Ludwig Kaiser answers LA Knight’s US title open challenge on WWE SmackDown
In his home country of Germany on Friday, Ludwig Kaiser was featured in a championship match.
This week’s SmackDown from Berlin opened with Kaiser answering LA Knight’s open challenge for the United States title. The German crowd was on Kaiser’s side, but the U.S. title did not change hands. Knight pinned Kaiser after hitting the BFT.
Though Kaiser is on the Raw roster, he made a surprise SmackDown appearance for this match. The German fans gave Kaiser a big reaction when he entered. Before the match, Kaiser cut a promo claiming that he was going to change the U.S. title into his own personal European Championship if he won.
Kaiser was a top star for German indie promotion wXw prior to his WWE career, wrestling as Axel Dieter Jr.
This was Knight’s second defense of the U.S. title. He won the belt from Logan Paul at SummerSlam earlier this month and retained against Santos Escobar last week on SmackDown.
Before this SmackDown, WWE had not held a televised show in Germany in 27 years. The episode was taped earlier in the day before airing in the United States.
Germany is hosting its first-ever WWE PPV/PLE — Bash in Berlin — this Saturday. Kaiser does not have a match at the event, but his Imperium friend Gunther is set to defend the World Heavyweight Championship against Randy Orton.