HOOK has been sent and he's already making waves.
HOOK is 2-0 in AEW and knocked off CM Punk with the top-selling t-shirt on Pro Wrestling Tees. HOOK made his first appearance in AEW in December 2020 in a segment with Cody Rhodes. It took a year for him to make his in-ring debut and anticipation only built as he remained a mystery on television.
Speaking to Brandon Walker on Rasslin, Cody discussed how AEW has to be careful with HOOK moving forward.
"There was natural anticipation for him and then there was, you'll hear people refer to it as 'the meme wrestler' that was becoming because of Send HOOK. That is, not a bad thing, if people are excited and have an interest. The thing you have to do, not just HOOK himself, but as a company, we have to turn that. 'No, he's not a joke. He's not an inside gag. He's going to be a wonderful pro wrestler himself.' In the first outings he's had, he's been able to do that. That's what is so delicate about it. I'll give you a prime example, and I mean no disrespect to this person, do you remember Fandango? Everyone in the crowd was going nuts for Fandango. It was insane. Somewhere along the line, it fell back into humor and 'ironic wrestler' and not an actual guy...you have those guys and girls on the card that you stand by, tentpole can do the main event if needed. He has to stay on that side of the coin and grow into his body," he said.
HOOK has defeated Bear Bronson and Fuego Del Sol in his two AEW matches.
Cody continued by saying, "Whatever gets you to the dance, then you're cruising. In this case, you have crowds chanting 'We Want HOOK' and you have people going nuts for what he's doing. It's really cool to see. All I see when watching it, is I want to make sure we keep it going. Everything in wrestling is delicate. We want to keep him going. We have all the time in the world. [Tony Khan] has got him in a good spot and they're going to keep rolling."
HOOK will be in action once again on Friday's AEW Rampage when he faces Aaron Solo.
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