GUNTHER’s dominant reign has brought plenty of prestige back to the WWE Intercontinental Championship. No matter what happens at SummerSlam 2023, he’s already carved his name in the history books as one of the title’s most successful holders. That being said, the majority of the Austrian’s opponents haven’t been presented as believable threats, which is why this bout is so intriguing.

GUNTHER has overcome the might of Drew McIntyre in the past, but that was before the Scotsman returned with a new sense of urgency. This will be McIntyre’s first tentpole PLE match since he came back from his recent hiatus, and WWE’s creative team might want to keep his momentum going. Furthermore, as a former two-time WWE Champion, he has enough credibility to end GUNTHER’s historic title run. Outside of Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, and Cody Rhodes, does anyone have more of a main-event aura than McIntyre at the moment?

However, the reason why we’ve picked GUNTHER is two-fold. Firstly, he’s well on his way to becoming the longest-reigning I.C. Champion in history, having held the title for almost 420 days at the time of this writing. As it stands, he’s within walking distance of eclipsing The Honky Tonk Man’s all-time record, which stands at 454 days. Secondly, some fans and pundits are speculating that McIntyre will turn heel in the very near future, and a loss against GUNTHER could be the spark that lights the fuse. If the rumors are true, the turn will give him a new lease of creative energy, so he can afford to eat a pin at SummerSlam.

This match is a tough one to call. However, 69 percent of the Wrestling Inc. staff predicts that GUNTHER will walk out of Ford Field with the gold still around his waist.