Danhausen is giving a rare peek at the man behind the paint.
Danhausen is one of the top independent wrestlers in the world and a fun character on the Ring of Honor roster. The character has gotten mainstream interaction from names like Conan O'Brien and Dwayne Johnson and has even become one of the few in wrestling to semi-regularly interact with CM Punk on Twitter.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Danhausen gave a rare out-of-character interview and discussed his character before becoming the fun-loving ghoul that he is today.
“It was like a standard tattooed, bearded, independent wrestling guy. You just emulate the guys that you are watching, until you figure out what you actually want to do. So Danhausen, some people have said it’s like if Conan O’Brien got possessed by a demon. That’s probably the closest you can get to it in terms of describing it. It kind of just is what it is. I don’t have a set thing of what Danhausen is.”
He continued, “Everything I do is based in reality. I can’t shoot lightning from my fingers or do any supernatural stuff. But the character thinks he can. Like the tequila spot, I get the fans to dance along and I get their energy. That’s a real thing, you can feed off of that. You get excited from it, so it makes sense. No swearing makes sense, because it will get you taken off the air. The teeth thing is a “legal” way to cheat. I can argue with the ref that I am just putting more teeth in. It’s not thumbtacks, it’s just gross.”
Regarding the future goals he has, Danhausen wants to be on television more and believes that the character can translate while to a mainstream audience outside of wrestling.
“One goal is I would like to be on television more. I would like to get some sort of cartoon that is not wrestling-related. I think that the Danhausen character can translate over into a mainstream audience. The Conan O’Brien interview sort of proves that. There are legs for it outside of wrestling, but I don’t want to leave wrestling, but I want to draw more people to it.”
Right now, Danhausen is on television with Ring of Honor. He credits Ring of Honor original Alex Shelley for helping him land the spot.
“That was thanks to Alex Shelley. I rode with him a couple of times and we really bonded on the car rides. He saw what I was doing and he liked it. He thought that it was something that ROH needed. Ring of Honor had booked me a couple of times already, just based on me being weird and different. They allowed me to be full-on Danhausen without changing anything. I have been thankful for that, if you change it, the character won’t work. So Alex said ‘you should sign this guy.’ ROH said yes and that was it.”
Thanks to Chris Van Vliet for sending the above quotes, you can check out the full interview in the video embedded above.
