4 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SummerSlam Night 2 (Review & Results)
2. Beating The Horse
He’s not dead yet, but WWE seems intent to flog the horse that is Danhausen until he’s deceased and then continue to beat him until there’s just dust left.
Danhausen has done remarkable work becoming a bona fide hit with the WWE audience in just a few short months. However, the company is famous for becoming incredibly myopic when it comes to a talent, treating it like a one-trick pony and then beating it into the ground by repeating everything that got the act over ad nauseum until fans grow tired of it. (Think Bart Simpson as the “I didn’t do it” kid.)
Hearing Michael Cole guffawing at how he got to call a “human monies on a pole” match told you just how uncool the gag had become. When Danhausen said it once to Raw GM Adam Pearce, it was humorous because that’s how his character talks. Cole (and WWE) drove that joke into the ground and kept piling on.
During the match – which was mediocre drivel at best – they deployed the Minihausens again, once again taking part of the act and repeating it over and over and over. Rather than using the minis as a once-in-a-blue-moon gimmick to bail Danhausen out, they’ve sprung up numerous times just in the past month. Eventually, all of this is going to sour, and WWE is accelerating that process by throwing all of it out there repeatedly.
Worse, the match reduced Dominik Mysterio, who received one of the loudest ovations at WrestleMania 41 and battled John Cena twice over the Intercontinental Championship last fall, to playing a comedic heel who had to sell like he had been murdered by a DDT so all the extracurriculars could happen while he was out of commission.
There absolutely is a place for comedic, gimmicky matches, and Danhausen is the best performer to carry this mantle forward in WWE. But Sunday’s match missed the mark, and there are warning signs about WWE overplaying their hand with this act, which would be a real shame since Danhausen has a genuinely fun presence.