3 Reasons why Gunther lost his WWE World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam 2025

Gunther lost his WWE World Heavyweight Championship to CM Punk in the main event of Night One of SummerSlam 2025. The Ring General put on a spectacular performance throughout the match, but a devastating fall onto the announce table broke his nose, and he started bleeding.

Punk capitalized after that and soon was able to overpower The Ring General. It took two back-to-back GTS moves from Punk to finally put Gunther to sleep. Gunther's second World title reign lasted only 55 days. He won it back from Jey Uso on the June 9 edition of Monday Night RAW. He even successfully defended it against Goldberg at Saturday Night's Main Event last month. At SummerSlam, he dropped the gold to Punk, who then lost it to Seth Rollins.

In this article, we will list three reasons why The Ring General lost his WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

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#3. To get out of the title picture for another storyline

Gunther has been involved in the World Heavyweight Title picture for the past year. He first won the title at SummerSlam 2024 from Damian Priest. After losing the belt at WrestleMania 41 to Jey Uso, Gunther did get into a brief rivalry with Pat McAfee, but after defeating him at Backlash, he once again returned to the World title scene.

So, having the 37-year-old drop the title was necessary to get him out of it and get him involved in another storyline. He might be moved to SmackDown, where he could challenge Cody Rhodes or John Cena for the Undisputed WWE Championship.

He can also start a new rivalry with someone like Randy Orton or Damian Priest on the blue brand. Therefore, this title loss was necessary for his future in WWE.

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#2. To get some time off from WWE

Another reason Gunther might have been booked to lose the gold at SummerSlam is to write him off TV for a while, so he can spend time with his family. The 37-year-old superstar has been on the road for nearly three years and has been constantly seen on television.

He didn't take off even after the loss at WrestleMania 41 and appeared right on RAW after 'Mania, colliding with commentator Pat McAfee. After beating Pat, he feuded with Jey Uso, then clashed with Goldberg. At SummerSlam, he locked horns with CM Punk. He deserves some time off from WWE to rejuvenate himself and come fresh once again.

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#1. To give a new direction to the World Heavyweight Title after SummerSlam

WWE also needed to change the direction of the World Heavyweight Title at SummerSlam. This could only have been achieved by having the Austrian drop the title. For the past year, Gunther held the belt, with his first reign lasting nearly 259 days. His second reign was seemingly cut short to give the title a new direction.

Since Punk and Seth Rollins are arch-nemesis in WWE, the creative team just added fuel to the fire by involving the World Heavyweight Championship in their rivalry. With this, Gunther is seemingly out of the picture, and now Punk and Rollins will compete for it, at least until WrestleMania 42.

Edited by Neda Ali