The “curse” of Danhausen struck an unintended victim on “WWE SmackDown” this week. Fortunately, its effects were then promptly reversed.

During Friday’s edition of “SmackDown,” Danhausen inadvertently put a curse on referee Dan Engler as he officiated a WWE Tag Team Championship match, resulting in a serious cramp in Engler’s usual counting arm. Backstage, Danhausen later made things right by lifting it and the corresponding pain in Engler’s arm.

“So sorry. That was actually meant for The Miz, but it got on you instead,” Danhausen said before slapping Engler’s shoulder for an instant recovery. “Usually I charge a monetary human money fee for this, but it was my fault, so this one’s on Danhausen!”

CURSE LIFTED! Free of charge 😂@DanhausenAD pic.twitter.com/8yFUgbTjkP

— WWE (@WWE) April 4, 2026

On paper, the aforementioned WWE Tag Team Championship match pitted The Miz and Kit Wilson against the defending champions, R-Truth and Damian Priest. At one point, though, Danhausen unofficially inserted himself into the bout and called for Miz to tag him in. When Miz refused, Truth seized the opportunity to do so in his place.

Miz’s verbal frustrations continued with an order for Danhausen to leave the ring. Evidently against the idea, the “very nice, very evil” star then motioned as if he were about to put a curse on Miz. A quick-thinking pull from Miz put Engler in the path of the spell instead, causing Engler’s arm to cramp up when Miz made a cover on Truth shortly after. Amidst the confusion, Priest reentered the bout and dropped Miz with a South of Heaven for the winning pinfall, counted by Engler’s non-injured hand.

As the company’s current world champion, Maxwell Jacob Friedman is firmly contracted with AEW for years to come, and he hasn’t shied away from stating his intention to stay there. However, that hasn’t stopped fans and pundits from imagining what it would be like if MJF jumped to WWE. Though he’s discussed the idea previously, Bully Ray revealed on “Busted Open Radio” that he now hesitates to envision WWE’s version of MJF.

“Max is a star in AEW, and Max is as much of a star as he can possibly be with all of the things that he’s done in AEW,” Bully said. “If Max was in WWE, he would be a considerably bigger star. However, I don’t know if you’d get the Maxwell Jacob Friedman in WWE that you get today. And that would suck, because I never wanted a watered-down ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy, and I would never want a watered-down MJF.”

Bully’s co-host Dave LaGreca then pointed out that MJF seems to have toned down some of his boundary-pushing in recent months, which could show how his character might work in WWE. However, Bully stated that this development is simply MJF learning that it’s better not to say anything that’s going to make some fans change the channel.

As world champ, in his second reign, MJF is currently preparing to defend against Kenny Omega at AEW Dynasty on April 12. It will be MJF’s seventh title defense since he won the AEW World Championship at the end of 2025, with previous victories over “Hangman” Adam Page, Kevin Knight, and more. Some of those title defenses even took place on the independent scene, with matches in Limitless Pro Wrestling and House of Glory.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

In 2016, Cody Rhodes left WWE after growing frustrated with his creative direction, portraying Stardust on TV, and being stuck in the mid-card, eventually leading him to find his path on the independent wrestling scene and becoming one of the founding members of AEW three years later. However, in a recent episode of “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” Rhodes revealed that there was a specific conversation with a talent relations worker during his live event feud with Matt Cardona that ultimately led to his decision to leave WWE.

“I said, ‘Hey, me and Matt are wrestling, and this is like the eighth time we’ve wrestled in three months. What do you want out of this? Like, who’s over?’ Do you know what he said? He goes, ‘Does it really matter?’ And I thought, ‘No,’ … That, ‘Does it really matter,’ I wasn’t mad at him. I was of the thought, this moment doesn’t. We’re about getting this crowd excited. Our narratives are not going anywhere in terms of we’re not trying to build upon something that doesn’t exist,” Rhodes explained. “The talent relations guy, that’s what he said to me on the way out. He was like, ‘I’ll see you next week.’ And I loudly said, ‘No, you won’t!’ And I kept going and then I wasn’t there the next week.”

Rhodes also stated that he lied to Matt Cardona about being told “Does it really matter?” by talent relations, explaining that he often told “The Indy God” that the creative team wanted him to win. Following Rhodes’ departure, Cardona would stick with WWE for another four years before being released after WrestleMania 36.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.