Latest / What Do You Call It? Podcast! / 🎤COMMISSIONER DANNY JAMES🎤 talks DKW Academy, Man Utd, WrestleMania, LDN, MC, Sheamus & more

Transcript

🎤COMMISSIONER DANNY JAMES🎤 talks DKW Academy, Man Utd, WrestleMania, LDN, MC, Sheamus & more · What Do You Call It? Podcast!

0:06
Hello and welcome to another episode of What Do You Call It
0:11
Podcast. I'm your host TB.
0:15
Today's guest is the commissioner and MC for the DKW
0:21
Academy. Please welcome Commissioner
0:24
Danny James. Danny, how you doing today,
0:26
mate? You all good?
0:28
I'm good. How are you?
0:29
I'm not bad mate, not bad. Sunday it's.
0:32
Not going to be bad. At the time I'm recording, it's
0:34
actually before the Arsenal game.
0:37
So yeah, a little bit nervous, a little bit nervous.
0:40
One thing I will say, we're going to keep football chat.
0:44
Oh, good. So yeah, Joe, what?
0:46
Because after we got, if Dan wants to, I've got.
0:49
To say if Dan doesn't want to talk about it, I'll quickly
0:51
touch it and he's Sports Man United and they have can.
0:53
You not talk about the London accent.
0:56
Yes, thousand local. They've been abysmal, that gay
0:59
system. Quickly, what is going on at May
1:02
night before we touch on your role as a commissioner MC and
1:06
your wrestling? Career what's going on is since
1:10
2013 we lost probably the greatest manager in our club's
1:15
history and since then we've not managed to replace him and the
1:20
club have basically just not given managers an ample
1:25
opportunity. I don't think I think we were on
1:27
the right kind of track when we had Oligan and Salsa are in
1:30
charge. I think they should have just
1:31
kept with him, but I think it's constantly changing managers is
1:35
just no good because the players are then adapting to a different
1:38
manager, different styles, different systems, and no team
1:42
is going to be able to just automatically just gel and like
1:47
do different bits and pieces within the space of like 6
1:51
months, a year or whatever. Yeah, so it's like what Amber
1:53
him in? But the thing I think with him
1:56
is he seems so stubborn about this formation now.
2:00
The players are not used to playing the freefall free
2:02
formation or whatever it is that he wants to call it.
2:05
They're not used to playing the free at the back system.
2:07
Like you're playing Bruno, one of the best number 10s,
2:09
probably, arguably some people would say one of the best number
2:12
10s in the world. You're playing him, there's like
2:14
a six or eight. He's not comfortable there.
2:16
So Ameren just needs to give his head a bit of a wobble, be like,
2:20
look, my system ain't working. Let's maybe even just for like a
2:23
match or two. All right, look, we'll try 4 at
2:25
the back, we'll try it, try it a different way.
2:28
I think the whole time he's sticking with that and it's not
2:31
working. It's just going to be a bit
2:34
downhill. But you know what I think you
2:36
know, you've got to keep, you've got to keep hold of someone.
2:38
You've got to give them time. But you know if something's not
2:41
working. So I mean, you know, just not
2:43
even the main night for myself, but just to see what's going on.
2:46
I don't like him in the media. I don't think he's very
2:48
convincing. The game against Grimsby we'd on
2:51
the penalties. I thought that was actually
2:52
beyond embarrassing what he was doing, sort of like, oh, not
2:55
looking so fucking Grimsby down, mate.
2:58
Like I just don't think I'm not convinced by him.
3:01
I mean, the footballs got worse. I thought 10.
3:02
I thought he was a bit half 1010 to be honest.
3:05
I thought his first season was pretty solid.
3:08
I mean, yeah, this I think like I was listening to, I think it
3:13
was Duncan Ferguson, he's audiobook the other day.
3:17
And he was sent back with David Moyers.
3:20
And I think, you know, David Moyers was kind of given a bit
3:23
of a bit of a rough ride at United because when Fergie left,
3:27
you weren't just losing a manager, you were pretty much
3:29
losing like your chief scout. Yeah, you know, and everything
3:32
he would do, he was so hands on. He do everything.
3:35
And so when you lost him, it wasn't just the manager, it was
3:37
pretty much doing everything. So he was kind of walking into a
3:41
kind of poison chalice thing. But you know, we can hope the
3:44
glory days are going to return at some point and you know, who
3:48
knows, you know, we might, we might actually manage to get
3:51
back up to those dizzy heights of 2nd place that you've got.
3:56
But that way I mean. Even even in our worst period,
4:00
we've still won the league more recent than you guys so.
