When AEW rolled out the latest teaser for the return of House of Black on Rampage last night (Nov. 11), most wrestle watchers were probably focused on Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews, Brody King & Julia Hart coming back after a few months off. Maybe they were fascinated by Hart “resurrecting” her teammates from the elements, or just admiring the video’s production values. There was no small amount of hope the group will be booked as the force this presents them as.
Horror buffs on the other hand were going, “Is this being narrated by freaking Pinhead?”
I haven’t seen anyone involved confirm it, but having heard English actor Doug Bradley — who played the lead Cenobite, aka The Hell Priest, aka “Pinhead” — say things like “We have such sights to show over” across eight Hellraiser films of wildly varying quality, I’m pretty sure that’s him. Going back and rewatching the House of Black video from the Nov. 2 Dynamite, I think Bradley did the voiceover on that one, too.
Which is very cool, and something I at first wrote off as just a badass bonus in the rollout for House of Black’s return.
But then I got to thinking about the crossover potential between Malakai’s group and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser mythos as two sort-of religious groups exploring human potential via pain and suffering. And poking around the internet reminded me that Bradley worked for the short-live independent promotion Blackcraft Wrestling as their authority figure, “The Preacher”.
Could Bradley, or “The Preacher”, be a higher power of sorts for House of Black? Would they be able to incorporate that in a way that wouldn’t totally jump the shark?
The best course of action is probably simply to keep him on as their dedicated narrator. I know I’ll pop every time I hear his voice.
Would you be interested in the fights Doug Bradley could show you as a member of House of Black?
