Matt Cardona knew Danhausen would work in WWE. He just did not think it would go this far.
Cardona and Danhausen crossed paths on the independent scene during Cardona’s years away from the company, and speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Cardona said none of the past few months has caught him off guard.
“Doesn’t surprise me one bit.”
He was blunt about the fact that his read was never based on the wrestling.
“The only two Danhausen matches I’ve ever seen is when I wrestled Danhausen at a GCW, and when I teamed with Danhausen against Los Garza. But that’s not saying wrestling is not important, it’s everything else. And he has a connection with the audience. The people love him.”
“I knew he’d be a star in WWE. I could have never have predicted how big of a star he has become. He’s mainstream. He is with the Knicks. It’s unbelievable.”
The debut that did not land
Cardona pointed to Danhausen’s first WWE appearance at Elimination Chamber, which drew a muted response, and said the recovery was the impressive part.
“That first debut did not go over well, but he didn’t let it faze him, and he was confident in himself, and he just kept going, kept going, and then everybody who didn’t understand it, they quickly got it.”
“I just don’t think the fans understood it yet.”
Cardona is happy to ride along
Cardona has already shared a segment with him on television, and he is not pretending there is anything complicated about why.
“I’ve been leeching off him.”
“I’ll take it, baby.”
He also said he has floated a follow-up to WWE, playing off Danhausen lifting the supposed curse on the New York Knicks.
“He uncurses the Knicks. They win the NBA Finals. I said in a pitch to WWE, hey, I think I should do something with Danhausen. Maybe he should uncurse me.”
Cardona said there has already been a small side effect of being around him.
“Yeah, I got a little electric shock, started doing the woo woo a little bit. I don’t know if Zack Ryder will ever be 100% Zack Ryder, but who’s to say we can’t blend them both?”
He said a similar thing happened on a European tour, when a crowd talked him into a piece of his old act.
“Even before all that with Danhausen, I was wrestling Sami Zayn in Spain, and I had Sami down for the boot, and I don’t do the woo anymore. They were chanting for it. How do I not give it to him? So I’m like, ah, screw it, I did it. And why not? Why not give the people what they want?”
Danhausen faces AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio at SummerSlam this weekend.
