Danhausen sat down for an in-depth interview on the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast.
Featured below are some of the highlights.
On debuting for AEW while injured: “So I was signed with the broken leg. I’d been talking to them a little bit, I would say within the last week or two before that. Then I showed up because I think I messaged Brody [King] and I was like, ‘Hey, you’re kind of close. I’m just sitting at home with a broken leg, am I able to come just say hello to people?’ And he goes, ‘I’ll ask.’ I think that was just, yeah, that’s fine. Then just, you know, you go through the motion, you sign up just so they know who you are and everything. I was there, I think that was the day where Cody goes, ‘Hey, are you doing something tonight?’ I’m not dressed as Danhausen at this point. I’m just probably in one of my boots or something. I was like, I mean, I always have my stuff just in case, but I got a broken leg and I don’t work here so I don’t know. He goes, ‘All right. Well, let me know. We’ll get you something if you’re not.’ I was like, Oh, wow. So I think Cody was going to do something with the Sammy Guevara match, which I think wound up being his last match for the TNT title. So I think they were gonna pull me out on a ladder if the thing with Orange and Adam Cole didn’t happen, he was just gonna figure out a way to get me in his match to get me on and I was like well that’s awesome. But we wound up doing the Adam Cole, Orange Cassidy spot, which was similar, but same thing. All that I could really do was I could curse him. I can’t really do anything. I can’t run, I can kind of hobble around.”
On cursing William Regal: “I wish I had been able to do more with him on screen because he was also a guy I took a lot of my facial expressions from. He’s one of the best comedic wrestlers wherever he was, all of that stuff with Tajiri he’s just making faces constantly. The match with The Big Show that I see the clip all the time now where he hits him with the brass knuckles and The Big Show falls back and then falls on him, just things like that. He’s a great straight man but he also plays a great comedic heel. Same thing with Christian. I remember I was in the gym and Christian walked in. I usually don’t want to bother people, but I was like ‘Hey, can I ask you something? You don’t usually, I don’t think, get asked about this specifically, but you are a great comedic heel who also could just win matches.’ I think that’s the key is you have to be taken seriously when it’s time to be taken seriously. He was Tag Team Champions while he was wearing giant sunglasses and hats and kazoos and doing five second poses. But also he was a legitimate Tag Team Champion at the time, him and Edge. Stone Cold Steve Austin is kind of in that same category, put a tiny cowboy hat on. He’s swimming in milk. Yes, Stone Cold Steve Austin is a badass wrestler. But also he is swimming in milk and beer and doing comedy things all of the time and it’s amazing. Same thing with The Rock.”
On not being on AEW TV in 2024: “I did the Halloween 3 segments. I was like, I want to do something fun for Halloween. I didn’t come back from this [injury] probably, I think it was fine in October, but it was still kind of like give it another month. So I was like well we could air these Halloween 3 style, annoying commercials until I come back and I was like cool, and then it kind of just didn’t happen. So I think that kind of sucked the air out of the return a little bit, in my opinion, at least for me it did. It was built for Halloween and then I could have came back the next week and I just didn’t. Then it took a little bit more time, and then I think I did come back on Thanksgiving, so it’s like three or four weeks later. But I come out and I want to wrestle, because I don’t know if non-wrestlers might not know this, wrestling hurts, but it also hurts less if you do it more. So your body gets callous to it I guess. So if you’re wrestling once every couple of months, or once every other month, or whatever it is, it sucks. Every single time it feels like the first time of going to wrestling school where it’s the worst. Then also your body is more susceptible to getting injured because you’re not used to that weird getting slammed or weird movements or whatever it is. So I’d prefer to wrestle at least once a week, whether it be a dark match or whatever, just let me go out there for the crowd, do something. So that way if you need me for a TV, I’m fine, I’m ready to go. Then it’s not like, oh sh*t I haven’t wrestled in three months, all of a sudden I have to wrestle. I’m not in ring shape anymore. I don’t have a wrestling ring near where I live at all.”
On if that’s why he’s been taking a lot of indie bookings: “Yes, just keeps me sharp. It keeps me, I don’t wanna say creative, because there is still some creative lull in indies because you’re not doing storylines, generally. So it is just more so matches. I have to have my creativity outlet be the promos that I do leading up to those, and then figuring out ways to do the match different, have fun with the crowd and try to make them participate in everything. But yeah, that’s why I do two to three a week so I can stay in ring shape and not, knock on wood, get injured. For a long time I was there I just wasn’t doing anything, if you don’t have anything for me that’s fine, but I feel like we need to find something for me. [So you’d be backstage?] Not for all of 2024. At some point there was you can just stay home. I’m like, okay, cool. That’s great, because I appreciate that because then I’m not just getting brought out to like, whatever. Then they were letting me do the Indies and doing the conventions and it just helps me again, stay sharp, which is in turn for them. Also I always looked at that as I’m still representing the company in a way, because I’m on these shows. So that’s better than me just not being seen on the show. I’m still at a convention with Sting or whatever, taking pictures with Sting and posting pictures of Sting, doing that. All I can say was when people were like, ‘Oh, when you coming back?’ and I go, ‘I don’t know you should ask.’ Because the more people are vocal, maybe the more there’s the chance of I got something.”
