Ryan Garcia aligned himself with The Judgment Day on WWE Raw, emerging from the crowd to blast Joe Hendry with a guitar and shut down the July 27 concert segment at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
The reigning WBC welterweight champion had been shown in the crowd earlier in the broadcast as one of several celebrities at the SummerSlam go-home show. He slipped into the dance line during the Hendry and Danhausen musical number before making his move.
Hendry handled guitar duties while Danhausen played an organ for a parody of Hendry’s entrance theme, with the chorus reworked to “I believe that you are cursed.” A group of mini-hausens and the LA Clippers dancers filled out the routine.
Garcia danced along with them, then picked up a guitar and smashed it across Hendry. Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh followed him out of the crowd and jumped Danhausen, stomping the mini-hausens before Mysterio connected with a frog splash. McDonagh destroyed what was left of the instruments to close things out.
Garcia is not a retired name taking a novelty booking. He won the WBC welterweight title from Mario Barrios in February at T-Mobile Arena, the first world championship of his career, and he sits at 25-2 with 20 knockouts.
His first defense of that belt comes on September 12 against Conor Benn, back at T-Mobile Arena on Mexican Independence Day weekend. Garcia is promoted by Golden Boy, but the card is co-promoted with Zuffa Boxing, the joint venture between TKO Group Holdings and Saudi entertainment company Sela. TKO also owns WWE, and WWE president Nick Khan is one of Zuffa Boxing’s named promoters.
The appearance also evens out a feud that had already gone celebrity shopping. Danhausen beat JD McDonagh at Saturday Night’s Main Event on July 18 with an assist from New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, who put Mysterio through a table. Judgment Day now has a world champion boxer in its corner.
The payoff is already booked. Danhausen faces Dominik Mysterio in a singles match at SummerSlam, part of the two-night card running August 1 and 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
