Imperium (professional wrestling)

The group debuted on 27 August 2016 as a tag team when Walter and Timothy Thatcher competed against A4 (Absoulte Andy and Marius Al-Ani) in wXw's World Tag Team League 2016 Qualifying in which they lost.[1][2] The stable's first match occurred on 23 September 2016 when Axel Dieter Jr. teamed up with Walter and Thatcher defeated Da Mack, Francis Kaspin & John Klinger in a tag team match at the wXw Shotgun Live Tour in Ludwigshafen.[1] 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.[3] On 11 March Walter and Thatcher lost the wXw Tag Titles to Da Mack and John Klinger.[4]

At Chapter 47, Ringkampf (Walter, Dieter and 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.[5][6] Walter defeated Matt Riddle to win the Progress Atlas Championship at Chapter 51: Screaming For Progress at the O2 Academy Birmingham.[7] He lost the title to Riddle a little over a month later on a Progress card in New York City.,[8] 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.[9] 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.

On the 22 May 2019 episode of NXT UK, Walter won a rematch for the United Kingdom Championship against Dunne, after interference by the European Union (Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel), thus establishing himself as a heel[10] and reuniting Ringkampf under the new name Imperium.[11] The faction would later be joined by Alexander Wolfe, after he interfered in a match pitting Imperium against British Strong Style (the team of Dunne, Bate, and Seven). On the June 26 episode of NXT UK, Walter retained his title against Travis Banks. On the July 3 episode of NXT UK, Imperium interfered in Moustache Mountain's title match against Grizzled Young Veterans therefore making Grizzled Young Veterans retain their titles. After the match, they injured Tyler Bate. On August 31 at NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff, Walter retained his title against Tyler Bate. The match was highly acclaimed, earning a 5.25 star rating from Dave Meltzer, making it the third match in WWE history to break the 5 star rating system.[12]

In the build-up for the NXT UK and NXT co-branded pay-per-view, Worlds Collide, Imperium began feuding with The Undisputed Era (NXT Champion Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, and NXT Tag Team Champions Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly), which was further intensified during the closing moments of NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II on January 12, 2020, when the group attacked Imperium following Walter's successful title defense against Joe Coffey.[13][14] During Walter's reign the following week, the WWE United Kingdom Championship was renamed to NXT United Kingdom Championship and he was presented with a slightly updated belt design, replacing the WWE logo at the center with the NXT UK logo.[15] On May 13, 2020, Barthel and Aichner defeated Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher (a substitute for Pete Dunne) to win the NXT Tag team Championship.[16] The duo retained with success the titles against Fandango and Tyler Breeze.