With Ring of Honor making its long-awaited return to the Hammerstein Ballroom Friday night, an AEW fan favorite made his own long-awaited return to at Final Battle.
"Final Battle" kicked off with Mansoor of MxM Collection against former ROH TV Champion Atlantis, Jr. In the late stages of the match, Mansoor's partner, Mason Madden, was jawing with fans when a masked man crawled out from under the ring. When Madden turned around, the man pulled off the mask itself branded in familiar fashion to reveal his identityhausen: Danhausen, the face-painted AEW star who last wrestled for ROH in February and hasn't been onAEW programming in a year. The very nice, very evil wrestler proceeded to hit Madden with a low blow, prompting deafening cheers that nearly drowned out commentary. This opened up Atlantis to hit a tope suicida on Madden; Atlantis eventually picked up the win over Mansoor.
After the match, Danhausen attempted to curse Madden, but got choked into the corner instead. However, Danhausen gave Madden a German suplex before dumping his signature teeth into Madden's mouth and hittinga running kick to the jaw. He helped Atlantis to his feet and celebrated.
Danhausen last wrestled for AEW at the Zero Hour pre-show for Worlds End 2023, almost exactly a year ago. He last competed in ROH in February when he defeated Brandon Cutler. In November, Fightful Select reported that Danhausenwas still under contract despite not being used he's kept an active schedule on the independent scene and at conventions. During a recent appearance on Marcus "Buff" Bagwell's podcast, Danhausen stated that he believed MJF didn't want Tony Khan to hire him.