4:03
There we go. That's it folks, in the past,
4:06
but that's what you do and I'm looking forward to your
4:09
circumstance Stadium that's going to be coming out next few
4:12
years. You know, you've seen the
4:14
images, we've all seen the advert for it, and I just hope
4:18
Ameren stays. I think he's doing a fantastic
4:20
job. Awesome.
4:23
So yeah, I had to get the wrestling talk.
4:25
Not the wrestling talk, sorry, the football talk out the way.
4:27
Dan, what I want to do is before I touch on your current role in
4:31
the DKW Academy, I want to know first of all how you became a
4:35
fan of wrestling. Oh, how did I become a fan of
4:40
wrestling? So we go way, way, way back now.
4:45
Back when my back didn't hurt, my knees didn't hurt.
4:48
And I was at school so many moons ago and I had some friends
4:55
basically in secondary school and they were saying about
4:58
talking about wrestling. And I was like, oh, like, no,
5:01
no, didn't really seem that interested at 1st.
5:05
And then they were like, oh, you should watch this.
5:07
And oh, this, this show's coming up like it's called
5:10
WrestleMania. So I'm like, OK, I'll give it a
5:12
watch. And it was ironic in the
5:14
WrestleMania X7. So not a bad way to kind of
5:18
start What an. Introduction to a.
5:21
Wrestling, I mean, WrestleMania can only kind of go downhill
5:24
from there, I guess. But yeah.
5:27
And then it turned out that like through talking to my family,
5:31
that my great granddad was actually into wrestling when he
5:34
was younger. So into like the stuff with like
5:37
the Big Daddy giant haystacks, all that kind of world of sport
5:40
stuff. And yeah, so it was mainly
5:43
through school. And then like my I met my best
5:47
mate Scott actually in when I was like big started becoming a
5:51
bit more of a fan in the library at school.
5:54
And he was doing this thing on on the computer to do with
5:58
wrestling. And I've so I've got just got
6:00
chatting to him and he said, Oh yes, it's like an efed.
6:03
Now, for those of you that don't know what Efeds are, that are
6:05
too young to know what they are, they're basically like wrestling
6:10
shows that you'd kind of do online where you know, So for
6:14
example, my I was I was my character, so could.
6:17
I ask what was the name? The character's name.
6:20
No. So it was just WWE talent or
6:23
like actual wrestling talent. So I was just using Edge.
6:26
So Edge was the one that I would use.
6:29
And then obviously you'd then do so like your own little kind of
6:32
role play a bit. So like, oh, you know, this
6:34
show, oh, Edge comes out, does XYZ.
6:37
And then, you know, whoever was booking the show.
6:39
So it would be like my friend Scott.
6:41
So he would be booking the show and be like, oh, this person's
6:44
going to like win this championship, for example.
6:47
And yeah, it was like very kind of like that first kind of foray
6:55
into like wrestling kind of thing.
6:57
And that's kind of how I got into that kind of stuff.
7:00
And then obviously watching more of the shows and then became
7:03
like religiously watching it kind of week in, week out
7:06
through, you know, all the the bad times, the good times, the
7:10
lots of good times. And yeah.
7:14
And then it was, I think I was probably in about what year was
7:18
WrestleMania X72000 and one was it.
7:21
So I would have been in year eight-year 7 or 8 at this time.
7:29
So shows how old I am. Yeah, year 7 or 8 in school and
7:33
then obviously going. Maybe same age as me, but I
7:37
think continues. Yeah.
7:38
I mean, yeah, I'm 37 in like a month.
7:41
So there we go. But yeah, so that's how that
7:46
kind of went on. And then obviously the more I
7:49
kind of, I started talking with Scott, we started then obviously
7:52
talking to more people. And then I was like, you know,
7:54
we're into wrestling a bit more and then got to give him a big
7:59
shout out as well. PJ, who wrestled for DK under
8:04
the name of Ponsonby. I think it's Ponsonby Pendleton
8:08
Pratt and Eddie Cornell or Freddie Cornell.
8:11
He's one of the Cornells anyway. But obviously we suddenly lost
8:15
him in a few years back to his epilepsy.
8:18
So he was a big part of when Dropkicks was the bucket of
8:23
blood Fight Club. And yeah, Paul was basically
8:27
madly into it as well. Didn't know him, but he was like
8:30
the IT tech at our school, so he was obviously a few years older
8:33
than we were. He'd hate me saying that because
8:36
never used to let anyone know his age.
8:39
And yeah, I was very lucky in 2007 that Paul actually was
8:44
like, oh, do you fancy coming to WrestleMania?
