Giovanni Vinci’s Imperium status is ‘to be determined’, says Gunther

The Bloodline’s still at war with itself. The Judgment Day says they’re fine, but we’ll see where things stand between Finn Bálor & Mr. Money in the Bank Damian Priest after Bálor’s next WWE World Heavyweight title shot at SummerSlam.

We’ve also got Imperium to worry about.

Giovanni Vinci was taken out by Matt Riddle last month. After a couple weeks away, he returned... but has been on the losing side of two matches since, with his Imperium teammates Gunther & Ludwig Kaiser leaving without him after Riddle & Drew McIntyre beat Vinci & Kaiser two weeks ago on Raw.

For his bout with Riddle last week, the Intercontinental champ went it alone — and came out victorious. Then, when Gunther was asked by Sportskeeda’s WrestleBinge about Vinci’s status with the group, Der Ring General responded:

“Well, that’s to be determined, I guess, how things go. Especially us in Imperium, everybody in there wants to be the absolute elite and wants to be at the absolute top, and sometimes when you fail to deliver that, there are consequences for that, and it’s on you to make up again for that situation.

“So far, this hasn’t happened. We haven’t Gio in action since then. But that’s the situation right now. It’s not about personal or any other emotional stuff. It’s about the performance in the ring. It’s about the results. And when the results are positive, the relationship is positive. And when they are negative, then everything else is negative as well.”

Sounds like a set-up for Vinci to try and get back in Gunther’s good graces (perhaps during his SummerSlam title defense against McIntyre). And if that backfires? Could Imperium become a tag team again?

Gunther was also asked about adding a female member to the group to counter Judgment Day’s Rhea Ripley. He said he thinks Imperium is good, but set the bar high if they were going to recruit a woman: “It would either be IYO or Charlotte, I would think.”

We’ll see what happens with Imperium’s membership in the coming weeks. Do you think the winds of change blowing through other stables will hit Gunther’s squad?