Ludwig Kaiser

Marcel Barthel (born 8 July 1990), better known by his ring name Ludwig Kaiser, is a German professional wrestler. As of 2017, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand and in sister promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), as the second incarnation of the masked wrestler El Grande Americano, and is the AAA Mega Champion in his first reign. He is also the leader of the Los Americanos stable. A second-generation wrestler, Barthel was trained by his father and debuted under the ring name Axel Dieter Jr. for Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw), where he became a two-time World Tag Team Champion and one-time Unified World Wrestling Champion. He signed with WWE in 2017 and was assigned to NXT under his real name, joining the Imperium stable where he won the NXT Tag Team Championship twice with Fabian Aichner. Imperium was moved to the main roster in 2022 where Barthel was renamed as Ludwig Kaiser. Due to injury, Barthel took over the role of El Grande Americano from Chad Gable in 2025. As Americano, Barthel is a former one-time WWE Speed Champion.