Professional wrestling can be enjoyed on several different levels. You can enjoy the athletic competition between two combatants, you can enjoy the gymnastic flips of lucha libre, you can enjoy the non-stop competition of tag team and trios matches, all of that.\
And then you can enjoy the pairing of two distinctly diverse individuals as one tag team, a tag team that was essentially willed into existence by fandom.
I shall explain.
Our first person wrestles under the name of HOOK. He is a second-generation wrestler, his father was the “Human Suplex Machine” Tax, a champion in the old ECW wrestling promotion. HOOK enters the ring with a dedicated purpose. He looks like he just beat up fifteen men in the dojo before his morning breakfast, not even worried about his flowing bed-head coif. He beats his opponents into submission, then leaves.
Damn. And his father Taz is one of All Elite Wrestling’s commentators, and proud papa is just gushing over HOOK’s in-ring skills. Even when HOOK breaks out Taz’s old finishing maneuver – what was once the “Taz-mission” has now become HOOK’s “Redrum” finisher.
Let me now introduce you to our second wrestler. He’s a guy who’s worked his way through the independent wrestling circuit, and his wrestling personae is someone who calls himself “very nice, very evil.” His face is painted like a comedy demon – someone who wouldn’t be out of place co-hosting a Svengoolie movie. And although the guy has plenty of patter, he can wrestle with the best of them. This is Danhausen.
Now Danhausen recently signed with All Elite Wrestling, and he’s been running around the organization “cursing” people – the idea is that he puts a curse on them and they eventually lose a wrestling match. Such as recently, when Danhausen got caught in the middle of a match between “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy and Adam Cole “Bay Bay” in January.
Spoiler alert – Cole lost the match after he got cursed by Danhausen.
Now this “curse” doesn’t always work. Because at one point in time, Danhausen tried to curse HOOK. HOOK was having none of it.
So at this point, Danhausen is trying to figure out why HOOK is impervious to this “curse.” So Danhausen tries to bait HOOK, even to the point where Danhausen goes in the locker room and smashes up a bag of HOOK’s snack food.
Meanwhile, AEW fans are going nuts. They’re “shipping” this as a new tag team. HOOK and Danhausen. Imagine the team of HOOKhausen. I am not kidding.
So last week, Danhausen called HOOK to the ring for a fight. And they almost had one, until AEW’s resident legal eagle, “Smart” Mark Sterling (who honestly wouldn’t know an affidavit from an affirmation) interfered long enough for one of his wrestlers, Tony Nese, to try to blindside both grapplers. It did not work as well as planned … but the fans were pumped. They wanted to see HOOKhausen.
And last Friday, during All Elite Wrestling’s “Rampage” broadcast, HOOK wrestled JD Drake and put Drake away nicely. But after the match, who should show up but the very nice, very evil Danhausen.
Last night, Danhausen made his All Elite Wrestling debut, facing off against Tony Nese. Let’s just say that Danhausen will not start his AEW career on a winning streak. But that being said … watch what happened AFTER the match.
HOOK saved Danhausen – and HOOK shook Danhausen’s hand!!
And during the broadcast last night, it was announced that HOOK and Danhausen would team up in a match against Tony Nese and “Smart” Mark Sterling at the upcoming AEW Double or Nothing pay-per-view event!
WE GOT HOOKHAUSEN!! WE GOT HOOKHAUSEN!!!
Okay, that was fun.
Meanwhile, the internet ‘shippers are having a field day over this. Shipping, if you haven’t heard the term before, involves fandom or fanart or fanfiction depicting a strong emotional bond between two fictional characters. Think Xena and Gabrielle. Or Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine.
Yep. There’s now HOOKhausen shippers. They make fanart…
They make fan videos…
And they get compared to other oddball tag teams. Like the team of Daniel Bryan and Kane, also known as “Team Hell No.” Or the team of Al Snow and Steve Blackman, with the godawful name of “Head Cheese.”
But you know what? Oddball tag teams can work. The WWE currently has Randy Orton and Matt Riddle, the tag team known as “R K Bro,” as one of their top squads.
But this is bigger. HOOKhausen was essentially willed by the fans to happen. These two are over with the crowd. They’re over with the fans and with the Internet wrestling community.
In other words, this is just straight up huge.
And I cannot wait to see HOOKhausen in action. Put them in matches with The Acclaimed. Or the Gunn Club. Maybe even with ReDRagon or the Young Bucks. Have them compete against Jurassic Express or FTR for some tag team gold.
I’m seriously good with that. Make this happen. Or HOOK will put you in RedRum, and Danhausen will CURSE you while you’re screaming from the RedRum pain.
Trust me on this.
Chuck The Writer 