Walter Hahn (born 20 August 1987) is an Austrian professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Gunther. He is a former two-time World Heavyweight Champion, and the longest reigning WWE Intercontinental and NXT United Kingdom champion in company history.
Hahn first became known under the ring names Big Van Walter, Big Daddy Walter, and Walter during his tenure in Germany in Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) and various German independent promotions. Early in his career, he competed in Japan for Big Japan Pro-Wrestling (BJW) and Pro Wrestling ZERO1 under the Big Van Walter gimmick, as well as the short-lived Gha-Cha-Ping. In wXw, he became a three-time wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion and a four-time wXw World Tag Team Champion. He was one of the promotion's most respected figures throughout his tenure, leading him to become the head trainer of the wXw Wrestling Academy from 2015 to 2020. He also became a popular figure on the British, Irish, and American independent circuits, competing in promotions such as Progress Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), and Over the Top Wrestling (OTT), where he held their respective world championships between 2018 and 2019.
In 2018, Hahn signed with WWE and was assigned to its NXT UK brand, the British sister brand of its American developmental brand NXT. He established Imperium, the succeeding stable to the independent stable Ringkampf, which he founded in 2016. He soon won the NXT United Kingdom Championship against Pete Dunne, and held it for 870 days, the championship's longest reign and the eighth overall longest singles title reign for any WWE championship. In January 2022, he moved to the NXT brand, where his ring name was changed to Gunther. He moved to the main roster on the SmackDown brand three months later, winning the WWE Intercontinental Championship once and holding it for 666 days to set the record for both the longest singular reign with the title and the most cumulative days as champion, as well as the 10th longest singles championship reign of any WWE title. He later became the 24th King of the Ring and won the World Heavyweight Championship twice. He was the final opponent for Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles in their retirement matches, defeating all three and earning the moniker of the "Career Killer".
Walter Hahn was born in Vienna on 20 August 1987. He became interested in professional wrestling at a young age when a friend taped numerous World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) shows from 1992 to 1996 on the RTL channels, and kept tapes of shows from promotions such as All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and let Hahn borrow them. Hahn soon started collecting his own tapes of professional wrestling matches. He was also a spectator for a number of catch wrestling shows in Vienna at an early age, seeing wrestlers such as Fit Finlay, William Regal, and Robbie Brookside at said shows. At the same time, he was interested in football and played as a goalkeeper, but stopped playing around the age of 15. He went back to watching professional wrestling during the Attitude Era and became inspired enough to start training in Vienna under Michael Kovac, a wrestler from Linz, at Wrestling School Austria. According to Hahn, Kovac made him and the other students practice amateur wrestling to benefit their overall professional wrestling abilities, and would charge €35 for private lessons.
From the beginning of his career in 2005 until 2014, Hahn went by the ring name Big Van Walter. The name was a direct reference to Big Van Vader, but it was not a homage. According to Hahn, commentator Mark Landauer gave him the name, and Landauer went on to tell promoters that Hahn's stage name would be Big Van Walter, which annoyed Hahn. Hahn had his first recorded wrestling match on 19 November 2005 in Bern, competing in a tag team match alongside SigMasta Rappo (who, at the time, was under the ring-name Sigi The SwissTank); they lost to the High Class Catch Club (Baron von Hagen and Adam Polak). At the time of this match, Walter was 18 years old. He had his first singles match on 25 March 2006 in Bad Vöslau, defeating Sigi The SwissTank. In the early months of his career, he had his first matches with future rivals and wXw colleagues John Klinger and Absolute Andy, as well as competing in matches with the likes of Colt Cabana, Pac and "Bambikiller" Chris Raaber.
According to Hahn, he wanted to initially hone his skills and train further in the United States; however, Chris Raaber wanted him to train in Japan due to the similarities within one of Raaber's trainers, Dory Funk Jr., and current puroresu trainers. Raaber reached out to Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX, the founded promotion of Shinya Hashimoto and Shinjiro Otani, and asked if Hahn could train with ZERO1-MAX and its heavyweight trainers, which consisted of Riki Choshu and his protege Tomohiro Ishii, and Tatsuhito Takaiwa. Hahn began training at the ZERO1-MAX dojo, which had also been a training facility used by members of the HUSTLE and Pride Fighting Championship rosters, in December 2006. Hahn was assigned the gimmick of Gha-cha-ping, the off-shoot wrestling gimmick of Hirake! Ponkikki character Gachapin.
For the gimmick, Hahn had his hair dyed green and wore a mask to the ring, complete with a light green singlet with yellow and pink lines in the center, contrasting to Gachapin. He made his debut as Gha-cha-ping on 17 January 2007, teaming with Raaber (as Bambikiller) to defeat Otani and Rikiya Fudo. For two days afterwards, Hahn defeated Fudo in singles matches and then Fuyujirou Jidosha. His first loss as the gimmick came on 10 February, losing to Kohei Sato in Hiroshima; he lost to him again in Nagano on 19 February as well. His last match on the tour took place on 7 April, defeating Jidosha, as Jiro Kuruma, at the Yasukuni Shrine Sumo Wrestling Place in Tokyo. Hahn returned to Japan in 2008, ditching the Gha-cha-ping gimmick and going as Big Van Walter, for two shows for the Makehen promotion. First, on 19 March, he teamed with Lance Archer, who went by his real name Lance Hoyt, losing to Masato Shibata (the future Mad Paulie) and Tomohiko Hashimoto. On 28 March, he teamed with Daisuke Sekimoto to defeat Shibata and Hashimoto.
In the midst of his run in wXw in 2011, Hahn took part in numerous shows with their main Japanese partner at the time, Big Japan Pro Wrestling. At Korakuen Hall, on 28 April, he defeated then-rookie Ryuichi Kawakami. Four days later, on 2 May, he defeated Daisuke Sekimoto to win the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship, his second reign overall. In Yokohama, on 5 May, he teamed with Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) owner D. J. Hyde to defeat Abdullah Kobayashi and Shadow WX. He returned to Japan in April 2012, teaming with Sekimoto to defeat Yoshihito Sasaki and BJW Strong ace Yuji Okabayashi. On 5 May 2012, Walter was defeated by Sasaki in a match to crown the inaugural BJW World Strong Heavyweight champion in Yokohama, a defeat considered vengeful for Sasaki as Walter had defeated him in a Unified World Wrestling Championship defense a year prior.
In July 2007, Hahn took part in an inter-promotional tour with BJW, wXw and CZW wrestlers on a "World Triangle Night" showcase tour. The first match of the tour for Walter, on 27 July, involved him and fellow wXw wrestlers Robert Dreissker and "Bad Bones" John Klinger losing to Okabayashi, Sekimoto and Sasaki. Walter and Dreissker, who would later be known as the AUTsiders in Europe, defeated Sasaki and Shinya Ishikawa a day later. On 29 July, he and Klinger defeated Okabayashi and Sekimoto, and then defeated Okabayashi in a singles match hours later. On 30 July, he and Dreissker failed to win the wXw World Tag Team Championships, losing to the Sumerian Death Squad (Tommy End and Michael Dante). In late 2019, it was announced that Walter would compete at BJW's Ryogokutan 2019 show, at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan, where he would team with Sekimoto to face Okabayashi and Yuji Hino. Sekimoto and Walter won the match.