8:46
So I had the opportunity through him to go to the WrestleMania 23
8:51
out in Detroit. Never go to Detroit, guys.
8:54
This is an absolute, excuse my language, fucking shit hole.
8:58
The best part about Detroit was leaving.
9:00
But that WrestleMania was brilliant, by the way.
9:03
And yeah, I mean, Battle of the Billionaires who got to see
9:08
Donald Trump and also got to see probably my favorite wrestler of
9:14
all time, the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels, wrestling in the
9:17
main event against John Cena. And you know what that was back
9:22
when it was? It was essentially anyone with a
9:25
masculine voice was seen as sucks and anyone that was a
9:28
woman or a child was like let's go.
9:31
See. That was pretty much the entire
9:35
crowd for that. But you know, I can say, you
9:38
know, I got to see Shawn Michaels main event and yeah,
9:42
that was a very good experience. Obviously.
9:43
Then I managed to go again in WrestleMania 35, like the
9:49
longest one ever. Oh, Becky, Rhonda, Charlotte
9:53
main event. Yeah, the show went on for like
9:55
8 hours or something. Didn't actually get to see it
9:58
though because we had to leave halfway through because my
10:00
partner that was with at the time decided that she was going
10:03
to have too much to drink and not eat anything and decided
10:06
that she was going to throw up halfway through.
10:10
Just caught Kofi winning the title and then we had to leave.
10:15
Luckily we did though, because there was obviously all the
10:17
problems with getting back. So yeah, just literally got back
10:19
to the hotel. Triple H Batista was probably
10:22
still going on. It was in about its fourth hour
10:24
that. To be fair, don't get it wrong,
10:26
it's still wrong. You paid all that money you've
10:27
thrown all the way over there. But the main event should have
10:30
been Kofi and Brian and that was epic.
10:32
After that, the show does does take a bit of a dip in quality.
10:35
The main event, the crowds are so tired, they're just politely
10:38
cheer and Becky at that point, but still.
10:42
But for that one, see, that one was actually slightly different
10:45
because it was all in the same, the same city kind of thing.
10:49
So I say same city, the stadium's actually in a
10:52
different state. But so we managed to get like a
10:55
package thing where you've got tickets to say, Barclays Centre,
10:57
so at the same seats for like Raw, Smackdown, NXT, Hall of
11:01
Fame. So that was good.
11:02
And then obviously the WrestleMania, it was back when
11:07
it was reasonably priced, like I think the tickets to
11:09
WrestleMania were $75 and they were decent seats and now you
11:13
can't even get, you wouldn't even get past the turnstile for
11:17
$75 now. Sad, isn't it?
11:20
Yeah, but anyway, yeah, I've like waffled on way too much
11:24
about. That no, that's fine mate.
11:26
I think you touched on to how you became a wrestler, so a lot
11:29
of fans at DKW, they might not know that you've stepped foot in
11:32
the ring before. I mean, yeah, step foot in.
11:37
I've done like a couple. I did a couple of battle Royals,
11:40
yeah, back in my younger days, but yeah, actually.
11:44
So it was through Scott actually, but in I think it was
11:48
about now, I'm sure someone will probably correct me if this is
11:51
incorrect, but it was around I think 2007 that the LDN training
11:59
school first opened in Enfield and the coaches there were Tex,
12:03
Benedict and Ash. Who is Paul Ash from the new
12:08
breed? Don't know if you know of the
12:10
new breed, but sometimes still wrestles in UBW.
12:14
But yeah, so went down there to Enfield first, first time there,
12:22
a few names there that people might recognise.
12:26
So you had the likes of Nick Aldes was down there, a couple
12:30
of names that you probably can't mention now in wrestling.
12:35
And there was also a very, I believe it's probably about 12
12:41
at the time, but a very, very young Sid Scala.
12:46
Yeah. He'd been training, like, for a
12:47
while. Like the kid was like, you knew
12:50
he was going to have a massive future from that, like from
12:53
that. First GM of NXT UK, wasn't it?
12:56
Yeah. And it was yeah, through there,
13:00
obviously that that's kind of when I got like a bit of a start
13:03
in, you know, in wrestling, you know, learning all the basics,
13:07
the fundamentals. And it was around the time
13:11
obviously when they when they became a part of the wrestling
13:16
channel, I think it was. And that was a thing.
13:20
Funny story about that, actually.
13:21
So Tex Benedict, who was the trainer, he obviously his
13:26
gimmick on the show was an American wrestler, but the
13:30
actual person that portrayed him was English.
