When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, esteemed professional wrestling organization Ring of Honor took a five-month hiatus. Later, the wrestling organization returned for fans -- albeit holding its television tapings and pay-per-view events in empty arenas. In July, ROH finally welcomes back live crowds to its wrestling events, starting with the 2021 edition of its long-running Best in the World PPV, which is set to air Sunday, July 11. Among the wrestlers performing at the event will be none other than the very nice, very evil, Danhausen.

However, Best in the World won't be the only thing Danhausen has upcoming in July. Danhausen will appear on a variant cover for Image Comics' Commanders in Crisis #10 by Steve Orlando, L.A. Thornhill and Davide Tinto, which hits comic stands on Wednesday, July 7. In an interview with CBR, Danhausen discussed superheroes, wrestling, selling his "Danhausen Coffeehausen" through Michigan's Rootless Coffee Co. and his aspirations.

RELATED: Commanders In Crisis Vol. 1 Establishes a Hopeful, Mature Superhero Universe

CBR: First and foremost, you actually have a variant cover appearance coming up for Commanders in Crisis #10. How did that come about, exactly?

Danhausen: Oh, yes, well, Danhausen has comic book cover coming out from Image Comics, written by Steve Orlando, great friend of Danhausen, which is how we got to that point. Danhausen met Steve Orlando at Beyond Wrestling in Massachusetts. Steve drove up, said, "Hello, Danhausen. How are you?" Met Danhausen and a fellow wrestler, Effy, Danhausen's tag team partner at the time, and gave us some comic books. Said, "These are what I've written, they are quite nice." Danhausen took a look, read them, wonderful stuff.

Kept in touch here and there throughout the months. Danhausen had Steve on his show Goodnighthausen with Danhausen. Then, kept in touch again, talk about wrestling here and there, comic books. And he said, "Would you like to be on my comic book cover? Our Commanders in Crisis, we do variant covers, and you seem quite striking. Would you like to be on?" Danhausen said, "Absolutely!" So, that's where we are. Now, Danhausen is on, what is it? Issue #10, cover D -- "D" for Danhausen, probably.

What are your future plans, if any, for working in the world of comics?

We shall kind of wait and see as it comes -- just like this one did. This kind of was sprung on Danhausen out of nowhere, but it was quite nice. So, maybe if this one does well, it will lead to Danhausen being on more comic book covers. And then it will lead, in turn, to Danhausen being in his own comic book, which would be quite nice. That's a goal of Danhausen's. It's on the written-out, printed-out bucket list.

What is your history with comics and superheroes, and who are some of your favorites?

Well, Danhausen, as a small child, used to go to a comic shop called Comics and More in Madison Heights, Michigan, all the time. Actually, the first thing Danhausen collected was Morbius in the early '90s. So, weird how that works out. Danhausen enjoyed the covers, bought those all the time, took a break from it, came back I believe when Batman: Hush came out. Started reading that and Green Lantern: Rebirth and so on and so forth, stuff like that.

What else, what else... Daredevil is one of Danhausen's favorites. The X-Men, Danhausen loves. He loves Nightcrawler, Colossus, Psylocke, all of them. Danhausen likes all the normal ones too, like Batman and so on and so forth, Spider-Man. Danhausen's a fan of all of those. But they've always been consistently in Danhausen's life. He likes the way they look, the colors, the art, all of that.

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Since you mentioned Morbius, I have to ask, what do you think about the new movie that's coming out early next year?

Danhausen will wait and see. Danhausen would like if [Morbius] looked like he did in the '90s. Very scary, I guess. He doesn't look so scary in this new one. Looks more like the Spider-Man cartoon. So, we'll wait and see. Hopefully, it is good. Danhausen hopes it's good, but shall hold his reservations and his opinions until the movie is out.

Well, you're definitely expanding beyond the world of wrestling. Tell me about Danhausen Coffeehausen.

Oh, yes. This is another example of someone coming to Danhausen and saying, "Would you like to do this?" And Danhausen, being the entrepreneur that he is, said, "But of course." So, it was Danhausen's friend Jono, and Sean, came up -- they run Rootless Coffee Co. in Flint, Michigan. And Danhausen went to do a video on how to learn how to roast his own coffee. And they presented him with this bag of "Danhausen Coffeehausen."

