Imperium have vowed that “the mat is sacred,” and that is a phrase that the group can thank Ludwig Kaiser’s father for coming up with.
In May 2019, Gunther (then Walter) was aided by Kaiser (Marcel Barthel) and Giovanni Vinci (Fabian Aichner) during a United Kingdom Championship match with Pete Dunne.
Speaking on WWE’s ‘The Bump,’ Gunther explained the significant role that Kaiser’s father played in the group’s early days. He said,
“I have to say, to his (Kaiser’s) dad, he inspired all of us because that’s where our identity comes from. Obviously Gio, we connected later, so it was a little bit different perhaps. But there was a heavy influence on all of us.”
Kaiser agreed with his ally’s comments, and said that his father came up with the phrase “the mat is sacred.”
“100 percent, down to the ‘The mat is sacred’ and all that kind of stuff. My dad, I remember a very young age, whenever there were some kind of festivity or whatever, he would always raise his glass and say, ‘The mat is sacred.’ A lot of the things that we say, and to a certain extent portray on TV is what we actually think … what IÂ was taught when I was a little boy.”
Gunther will defend the WWE Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 39, against an opponent that will be decided via a battle royal inside MSG.