13:34
So they've done all this like advert that they filmed for the
13:37
Wrestling channel at one of our training sessions.
13:40
And so he's done this whole thing, done this monologue and
13:43
etcetera. So they've done it all.
13:45
They've been, oh, thank you, guys.
13:46
And then I can't remember who it was now, but someone literally
13:48
just pointed out. And when was he meant to do that
13:50
in character? They're like, yeah.
13:51
They're like, he just the whole thing just in his normal English
13:54
accent. The whole room just erupted and
13:56
he had, he was like, oh, my dad, he had to literally stand there
13:58
and do the whole screen all over again in his American accent.
14:04
Yeah, I think so. It was actually fun fact
14:08
actually, I was actually taught how to clothesline properly by
14:13
Seamus from WWE. So obviously I'm a bigger guy.
14:17
Yeah, I was throwing clotheslines and he's like, Nah,
14:19
he goes, you're being too nice with it.
14:21
And he was like, you need to like properly look like in going
14:24
through them. But yeah, so Shame is a really
14:26
lovely guy actually as well. So yeah, we got to work so.
14:29
Seamus helped you with your clothesline.
14:30
That's pretty sick. Yeah, I mean, he didn't actually
14:33
get in the ring, but he was like giving us advice and that got to
14:37
do. So he wrestled texts on one of
14:38
the shows. So yeah, like he was really
14:41
lovely. And also, who else was it?
14:45
Robbie Brookside as well. Yeah, and father of the Ziah
14:49
Brookside, who you see on NXCUK and NXT.
14:52
But yeah, again. But you know, really lovely guy
14:55
and you know a lot of it nowadays.
14:58
Obviously with with DK, obviously I knew of drop kicks
15:01
through through LDN because obviously they had a bit of a
15:04
partnership and John Ritchie, who was like running, running it
15:07
at the time. And obviously he'd bring a lot
15:09
of the guys down to the LDN shows and John was like one of
15:12
the top stars in LDN at that time.
15:14
So that's pretty much how I got into it.
15:17
How are you there? I've got a special announcement
15:19
from my next guest. What's up everyone?
15:24
This is the artist of Eight Limbs, The Golden Dragon Big
15:29
Boss Tyson Keaton, for the first time appearing on the What Do
15:33
You Call It podcast. Yeah.
15:44
How many matches did you roughly have before you would hang up
15:47
the boots? Because I know you've told me so
15:49
about the injuries. Fortunately that you have that
15:52
you had and prevented you from sort of a long term wrestling
15:55
career. But did you have many in room
15:57
matches? You said about battle Royals,
15:59
but did you have any? Yeah, it's just a couple tag
16:01
matches or was it just the battle?
16:02
No, no, so I don't. No, so it's just a couple battle
16:05
Royals. I was then I did managing as
16:08
well for a little bit, did a couple of little manager roles
16:11
and that. But yeah, as in like 1 on one
16:14
and tag matches. You know, I never kind of got to
16:16
that stage. You know, I kind of fell out a
16:20
little bit with the like with how things were there and you
16:24
know, when kind of you think, you know what, it's just going
16:28
to be like if I'm going to be here, it's like you every The
16:32
thing is, everyone goes to training and they want to get
16:34
booked on shows. And then you kind of get a
16:36
little bit kind of disheartened when you've been there for ages
16:40
and then you get somebody else will come in and they'll get a
16:42
spot that you feel like you could or should have had kind of
16:46
thing. You know, we see it all the time
16:48
in like different training schools or you know, these
16:51
people are here and blah, blah, blah.
16:52
But, you know, it was one of them where, you know, I kind of
16:56
just kind of fell out of not fell out of love with it.
16:58
But you're thinking like, well, what's the point in me kind of
17:02
coming here? And, you know, I'm kind of
17:04
getting overlooked all the time and.
17:07
But like you're not progressing there like.
17:09
Yeah. I mean, no, it wasn't like that.
17:10
I wasn't progressing because like.
17:12
Not as an actual talent, but in terms of your.
17:14
Actual. Yeah, exactly.
17:16
And obviously for me, I've, you know, where I was a bigger guy
17:20
at the time, like, you know, we're talking like I was like
17:22
probably 2526. Don't at a time.
17:25
So my knees weren't as good as they used to be.
17:27
So, you know, I had obviously issues on my knees.
17:29
I was only like 2021 at the time.
17:33
So yeah, we're going back a fair while.
17:35
And then obviously I just distanced myself from from that,
17:40
but then just kept obviously watching wrestling from afar.
17:44
And it's mainly just like watching WWE stuff from afar.
