Ludwig Kaiser reveals what led to breakup of WWE faction Imperium

Ludwig Kaiser has shared details on what led to the end of his pairing with Gunther on WWE programming.

Kaiser and Gunther had been teaming together since their days as members of Ringkampf on the European independent scene. The pair quietly disbanded late last year, no longer appearing together on WWE programming but never officially broken up either.

Kaiser recently spoke with Kennt jeder about the end of his pairing with Gunther and Imperium, noting that it was his and Gunther’s idea and that the structure of the faction had changed over time and across promotions.

“I don’t think I’ve ever said this anywhere but that was also wanted by me and also by Gunther,” Kaiser said (translated from German) about the breakup of the group.

“Imperium actually originally comes from wXw, back then it was Ringkampf. And that was structured differently. I would say everyone was more on the same level, because everyone had different roles. Back then, it was with Timothy Thatcher, he was the bruiser type, responsible for the dirty work. I was the arrogant snob, the young kid. And WALTER was the enforcer, the guy who comes in and wipes everybody out. But when WWE did Imperium again, me and my former partner were the tag team, and he was the main guy out in front. That just created a different dynamic. So Ringkampf, or even Imperium, my side of Imperium was always different from Gunther’s.“

Kaiser and Gunther were both members of the Ringkampf faction from 2016 to 2019 alongside Timothy Thatcher and Christian Michael Jakobi, wrestling for promotions such as Germany’s wXw and Progress Wrestling out of London. Along with Alexander Wolfe and Giovanni Vinci, they debuted as Imperium in NXT UK in May 2019.

Kaiser’s full interview is available below. His comments about the breakup of Imperium begin around the 32-minute and 30-second mark. English translations are available in the video’s Closed Captions settings.