Gunther (wrestler)

Walter Hahn (born 20 August 1987) is an Austrian professional wrestler.

He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Gunther.

He is the leader of the Imperium faction and is the current Intercontinental Champion in his first reign; his reign of + days has set the title's record for both the longest singular reign and the most cumulative days as champion.

This is in addition being among the longest reigns across all of WWE's championships

Hahn has appeared in a number of independent promotions around the world, predominantly wrestling as Big Van Walter, Big Daddy Walter, and mononymously as Walter.

Walter made his Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) debut on 4 May 2007, in a match that also involved Atsushi Aoki, Adam Polak, and Tengkwa on the pre-show at the 16 Carat Gold Tournament.

He defeated Zack Sabre Jr.. to win the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship on 2 October 2010 in Oberhausen, Germany.

He lost the title to Daisuke Sekimoto on 15 January 2011, but won it back later that year on 2 May 2011, during a Big Japan Pro Wrestling card in Tokyo, Japan.

He would then hold the title for 383 days, before losing it to El Generico on 19 May 2012.

In early May 2012, Walter was defeated by Yoshihito Sasaki in a match to crown the inaugural BJW World Strong Heavyweight champion in Yokohama, Japan.

Walter and partner Robert Dreissker defeated RockSkillet (Jay Skillet and Jonathan Gresham) to win the wXw World Tag Team Championship at day three of 16 Carat Gold on 3 March 2013.

They would later lose the titles in Hamburg, Germany to Hot and Spicy (Axel Dieter Jr. and Da Mack).

He won the title for a third time on 27 July 2014, defeating Tommy End at Fans Appreciation Night, then lost it to Karsten Beck on 17 January 2015.

For most of his career, he wrestled in Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), becoming a three-time Unified World Wrestling Champion and the head trainer of the wXw Wrestling Academy upon its opening in 2015.

Among the promptions he has wrestled in, he notably wrestled in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he is a former one-time PWG World Champion, Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), and Progress Wrestling, where he is a former Progress World Champion.

Overall, he is a six-time world champion in wrestling and the first Austrian to compete and win a championship in WWE.

He partnered with Zack Sabre Jr.. to win the vacant wXw World Tag Team Championship on 4 October 2015 in the finals of the 2015 World Tag Team Tournament, but relinquished the title at the wXw Fifteenth Anniversary Show on 12 December 2015, losing to Cerebrus (Ilja Dragunov and Robert Dreissker).

On 24 May 2015, Walter debuted as Big Daddy Walter in Progress Wrestling at the 2015 Super Strong Style 16 Tournament at the Electric Ballroom in London, losing to Rampage Brown in the first round.

The two met again later in 2015 at Chapter 23: What A Time To Be Alive!

in a match notable for the ring breaking after Brown was whipped into the corner.

He entered the Super Strong Style 16 Tournament again in 2016, reaching the quarter-finals before being eliminated by Chris Hero.

Walter participated in the tournament to determine the inaugural Progress Atlas champion in 2016 but he finished the tournament with 2 points.

At Chapter 47, Ringkampf (Walter, Axel Dieter Jr. and Timothy Thatcher) challenged British Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Trent Seven and Tyler Bate) for all of their championships, in a six-man tag team match, unsuccessfully challenging all of them.

He defeated Matt Riddle to win the Progress Atlas Championship at Chapter 51: Screaming For Progress at the O2 Academy Birmingham.

He lost the title to Riddle a little over a month later on a Progress card in New York City, but recaptured it at Chapter 55: Chase The Sun at Alexandra Palace in a three-way match that also involved Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher.

Walter and Ringkampf stablemate Timothy Thatcher defeated Massive Product (David Starr and Jurn Simmons) to win the wXw World Tag Team Championship in the finals of the 2017 wXw World Tag Team League on 8 October 2017.

On 11 March, WALTER and Thatcher lost the wXw Tag Titles to Da Mack and John Klinger.

Walter debuted in Evolve at Evolve 90 on 11 August 2017 in Joppa, Maryland, defending the Progress Atlas Championship against Fred Yehi.

Walter unsuccessfully challenged for the WWN Championship the next night at Evolve 91 in New York City in a four-way match that also involved Matt Riddle, Keith Lee, and Tracy Williams.

He again made an unsuccessful challenge for the WWN Championship on 9 December 2017 when he was defeated by Lee at Evolve 96 in New York City.

At Chapter 68: Super Strong Style 16 Tournament Edition 2018, Walter vacated the Atlas title in order to chase the Progress world title, held by Travis Banks.

At Chapter 74: Mid Week Matters, he defeated Banks to win the title.

After signing with WWE in early 2019, he debuted on the NXT UK brand and became a one-time NXT United Kingdom Champion; his 870-day reign is the longest for the now-defunct title.

He moved over to the primary NXT brand in January 2022, where his ring name was changed to Gunther, before being promoted to the main roster on SmackDown in April that year, where he won the Intercontinental Championship in June.

On 8 September 2023, Gunther became the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion in WWE history, surpassing the 454-day reign of The Honky Tonk Man.

The following year on 20 February, he set another record, this time for most cumulative days as Intercontinental Champion, surpassing Pedro Morales, who held the title for a total of 619 days across two reigns.

During the 2019's edition of Super Strong Style 16, Walter defeated Trent Seven in a title vs title match, winning Seven's Progress Atlas Championship.

At Chapter 95: Still Chasing, Walter lost the Progress Unified World Championship when Eddie Denis successfully cashed in his title opportunity gained by defeating Mark Andrews at Chapter 76.

This was a triple threat match also involving David Starr.

He was the head trainer at the wXw Wrestling Academy until early 2020.