34-year-old major WWE star squashed within five seconds after SmackDown debut

A major WWE star made his SmackDown debut tonight. However, he was squashed within seconds.

Giovanni Vinci and Ludwig Kaiser were part of Imperium along with Gunther. They remained a faction for several years in WWE and experienced a lot of success in NXT. When they moved up to the main roster, Kaiser and Vinci were instrumental in The Ring General's reign as the Intercontinental Champion.

However, Kaiser and Vinci were far from being a successful team. Due to Gunther's tactics, it seemed like both were constantly pitted against each other for their Ring General's approval. It all ended when Kaiser turned on Giovanni Vinci after their loss to New Day in April 2024. This was his last appearance on WWE TV.

A couple of weeks ago, vignettes of Giovanni Vinci started airing during SmackDown. He was set to debut against Apollo Crews on the blue brand tonight.

Vinci made a long entrance while his opponent had to wait. However, when Vinci was slowly removing his tracksuit, Crews took the opportunity and rolled him up for the win, making this one of the quickest wins in history.

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It will be interesting to see how Giovanni Vinci will redeem himself after this embarrassing loss on SmackDown.

About the author

Sunil is a pro wrestling journalist, covering AEW and WWE news stories at Sportskeeda. He holds an MBA degree in Marketing, and has nearly 7 years of experience. A wrestling aficionado since childhood, Sunil used to imitate his favorite wrestlers as a young kid, and started writing professionally about the sport via Sportskeeda’s revenue-sharing opportunity.

Sunil admires former world champions AJ Styles, Will Ospreay, and Kenny Omega for their ability to consistently deliver great matches as well as entertain crowds with their mic skills.

If ever given a chance to change a storyline, Sunil would have booked Roman Reigns to end The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak instead of Brock Lesnar. According to him, The Tribal Chief needed the victory more than Brock Lesnar, as the latter was already an established performer when he defeated ‘Taker. He would’ve also made that as Taker’s final match.

Always focused on making his work accurate and reliable, Sunil thoroughly checks his facts before writing his articles. When not writing for pro wrestling, he spends his time watching cricket.

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Edited by Angana Roy