{"id":279559,"date":"2026-05-21T14:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/279559\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T14:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:59:09","slug":"wwe-star-ludwig-kaiser-arrested-on-misdemeanor-battery-charge-in-florida-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/279559\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE star Ludwig Kaiser arrested on misdemeanor battery charge in Florida: reports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\" class=\"speakable\"><a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_1117925\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/organization\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">WWE<\/a> star Marcel Barthel, who performs under the names Ludwig Kaiser and El Grande Americano, was arrested in Florida this week.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\" class=\"speakable\">Barthel, 35, was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge on Wednesday, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">He was reportedly booked into the Orange County Jail before he was released on $1,000 bond, the <a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_1117926\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/21\/sports\/wwe-star-ludwig-kaiser-marcel-barthel-arrested-on-battery-charge-in-florida\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">New York Post<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\"><a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_1117927\" href=\"https:\/\/link.podtrac.com\/dmwdd_article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON&#8217;T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ludwig-kaiser-wwe-berlin-fox-news-052126-2.jpeg\" alt=\"Ludwig Kaiser speaking into a microphone at WWE Friday Night SmackDown in Berlin\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Ludwig Kaiser speaks into a microphone during WWE Friday Night SmackDown at Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany, on Aug. 30, 2024. (WWE\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">The wrestler was allegedly involved in an altercation with another man before he was arrested, <a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_1117928\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fightful.com\/wrestling\/wwes-ludwig-kaiser-marcel-barthel-arrested-in-florida-on-battery-charge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Fightful reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Fox News Digital reached out to WWE for comment.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Barthel\u2019s attorneys filed a motion Wednesday to allow the wrestler to travel outside of the country fork work purposes, according to multiple reports. He flew back to Florida to turn himself in.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Barthel, who was born in <a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_1117929\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/world\/world-regions\/germany\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Germany<\/a>, joined the company in 2017 after time in Westside Xtreme Wrestling and Progress Wrestling. He was a part of the Imperium faction with Gunther as the leader and Fabian Aichner, who was later rebranded as Giovanni Vinci before he was released.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\"><a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_1117930\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ludwig-kaiser-wwe-survivor-series-fox-news-001.jpeg\" alt=\"Ludwig Kaiser walking to the ring at Rogers Arena in Vancouver\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Ludwig Kaiser makes his way to the ring during WWE Survivor Series: War Games at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada, on Nov. 30, 2024. (WWE\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">&#8220;Kaiser established himself as one of the German independent wrestling scene\u2019s brightest prospects,&#8221; his WWE profile read. &#8220;He joined the WWE Performance Center in summer 2017 and made his WWE Network debut a year later on NXT.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">&#8220;Kaiser has since proven to be a true mat magician, as well as a no-nonsense competitor. With the posture of a steel pole and a facial expression that rarely deviates from the stern setting, Kaiser is practically unflappable \u2014 though on the rare occasion that he does lose his cool, he\u2019s quick to let his opponents know by defiantly screaming \u2018nein\u2019 in their face. His ring excellence soon led to him aligning with the imposing Imperium faction with two NXT Tag Team Championship reigns under his belt.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">He performed as Ludwig Kaiser before his character was repackaged as El Grande Americano when Chad Gable was injured. Since Gable returned, he was repackaged as the Original El Grande Americano and started to feud with Barthel\u2019s El Grande Americano gimmick.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/wwe-el-grande-americano-royal-rumble-fox-news-001.jpeg\" alt=\"El Grande Americano facing off against El Grande Americano in WWE Royal Rumble match\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>El Grande Americano faces off against El Grande Americano during WWE&#8217;s Royal Rumble at Riyadh Season Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 31, 2026. (Joe Maher\/WWE)<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Since then, he\u2019s performed at Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide. <a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_1117932\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/wwe-wrestler-billed-hailing-from-gulf-america\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">El Grande Americano<\/a> and Original El Grande Americano are set for an end to their heated rivalry with a mask vs. mask match at Noche de Los Grandes on May 30.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! WWE star Marcel Barthel, who performs under the names Ludwig&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,51224,37308],"class_list":["post-279559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-pro-wrestling","tag-wwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}