Danhausen makes his WWE debut, gets lukewarm reception from their fans

I’ll start off here making clear that, I’m a fan of the Danhausen gimmick, have been since I first saw him in the pre-Tony Khan Ring of Honor.

It’s an acquired taste – Danhausen, which, incidentally, is the real surname of the creator, Donovan Danhausen, is destined to be forever a comedy act, along the lines of an R-Truth or Orange Cassidy, though those guys are presented as being somewhat competitive; Danhausen, sadly, for his fans, doesn’t get booked to win matches, much less be an occasional title contender.

I’ve already written more here in terms of depth about Danhausen than most wrestling writers ever will; the reason today being, Danhausen was the guy in the mystery crate at WWE’s “Elimination Chamber” over the weekend, and as such, was the exception to the rule best explained by Jim Cornette – that whatever comes out of a box is automatically over.

The live crowd seemed to want, you know, anybody else to be the guy in the mystery crate, though it wasn’t going to be Chris Jericho, who is still in whatever limbo he’s in contractually – Jericho is either still tethered to AEW, or he’s a free agent who wants to be able to work in WWE but also continue his outside projects, including Fozzy, which is set to begin a spring tour that will bring him, among other places, to Waynesboro, here in my backyard.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer is reporting that there were folks in the upper echelon of WWE who weren’t so sure about bringing Danhausen on, and that those folks are feeling vindicated by the lukewarm, at best, live crowd response.

“He’ll get another chance, and maybe it’ll be The Gobbledy Gooker, or he’ll be R-Truth, one or the other,” Meltzer said.

Yeah, I’d forgotten about The Gobbledy Gooker, Hector Guerrero in a turkey costume, Vince McMahon’s idea in 1990 to create a WWE version of The San Diego Chicken.

Word behind the scenes is that WWE wants to use Danhausen as a personality to represent the company at public events and local TV spots, and will give him weekly TV time to build his PR value for those types of appearances, akin to how WWE uses R-Truth or The Miz, a former world champ who is now very part-time wrestler, full-time brand ambassador.

I wish Khan had seen fit to use Danhausen similarly, because I see the value that Danhausen can offer in that respect.

Wrestling, dating back to its carny beginnings, is at its best when it gives us oddball characters, and the Danhausen gimmick is about as oddball as it gets.

The guy behind Danhausen has made more money off his creation than he deserved to, so, credit to him for that, and I hope for his sake that he can keep it going.