The lights went out. “The Chairman’s Intent” by Action Bronson blared over the sound system in Long Island’s new UBS arena. Pro wrestler Hook walked out onto the entrance ramp on All Elite Wrestling’s (AEW) Friday Night Rampage. And the crowd went wild, chanting his name “HOOK! HOOK!” Social media lit up with chatter in anticipation of the 22-year-old’s debut match.
How did this wrestling rookie have a devoted fan base before he ever walked out for his first match? Simple. Hook unwittingly became a viral internet meme first.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
The pro wrestling industry is always on the hunt for its next big superstar. People that it can build into the next Stone Cold Steve Austin, the next Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. So does Hook’s online fame provide a glimpse of what building that future superstar will look like?
Send Hook
If you aren’t familiar with Hook, you might be familiar with his dad: Former Extreme Champion Wrestling (ECW) world champion and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Superstar, Taz.
When Hook made his December debut, he wasn’t a complete stranger to the AEW audience. He was already a regular on AEW television. Hook first appeared on TV during a feud between his dad and wrestler Cody Rhodes where his role in the storyline was simply Taz’s son. He continued to appear on the organization’s shows, such as its weekly flagship program AEW Dynamite, over the past year as part of his father’s group, Team Taz.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
However, he didn’t do very much.
Watch any AEW programming involving Team Taz in 2021. Look for the kid with the boy band looks and the perfectly styled Super Saiyan-esque hairdo snacking on a bag of chips on live TV. You’ll find Hook standing behind his father and the active wrestlers in the group during interviews. Occasionally, he’d take part in a backstage ambush.
Why was this kid even there? When will he finally talk? Why does he always look so chill? Is he ever going to do something? What’s with the chips?
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For the online wrestling fans, all that mystery added to Hook’s cool factor. Combine that with the internet’s love of irony – a wrestler who hasn’t even wrestled – and you’ve got the perfect fodder for a viral internet meme.
“It was really wild to see the reaction I was getting for that minimal role I had out there,” Hook told Mashable in a phone conversation. “I saw that I was gaining traction with that response from the fans, I felt I had something and I really wanted to make sure to make the most out of every opportunity that was given to me and just keep it rolling.”
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“He wasn’t actually wrestling in matches, he was mostly appearing in the background,” said AEW owner Tony Khan over a phone call. “But he got a big response from the fans, and his cult following grew and grew.”
And then one day, things changed. One of the biggest names in wrestling, CM Punk, uttered the words that sent a viral meme to the next level: “Send Hook.”
During a segment on AEW TV between CM Punk and Team Taz, Punk challenged Taz to send one of his proteges to the ring for a fight. Punk mockingly suggested that Taz “send Hook,” who, again, had not wrestled a single match and had barely done anything other than appear alongside Team Taz.
Rewatching the clip, the crowd at the arena didn’t seem to react to the moment in an extraordinary fashion. But, the internet sure did.
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“Send Hook” became a catchphrase. Hook fans started to refer to themselves as “Hookers.” Naturally the internet love for Hook started to seep into the arenas. More people started bringing “HOOK” signs and posters to the shows. When Punk acknowledged Hook’s existence, things exploded.
“I didn’t know that Punk was going to call me out, I was taken by surprise,” Hook said. “It was crazy. It was wild.”
Living up to the online hype
Going viral on the internet could be a good thing…or a bad thing. In Hook’s case, the memes were very tongue-in-cheek, but not mean-spirited. AEW fans actually liked Hook.
“This was a collaboration that the internet didn’t know they were involved with,” Taz shared with Mashable over the phone. “This thing started to build up and this is going to sound corny, but it’s a fact — everything that Team Taz has done was calculated. You’re on a worldwide level here. This is big time stuff and you have to take every opportunity.”
Within 30 seconds, they’re going to realize he’s no effing joke, right?
But, would they still like Hook once the moment came for him to get in the ring and officially transition from an offbeat character to active talent?
“He became a meme, this is funny,” Taz said.. “It’s a joke. Ha Ha. And I would say to people in AEW, ‘Wait until they see this guy go in the ring.’ Within 30 seconds, they’re going to realize he’s no effing joke, right?”
On that night in Long Island, the place where he grew up, Hook delivered.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
“The external pressure was outrageous,” Hook told me. “…I felt if I can make the most out of each opportunity that I had out there, that I could turn it into something that wasn’t just a joke.”
Fans cheered as he made his way to the ring. They were wowed by his in-ring performance against wrestler Fuego del Sol. And they cheered once again when he won the match using his dad’s signature submission hold finisher.
The whole thing was surreal.
“It was surreal, to be honest with you,” Taz said, recounting the online hype, the match being in Hook’s hometown, and providing the TV commentary for his son’s debut. “The whole thing was surreal.”
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Hook’s debut match racked up around half a million views on YouTube in less than 24 hours, more than twice the viewership of any other AEW video from that same night. Less than a week later, Hook’s first piece of merchandise – a $25 white t-shirt with the word “Hook” on it – became the top seller on Pro Wrestling Tees, the ecommerce outlet where AEW sells its official gear.
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Some may chalk up Hook’s success to being a second-generation wrestler. Taz agrees — the children of pro wrestlers get a leg up on everyone else. But, there is an intense pressure to deliver and live up to that family name.
“It’s weird being the subject of something like that because this is serious to me. This is my career.” said Hook. “But at the same time, that internet is what is such a driving force in today’s world.”
A wrestling organization for the modern day
In the early 2000s, the entire industry consolidated when the global wrestling giant WWE, then known as WWF, acquired its largest competitor World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from Turner Broadcasting.
