Vince McMahon: WWE star clarifies if Chairman told him to lose weight

Gunther is in the shape of his life right now, having undergone a seriously impressive body transformation.

During his time in NXT UK as WALTER, Gunther was a heavy-set wrestler, but fans noticed upon his main roster call-up last month that he’d lost a lot of weight.

As you can see below, the big Austrian has seriously leaned up and lost a lot of weight from his time in NXT UK to now.

At the time of his main roster call-up, which took place after WrestleMania 38 last month, a lot of people were talking about Gunther’s transformation.

In fact, it was reported that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon told Gunther that he had to lose weight before getting called up to the main roster, which you can read more about by clicking here.

However, in a new interview, the former NXT UK Champion has outright denied that he was instructed to lose weight.

Speaking to Sport1, Gunther said that he decided to lose weight off his own back, and was never told to by WWE.

No, that’s completely wrong. At WWE, nobody said anything to me, it was completely my own initiative. 

The SmackDown star said that he wanted to take “the next big step” and decided that getting lean was the way to do that:

For me it was quite clear: If I want to take the next big step, I have to present more for the general public. 

He spoke about the difference between WWE’s main roster audience, and the NXT UK audience, stating that this is why he chose to slim down:

In the WWE main roster, however, the conditions are different, you are on a global stage, in the mainstream. From my point of view, you have to present yourself differently. And I prepared well for that in the months leading up to my move to the USA.