17:48
So it would never be like a lot of the British wrestling stuff.
17:52
I was going to say So you wouldn't like, watch local, you
17:54
know, independent wrestling in the UK scene.
17:57
But do you watch that Derby? Yeah.
17:58
And the Network, you watched it sort of thing.
18:00
Yeah, no, no, nothing like that. It'd always just be like, watch
18:03
the shows on TV, you know, if there's like live events from
18:05
WWE, just go there so. That's fair mate, that's fair.
18:10
What actually brought you back in to the world of wrestling?
18:13
Not WWE, but actually being involved in wrestling and sort
18:17
of where you where you currently are in DKW Academy.
18:23
So obviously, so we mentioned obviously that I did some stuff
18:27
with a rebellious noise and give them a shout out where we
18:31
managed to get some press time. So we went and interviewed some
18:33
of the WWE guys. You know, so big, obviously big
18:37
thank you to them for the opportunity.
18:40
And yeah, then obviously so I did some of that like pre kind
18:43
of pre COVID, pre lockdown. Hello there.
18:46
I've got a special announcement from my next guest.
18:50
Boy, we're sat in people with the ultimate geezer, Tommy
18:52
Tanner, and you're listening to the What Do You Call It podcast.
18:56
They're Savitt. Yeah.
19:04
Who did you interview, by the way?
19:07
So it's so we had the very first ones we actually did.
19:13
So it was Drew McIntyre, Rusev, Cesaro and the Iconics.
19:22
Great crop of talent there. So that that was the first lot,
19:25
but that was over like a couple of days.
19:27
So generally what it is, is so when they come over to the UK,
19:30
they'll generally have like a bunch of talent.
19:32
And it this time everyone was just kind of sat around a table
19:36
and the wrestler would sit at the end and they'd go around and
19:39
everyone would get to ask a question.
19:41
Whereas future ones that we'd done where you'd all be in like
19:47
this big like meeting room or you'd be in this big like
19:50
conference room or whatever. And then the wrestlers would
19:53
kind of just like gravitate around.
19:55
So, you know, myself and Scott went and done a few of them like
19:59
he's been over to when they did the Clash of the Castle in in
20:03
Cardiff. So he went and did that as well.
20:06
Yeah. We've trying to think who I
20:08
personally have spoken to. Matt Riddle, Kevin Owens, St.
20:15
Escobar, Pretty deadly. I'm trying to think who else.
20:20
Such a crime. Yeah, I'm in there.
20:22
Pretty deadly, by the way, on the main roster.
20:24
Just such a crime. Pretty deadly with them on the
20:26
right. Yeah.
20:27
What stuff? Just oh, bugs me.
20:29
And obviously Elton Prince, product of the DKW Academy, took
20:32
his very first DKW. So, you know, very, very proud
20:37
moment, obviously seeing him. But yeah, so obviously going
20:42
back to like how I got started with with DK.
20:46
So The thing is, so it's during lockdown, really.
20:51
So we used to do like our wrestling podcasts because
20:55
obviously you couldn't really meet up with.
20:56
So it was me and Scott. And then I'd always kind of knew
20:59
of Lucas from like obviously through the LDN connections and
21:04
stuff. And so I, I, I don't even know
21:07
how it was, but we just started getting talking.
21:09
And he mentioned obviously about the show starting up again,
21:14
coming out of lockdown, I think it was 2021.
21:18
And so I'm like, oh, like, do you need like an MC or anything
21:20
for the show? I said, I've never done it
21:21
before, but, you know, happy to come down and give it, give it a
21:24
whack kind of thing. You know, I'm like, I can't do
21:27
nothing physical, so I might as well just come down, you know, I
21:30
can talk. Not even that confident we're
21:33
talking in front of people, but I'm like, I'll come down and
21:36
give it a whirl sort of thing. And you know, I'm coming up to
21:41
doing like my 50th show for DKW. Congratulations, That's a wicked
21:48
milestone. I mean to be honest, so that but
21:50
it's 50 shows, not including like charity events or anything
21:54
like so that's 50 like what we class.
21:56
As I was going to say, not including the Park Tavern shows,
21:59
then no. No.
22:00
So no pub shows like anything that's not a kind of advertised
22:04
show that we would generally do in say like the community
22:08
centres and stuff. Yeah, yeah.
22:11
What we'd class as main show, it technically would have been 51.
22:14
But the very first stronger thing show we did, I actually
22:17
lost my voice the morning of the show.
22:20
So I came out and did the introduction to the show and
22:23
then it was Lucas and Vicki. So Vicki 2 thumbs or protege.
