 Basham in 2007 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lyle Douglas Basham Jr. (1971-05-12)May 12, 1971 (age 54)[2] Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.[1] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Basham Doug Basham[1] The Machine[1] Paul Heyman's Personal Enforcer |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[1] |
| Billed weight | 245 lb (111 kg)[1] |
| Billed from | Columbus, Ohio |
| Trained by | Nightmare Danny Davis[1] |
| Debut | 1993 |
| Retired | 2009 (first retirement) 2023 (second retirement) |
Lyle Douglas Basham Jr. (born May 12, 1971) is an American retiredprofessional wrestler. He is best known for his tenures inWorld Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) between 2002 and 2007, and inTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling under thering nameBasham in 2007.
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Basham made his debut in 1993, wrestling inIndiana and forindependent promotions inKentucky. In 1994, he wrestled for theUnited States Wrestling Association located inTennessee. He stayed there until 1996.
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Before being called up to WWE's main roster, Basham competed in itsdevelopmental territory,Ohio Valley Wrestling. Basham is the nephew of OVW founderNightmare Danny Davis. Basham was a topfan favorite in the company, winning theOVW Heavyweight Championship on several occasions.[1]
Basham turnedvillainous and was involved in a unique storyline that saw him compete under a mask as Machine (A character inspired by the film8mm). The story was that Basham and his real-life uncle and trainer, Danny Davis, had a falling out, which led to Basham quitting the wrestling business. However, as his uncle's other OVW-trained superstars likeNick Dinsmore,Rob Conway andDamaja began getting opportunities to wrestle on WWE television and become contracted talents, Basham grew resentful and resurfaced as the masked Machine to spoil the opportunities for the other men Davis had trained. Dinsmore would defeat The Machine in a Retirement versus Mask match at the Last Dance on June 27, 2001, and unmask Machine as Doug Basham.
Basham went on to create the Revolutionfaction andfeuded with OVW's top stars. Basham signed a WWE development contract in April 2002 and was soon signed toSmackDown! in May 2003. In OVW, Doug took credit for "The Basham Brothers" gimmick to get back at Danny, a.k.a. Damaja. The two took part in an epic final encounter that saw Revolution members (including Johnny Spade,Mark Magnus, andRob Conway) handcuffed to Damaja's allies (including Nick Dinsmore andJohnny Jeter) withMatt Morgan on the entrance ramp to prevent any morerun-ins. Damaja was victorious, which led to Doug being forced out of OVW. After the match, Doug disbanded Revolution, causing the members to attack him, and Damaja ran back into the ring armed with a Louisville Slugger to make the save. Doug then embraced former partner Damaja and his uncle, OVW owner Danny Davis, before going to the back and shaking hands with the OVW fans, thus making him a face.
After disappearing from WWE TV in September 2005, Doug returned to OVW under a new gimmick: "The Superstar of Superstars." He came out to the ring using theSuperman theme before signing a new deal with WWE in April 2006.
On March 7, 2007, The Basham Brothers returned to OVW and defeated Wyatt Young and Mike Tolar in adark match.
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With WWE impressed by his in-ring ability,[citation needed] Doug received numerous try-out matches in late 2002 and early 2003 against opponents such asMark Jindrak,Charlie Haas,Lenny Lane,Val Venis,Nathan Jones,Redd Dogg,Nova,Johnny Jeter,Horshu,Shannon Moore, andBilly Kidman. He also teamed with the likes of Damaja,Sean O'Haire, andBull Buchanan.
