Gunther to retain the World Heavyweight Title at Survivor Series due to 43-year-old star? Exploring the possibility
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Gunther might successfully retain his title at Survivor Series: WarGames against Damian Priest. However, that might be thanks to a 43-year-old WWE Superstar who has a long-term rivalry with The Archer of Infamy.
The superstar in question is Finn Balor. The Prince dropped subtle hints of going after Damian Priest at Survivor Series on tonight's episode of Monday Night RAW. He chided Dominik Mysterio for letting Priest get closer to his quest for the World Heavyweight Championship, and challenge Gunther for the title at Survivor Series. It clearly showed that he wasn't willing to see Priest win back the title from Gunther at any cost.
Balor was furious when Dominik showed interest in winning the World Heavyweight Title on RAW by beating The Ring General. He even tried to dissuade Dirty Dom from taking up this challenge.
The Irish Superstar didn't even come out in support of Dirty Dom in his Fatal-Four Way match on RAW a few weeks back. Dom and Balor later had a slightly heated exchange, where Dominik accused Balor of being jealous of him and claimed he got closer to the World Heavyweight Title than Finn Balor ever could.
However, the other Judgment Day faction members pacified the two, and things settled down. And now Balor simply doesn't want to see Priest win the gold at Survivor Series: WarGames against The Ring General.
He could cause an outside interference during the match along with JD McDonagh and cost Priest the match. Previously, Balor already cost Priest his WWE title at SummerSlam 2024.
The Prince betrayed his Judgment Day mate and let Gunther get the win. Balor and Priest later had a clash at Bad Blood PLE which Damian Priest eventually won.
While Priest might have moved on, thinking that it's over between him and Balor, The Irish Superstar might have some more payback in mind.
WWE veteran feels the company messed up Damian Priest-Gunther's storyline
Former head writer Vince Russo has said that WWE might have messed up Damian Priest's storyline by putting him as the stronger competitor over The Ring General before the Survivor Series when it should have been the other way around.
While speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling's Legion of RAW this week, Russo said that it should have been Gunther who got the better of Priest ahead of Survivor Series: WarGames.
"The whole idea is you want to get heat, heat, heat because you want to see the babies go over at the big show. You could easily have done that. Priest gets screwed somehow, someway, at Survivor Series, so you protect him. It's very easy to do," Russo said. [5:36 onwards]
Russo also claimed that Priest would ultimately lose at Survivor Series because of some shenanigans.
Meanwhile, on tonight's episode of RAW, The Archer of Infamy had a heated exchange with The Ring General, which led the two to get into a physical brawl. However, Priest prevailed over Gunther and put him through the announce table, and stood tall towards the end. It remains to be seen if the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion will be able to win back the gold he lost to Gunther at SummerSlam 2024.