the 619 would want anyone but his own son Dominik Mysterio ending his career.

Brock Lesnar was an obvious opponent for Gunther to retire at SummerSlam, but Oba Femi was served much better by his role in Lesnar's retirement.

Both cases show though that it is better not to give one wrestler every legend's retirement.

It would have been best to play off the heat of retiring Cena by pitting The Career Killer against Cena's friends.

Instead, he mean-mugged at CM Punk once, and his eventual feud with Cody Rhodes was not focused at all on the end of Cena's career.

Gunther should have been a big problem for the top stars in WWE on his way to recapturing the world title.

Instead, he lost repeatedly and fell out of focus in an increasingly crowded world title scene on SmackDown.

WWE has no path forward to get Gunther back to the heat he held coming into 2026, but that does not mean The Career Killer is lost entirely.

This feud with Finn Bálor needs to get personal, and the two must get a major spotlight for their singles match to come. It would be best if it led to multiple big matches.

Whoever wins that feud should immediately join the WWE Championship picture, which would make more sense for The Prince given the current heel champion.

However, WWE cannot lose track of Gunther again. He should transition to another feud that he can win on the road to the next WrestleMania.

The Career Killer gimmick may have played itself out as there are no obvious legends left for Gunther to retire, but there are plenty of fresh feuds for him on SmackDown.

A world title reign in 2026 is unlikely, but WWE should make sure The Career Killer is penned in for a world title reign in 2027 if he is going to remain one of WWE's top heels.