22:30
Vicki had to actually take over doing the MC in for that show.
22:32
So this technically would be my 51st, but I didn't MC that show,
22:37
so I'm not going to count that as a show that I'm MC.
22:39
But yes, obviously that obviously was the start of it.
22:42
And then I can't remember. It's 22 of 2023 actually became
22:50
co-owner of DK with Lucas. So and that's still something
22:55
that not a lot of people kind of realise because you hear DKW,
22:59
you hear drop kicks and everyone instantly thinks, oh, Lucas,
23:02
Lucas, Lucas. But there is actually two of us
23:04
that run things behind the scenes.
23:07
And yeah, it's, it's quite, it can be quite fun at times, it
23:12
can be quite rewarding and it can also stress you, the cow.
23:19
Tell me about the positives and the negatives then of this
23:22
you're saying about the rewards but also it being challenging.
23:25
Tell me about the positives first, and tell me about the the
23:28
times you'd be like, oh, pull my hair out.
23:31
So positives are obviously when, especially for me now is seeing
23:36
people at their very first training session and they walk
23:39
in, they can't take, they can't do anything at their first
23:42
session. And then you see them on the
23:45
full journey where they're going through and they're then
23:49
wrestling on main shows or doing stuff on main shows.
23:52
Like I'll give you like an example.
23:53
One of my, you know, one of the people that I'm most, most proud
23:57
of is a guy that we've currently got down at the Academy called
24:00
Ethan. Now he came in the very first
24:02
session. He's dad's like, look, he's he's
24:05
autistic. He, you know, he's not very like
24:07
comfortable around people and his first session he literally
24:12
left the session crying. And that wasn't because of
24:14
obviously any how anyone was with him.
24:17
It was just because he felt as though like, oh, I can't do
24:19
this, I can't do this. And we kept encouraging.
24:21
We're like, look, come, come back, you know, do what you need
24:24
to do. And that kid has literally
24:26
worked his socks off. And I then we were like, look,
24:31
should we get, try and get him a bit involved in the show?
24:33
So he then started Co hosting the raffle with us and now and
24:37
then in the end we were like, look, do you feel comfortable
24:39
doing it on your own? You went yeah, go on.
24:41
So now you guys, anyone that comes for a live show, you'll
24:44
see the the Ethan Rogers raffle at every DKW show.
24:48
Now he's put me out of a bloody. Job shout out to Ethan.
24:53
Shout out and you also at the last part Tavern show the MC, so
24:57
he's probably going to put me out of that one in a couple of
24:58
years as well. Fair play mate, and so about a
25:03
negative to this role. The negatives, I mean, the
25:09
negatives are just mainly the long days that anyone that's
25:12
ever run a show will know that a show is not just when doors
25:17
open. When doors close.
25:19
Yeah, You know, we are very, very lucky.
25:22
Me and Lucas are super lucky that we've got a fantastic team
25:25
around us. The likes of Peter, I'll I'll
25:29
give them that. I'll give them shoot name.
25:30
But Peter Craig, Ash Spencer, you know, those kind of guys
25:36
that every show we have are loading a ring into the van
25:41
sometimes at like nine, 10:00 in the morning to do a show to then
25:46
unload it and not get home until midnight, 1:00 in the morning
25:50
sometimes. And they, they're the things
25:52
that people don't see. They just think, oh, you know,
25:54
they're just turned like the rest of us, for example, on the
25:57
shows, they'll get to the show, do the show, then they can like
26:02
go home, have their dinner, be with their families for the
26:04
evening. While they're doing that, these
26:06
guys are literally still going back, unloading a ring.
26:10
Then they've still got to get other people home that don't
26:13
drive. And then, you know, so yeah,
26:15
we've honestly, we've had it where the guys have done 1617
26:19
hour days sometimes. And you know, it's it's
26:24
rewarding when you see like the final product of how good the
26:27
shows were. But it's just, yeah, it's just
26:31
that thing of they are very, very, very tiring days.
26:35
But as I say, we've got a fantastic team around us.
26:38
And, you know, big shout out to each and every one of them that
26:41
just bust their arses for us. You know, even people on the
26:45
shows, you know, even it is like the wrestlers that we have
26:48
working for us, you know, they just bust their arse, show in
26:50
and show out. And you know, massive, massive
26:52
thank you to all of them as well.
26:55
Definitely, man, you know I'm going.
26:56
To and the and the commentary team as well.
26:59
We do try mate, we try I I've been involved with DKW Academy
27:03
since last year, guest commentary.
