10 Biggest Secret GENIUSES In Modern Wrestling

If you’re a - relatively speaking - fairly slim, not especially imposing wrestler trying to make it in the indies and beyond, there are a few directions you might take. You can try your best to bulk up as far as your body will allow, demonstrate a willingness to absorb immense punishment, hone your mic skills to an undeniable level.

Or you can create a gimmick so hilarious, ridiculous, and undeniably charming that you’re rocketed to the status of beloved cult figure and beyond. Danhausen shouldn’t work - he’s a skinny guy clad in old school movie demon makeup, who speaks in the third person, has a jar of teeth, and speaks in a voice based on Conan O’Brien.

And yet, every time Danhausen emerges (and he does almost exclusively emerge, often from under the ring), the value erupts. He may be very evil, but he’s very nice, too. He’s a force of pure good; it’s impossible to grow tired of watching the weirdo place curses on those who’ve crossed him.

What makes Danhausen work, though, is the level of detail put in. Nonsense pseudo-supernatural characters are a dime a dozen in wrestling. This one feels fleshed out, lived in, somehow logical. If you can’t have fun when you’re watching wrestling, then what’s the point?