Basham made his official debut on the May 29, 2003, episode ofSmackDown! as one-half of thetag team, TheBasham Brothers with his tag partnerDanny Basham. The Basham Brothers debuted as a team on May 29 and defeated the team ofRikishi andBrian Kendrick. The Basham Brothers were later joined byShaniqua. They were given a bondage-based S&Mgimmick and won their firstWWE Tag Team Championship fromLos Guerreros on the October 23 edition ofSmackDown!. The team would lose the titles on the February 5, 2004, episode ofSmackDown! to Rikishi andScotty 2 Hotty. On February 15 atNo Way Out, The Basham Brothers and Shaniqua faced Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi in ahandicap match and lost when Rikishi pinned Shaniqua. The Basham Brothers would lose their manager Shaniqua when she was sent to OVW for training not long after No Way Out. For the next few months, the Basham Brothers were regulars onVelocity and appeared on a few occasions onSmackDown! and were generally losing.[3]
The Bashams were given a one-off television appearance onSmackDown! as part of theTough Enough IV qualifiers. The remaining contestants received 30 seconds each to retrieve a flag from the far corner of the ring. Anyone who succeeded within the time limit would be immune from elimination until the next round. However, the Bashams were the obstacles to prevent the challengers from reaching the flag. The Bashams managed to resist all seven finalists consecutively. They also teased hot favoriteDaniel Puder by letting him get within 1 inch of the flag in the final seconds of his turn. (Puder had become the hot favorite one week earlier when he almost defeated a freshKurt Angle in an actual wrestling match in seconds immediately after 3 hours of circuit training specifically designed to wear the contestants out.) Impressed by their performance, the tag team was given a push. The Basham Brothers would go on to joinJohn "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL)'sCabinet faction on November 25 and became known as JBL's Co-Secretaries of Defense. Their role was often to sacrifice themselves to prevent JBL from getting harmed after he had provoked an opponent. The Bashams would once again win the WWE Tag Team Championship, defeating the teams ofRey Mysterio andRob Van Dam,Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak, andEddie Guerrero andBooker T in a four-way elimination match in January 2005. The Basham Brothers lost the titles to Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero atNo Way Out on February 20. The Bashams would then win sporadically onSmackDown! or defeat any teams they faced onVelocity. The Basham Brothers quit JBL's Cabinet on the June 16, 2005, episode ofSmackDown!, claiming that they were tired of being "JBL'scrash test dummies" and not getting enough respect.[3]
On June 30, Danny became one of the last-minute trades in the2005 WWE Draft Lottery, which saw him jump from SmackDown! over toRaw. This left both men in singles competition in WWE on different brands. Basham would return to television on the August 27 edition ofVelocity under the "Bash Man" gimmick. The Bash Man came out to the ring wearing sunglasses, a shiny leather vest, and shiny wool pants. Basham continued to worksquash matches under this unexplained gimmick sporadically over several months.
While disappearing off WWE television, Basham would return toOVW for several stints before signing a new deal with WWE in April 2006. Both Basham and Danny would reunite inWWE's revived ECW brand during July 2006 at severalhouse shows before becoming on-screen unnamed masked"Security Enforcers" for ECW leaderPaul Heyman. When Danny was injured with a torn biceps, he was replaced byDerek Neikirk, who continued Danny's role as the second masked enforcer.
The Security Team's existence was left into question after Heyman was removed from WWE television. The team stayed to compete in one handicap match againstBobby Lashley before disappearing from TV themselves.
On January 19, 2007, Basham was released by WWE along with several other wrestlers.[4]
Doug Basham, or simply Basham and Danny Basham (now known as Damaja), debuted inTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling on the May 10 episode ofTNA Impact!.[5] They were subsequently revealed to be allies of the villainousChristy Hemme, and atSacrifice, Basham and Damaja defeated Hemme's rivalsKip James andLance Hoyt in a tag team match.[6] On August 15, Basham along with Damaja left TNA wrestling.
In April 2008, the Bashams wrestled as a team one last time on a weekend tournament forJuggalo Championship Wrestling's Slam TV Tour.
In June 2008, Basham went toIreland to work forIrish Whip Wrestling. Later that year, he went toEngland to work for various promotions. Basham returned to OVW for a one-night appearance on October 10, 2008, and defeated JD Michaels with Al Barone by disqualification due to Barone getting involved.[7] He left Europe in March 2009. He returned to North America for his last match on September 5, 2009, for Pro Wrestling Fusion, defeatingFrancisco Ciatso inTemple Terrance, Florida.
In the fall of 2020, Doug Basham became the Advanced Wrestling Instructor for theAl Snow Wrestling Academy inLouisville, KY.[8]
Basham came out of retirement on August 27, 2022, teaming with Al Snow as they defeated Adam Revolver and Joe Mack at OVW's The Big One pay-per-view. He retired once again on December 3, 2023.[9]
Basham appeared inWWE Day of Reckoning andWWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006.
,Internet Wrestling Database