Why WWE Superstar Gunther Looks So Different Now

One of WWE's fastest-rising stars has accomplished many things within a short time, including moving to America, changing his ring name, and losing over 60 pounds to revamp his look and reinvent himself in the ring. Current World Heavyweight Champion GUNTHER has seen massive success since joining "WWE NXT UK" in 2018, after an already successful career in the independent scenes in both the US and beyond. The Imperium leader is a pillar of the company, whether wrestling as a super heavyweight, or with his new, slimmer physique.

"The Ring General," whose real name is Walter Hahn, got interested in professional wrestling at a young age, watching WWE and All Japan Pro Wrestling video tapes with friends. He was interested in catch wrestling in his native Austria and watched stars like William Regal and Fit Finlay at shows. GUNTHER was initially a goalkeeper playing soccer but quit at 15. His interest in professional wrestling remained throughout the Attitude Era, and he started training at the Wrestling School Austria. His first career match would happen in November 2005 in Switzerland, with the future champion going by the name "Big Van Walter." The bout was a tag match, and the then-18-year-old GUNTHER suffered his first loss. He would get his first victory in a singles match in March of the following year and would continue to grow from there, leaving to train in another country.

The soon-to-be GUNTHER would leave for Japan in 2006, not knowing that within just over 10 years, he would be competing in the biggest wrestling promotion in the world. Not only that, the super heavyweight at the time would go on to slim down in epic proportions to stun not only his coworkers and bosses but his fans around the world.

Even before WWE, GUNTHER's size and stature helped him when it came to becoming a formidable opponent in the ring. GUNTHER started training and working in Japan in 2006, beginning with Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX, with its heavyweight trainers, which included Tomohiro Ishii and Riki Choshu. He would return to Japan throughout his career, including during the middle of his run in Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), where he debuted in Germany in May 2007, once again as Big Van Walter.

He became the youngest winner of the promotion's 16 Carat Gold tournament at just 23 years old in March 2010. GUNTHER then went on to beat Zack Sabre Jr. to win the Unified World Wrestling Championship. In 2012, GUNTHER would go on to wrestle El Generico (WWE's Sami Zayn) after Generico won the 2012 tournament, and lost his title, ending his reign at 383 days. GUNTHER held the Unified World Wrestling Championship three times throughout his time with the promotion. He would also hold the wXw World Tag Team Championships four times, including once alongside fellow future "WWE NXT" standout Ilja Dragunov. As the calendar turned to 2020 and the pandemic ravaged live events around the globe, as well as GUNTHER now being signed with WWE, he competed on only two wXw shows during its 16 Carat Gold weekend that year. He had his final match with wXw at the promotion's 21st anniversary show in December 2021.

During his time in wXw, GUNTHER would also wrestle on the British and Irish independent wrestling circuits. Big Van Walter would wrestle for Revolution Pro Wrestling, Progress Wrestling, and Over the Top Wrestling. He would also compete on the United States independents, wrestling for promotions including GCW, EVOLVE, and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, before making WWE his home officially in January 2019.

GUNTHER's transformation started slowly, but began when he was signed to WWE and debuted on its developmental brand "WWE NXT UK" on January 12, 2019 at TakeOver: Blackpool. He immediately challenged then-WWE United Kingdom Champion, Pete Dunne, and would win his first match in the company the following day. GUNTHER would go on to end Dunne's record-setting title reign when he defeated the star at TakeOver: New York that April. He had only been with the promotion for four months at that point but was already its top champion. Soon after, he would form Imperium alongside Fabian Aichner, Marcel Barthel, and Alexander Wolfe.

GUNTHER began his streak of record-setting championship reigns within "NXT UK," with his reign surpassing two years on April 5, with the title now known as the NXT UK Championship. He dropped the title at NXT Takeover 36 against Dragunov, ending his reign at 870 days. "The Ring General" had his final match in "NXT UK" on January 13, 2022, before he was transferred to "WWE NXT" in Orlando, Florida. GUNTHER wouldn't remain on the developmental brand long, however, disappearing in April 2022 after being defeated by then-NXT Champion Bron Breakker.

