Hook made his debut at AEW Rampage.
Fresh off the heels of Hook’s anticipated debut, the AEW rookie has taken his social media sensation to the pocketbooks of All Elite Wrestling. Pro Wrestling Tees, the official merchandise store of AEW, recently announced that Hook has overtaken CM Punk as the top seller on ShopAEW.com.
CM Punk has had the top-selling t-shirt on Shop AEW since his debut with the promotion on August 20. But nothing was going to stop the walking viral video that is Hook—not even CM Punk, who expectedly took the news in stride.
“This is really cool,” Punk said in the comment section of Pro Wrestling Tees’ Instagram post. As of this writing, Hook’s t-shirt is the top-selling item on both Prowrestlingtees.com and ShopAEW.com. At 871,000 views and counting, Hook’s debut was the most-watched AEW Rampage YouTube clip since November 19’s main event between Darby Allin and Billy Gunn.
AEW’s Top-Selling Merchandise on AEWShop.com (December 16, 2021)
- Hook—Hook Logo
- CM Punk “Best in the World” Regular-Style T-Shirt
- CM Punk “Best in the World Ringer T-Shirt
- Adam Cole “Boom!”
- Adam Cole “All Elite Bay Bay”
- AEW—The Real Four Pillars (Britt Baker, Sammy Guevara, Jungle Boy and Darby Allin)
- MJF “And you Know it”
- AEW Logo Zip Hoodie
- Malakai Black “House of Black” Stained
- AEW Logo T-Shirt
Hook’s lone t-shirt on ShopAEW.com retails for $24.99, and it perfectly embodies all the reasons why Hook is catching fire as a budding star. Hook, like his plain-white t-shirt with simple black letters, is unassumingly charismatic. Very rarely is Hook positioned as the focal point of his segments—where he typically appears as a silent, frowning henchman on Team Taz—but viewers can’t help but take their eyes off him.
In short order, 22-year-old Hook has begun to encroach Jungle Boy’s territory as AEW’s resident hearthrob designed to grow its humble female audience. Hook has mastered the art of subtly stealing a scene, and since social media lives to be delightfully distracted, he often trends because of it. Whether it’s a unique hairdo or simply munching on a bag of Doritos during a promo, Hook is a pro wrestling photo bomb waiting to happen. AEW sent Hook and Twitter may never give him back.
Hook’s debut against Fuego Del Sol was defined by its perfect packaging. AEW President Tony Khan licensed Action Bronson’s 2017 slap “The Chairman’s Intent” as a salty Hook stalked the ring, bathing in a hometown shower of love on Long Island. Though there are similarities, Hook is nowhere near a carbon copy of his father, a trope among generational stars that promoters can’t help but exploit. Even in AEW, stars like The Gunn Club’s Austin and Colton Gunn are attempting to find their voice in ring gear that is almost identical to father Billy Gunn. But despite being a member of Team Taz, and even using the Tazmission, Hook was presented as something entirely different than Taz.
There’s a subtle tongue-in-cheek irony among Hook’s growing fanbase. This irony was nowhere to be found with ECW’s take-no-prisoners Taz, who appealed to more serious wrestling fans. Taz became a star by showcasing a larger-than-life persona accompanied by innovative suplexes and loud, gritty promos that captured the spirit of a hardened Brooklynite.
Hook, who donned boxing gear in a departure from his father’s iconic singlet, doesn’t speak at all. He opts to quietly bide his time in pursuit of attention. Hook is a favorite among AEW fans for far more lighthearted reasons than that of his father—who literally demanded respect. Fortunately, Hook’s Judo-influenced wrestling will allow him to be taken seriously.
AEW seems content in spacing out Hook’s matches after the wrestling world patiently waited for almost a year since his first appearance. Wrestling occasionally not only maximizes Hook’s lightning-in-bottle charisma, it fits his largely unassuming vibe. And though Hook’s debut was not a game-changer for Rampage’s struggling viewership, which was only up slightly with 503,000 viewers, AEW is on to something with one of its most surprising pillars.
