Yesterday on May 22, 2026, GUNTHER decided to turn SmackDown into his personal slaughterhouse. He laid out Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes with a powerbomb that probably registered on the Richter scale in Turin. The message was clear. The Ring General is coming for the crown at Clash in Italy.

But the real drama isn't the physical beatdown. It is the ticking time bomb of crowd psychology waiting to detonate in Turin on May-31-2026. Cody Rhodes is basically the GPT-4 of pro wrestling. He is highly aligned, incredibly polished, and walks around with a permanent corporate smile that tries to please every single demographic.

Then you have GUNTHER. He is the raw, unaligned Llama 3 running on command-line prompts. No filter, no fancy suits, just raw computing power in the form of chest-caving chops. When you pit a highly polished corporate babyface against a European folk hero in an Italian arena, the traditional heel-versus-face dynamic gets completely scrambled.

In a recent interview, GUNTHER addressed the potential crowd hijack with his typical cold logic. As a WrestleTalk report detailed, the big man was surprisingly chill about the prospect of the Turin crowd cheering him over WWE's golden boy.

"I think it makes it a little bit more interesting"

The Ring General noted, essentially telling the world he welcomes the chaos. He also promised that the in-ring work will

"not disappoint on any level"

which is the wrestling equivalent of a developer promising zero-latency execution. This dynamic is exactly what makes the upcoming premium live event so volatile. The Austrian powerhouse is fully aware of the European crowd dynamics, pointing out in his media comments that it only adds to the intrigue.

The Italian Crowd is Already Compiling the Chop Compiler

If you have ever watched an international WWE show, you know that European crowds do not follow the corporate script. They do not care about who sells the most t-shirts at the merchandise stand in Atlanta. They want violence, they want songs, and they want their indie darlings respected.

European fans remember when GUNTHER was Walter, the terrifying mountain of flesh dominating the European independent scene in wXw and Progress. They remember the legendary matches where his chops left bloody handprints on the chests of beloved cruiserweights. For the European hardcore fans, GUNTHER is a local hero who represents their wrestling culture.

On the Reddit forums, the hype is reaching a fever pitch. One popular thread on r/SquaredCircle had fans predicting that Cody Rhodes is about to experience the ultimate away game. Users pointed out that European crowds naturally rally behind continental stars, just like Drew McIntyre in Berlin.

The consensus among the enthusiasts is that the Inalpi Arena will be completely hijacked. They expect the crowd to sing GUNTHER's old imperial theme music even if WWE plays his new corporate heel track. Every single chop will be met with a deafening German shout of "JA!" while Cody's signature crowd-participation spots will be drowned out by whistles.

The 'Cody Crybabies' Boot up their Defense Scripts

Naturally, the massive army of Cody Rhodes loyalists is not taking this lying down. The American Nightmare has been the undisputed king of merchandise sales and crowd reactions for over two years. His fans are fiercely protective of his status as the face of the company.

On social media, the Cody defense squad is arguing that the internet wrestling community is living in a bubble. They claim that the live crowd in Turin will still be packed with casual fans and families who just want to do the famous "Woah!" during Cody's entrance. They argue that Cody's global appeal is too strong to be disrupted by a few thousand vocal purists.

Some skeptics are also worried that a hostile crowd could ruin the story that WWE has spent months building. They argue that Cody needs to be a clean, beloved champion to keep the ratings high. A split crowd, in their eyes, only confuses the casual viewers who tune in to see a simple story of good versus evil.

There are even fans who believe that GUNTHER getting cheered would actually hurt his character. The Ring General is supposed to be a terrifying monster who destroys everything in his path. If the crowd starts cheering him like a hero, the fear factor vanishes, leaving him as just another cool bad guy.

Booking on the Edge of a Segment Fault

The contrarian crowd is looking at this match from a purely mechanical booking perspective. They believe that WWE is playing a highly dangerous game by booking this match in Italy. By putting their top babyface in front of an audience that is guaranteed to cheer the heel, they are actively risking Cody's momentum.

Wrestling history is filled with examples of WWE trying to force a babyface down the throats of a hostile international crowd, only for it to backfire spectacularly. Think of John Cena getting booed out of the building in Chicago or Roman Reigns getting jeered by hostile post-WrestleMania crowds. The contrarians argue that Cody is not immune to this kind of backlash.

They point to yesterday's SmackDown beatdown as a massive warning sign. When GUNTHER hit that devastating powerbomb, the internet went wild. If the crowd in Turin cheers when Cody gets his chest chopped into raw hamburger meat, it makes the champion look weak and unpopular.

Some fans are even calling for a double turn, where Cody goes heel and GUNTHER becomes the top babyface. While that sounds exciting on paper, it would completely derail WWE's long-term plans. The creative team has invested too much in Cody as the clean-cut hero to pivot now.

Why the Open-Source Monster Wins the Night

Let's cut through the corporate spin. The enthusiasts are 100% correct here, and WWE's creative team knows it. Trying to keep the crowd perfectly aligned is a losing battle in Europe. The crowd in Turin is going to treat Cody Rhodes like an invading outsider, and it will be glorious.

GUNTHER is absolutely right when he says this dynamic makes the match more interesting. A standard wrestling match where the good guy gets cheered and the bad guy gets booed is boring. It is predictable. A hostile, chaotic crowd forces both performers to adapt on the fly, creating a raw, unpredictable environment.

This is exactly where GUNTHER thrives. He does not need a script to get a reaction. He just needs to hit people incredibly hard until the crowd has no choice but to respect him. If Cody wants to survive Turin, he has to ditch the clean-cut corporate persona and show some real grit.

Instead of trying to fight the crowd, Cody should embrace the hostility. He needs to fight like a man who knows he is in enemy territory, relying on desperation and sheer survival instinct rather than his usual theatrical poses. That is how you turn a hostile crowd into a classic wrestling story.

Ultimately, the match in Turin will be a masterpiece because of the crowd, not in spite of it. Whether they are cheering the Ring General or booing the American Nightmare, the noise will be deafening. In a world of over-polished, highly aligned sports entertainment, a little bit of raw, unaligned European chaos is exactly what we need.