Eric Bischoff Talks Danhausen's WWE Elimination Chamber Debut, Chris Jericho Absence
Eric Bischoff has explained why Danhausen received a mediocre reaction on his WWE debut, something he attributes to the uncertainty surrounding Chris Jericho's career.
The former AEW star debuted at Elimination Chamber and got some boos from the Chicago audience. Bischoff, on his "83 Weeks" podcast, analyzed the reaction, asserting how fans thought that a big name would emerge from the mystery box that WWE had teased for weeks.
"It's not so much that their idea was bad, but their timing was. If you would have had that mystery, if you would have played it out the same way, if you would have established a box for two, three, four weeks and created the whole mystery around it at a time when there wasn't a question mark about where Chris Jericho is going to end up. The timing of it led people to want to believe it was going to be Chris Jericho, myself included," he said. "I was looking for that really, really big surprise. But we got Danhausen, which is really unfortunate because like you, I see the value and I've met him a few times at conventions and spoke with him. He's a very, very nice young man and I too see an opportunity from a merchandising point of view and also from a programming perspective."
The Hall of Famer noted that a character like Danhausen will drive merch sales, while also offer fans some light-hearted humor. While Danhausen may not have won over the audience as WWE would've hoped for, Bischoff feels WWE will eventually rectify the mistake and make him a success.
"Danhausen is a good acquisition for WWE because there's nobody better on planet earth in merchandising a character than WWE. So, it makes sense business-wise. I think the timing, because of the possibility that existed at that time, I think it put a little dent in the character coming out of the shoot, but they'll make up for it very quickly," he added.
Bischoff thinks fans will forget Danhausen's not-so-memorable debut and put him on the path to success.