Marcel Barthel

is a German professional wrestler currently signed to WWE where he appears on its developmental roster NXT. Before signing with the WWE, he spent the beginning years of his career wrestling under the ring name Axel Dieter Jr. He is also a second-generation wrestler as he is the son of German wrestler Axel Dieter. Dieter made his debut for Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) in January 2009, losing to Dan Marshall. Dieter's next match in wXw would not be until July 2012, when he and Da Mack defeated Walter and Michael Isotov. Dieter and Da Mack would go on to form a regular team, dubbing themselves Hot And Spicy. On November 16, 2013, they defeated The Autsiders (Walter and Robert Dreissker) to win the wXw World Tag Team Championship. Dieter and Da Mack made 7 successful defences of the championship, defeating the likes of The Sumerian Death Squad (Tommy End and Michael Dante), Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov) and Kazuki Hashimoto and Ryuichi Kawakami. They eventually lost the championships to Matt Striker and Trent on March 15, 2014, but won the championships back in a rematch one day later. On April 6, 2014, Dieter received his first opportunity at the wXw Shotgun Championship, losing to Axel Tischer. After over a combined year as wXw World Tag Team Champions, Dieter and Da Mack were defeated by French Flavour (Lucas Di Leo and Peter Fischer) on October 18, 2014, bringing their reign to an end. On November 22, he unsuccessfully challenged Walter for the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship. In February 2015, Dieter took part in the Four Nations Cup, defeating Timothy Thatcher in the final to win the tournament. In March, Dieter took part in the 16 Carat Gold Tournament, defeating Zack Sabre Jr. in the semi-final to advance to the final, where he lost to Tommy End. In October, after a short break, Hot And Spicy teamed together once again, taking part in the 2015 World Tag Team Tournament, making it to the semi-finals where they lost to reDRagon (Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish). In March 2016, Dieter once again took part in the 16 Carat Gold Tournament, defeating Drew Galloway in the semi-final to advance to the final, where he lost to Zack Sabre Jr, the man he defeated to advance to the final in the previous year's tournament. On September 2, Dieter and Da Mack faced off against each other, with Da Mack coming out on top and retaining his wXw Shotgun Championship. In late 2016, Dieter joined Ringkampf, and on December 10, he defeated Marty Scurll to win the wXw Unified World Wrestling Title. Dieter held the championship until March 2017, when he was defeated by Jurn Simmons. In April, Dieter announced that he would be leaving wXw to pursue further opportunities outside of Germany. On April 30, wXw held a farewell show for Dieter, titled "wXw Die Matte Ist Heilig: Farewell To Axel Dieter Jr". In his final match, he teamed with Ringkampf stablemate Walter to defeat longtime partner Da Mack and longtime rival Jurn Simmons.