It’s been quite the week for Danhausen, the former AEW star who showed up at Elimination Chamber and has improbably become the #2 merchandise seller in WWE. That’s according to an employee town hall where, according to reports, Danhausen was singled out for praise. He also continues to be a regular presence on both WWE programming — he continued to work in his science lab on “SmackDown” this past Friday, with many fans speculating he’s working to bring Baron Corbin back to WWE — and ESPN, where he got significant attention for cursing the Cleveland Cavaliers (by happenstance the favorite basketball team of Danhausen rival The Miz) in their Eastern Conference Finals series against the recently un-cursed New York Knicks.

It’s that series that really has the Danhausen-Mania running wild. Over the last seven days, the Cavs played the Knicks four times; the Knicks won all four games, sweeping the series and advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time in decades. The victories ranged from Game 1’s incredible fourth quarter comeback to Game 4’s decisive blowout, but the point remains the same regardless of the box score: Danhausen’s curse lives, and continues to be discussed with regularity on ESPN. Knicks star Jalen Brunson was even asked about it during a post-game press conference (he no-sold it, of course, but the question was still asked).

Will Danhausen go on to curse Knicks’ NBA Finals opponent, be it the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Santonio Spurs? That remains to be seen — a Knicks sweep in either series would not be a safe bet. But that’s immaterial; this week represented a definitive win for the curse, and for the unlikely hero who appears to have finally given WWE the mainstream attention it has always craved.

Written by Miles Schneiderman