So, that led to that. Danhausen said, "You know, if you want to release this, we could probably sell many bags." And we did. So, now we are waiting, but hopefully it gets presented in grocery stores. That would be quite nice. 'Cause we are the best-selling coffee on the website. It was on day one, we sold so many. So, shall expand and keep moving on with... maybe Danhausen cereal, who knows?

You've also expressed interest in breaking out into TV, be it through talk shows or cartoons, but have you thought about having your own wrestling talk show? Like we saw on Wrestling With Wregret, you're a very good interviewer. So, have you thought about having your own Piper's Pit, so to speak?

That'd be quite nice if someone would give Danhausen a platform to do so. No one has yet, though. So, Danhausen gave it to himself. That is on Patreon, where Danhausen has interviewed Austin Creed, aka Xavier Woods. We've had Renee Paquette on, we've had Matt Hardy. We'll have future guests as well -- Jake Something and Ethan Page. We mix it in, too. We've had Ron Funches and Steve Orlando. Mixed it all up.

But, if someone wants to give Danhausen his own wrestling talk show -- on television, instead of just the internet -- Danhausen will always do so.

More on wrestling, this month, Ring of Honor is finally going to start running shows in front of live crowds again, starting with Best in the World. How excited are you to finally get back in front of a live audience?

There's nothing quite like a live crowd in front of Danhausen. That's where Danhausen gets all of his powers from. So, he's been kind of at half-capacity these last tapings and such. Now, to be in front of a live pay-per-view crowd, first one back, Best in the World, as you said, then Danhausen will be at full power. So, he cannot look forward to anything more than this. The fanhausens made Danhausen, the fanhausens are the reason Danhausen is at Ring of Honor. So, it's gonna be a nice come full-circle to have them back watching.

I saw that you weren't yet booked for the show. So, what are the odds fans can expect to see Danhausen at Best in the World in some capacity?

Actually, as you're speaking, Danhausen -- well, he checked it before coming to this meeting -- they have announced Danhausen has a match. It literally just happened about 10 minutes ago prior to recording. It is Danhausen and PCO versus Beer City Bruiser and Brian Milonas -- The Bouncers! So, we shall have a tag team match of some sort.

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Now that crowds are coming back, who are some other opponents you'd like to face in the ring?

Well, some could lead to Danhausen being decimated, but Brody King, Jonathan Gresham. Would like to do some stuff with Dalton Castle. Those are three that come to mind right away. The Briscoes would be quite nice. They've been there for a long time, it'd be good to wrestle them. So, yes... Most people.

Do you think there are any big inter-promotional matches in your future? After all, I think you still have a score to settle with Jon Moxley after he stole your top spot in PWI 500.

Oh, yes, we must kick down the forbidden door. Perhaps we could get Ethan Page to crack it open for Danhausen. But yes, he does have to get back to Jon Moxley. Also, Danhausen has quite the successful tag team with Orange Cassidy. We are undefeated, currently.

Actually, this was the last match Danhausen had before everything shut down: Orange Cassidy and Danhausen teamed up in a mall, and then we won. And then about a week later, everything closed. Too powerful, if you ask Danhausen. But [inaudible] to get back to it. It's very lucrative.

RING OF HONOR/Zia Hiltey

It's funny you mention Orange Cassidy, I was actually going to bring him up. When do you think we can expect to see you guys together in the ring again?

Orange Cassidy and Danhausen... Hopefully, someone on the independents' books it, 'cause that's the only way to see it right now. Unless, again, Tony Elite and Dave Honor decide to collaborate and say, "Hey, let's make some money with this Orangehausen." We shall wait and see. Danhausen will tag team with Orange Cassidy any day of the week.

You have a number of independent bookings coming up. Which stand out to you as some of your most anticipated?

There is one... There's August. This is going a little further, but there's Without A Cause Wrestling, in Everett, Washington, Danhausen believes. But it's the first time Danhausen is coming to the west coast. So, he's looking forward to that one quite a bit, because it's a major debut, it's a whole new area for Danhausen.

And then, we've got, in July, we have lots of comic book stores -- that one's gonna be nice. We've got Third Eye Comics, we've got Comics and More, we've got some toy stores coming up in New York City -- Hasttel Toys, I believe. As wrestling goes, Danhausen's very excited to return to Limitless Wrestling in Maine, because they've been shut down for quite a long time. Danhausen will be there for their first show back with fans, just like this Best in the World pay-per-view.

