The wrestling world is talking about how Danhausen made his WWE debut at Elimination Chamber 2026. Emerging from a mystery crate in Chicago, the former AEW star has already begun making his mark on the WWE landscape. On the latest episode of the Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T weighed in on the arrival of the character and how he believes such a unique gimmick can succeed within the company.
While some fans wonder how Danhausen’s supernatural and comedic elements will translate to the main roster, Booker T sees a massive financial upside. He noted that the character is perfectly suited for branding and could easily become a top seller for WWE’s merchandising arm if handled correctly.
“I’m not going to try to sit in speculate or anything like that, other than you know, we definitely know he could be used on AAA shows. Those guysm they got a lot of gimmicks over there. So he’ll fit right in, you know, to the AAA mode. How far are you going to go on the main roster? And you know, who you got to match him up with? You know what? What are we really trying to get out of the Dan housing character? I know it definitely could become a merchandising machine.”
Booker T also addressed the skepticism surrounding comedic “gimmick” wrestlers. For the six-time World Champion, variety is what makes the industry work, and removing the humor would strip professional wrestling of its core identity.
“Wrestling is wrestling. And when you take Danhausen characters and funny stuff out of professional wrestling, you kind of like lose the, you know, the real meaning of what wrestling truly, really is in my book, because wrestling is to be funny sometimes, sometimes it’s serious, you know, sometimes you got so many different elements. So I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, you know, pre-conceive what we’re trying to get out of Danhausen. I’m gonna sit back and watch and let this thing play out.”
The “Danhausen effect” was felt almost immediately following his debut. On the March 2 episode of Monday Night Raw, the star confronted Dominik Mysterio, placing a “curse” on him after a brief backstage interaction. Later that night, Mysterio lost the Intercontinental Championship to Penta, leading many fans to credit the curse for the shocking title change.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The Hall of Fame with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