27:05
But any show that's mainly in Southend or Leon say I do, I
27:10
think I'm there mostly. And I do see that the crew that
27:13
they have the the passion and the drive and the love and they
27:18
love the fans and the fans are great.
27:20
But just what goes into the shows.
27:22
It's honestly mate, I don't think people's I eat myself to
27:26
honest until like a few shows in.
27:29
I'm like OK, there's a lot of effort that goes into this.
27:30
It's not just let's put the ring in, let's just go a few matches
27:33
and let's just do a show. Like, you care?
27:35
I mean, yeah, and it does help when you actually turn up at the
27:38
right venue as well. For fuck's sake, yeah, one of
27:42
the shows I turn up at the wrong venue.
27:44
I've made it on time still, but just fucking space it.
27:48
But yeah, I was like calling Dan.
27:50
I was like, Dan, what the fuck? No, because someone let me in.
27:55
Imagine. Imagine that.
27:56
Imagine if the show was on April the 1st though.
27:58
You literally would have just thought.
28:00
That it was just it's just Booker two years.
28:03
Dan called me well, she's winding this up.
28:05
No, I'm in the wrong fucking venue.
28:07
But luckily I was able to make on time.
28:09
So all good there. But now obviously that land
28:11
obviously helped me a lot as well with the commentary in the
28:13
notes and just there's time. Just like don't speak when he
28:16
speaks, the intros when the rest has come out, trying to speak
28:19
too much. But then the matches around just
28:22
fucking go all in. I do notice some people when
28:24
like when you're talking, they'll just go like no matter
28:27
what you say, they'll just do it like Luca, like he loved it.
28:32
And I feel like they do it just to get under your skin.
28:36
Yeah. A few more questions, my man.
28:39
A few more questions. So you told me you took your
28:44
last bump about two years ago and we've seen many, many
28:47
wrestlers return, you know, career injuries.
28:52
Would you ever be tempted to get back in the ring for the DKW
28:56
Academy and have an actual match?
29:00
Have you? I mean, the fat bug still like,
29:02
oh God, do it. Fuck it.
29:04
The thing is, I think this is probably something that anybody
29:08
that's ever taken a bump in a wrestling ring will tell you, or
29:12
anyone that's, you know, trained or would class themselves as a
29:16
wrestler will tell you. Yeah, three.
29:19
What are the three most famous words in wrestling?
29:24
Never say never. So The thing is for me, it has
29:30
to be the kind of right time. And you know, I've got slipped
29:33
discs in my neck, I've got sciatica in my back.
29:36
So it's a case of firstly, is it going to be safe?
29:41
Is the first is the main thing for me is, you know, can I
29:44
safely do it? Then I'd have to actually get
29:48
into some kind of shape. Like, I know round is a shape,
29:52
but I don't feel like I'm in any like any shape to get in there.
29:56
And the pace that some of these guys and girls go at.
30:00
Art's extraordinary. You know, you're just like,
30:03
yeah, I'm getting knackered just sitting there watching it, let
30:06
alone actually trying to get in there and actually do anything
30:08
with them. But you know, if there was
30:11
obviously a time where I might need to like throw some
30:15
authority down, you know, throw a punch here and there, take a
30:19
bump here and there, then who knows?
30:22
But obviously I'll leave it to the guys that attend the DKW
30:27
Academy down in perfectly every Sunday.
30:30
If you don't already, why not? You should be down there.
30:33
One of the one of EU KS longest running wrestling academies.
30:37
We've been going for 26 years now.
30:40
Soon to be 27th anniversary coming up in July next year.
30:45
Fun fact actually about this, right?
30:46
So sorry this is going completely off topic all.
30:50
Good. Randomly I was getting my hair
30:53
cut and the Barber that was cutting my hair had the name of
30:57
Frank Reimer. So I'm like, oh, are you related
31:00
to Frank Reimer, who founded Dropkicks?
31:02
He went, yeah, it's my dad and I'm like oh shit, I actually own
31:07
that. I Co own that company now.
31:09
And so, yeah, me and him obviously got talking a little
31:11
bit more. Fucking world.
31:14
A very small world. And my current Barber now
31:16
actually cuts the hair of Karen Noir.
31:18
So really, even smaller world. Yeah.
31:22
Who is this? Barber.
31:26
Well, no. So Frank moved out to Canada.
31:28
So I was like, oh, I'll go to go to somebody else.
31:30
Sorry, sorry Frank. But yeah, I went to somebody
31:33
else. And yeah, he cuts Corona One's
31:37
hair as well. So random random piece of hair
31:41
info for you guys. Knowledge there.
31:43
Last question, Dan doesn't have to be investor related.
