After weeks of teaser segments on Raw and SmackDown, in between the main event of Elimination Chamber in Chicago and WWE World Heavyweight champion CM Punk and new Women’s Intercontinental champ AJ Lee sharing a celebratory moment in the town they call home, General Managers Adam Pearce and Nick Aldis cracked open the Mystery Crate.
Signs all pointed to this being the debut of comedy wrestler Danhausen, who formed a close friendship with Punk while they were both at AEW. It’s a bit of a high concept gimmick, as wrestling gimmicks go. Danhausen is either someone who thinks he’s a demon or an actual demon. He prides himself on being very nice and very evil, hates curse words but curses people, loves money, collects teeth, and… you probably get it. If not, you’ll at least have a better sense of it after you see his WWE debut. We should probably also mention that Danhausen is both a Conan O’Brien and Pee Wee Herman-inspired character…
There’s some cheers, and a few “oohs” and “ahhs” as Danhausen and the Hausen-ettes danced their way to the ring to a campy number. But the boos take over towards the end of that clip, and turned to a “WTF” chant as the show went to commercial. Michael Cole seemed to be channeling that reaction with his own.
So… not an ideal launch for a character that many believed would be a tough sell outside the independent wrestling scene and the internet wrestling fanbase. It might be best to move on from this, pretend it was a success in true pro wrestling fashion, and roll Danhausen out in NXT and AAA where he’s more likely to get over (and therefore move merchandise, because he’s not here for critically acclaimed matches and World title runs).
He did present Cole with a jar of teeth, which will probably be available soon on WWE Shop dot com.
Give us your reaction to the Danhausen Mystery Crate reveal in the comments below, and get complete coverage of everything happening at Elimination Chamber here.