Add as a preferred source on Google Gunther’s assault on Cody Rhodes on the latest Friday Night SmackDown may have put the Brock Lesnar rumors to rest for good.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Cody beat Ricky Saints in a non-title bout. Moments later Gunther made a surprise entrance, dropped the champion in the ring, and hoisted the Undisputed WWE Championship overhead.
The bigger clue might have come earlier. During a backstage segment with R-Truth, Damian Priest, Axiom and Nathan Frazer, Paul Heyman was spotted in the background talking to SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis.
That fuels the theory that Heyman has already repaid the famous favor he owed Gunther. On the Monday Night RAW before WrestleMania 42, Gunther saved Heyman from an attack by Seth Rollins and made it clear he would collect later.
Until now, the leading speculation was that the favor would bring Lesnar back for a SummerSlam match against Gunther in Minneapolis, a city closely tied to the Beast Incarnate. WWE was reportedly working to secure Lesnar for the show and reposition him as a babyface.
If Heyman instead used his influence to put Gunther on a collision course with Cody Rhodes and the Undisputed WWE Championship, the picture changes. The debt would be settled, and Lesnar versus Gunther would lose its main creative justification.
WWE has confirmed nothing so far. Even so, Gunther looks much closer to Cody Rhodes than to Brock Lesnar right now.