A Danhausen demand is met… was his bad WWE debut genius-hausen?

Last night (March 2) on Raw, WWE seems to have successfully introduced Danhausen and his very nice, very evil gimmick to their universe. They did so by working one of the little demon-man’s curses into The Judgement Day story and Men’s Intercontinental title program, and thereby giving him a reason to interact and be mentioned with popular stars like Dirty Dom Mysterio and Penta. Finn Bálor’s slow babyface turn also created a bit of mystery as to whether Danhausen actually has supernatural powers, or if he’s just a delusional little man who picked the right spot for his first WWE “curse”.

The possibility that Danhausen may be off his rocker-hausen was also driven home by his earlier interaction with Raw General Adam Pearce. His demand-hausens were a mix of his existing obsessions (blimp, shiny things like Dom’s Penta’s title) with new WWE-specific ones (Hall of Fame induction, Triple H point picture, face on all the trucks), and all seemed as outlandish as his claim that his Elimination Chamber debut received “thunderous applause — and cheers”.

But one of those has already been met*…

… so while the blimps will have to wait, maybe we’ll see his face on some trucks before too long too.

That all would be noteworthy on its own, but it especially is considering Danhausen was being mentioned in the same breath as the Shockmaster and the Goobledy Gooker after Feb. 28’s premium live event in Chicago. It was enough to spark a conversation in the Cageside “offices” about whether or not last Saturday’s cringey rollout was all part of a plan.

If they did want to get across Danhausen’s delusions of demonic grandeur? Introducing him via a full-blown musical number that bombs hard enough for it to get a ton of attention, that he then spends the rest of his career acting as if it was a smashing success would be a pretty brilliant way to do it. Given the man behind the character’s background and influences, it’s an idea we could see Danhausen coming up with — and there are other sharp, funny people at WWE who could have either come up with it or helped Danhausen bring his idea to life. But that also means someone with a lot of pull, and that internet fans probably aren’t high on these days (someone like the man without face paint who tweeted the above pic), had to agree to dedicate a not-inconsiderate amount of screen-time to introducing Danhausen, a comedy act some thought would never work beyond the independents.

So after chopping it up in the “office” this morning, I ended up here: at least a few folks involved with the Elimination Chamber Mystery Crate angle must have believed things would play out the way they have over the last three days. But it was still a risky move. And while it looks to have paid off now (the Danhausen clip has the second-most views on YouTube of anything from last night’s Raw as of this writing, behind only the main event promo duel between WrestleMania 42 main eventers Roman Reigns and World Heavyweight champion CM Punk), they’re not out of the proverbial woods yet.

Looks like Danhausen’s bad debut may have been a stroke of genius-hausen, though.

* I’d kind of hoped this might never happen like Danhausen’s oft-requested blimp, or RJ City’s “is All Elite” graphic. But this is great too, and it’s not like a Hall of Fame induction is coming this year, right?