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What would you say are some of the similarities, and maybe some of the differences, between the pro wrestling scene and the comic book scene.

Similarities are that, as creators, you have to do, what is it called, "the grind" -- where you're pitching things constantly. Danhausen pitches them to promoters. He sends his wrestling matches or his promotional videos. And comic book creators must send their ideas, and probably their scripts, all the artwork submitting. So, it's a lot of denials, probably. Lots of noes that you just have to keep spinning around and going past until you become successful. It's kind of, "Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing... Everything."

So, there's a lot of that. And then there's the D.I.Y. aspect of having to push everything yourself until you make it, which Danhausen's still doing. Still pushing everything himself, even if he has Ring of Honor with him. That's a nice boost, but you have to keep working hard. And it seems... As Danhausen said, he's friends with Steve Orlando, who's constantly working, constantly pushing things to new companies. He's got, what, Image Comics, DC Comics, Marvel. Danhausen likes that. Gotta work for everything you possibly can. Like, Danhausen has a coffee, he's got this comic cover, he does the wrestling, so on and so forth.

What are some of your favorite titles by Orlando so far? Because he's certainly been busy over the last couple of years.

Oh, yes, yes he has. Danhausen loves the Martian Manhunter, we've got Midnighter... He's done a wonderful Wonder Woman, done small Batmans here and there -- Danhausen's a big fanhausen of Batman. But, of course, we have the Commanders in Crisis. Danhausen's been buying them weekly, but he's on a busy schedule, so Steve has sent Danhausen the trade paperback, which will be much easier for Danhausen to travel with, so he won't bend his little comic book corners. So, he's waiting for that to all come out and he likes to read it all at once.

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So, you would say you prefer trades to single issues?

Yes, but this is only since Danhausen started wrestling on a busy schedule. Prior to that, Danhausen liked to collect everything, because the covers. But now it's just so much more convenient for Danhausen to only buy trade paperbacks.

In general, over the next year or so and beyond, what are your goals, both in wrestling and out of wrestling?

In wrestling -- kind of similar -- in wrestling, Danhausen would like to be featured on TV, television, weekly. Rather than, "Here he is sometimes, here he is some other times." Would like to do that. Would like to win some championships. Would like to do some more debuts, possibly in Europe. That would be quite nice, Danhausen's never been there.

Outside of wrestling, Danhausen would like to get his own comic book, as I believe we've said, an action figure -- we have one coming out with Zombie Sailor Toys, in the fall or something. It is a retro-style Danhausen, like three three-fourths inches or whatever. Danhausen wants a six-inch, like an ultimate-style of figure. That's a goal for Danhausen... Also, we should try to get Danhausen in the grocery stores with this coffee. Oh! We should get Danhausen his own television show, on TV, non-wrestling-related. Get him a cartoon, a sitcom.

Well, there's an opening on TBS now that Conan O'Brien is moving over to HBO Max.

This is true! Let Danhausen say, though, nobody can replace Conan. But, having said that, if there's an open timeslot, Danhausen will happily fill the void.

You've made no secret of the fact that you're a big fan of Conan. How were you introduced to him?

Well, he wrote Danhausen's favorite episode of The Simpsons, which is "Marge vs. the Monorail." And then, Danhausen would just see him periodically throughout his life on late-night and go, "Oh, this fellow's interesting." Danhausen wasn't particularly a fan of late-night, but he was a fan of Conan. So, that kind of sucked Danhausen into the world of late-night television.

And then, just throughout his skits -- such as old-timey baseball, taking Jordan Schlansky to Italy, the coffee shops, going to the Taco Bell factory, so on and so forth -- Danhausen would just watch him do those things. What is the show... Where he travels the world? It's slipping Danhausen's mind right now. That's a good one, though. Where he goes to different countries and continents and embraces their culture and learns. It's a wonderful show.

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homer simpson conan o'brien interview

You mentioned "Marge vs. the Monorail." What are some of your other favorite Conan Simpsons episodes, or just your favorite Simpsons episodes in general?