He would re-emerge on WWE's main roster, alongside Barthel (now Ludwig Kaiser) in a squash match on April 8 on "WWE SmackDown." In two months, on a June episode of "SmackDown," GUNTHER defeated Ricochet to win the Intercontinental Championship. Now in the big leagues, GUNTHER started to transform his body to match what many expected WWE "superstars" to look like within the company, and fans started to take notice as his physique got trimmer and trimmer seemingly almost every time he was in the ring. "The Ring General" was becoming a "body guy" after being a super heavyweight for years.

If one of the first steps of his transformation was announcing to the "NXT" crowd that he would be called GUNTHER, not WALTER like he was in "NXT UK" moving forward, it was his body transformation to shock wrestling fans next. Following GUNTHER's main roster debut, Dave Meltzer noted on "Wrestling Observer Radio" that WWE asked him to lose weight, because Vince McMahon, who was still in charge of the company at the time, wanted slim guys on TV. Meltzer noted that he could see McMahon telling GUNTHER to drop 30 pounds, despite his size and the way he could move making him a special talent, differing from the rest of the roster.

While "The Ring General" didn't explicitly deny the claim by Meltzer, he did say that he knew he was going to have to change when making the jump from "NXT" to the main roster. GUNTHER spoke on WWE on FOX's "Out of Character" and confirmed he lost between 60 and 65 pounds, despite loving the looks of the Japanese heavyweights he initially trained alongside. He said he thought it suited his style, but knew things were going to have to change, despite not ever personally thinking he was heavy or overweight.

"I always thought like I have to do my part. I have to show that I'm adapting, and I have to show that I put the work in for change," GUNTHER said. "I think that was the most obvious choice... I will be more appealing and stand out more than looking like I looked the way before...I think if you're in the top league on national television every week, and you want to represent the top-tier athletes, you have to be in shape to do so." [H/T The Sportster]

GUNTHER got into the shape the old-fashioned way, by cleaning up his diet and increasing the intensity of his workouts. He spoke to Metro UK in July 2023 about how he was able to lose all the weight and said first that he loves to eat and cook, so he had to limit his food intake, which he called a bit tricky. He even addressed his "cheat day" meals. He said that he enjoys going to nice restaurants now, like steakhouses, to indulge, rather than eating burgers or pizza. "The Ring General" also gave a lot of credit to his Imperium stablemates. He said they were in incredible shape already before he joined in.

"I just jumped on board with them and they kicked my butt to pull through even when it's difficult," GUNTHER told the outlet. "Like I said, it always comes back to the support system and that's from many areas in your life."

His transformation was also discussed during an interview with Corey Graves on the "After the Bell" podcast. GUNTHER addressed how his weight loss helped him in the ring but said he never had an issue with stamina when he was at his heaviest. He said he did notice he felt better after entering the Royal Rumble at number one in 2023, a match where he lasted 71 minutes, until being thrown over the top rope by Cody Rhodes.

Since losing the massive amount of weight, GUNTHER's already successful career has taken off in WWE. On top of his almost-victory in the 2023 Royal Rumble, the star has continued to rack up victories throughout the year 2024, even when he's technically lost. GUNTHER lost the Intercontinental Championship to Sami Zayn at WrestleMania 40, but the match is considered by many to be one of the most exciting matches of the year. At the time of his loss, GUNTHER had cemented a record-breaking reign at 666 days, crushing the record of 454 days, previously held by WWE Hall of Famer The Honkytonk Man. After losing the championship, GUNTHER took a break from WWE TV for around a month, and when he came back, won the King of the Ring tournament, besting Randy Orton at the event of the same name in Saudi Arabia.

"The Ring General" would go on to win the World Heavyweight Championship from Damian Priest at SummerSlam, a title which he still holds as of this writing. He got the chance to go one-on-one with one of the other biggest stars in WWE today, Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, in a match in Saudi Arabia to capture the Crown Jewel Championship. Despite GUNTHER not winning the Saudi-specific title, his World Heavyweight Championship reign continues to go strong, now at 127 days, with his most recent defense against Dominik Mysterio on "WWE Raw," in just over six minutes.