Walter Hahn, commonly known as Walter (or WALTER), is an Austrian professional wrestler and trainer who is currently signed to WWE, where he performs under the WWE NXT UK brand and is the current WWE NXT UK Champion. Throughout his career, WALTER has appeared for many notable independent promotions including Westside Xtreme Wrestling, Progress Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Evolve Wrestling.
WALTER is also a former OTT World Champion, PWG World Champion, wXw Unified World Champion, and Defiant Internet Champion. He is also in his first reign as Progress Unified World Champion and has held the Progress Atlas Championship on three occasions.
Walter made his wXw debut in 2007 in a match also involving the likes of Atsushi Aoki, Adam Polak, and Tengkwa on the pre-show at the 16 Carat Gold Tournament. In 2010, Walter won the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship in Germany by defeating Zack Sabre Jr. Walter eventually lost the title to Daisuke Sekimoto in 2011 but won it back at a Big Japan Pro Wrestling show in Tokyo, later in the year. Walter's reign as champion would last 383 days before he would lose the title to El Generico. In 2012, Walter was defeated by Yoshihito Sasaki in a match to crown the inaugural BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion.
In 2013, Walter and Robert Dreissker defeated RockSkillet to win the wXw World Tag Team Championship. He would later go on to win the titles with Zack Sabre Jr. and RINGKAMPF stablemate Timothy Thatcher. In 2019, Walter and fellow NXT UK star Ilja Dragunov won the wXw World Tag Team Championship by defeating Aussie Open.
Walter is also the head trainer at wXw.
In 2015, Walter, under the name of Big Daddy Walter, made his Progress Wrestling debut at the Super Strong Style 16 Tournament when he lost to Rampage Brown in the first round. At Progress Chapter 51, Walter defeated Matt Riddle to win the Progress Atlas Championship. At Progress Chapter 68, Walter vacated the Atlas Championship and set his sights towards the PROGRESS World Championship. At Chapter 74, Walter defeated Travis Banks to win the PROGRESS World Championship.
At the Super Strong Style 16, Walter defeated Trent Seven in a title vs title match to win back the Progress Atlas Championship and unify it with the PROGRESS World Championship.
At Evolve 90 in 2017, Walter debuted for Evolve Wrestling and successfully defended the PROGRESS World Championship against Fred Yehi. At Evolve 91, Walter unsuccessfully challenged for the WWN Championship in a match involving Matt Riddle, Keith Lee, and Tracy Williams. At Evolve 96, Walter once again unsuccessfully challenged for the WWN Championship when he was defeated Keith Lee.
Walter made his PWG debut at the 2017 Battle of Los Angeles and in his first match for the promotion, Walter was defeated by eventual tournament winner Keith Lee. Following a loss to Ricochet at All Star Weekend 13 - Night One, Walter finally got his first win in PWG when he defeated Zack Sabre Jr., the very next day.
In 2018, Walter and fellow RINGKAMPF stablemate Timothy Thatcher unsuccessfully challenged the Chosen Bros for the PWG World Tag Team Championship. In April of 2018, Walter defeated Keith Lee and Jonah Rock to win the PWG World Championship. He would eventually lose the title Jeff Cobb in October.
On 2nd June, 2018, Walter defeated Travis Banks and Zack Sabre Jr. to win the Defiant Internet Championship. However, on December 30th, Walter would lose the title to Martin Kirby.
In January 12th, 2019, Walter made his WWE debut at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool when he confronted Pete Dunne following his successful NXT UK Championship defense. On February 2nd, Walter made his WWE and NXT UK in-ring debut defeating Jack Starz under four minutes.
At NXT TakeOver: New York, Walter would defeat Dunne to win the NXT UK Championship. On 22nd May, Walter marked his first successful title defense when he defeated Dunne in a rematch following outside interference from The European Union (Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel) as he would retain the title and establish himself as a heel. The trio would later be joined by Alexander Wolfe and started calling themselves Imperium. On the 26th June episode of NXT UK, Walter retained his title against Travis Banks.