"Twisted World of Marge Simpson." That one's good, it's about pretzels. "The Springfield Files," where they think that Mr. Burns is an alien. This one's always difficult for Danhausen, because he likes all of them, mostly. "City of New York vs. Homer Simpson" -- that one's pretty good. Oh, "Cape Feare" with Sideshow Bob! That's one of them.

This answer will switch all the time, especially because Danhausen's remembering them as he's talking. "You Only Move Twice" with Hank Scorpio -- that's one of Danhausen's all-time favorites. Just a wonderful Albert Brooks voicing Hank Scorpio.

You mentioned action figures. I know you collect a lot of superhero figures, but were you really big into wrestling figures coming up?

Yes, as a child, yes. We had many of the Bone Crunching Action Figures. And then we had the Titan Tron Live ones, where you'd stick the little metal thing to the Titan Tron and it would play their music. Then we kind of got out of it, because we were collecting Marvel Legends. And now, Danhausen mostly collects Marvel Legends... DC animated Batman figures, we collect those still, too. And then Hasbro's been sucking Danhausen into these G.I. Joes.

Well, you're doing your cover for Image Comics, so are you into McFarlane Toys at all?

Yes! Danhausen has just gotten the Batman Beyond, actually. Danhausen's a huge fan of Batman Beyond. He saw that one, had to have it.

Settle the debate: would you say that Batman Beyond surpassed Batman: The Animated Series?

Ooh, that's a tough question. I think Danhausen still prefers Batman: The Animated Series. But -- well, yes, actually, yes, because his favorite episodes of Batman Beyond are the ones where they kind of touch on old Batman: The Animated Series things. Especially when Bruce Wayne goes into the Lazarus pit, comes out younger, teams with Terry McGinnis to fight Ra's al Ghul.

I also understand you're a big fan of Mark Hamill's Joker.

Oh, yes!

Would you say Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is your favorite Mark Hamill performance, or is there a different one?

"Joker's Favor" is quite good. What is it, Charlie Puckett? "Lost a little weight; lost a little hair too." That one's good, but yes, Return of the Joker is wonderful. Also, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is phenomenal.

Mask of the Phantasm is a very popular one. In general, Mark Hamill or no, what's your favorite Batman animated film?

Definitely Mask of the Phantasm -- has to be. Probably the second one would be Return of the Joker. Public Enemies -- what is it, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies -- with Ed McGuinness' art. That one's pretty good, though. And then I believe a Long Halloween cartoon has just come out. Danhausen has not seen it yet, but he loves that book. So, he shall be watching that as well.

You mentioned you read Batman: Hush. What did you think of the animated adaptation of that?

They changed a bit too much for Danhausen's liking. What is it, the beginning is Bane instead of Killer Croc in it? He trailed off, he did not finish watching it. You start off with a whole different thing, Danhausen loses interest. This is not what he read. Could do some changes, but when you start off right away with big changes, it's just... Eh.

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RING OF HONOR/Zia Hiltey

Going back to wrestling, Ring of Honor has been home to some of the biggest names in wrestling ever, really -- your Samoa Joes, your CM Punks, your Bryan Danielsons. When all is said and done, where is Danhausen going to fall in the legacy of Ring of Honor?

Legend of the business. We'll put Danhausen up there. Put him up there with the Samoa Joes and the CM Punks -- Pepsiman. What is this t-shirt. Is this a vintage t-shirt you have on?

This is a Clotheslined CM Punk shirt.

Oh, yes. Wonderful. Great best friend of Danhausen, that fellow. Yes, but we'll put him with the El Genericos, the Kevin Steens. Oh yes, Danhausen's a big fanhausen of El Generico.

And you say you want to be on TV weekly. Do you think that's going to be difficult to adjust to, or are you itching for it?

Oh, no, no, no. Danhausen's ready for it! Primed and ready. Let's get to it ASAP.

What do you think the next few months hold for the wrestling business now that we're having live shows again?

Danhausen believes we're going to be going into another boom period. Right before we shut down, Danhausen was on shows that were sold out weekly -- independent shows. And now that we're coming back -- it's been what, a year and a half, almost -- believe it's going to sell out like that [snaps]. They're clamoring to come back to these shows and just do something. So, it's our jobs to get them to want to come back. But I believe they're not going to need as much of a push to get right back these first few months.

ROH Best in the World 2021 airs live on pay-per-view on Sunday, July 11 at 7 p.m. EDT.

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