Gunther returned to winning ways by taking advantage of an assist from Finn Bálor to retain the World Heavyweight Championship against Damian Priest at WWE Survivor Series 2024.

Gunther put the World Heavyweight Championship on hold against Damian Priest at WWE Survivor Series: WarGames 2024 .

For the first time in his WWE reign, Gunther feels vulnerable holding a title and his reign as World Champion is threatened by a Damian Priest who is confident he can beat him without any intervention. “The Ring General” will have to get back to his old ways if he wants to retain the gold, otherwise “The Archer of Infamy” will become the first to win this title twice.

Gunther vs Damian Priest

The bell rings and Gunther continues to show a distraught face, like all the way to Vancouver, a product of the mistrust generated after losing against Cody Rhodes at WWE Crown Jewel 2024. Damian Priest confidently awaits his opponent and is the one who proposes to start the actions, but Gunther takes refuge in the ropes or outside the ring to avoid it, while trying to find a loophole that allows him to gain the advantage. Although Priest manages to counteract the champion, a bad fall causes him to feel pain in his left arm. That is precisely the advantage that Gunther was waiting for and he immediately hurts Priest’s affected area to weaken him.

Seeing his diminished rival fills Gunther with confidence in his return to the ring, as he now has an area to focus on to stay in control. Although Damian tries to react, Gunther attacks his left arm at every opportunity he gets. And as time goes on, the World Champion continues to gain confidence at WWE Survivor Series 2024 . Damian Priest surprises Gunther with an “Enzuigiri”! Thanks to this, the challenger has a few seconds to try to recover. Despite having an injured arm, “The Archer of Infamy” manages to surprise the Austrian with a “Triangle Choke”. Although Gunther manages to escape, he eats a “Super Kick”… but Damian can’t land a “Razor’s Edge” because his arm fails.

Gunther takes advantage of the escape to catch Damian with a «Sleeper» and then makes the transition for a «Powerbomb»; counts to two. The action goes to the top of the corner… «HURRACARANA» BY DAMIAN PRIEST ON GUNTHER FOLLOWED BY A «RAZOR’S EDGE» ; COUNT TO TWO! It seemed that Priest was not going to have a chance to execute his finisher, but finally he did it; with his arm weakened, the impact was not one hundred percent effective, and because of that, the champion manages to shake off the cover. Gunther avoids a «South of Heaven» up to a couple of times… GUNTHER CAUGHT PRIEST WITH A «KIMURA LOCK» ; pressure exactly on Damian’s affected arm! Even so, the challenger manages to reach the bottom rope.

The action returns to the top of the corner, where Damian Priest and Gunther fall to the ground after the former couldn’t execute the move he had in mind. Priest falls straight to the ground, and while the referee checks Gunther’s health, FINN BÁLOR appears to attack Damian with a “Coupe de Grace.” Gunther leaves the ring to attack Bálor and then takes advantage of the assistance to send Damian Priest to sleep with a “Sleeper.” GUNTHER RETAINS THE WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP!