Stefan Raab: Entertainer loses boxing match against Regina Halmich and announces comeback on RTL

What does he look like? Stefan Raab keeps the audience in suspense for a long time before he reveals his true appearance after nine years of TV abstinence and lets Regina Halmich beat him up again. But in the end, the boxing match in Düsseldorf almost becomes a side issue.

You can feel that it is a special event that is taking place on Saturday evening in the PSD Bank Dome in Düsseldorf. Yes, maybe even like the “television event of the decade”, as it gets quite immodestly heated over the course of the evening. Not because celebrities like Olivia Jones, Evelyn Burdecki or Jens “Knossi” Knossalla are not also seen at other events where there is something to watch and snacks to be served. But because the tension before the boxing match between Stefan Raab and Regina Halmich seems almost palpable.

Overall, there is a bit of whispering and guessing. About what? Of course, about what Frank “Buschi” Buschmann sums up: “Is he really coming? What does he look like?” The all-rounder in sports and games moderates the evening – alongside Laura Wontorra and Elton, who as Raab's former “show intern” and best buddy could certainly reveal some internal information, but in keeping with his fine suit, he exercises a noble restraint.

It was Buschi's second question in particular that preoccupied many in advance. After all, Raab had not been seen in real life since 2018, when he made a few more live appearances after his TV farewell three years earlier. Since he announced at the end of March that he would return to the spotlight for the fight against Halmich, he had only been seen with an artificial belly or – as in the last promotional video for the “Final Fight” – as an Adonis made up with the help of artificial intelligence. One thing was clear: he certainly doesn't look like that. The only question was: what then?

Hard test of patience

Buschi's first question, whether Raab would actually come, probably didn't really bother anyone. It was extremely unlikely that he would just surprise the 13,000 paying or invited guests in the hall or the millions of people watching on TV and streaming devices.

But until the time comes for Raab to finally relieve everyone who is just waiting for him to appear, he and the makers of the show around the boxing duel put the viewers' patience to the test. Almost an hour and a half pass in which various films with contemporary witnesses from Campino and Herbert Grönemeyer to Thomas Gottschalk and Markus Lanz to Anne Will and Judith Rakers are really only about one thing: When it comes to TV entertainment, Stefan Raab was once the undisputed “King of Chops”, as he called the then SPD candidate for chancellor, Peer Steinbrück, in the TV duel with Angela Merkel.

We see Stefan Raab, the ex-Viva anarcho, the TV total inventor, the music ace and the fighting pig. But how does one fan put it so beautifully in a chat with Laura Wontorra? “Raab is worth everything to us.” And so the people in the Düsseldorf “Dome” watch on XXL video screens what is also flickering across the screens in their living rooms at home – until, yes, until the first main actor of the evening makes his big appearance: At 9.40 p.m. the boxing ring, which had not been seen until then, rises from the ceiling, accompanied by pyrotechnic fireworks and Frank Buschmann's cheer: “There it is!”

“All people are delighted”

Another 15 minutes later, things finally get going. “It's showtime” – at least for Regina Halmich. To the live sounds of her friend, metal queen Doro Pesch, and with the clear challenge “I want to destroy Stefan Raab's comeback”, they enter the ring. They don't have the sympathy on their side. The majority of people in the hall seem to be hoping for a victory for “Killerplauze”, who is considered a clear underdog. “Halmich will win by knockout in the fifth or sixth round” – many predictions are similar to Buschmann's assessment.

While Halmich, alone in the ring after her entrance, does everything she can to maintain concentration and focus on the fight, Raab lets her and the audience continue to stew with relish. A countdown forwards and backwards, Helge Schneider singing “Katzeklo” and fitness influencer Pamela Reif floating through the air like an angel on wire ropes while she breathes words like “Stefan Raab is returning, everyone is delighted. I'd like to be beautiful like him, but that's difficult” – just some of the show elements that further delay the climax of the evening.

The specially built show staircase, which reaches from the ground to the roof of the hall, is also symbolic of the tension and down which Raab, wrapped in a hooded coat, leisurely walks through clouds of fog, laser flashes and pyrotechnics. When he gets to the bottom, he immediately sings the motto: “Now you're going to get a smack in the mouth.” Sido and Ski Aggu are also allowed to add their two cents musically before Raab shows himself off on a podium in all his shirtless glory. Yes, he has trained. Yes, he has lost weight – down to 85 kilos, as we later found out. And yes, at 57, he has aged a little too, his hair has become a little lighter and his beard a little greyer.

Raab takes it in good spirit

There was no doubt about it: when the “vice champion in women's boxing” faced Halmich in the ring to the sounds of “I love Germany”, he was hoping to pull off a big surprise. But in the second of a total of six scheduled rounds it became clear that only a “lucky punch” could save him – and that was when Raab was counted out for the first time. No, despite all his training, physical dominance and possibly even greater punching power, he had no real chance against the former world boxing champion, who weighed just 51 kilos. As in his first two fights against Halmich in 2001 and 2007, he was thoroughly beaten. But at least he lasted the full six rounds and only lost on points in the end.

Raab takes it in good spirits. When Halmich complains that he hid in the weeks and months before the fight and didn't get in touch with her, he does give his opponent, who is ten years younger, a piece of advice: “I'm not a geriatric nurse.” Ultimately, however, he raises her arm in a victory pose before the judges announce the official verdict.

In any case, the spectacle suddenly becomes almost irrelevant when Raab finally announces what some had expected, but which had until then remained speculation: “I've decided to do shows again.” Not only the audience is excited, but Elton is surely too, when Raab tells him: “We still have an internship position available.”

DGHNDMBSR instead of NWSDWH

It is the real sensation of the evening, which the now-again entertainer subsequently explained in more detail at a press conference and which shortly afterwards set the tickers running hot with an official announcement: Raab has signed an exclusive 5-year contract with RTL. His first show is called “You won't win the million here with Stefan Raab”, or DGHNDMBSR for short, not NWSDWH. For a long time, people had been wondering what the abbreviation in Raab's promotional videos for the fight against Halmich might mean. Nothing at all, he now explains. It was the abbreviation for the name of the show, before it was renamed.

So it is now called DGHNDMBSR. And DGHNDMBSR actually starts on Wednesday at 8:15 p.m. – exclusively on the streaming portal RTL+. Further editions of the format, in which Raab will prevent candidates from winning one million euros, will follow on a weekly basis.

And it won't stop there. Plans include “various sensational primetime shows developed by Raab Entertainment, for which the multi-talented actor will appear in front of the camera again at the end of the year,” RTL announced, while the lost TV son smugly celebrated his new home station with music at the press conference: “My RTL. Welcome home.” No, Raab may not be the King of the Ring. But he is back as the ultimate King of Chops of entertainment.