Danhausen Debuts To BOOS At Elimination Chamber (WWE News)

The Chicago crowd was split on the WWE debut of Danhausen.

by Andrew Pollard
WWE Elimination Chamber 2026 Danhausen
WWE.com

With WWE spending several weeks teasing the opening of a mystery crate at Elimination Chamber, as some had speculated, that reveal was the WWE debut of Danhausen.

An earlier backstage segment saw R-Truth say that he knew what was in the box, which was ultimately a plug for Papa John's. Then, prior to the men's Chamber match, Adam Pearce and Nick Aldis appeared on stage with the crate and opened it to find a coffin. From there, various dancers appeared wearing Danhausen-esque facepaint, before the man himself made his way out.

Danhausen made his way to ringside, gave Michael Cole a jar of teeth, and then the Very Nice, Very Evil star and his dancers vanished after the lights went out in the arena.

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Unfortunately, this debut wasn't exactly met with a positive response from Chicago's United Center. There was an initially solid pop for the Danhausen reveal, but that was soon matched by mild boos and groans, as those boos and groans grew louder as the now-former AEW man made his way down the aisle.

As is ever the case when WWE opts to use a mystery angle, that often sets high expectations in the minds of fans, with some believing this may somehow be part of Chris Jericho's much-rumoured WWE return. And so, when fans' imaginations start to think of all the big possibilities, that can sometimes lead to an underwhelming reaction when the reveal is not what they'd dreamt up.

Danhausen will be fine in WWE, with the hugely charismatic star having developed a strong fanbase prior to signing with AEW, including regularly doing impressive merchandise numbers. In theory, Danhausen's creativity and WWE's marketing machine should be a perfect match, though that obviously remains to be seen. Either way, though, the company didn't exactly do the 35-year-old any favours in how they debuted him after building up that mystery box reveal for so many weeks.

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For those wondering, yes, per PWInsider, Danhausen is indeed now signed to WWE, and he's also expected to be in attendance at tomorrow night's Raw. While he's continued to remain busy on the independent scene over the past few years, Danhausen last wrestled for AEW back in December 2023 and last competed for ROH in February 2024. Despite the talent requesting that his previous AEW deal wasn't extended, that contract instead had time tacked on due to spells on the sideline with injury.

Love that Danhausen.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.