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World Wrestling Entertainment has come to terms with Austrian star Walter Hahn, known inside the ring as WALTER, PWInsider.com has confirmed with multiple sources. There had been a story several months ago that WWE had interest in the star, originally reported by Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer. At the time, WALTER publicly denied those stories but later did enter into negotiations with the company.
Originally trained by European star Michael Kovac, WALTER, 31 years old, has been a regular on the European wrestling scene for WXW in Germany as well as PROGRESS. He's worked under several different names, including Big Van Walter and Big Daddy Walter, before simply going by his first name. A big bruiser of a competitor, he's really broken out internationally beyond Europe and Japan (where he worked for Big Japan Wrestling) over the last several years.
Here in the United States, WALTER has also made appearances for EVOLVE and had a run as the PWG Heavyweight Champion. We are told that WALTER's signing was what led to him dropping the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla championship last month to Jeff Cobb. We are told that PWG attempted to bring him back into the company for a farewell appearance this December, but his WWE deal prevented that from happening.
WALTER is currently finishing up independent dates that were already scheduled and once that run is completed, will be part of WWE's European expansion plans, including the NXT UK brand. We have been told that he may be able to work for certain companies around his WWE bookings, but how much and what restrictions there may be remain to be seen.
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