Fabian Aichner

Fabian Aichner (born 21 July 1990) is an Italian professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Giovanni Vinci.

Aichner signed with WWE in 2017 and joined the group Imperium, becoming a two-time NXT Tag Team Champion with Imperium teammate Ludwig Kaiser. He previously worked on the independent circuit, becoming a one-time Evolve Champion and one-time NEW World Heavyweight Champion.

Early life

Fabian Aichner was born in Pfalzen on 21 July 1990.

Professional wrestling career

Independent circuit (2011–2017)

On 9 December 2011, Aichner made his debut under the ring name Adrian Severe at a New European Championship Wrestling (NEW) event. He competed in the final of the NEW World Heavyweight Championship tournament in March 2012, but did not win. On 2 February 2013, he won the NEW World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Vicious Impact Power, but lost it back to Power on 2 November. In 2014, he won the King of the North tournament. At the end of the year, Cagematch ranked him at No. 5 for the ''Euro-Match des Jahres'' Cagematch Year End Awards. After his return to the independent circuit following his participation in WWE's Cruiserweight Classic in 2016, he won the NEW World Tag Team Championship tournament with Mexx. In 2017, he competed for the German Wrestling Federation (GWF) and Belgium's Flemish Wrestling Force (FWF).

WWE

Developmental (2017–2022)

In June 2016, WWE announced Aichner as one of the 32 participants in the Cruiserweight Classic tournament. He was selected to represent Italy during the tournament, and was eliminated by the United Kingdom's Jack Gallagher in the first round. On 5 June 2017, it was announced that he had signed a contract with WWE. He made his television debut on 27 September episode of '' NXT'', losing to Kassius Ohno. While still under contract with WWE, he made an appearance at Evolve 115 (which has a partnership with WWE) and won the Evolve Championship from Shane Strickland. At Evolve 116, he successfully defended the title against Kassius Ohno, but he lost it to Austin Theory at Evolve 117.

Returning to WWE in September 2017, Aichner formed a team with Marcel Barthel, going on to compete on both the NXT and NXT UK brands. They would later align themselves with Walter and Alexander Wolfe in May 2019, forming the team Imperium. On 13 May 2020, Barthel and Aichner defeated Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher (the latter substituting for Pete Dunne) to win the NXT Tag Team Championship. They successfully defended against teams such as Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch, Breezango ( Tyler Breeze and Fandango), and The Undisputed Era. They lost the championship to Breezango on the August 26 episode of ''NXT'', ending their reign at 105 days. They failed to regain the titles from Breezango in a rematch on the September 16 episode of ''NXT''. On 26 October 2021, at Halloween Havoc, Barthel and Aichner captured the championship for a second time by defeating MSK, and would successfully defend their titles at WarGames against Kyle O'Reilly and Von Wagner. At NXT Stand & Deliver in April 2022, Aichner and Barthel lost the titles back to MSK in a triple threat tag team match also involving The Creed Brothers, ending their reign at 158 days. Aichner's final appearance as a member of Imperium was on the April 5 episode of ''NXT'', when he and Barthel faced The Creed Brothers in a losing effort. Aichner then walked out on Barthel, and Imperium would later debut on the SmackDown brand without Aichner.

Main roster and departure (2022–2025)

On the 24 May episode of ''NXT'', vignettes aired promoting the debut of Aichner's new onscreen character, a wealthy Italian snob named Giovanni Vinci whose catchphrase was " Veni, Vidi, Vinci". He re-debuted on the 14 June episode of ''NXT'', defeating Guru Raaj. On the 16 August episode of ''NXT'': Heatwave, he unsuccessfully challenged Carmelo Hayes for the NXT North American Championship. On 3 September, at Clash at the Castle, he reunited with Walter (now called Gunther) and Barthel (now called Ludwig Kaiser) in Imperium. Imperium were drafted to the Raw brand in the 2023 WWE Draft.

On the 22 April 2024 episode of ''Raw'', after Kaiser and Vinci lost to The New Day, Kaiser attacked Vinci and kicked him out of Imperium. A week later at Night 2 of the 2024 WWE Draft, Vinci was drafted to the SmackDown brand in the supplemental draft. On the 9 August edition of ''SmackDown'', a vignette aired for Vinci’s return to the brand, reverting to his singles character from NXT 2.0 back in 2022. On 6 September, Vinci wrestled his return match for the brand on the last ''SmackDown'' on FOX, losing to Apollo Crews in three seconds. Two weeks later, Vinci again lost to Crews and attacked Crews after the match in what was his final televised appearance. After months of inactivity, on 8 February 2025, Aichner was released from WWE, ending his eight-year tenure with the company, with the 90-day no compete clause to expire on 8 May. According to Dave Meltzer, it was reported that Aichner was to be repackaged into a rich playboy character prior to his departure but it never came into fruition.

Other media

Aichner made his video game debut in '' WWE SuperCard'' and is a playable character in ''WWE 2K22'', '' WWE 2K23'','' WWE 2K24,'' and latest installment WWE 2K25 despite being released from the company prior to the game's release, as is the case with some of the wrestlers featured in said game.

Championships and accomplishments

*Championship of Wrestling
**cOw Interstate Championship (1 time)
* Dansk Pro Wrestling
** King Of The North Tournament (2014)
* Evolve
** Evolve Championship ( 1 time)
* New European Championship Wrestling
**NEW Hardcore Championship (1 time)
**NEW World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
**NEW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Mexx
* Power of Wrestling
** POW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with James Mason
*''Pro Wrestling Illustrated''
**Ranked No. 238 of the top 500 singles wrestlers on the ''PWI 500'' in 2020
*WWE
**NXT Tag Team Championship ( 2 times) – with Marcel Barthel

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vinci, Giovanni
1990 births
Living people
Sportspeople from South Tyrol
Italian male professional wrestlers
People from Pfalzen
Germanophone Italian people
Evolve Champions
NXT Tag Team Champions
21st-century male professional wrestlers
21st-century Italian sportsmen