AEW is the first wrestling company of the modern era. The last time a national pro wrestling organization was launched in the U.S., Twitter didn’t even exist. There was no YouTube. No Facebook. Not even MySpace. You can feel the impact from the very top. WWE’s 76-year-old founder and CEO Vince McMahon runs things very differently from AEW’s 39-year-old founder and CEO Tony Khan.
“The internet wrestling fans have been essential to the launch of AEW,” Khan told me. “All of this is possible because of the loyalty and the dedication of online fans that gave us a chance in the first place.”
Pro wrestling, of course, is not new to the internet. It has always had a big presence.
Wrestlers were doing AOL chat Q&As with fans back in the ’90s. Message boards and chat rooms were a major resource for wrestling fans looking to discuss what was happening on TV shows like WWE Raw and WCW Nitro. Physical wrestling newsletters, known as dirtsheets, made an early transition to the web and provided news and rumors to fuel those discussions. On forums, fans shared clips and GIFs from those smaller underground renegade companies, like ECW, that didn’t have national television distribution.
“Message boards allowed tape traders to connect and wrestling from around the world to be disseminated to the hardcore fans,” Khan recounted. “Now social media has given wrestlers more forums to connect with fans and promote themselves. Twitter in particular replaced a good amount of utility that used to exist on the wrestling message board as far as people posting their opinions.”
AEW is the Gen Z of the wrestling industry, born into a world where being online is just an everyday part of life.
AEW is the Gen Z of the wrestling industry, born into a world where being online is just an everyday part of life. It seems inherent to how the organization operates.
Like father, like son
I was there when Hook had his first match on Dec. 8, 2021. In the year 2000, 13-year-old me, was also in attendance when his father, Taz, debuted for the WWE at the Royal Rumble in Madison Square Garden.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
While father and son’s debuts were 22 years apart, in many ways, they mirrored each other’s. Namely, the internet made both moments possible. Unlike his rookie son, when Taz was signed by the WWE, he already had a long and storied career. After working his way through the independent scene, Taz made his home in ECW.
During the mid-to-late ’90s, the pro wrestling industry was booming thanks to a more extreme, raunchier product geared more towards adults than the younger demographics the companies were aiming for prior. WWE and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) were the two biggest organizations in the industry. Yet the inspiration that led to the boom no doubt came from ECW, the pioneer in the United States for that bloodier, more adult-centric wrestling product.
ECW quickly became the third-most popular wrestling promotion in the country. But compared to the big two, WWE and WCW, it was still relegated to live shows in bingo halls in Philadelphia and the outer boroughs of New York City. Its air time consisted of deals with local affiliate stations. In NYC, for example, ECW’s weekly 1-hour program aired on the MSG Network during the wee morning hours on weekends.
Those early internet message boards and forums were integral to get the word out about Taz and ECW. The moments that were most frequently clipped and shared were from the organization. ECW leaned into this underground aesthetic and accepted its online fanbase with open arms, even holding an annual PPV event for those hardcore fans called CyberSlam.
WWE fan tackles pro wrestler on live TV after apparent catfishing
At 5’9″, Taz would be considered small by pro wrestling standards then. But, ECW didn’t care. Paul Heyman, ECW’s owner, allowed Taz’s in-ring and on-mic work shine through. Taz quickly gained notoriety as the “Human Suplex Machine,” a badass from the “Red Hook section of Brooklyn.” He became the ECW world champion, the face of the company.
WWE soon came calling. The company scooped up Taz and sent him out to the 2000 Royal Rumble as the surprise challenger for former Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle.
Compared to the huge global reach of WWE, ECW was a small niche company that by and large served the internet crowd. Yet, that hardcore online fanbase knew about Taz’s signing and word spread that he was likely going to debut at the Royal Rumble.
I didn’t give a rat’s ass about the internet.
“I figured there’d be some ECW fans in the audience,” Taz shared. “But, I did not know that was going to happen because I never read any of the publications or dirt sheets. I never was online. I didn’t give a rat’s ass about the internet.”
The MSG crowd was chanting Taz’s name before he even walked out from behind the entrance curtain. No one was expecting the reaction he received. Fast- forward to Dec. 8, his son Hook must have felt the same way when he made his debut, 22 years later.
“The internet affected my debut immensely big time, and I did not know that was going to happen,” Taz told Mashable.
All Elite
The pro wrestling world has changed a lot since Taz’s debut.
In the early 2000s, that strong online fan base could provide intense reactions for their favorite performers, but they couldn’t quite yet influence a conglomerate like WWE.
For weeks after his debut, Taz recalled, his t-shirt was one of the top sellers in the company, second only to The Rock. But that didn’t seem to matter. Taz’s WWE career went downhill after his successful debut at MSG, which he attributes to backstage politics.
Now, thanks to social media, fans have a much greater influence on what happens in the ring, where television storylines go, and which talent companies like WWE and AEW build their company around.
“How do I think social media would have affected my career if I was in my prime now? If you were asking me how Taz would help my own career with social media? I would say I would suck at it because that’s me,” Taz explained. “But…the fans on social media rallying behind someone that the company is not pushing? I think it would have helped me a lot,” he said.
In AEW, there are four young wrestlers who are referred to as the “Four Pillars” of the company. These four are who fans and even AEW-contracted talent believe the company is slowly building its future on.
Credit: All Elite Wresling
Since Hook’s debut, online discussions have frequently brought up the addition of a “Fifth Pillar”…Hook. As of the publishing of this article, Hook has had four matches. He was booked to win all of them.
Does this bode well for Hook’s future in the business? How much can social media reaction affect the direction AEW takes?
During our conversation, AEW owner Tony Khan told me that reactions from fans online can be a “great barometer” for what’s going to get a response on television and from the live crowds in the arena.
I’d say it bodes well for Hook.
