Chris "DenkOps" Denker Became "Chris Danger" Inside of a Wrestling Ring
The YouTuber went from content creation to stepping inside of the squared circle in an epic fashion
If you watched Major League Wrestling (MLW’s) Battle Riot Event on June 1st, 2024, you witnessed 40 wrestlers (a few less if you take Tom Lawlor’s multiple entries under different personas out of the equation) compete in a battle royal event.
One of those contestants was Chris Denker, known by his YouTube screen name DenkOps and his wrestling ring name, Chris Danger. Danger, like fellow Battle Riot competitors Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai), and Violent J (Insane Clown Posse) made the move to pro wrestling from a different entertainment genre. How did this happen? Let’s look at the history of Chris Danger.
A Quick History of Chris Danger
Early Days
Denker explained his backstory briefly throughout several videos on his YouTube channel.
He grew up as a wrestling fan and enjoyed playing sports such as soccer, baseball, and basketball. As he got older he also found himself dabbling in entertainment and landed roles in various school theater productions. This carried into his high school career, and evolved into performing backup dancer spots in music videos for upstart musicians. This evolved into him starting a music/entertainment group called Odysy after he graduated high school, with the group landing an audition for season 2 of “America’s Got Talent”. Following the run on AGT, the group landed a deal with Six Flags as an entertainment group inside of the theme parks.
His entertainment career continued for him as a solo artist. Not long after this, the concept for the YouTube channel DenkOps was born in late 2011/early 2012. The plan was to share his passion for video games with an audience. Using his entertainment background and voice-over work to pave the way for gaming commentary and playthrough videos, the channel was created. Although he was no longer on a stage dancing, singing, or playing an instrument, he found a new platform to entertain people and allow them to disconnect from the stresses of daily life as we all turn to different entertainment channels for.
YouTube Wrestling Content
As the channel developed he focused heavily on different gameplay modes of the WWE 2K franchise. With the release of WWE 2K15 in October 2015, Denker began to post content around the “MyCareer” mode of the game. This is where the early iterations of the Chris Danger character were created. From the name, to the entrance, attire, mannerisms, and move set the groundwork for his future wrestling persona was laid.
Gamers familiar with the MyCareer mode will recognize the journey a user-created wrestler takes from a tryout with WWE to debuting in NXT to working up through the ranks to the main roster programs (Raw and SmackDown) in WWE.
Wrestling games weren’t the only games featured on the channel. In fact the channel originally got its name because he thought he would just play Call of Duty Black Ops. He played other various AAA games such as the Batman Arkham Series, Hitman, NBA 2K, Madden, and even some classic console wrestling games such as SmackDown Here Comes the Pain, WCW Mayhem.
As the channel grew in popularity, Chris would eventually take his character from a game to the ring.
From Virtual to Reality
With the heavy amount of wrestling content featured on the YouTube channel, Denker began to crossover into the wrestling media.
He completed Media appearances interviews in 2017 with Braun Strowman, Jinder Mahal, Alexa Bliss, and others surrounding the release of a WWE 2K game. He also entered the esports and streaming worlds as he hosting Fortnite events with Xavier Woods, and streamed on Twitch alongside with Adam Cole
He soon found a home in the professional wrestling world with Deadlock Pro Wrestling (DPW). Chris started as a manager for the team of Patrick Scott and Chance Rizer known as The NDA. Being on camera at a pro wrestling school, Denker was inspired to get between the ropes for himself.
This lead to him training at Flatbacks Wrestling School with Tyler Breeze and Shawn Spears. He took the character he created in the WWE 2K games and worked on everything from the fundamentals to making his signature moves such as the Taste of Danger and the Philly Special from a game to the ring.
Following his training being completed he squared off with one of his coaches in Shawn Spears in a losing effort at DPW World’s Strongest in November of 2023.
From there he teamed with his other coach, Tyler Breeze in a losing effort against the WorkHorsmen (JD Drake and Anthony Henry) at DPW Forever in February 2024. His entry in Battle Riot rounded out his three professional matches.
Have you seen DenkOps on YouTube or in a ring? Sound off in the comments below.
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