Look, we all knew this was coming. It was never a matter of if, but when. On Friday night on SmackDown, WWE finally pulled the trigger. The Ring General, the man who treats human chests like heavy bags, is officially stepping up to the top of the mountain.

GUNTHER won the Number One Contender’s match.

That means we are getting GUNTHER versus Cody Rhodes for the WWE Championship at Clash in Italy.

Take a second and let that sink in. The ultimate, bleeding-heart, tear-in-his-eye, finish-the-story babyface against a literal wrestling terminator. It is the kind of matchup that makes you want to crack open a cold one and watch purely for the violence. Forget the intricate storytelling for a minute. This is going to be a car crash in the best possible way. The juxtaposition between these two men is exactly why professional wrestling, when done right, is the best television on the planet.

The inevitable collision course

Cody Rhodes has been on an absolute tear. We saw him defend that championship at WrestleMania 41 in Vegas last month. He walked out of Allegiant Stadium with the gold, surviving whatever the Bloodline threw at him. He got past the post-Mania hangover at Backlash. He has been the smiling, suit-wearing, baby-kissing face of the company. He is the guy you send to the morning talk shows to make the company look good.

But smiling doesn't stop a knife-edge chop. Morning talk show hosts don't powerbomb you through an announce table.

GUNTHER has spent the last couple of years building an aura that frankly, nobody else on the roster has. When he steps through the curtain, the temperature in the arena drops. The classical music hits, he walks out looking like an angry European bouncer who just caught you trying to sneak into a club wearing sneakers, and the crowd immediately knows somebody is about to get hurt. He isn’t out there to sell merchandise or get a catchy chant going. He is out there to fold grown men in half.

The Friday SmackDown main event proved that once again. He didn't just win his number one contender spot; he dismantled his opposition. He looked completely unbothered doing it. There is no wasted movement with him. Every strike has a terrifying purpose.

This is the exact kind of physical test Cody needs right now. After the emotional exhaustion of the WrestleMania cycle and the relentless drama of the Bloodline, you can’t just feed the champion another standard heel who runs away and hides behind a manager. You need a monster. You need Godzilla to show up in the middle of the city and start knocking over buildings.

Why Clash in Italy feels like a weird choice

Here is where I have a massive bone to pick with Triple H and the creative team. Let's look at the calendar. Today is May 16, 2026. The summer is right around the corner.

Why on earth are we burning this match at Clash in Italy?

Don't get me wrong, the international crowds are incredible. WWE has found a goldmine taking these premium live events across the ocean. The atmosphere in Italy is going to be absolutely deafening. But GUNTHER versus Cody Rhodes is a marquee, top-of-the-poster, stadium-level attraction. This is a SummerSlam main event. Hell, with a proper six-month build, this is a WrestleMania main event.

Putting it on a May premium live event feels dangerously close to a panic move. They needed a massive main event to sell the Italian stadium to the local government, so they hit the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency button.

The problem with booking this match right now is the creative corner WWE has backed themselves into. Think about the outcome. Is Cody Rhodes, the guy who just conquered the world at WrestleMania 41 and established himself as the undisputed face of the franchise, going to drop the WWE Championship barely a month later at an international B-show?

Absolutely not. The chances of a title change in Italy are sitting somewhere near zero. He is holding that belt through the summer.

Which means GUNTHER has to lose.

Protecting the Ring General from the booking sheet

How do you beat GUNTHER without shattering the glass house of his unstoppable aura? We have seen him lose before, sure, but every single loss takes a tiny chip out of the armor. If he takes a clean Cross Rhodes in the middle of the ring in Italy, does he just go back to the midcard? Does he stand in the back with Ludwig Kaiser looking angry for three months while Cody moves on to a different feud?

WWE has a terrible, decades-long habit of building up these monstrous, unbeatable heels, only to sacrifice them on the altar of the top babyface at the wrong time. This feels exactly like the wrong time. GUNTHER should be the guy who eventually dethrones Cody. He should be the terrifying final boss at the end of a long, grueling reign. Instead, he is being positioned as a May stepping stone to keep the champion busy.

It’s incredibly frustrating because the match itself is going to be a five-star classic. We know the formula, and it never misses.

The anatomy of an incoming massacre

We know exactly how this match is going to play out in Italy, and I am still going to watch every single second of it like a degenerate.

The bell will ring. Cody, ever the valiant babyface, will try to chain wrestle. He will try to match technical skills. GUNTHER will absorb a lockup, step back, and hit him with a chop that sounds like a gunshot echoing through the arena. Cody’s chest will instantly turn a shade of purple that hasn't been discovered by modern science yet. The crowd will gasp.

From there, it’s the classic hero’s journey inside a squared circle. Cody will get beaten from pillar to post. He will be stretched. He will get thrown into the steel steps. He will look into the camera with that distressed, tearful, "I might not make it to my daughter's graduation" look he has perfected over the last three years. The crowd will rally. He’ll hit a desperation Disaster Kick out of nowhere.

The drama is going to be off the charts. GUNTHER is the absolute perfect base for Cody's explosive offense because every single piece of offense Cody manages to land will feel deeply earned. You don't just hit a Cody Cutter on the Ring General; you have to survive fifteen minutes of sheer torture just to get into position to try it. The near-falls will be incredible.

But the booking logic leading into this violence is where I completely fall off the wagon.

The morning after the violence

Let's assume the obvious happens and Cody retains. What does the SmackDown after Clash in Italy actually look like?

Cody comes out in a sharply tailored suit, points at his deeply bruised chest, talks about how GUNTHER took him to the absolute limit, smiles through the pain, and asks the crowd, "So, what do you want to talk about?" We immediately move on to the next challenger. Maybe a returning star. Maybe a Money in the Bank build begins.

But what about GUNTHER? Does he just dust himself off, yell at his faction mates, and go back to terrorizing the lower card guys? The man just won a massive Number One Contender's match. He is operating at an in-ring level that 99 percent of the global wrestling roster cannot touch. If he loses his big title shot this early in the year, his balloon loses a massive amount of air.

WWE had the opportunity to stretch this out and make it special. They could have had GUNTHER slowly stalk Cody through the entire summer. Mind games. Backstage beatdowns. Slowly dismantling Cody's allies one by one. Make us beg for the match. Make the fans demand that Cody finally gets his hands on him.

Instead, we are getting the instant gratification.

The bottom line on Clash in Italy

We are getting a dream match. That is the undeniable reality. On May 15, Friday Night SmackDown gave us the definitive answer to who is next for the American Nightmare, and they didn't hold back.

GUNTHER is stepping up. Clash in Italy is going to feature one of the most physical, brutal, aesthetically pleasing matches of the entire 2026 calendar year. The chop battles alone are going to be worth the price of whatever streaming service you are using to watch this.

But as a wrestling fan who watches this product week in and week out, I simply cannot shake the feeling that they are pulling the trigger entirely too early. You don't serve the prime rib as an appetizer. You save it for the main course when everyone is sitting down and ready to eat.

WWE is rolling the dice in Italy, betting that the match quality will overshadow the questionable timing. Let's just hope they know how to clean up the booking mess when the bell rings and one of these two generational talents has to look at the lights. Because in a match this big, somebody has to lose, and I'm not sure either man can afford it right now.