With his face suitably creosoted and his torso suitably meaty, Tim Wiese made his long-awaited in-ring WWE debut at an event in Frankfurt last night.
The ex-Werder Bremen goalkeeper, 34, teamed up with established stars Cesaro and Sheamus and emerged victorious in a tag match against Bo Dallas and the Shining Stars – should that mean anything to you.
What’s more impressive is the tens of Euros the WWE obviously spent cobbling Tim ‘The Machine’ Wiese’s ring gear together…
Breaking: Das ist das Ring Gear von @Tim_Wiese! #TheMachine #WWELive #WWEMunich pic.twitter.com/eOWlVVTOZj
— WWE Deutschland (@WWEDeutschland) November 3, 2016
(*jeans, trainers and watch: model’s own)
Anyway, Wiese performed his first ‘competitive’ WWE duties during the match, lolloping into the ring, firing off a few basic wrestling holds and then getting the pin in front of the home crowd…
The former Germany international (six caps, danke schoen) has apparently packed on around 40 kilograms of muscle since he retired from football in 2014.
Here’s what that looks like in motion…
Lautstarke Tim Wiese-Sprechchöre in München. #WWEMunich #toooooaaa pic.twitter.com/20lL7leo48
— Γρηγόριος Κάρτσιος (@Chaz_Ashley) November 3, 2016
Nothing like getting off to a winning start, even if it is almost entirely choreographed.