Gunther believes that it’s high time WWE should get over the “bad foreigner” stigma now.
For many years, WWE has often deployed the trope of the “bad foreigner.” Wrestlers from other countries were usually shown as villains who insulted America. Then, a patriotic wrestler would step in and defeat them. However, Gunther believes that kind of storytelling should remain a relic of the past.
The Austrian star has had one of the most dominant runs in modern WWE. Lately, he has earned the moniker of “Career Killer” since he retired legends like Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles.
However, he has made an effort to avoid the old stereotype that many international wrestlers once followed.
Gunther Says the ‘Bad Foreigner’ Stigma Doesn’t Work in Modern Wrestling
While speaking with Cody Rhodes on the podcast What Do You Wanna Talk About?, Gunther explained that he doesn’t enjoy the portrayal of wrestlers as a “foreign menace.”
He shared that he even disagreed with early ideas about using the Austrian flag as part of his look. When he first joined WWE, there were plans to put the flag on his ring gear. But Gunther turned down the idea because he felt it pushed the same old “bad foreigner” image.
“No, I’m not a foreign menace. I always get a little bit annoyed because they go like, ‘Oh, he’s just a bad foreigner.’ I try to avoid everything that has to do with a flag or something. I mean, they put it on my trunks when I started out. They really wanted to have the flag on my… whatever, I got rid of it as soon as I could because it just doesn’t do anything,” he said.
In his opinion, wrestling should focus more on the individual rather than on old national rivalries. “It’s not 1990 anymore. Today it’s about the person,” Gunther said.
Gunther also talked about how much the United States has changed over the years. With immigration and globalization, the country has become much more diverse, and he believes fans today don’t connect with simple “us vs. them” stories like they once did.
“I feel like now America is such a diverse country and stuff like that. I don’t know, depending where you’re at, but we had a place up, like, in the Northeast a little bit or something. I barely met an American person there. There’s always somebody from somewhere else. It’s such a diverse place, I think,” he said.
Read More: WWE Considering Three Superstars As Gunther’s WrestleMania 42 Opponent — Report