31:46
We have talked about Man United, we've talked about your career,
31:48
talked about DKW, your role in DKW, the positives, the
31:52
negatives, challenging and you celebrate your 50th, well,
31:56
technically 51st, however you want to, you know, celebrate it.
32:00
But I'll be at the show after the Halloween 1. 26, one on my
32:04
birthday. Yeah, celebrating Commissioner
32:08
Danny James's birthday. By the way, we've got it on
32:11
record now. If he doesn't buy me a present,
32:13
he's a tight arse. Times are hard mate.
32:15
Well I think it's payday weekend.
32:16
Actually. I'm cutting this bit out.
32:20
Last question for you mate. Last question 3.
32:22
Dream dinner guests for your dream party.
32:25
Dead or alive, past or present, fiction, non fictional anyone
32:29
mate, anything. Doesn't matter. 3 reasons.
32:32
That's why you want them there. Go 3 guests.
32:39
First one will be the legend Sir Alex Ferguson Just doesn't need
32:43
a reason. It's it's Sir Alex Ferguson.
32:46
I mean, he's no Wenger, but it'll do, yeah.
32:51
No comment. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not in a
32:55
process of getting cancelled, but at least Fergie will be able
32:57
to see what's on the table. There we go.
33:01
And it obviously he'd Defoe Roman Reigns, he'd sit at the
33:04
head of the table, obviously. So, yeah, so Alex Ferguson would
33:08
be 1. What I might try and do is I
33:12
might try and do one from football, 1 from wrestling and
33:14
one from personal life. So there.
33:15
Yeah, man. So then.
33:17
All back who's the personal life will probably be my yeah so
33:20
personal life will probably be my granddad.
33:22
Obviously he was one of my biggest, like biggest supporters
33:25
and where I get the name Danny James from my granddad Jim.
33:29
So that's where the James part of my name comes from.
33:32
And then the third one would be so from wrestling.
33:41
It's tricky because there's so many of them.
33:43
Like I'm trying to think who would be a good laugh.
33:46
Seamus. Seamus would be a good laugh,
33:49
he'd be, he'd be. He'd have good crack but
33:51
Liverpool support so don't think he'd get on too well with
33:54
Fergie. Oh, it's tricky.
34:02
You know what, I'm probably going to have to go with Shawn
34:03
Michaels. He was my all time favorite
34:05
wrestler. So yeah, they have to be hate
34:07
BK. Which one actually Shawn
34:09
Michaels from his first run where he retired in 98 or
34:14
second? Shawn Michaels run from 2002 to
34:18
2010. The Shawn Michaels that I knew
34:21
from 2001, the Bob haircut, shit brown trousers in his Oh yeah,
34:30
it's 'cause his pants look like. Haircuts.
34:34
Atrocious. Yeah, that Shawn Michaels.
34:37
Fucking pooped attire, but the match is actually phenomenal.
34:41
But so I let him off a little bit for what he's wearing.
34:42
Then he got his moment. We could chat to you mate.
34:46
Look forward to seeing you at the end of the month.
34:47
We celebrate your birthday and congratulations to your 50th DKW
34:51
show. But still, you've actually done
34:53
any more. But we are officially
34:54
celebrating this that. So that's awesome mate.
34:56
Is there anything you want to share, anything you want to
34:59
promote or anything you want to say?
35:01
Mate? We're now at the end of this
35:02
interview. So obviously anyone that does
35:05
want to become a wrestler, get yourself down to DKW Academy
35:08
down in perfectly. We train every Sunday and that's
35:11
what shows and keep an eye out on social media for that stars
35:15
that have come through that Academy.
35:16
Nick Aldis, Smackdown general manager Wade Barrett, WWE
35:21
commentator actually had their first match together at the hall
35:25
right next to where we train. Fun fact for you and Elton
35:30
Prince from pretty deadly took his very first bump.
35:32
Most of the shows you guys will go over to watch in Essex will
35:36
probably have at least one person that's been trained
35:39
through the kW Academy. So, you know, we've got quite a
35:43
good like list of alumni. Yeah, it's a really good fun,
35:47
friendly environment. You know, we're open to students
35:50
of 16 plus. So come on down to that.
35:54
Also, obviously, as you mentioned already, we've got
35:57
shows coming up at the end of October.
35:59
We've got shows coming up in November as well.
36:01
So what's the space for them? And yeah, just obviously anyone
36:04
that that isn't following British wrestling, follow a lot
36:08
of the a lot of the guys as well that that work on our shows, you
36:11
know, support them, you know, but go out, if you go into a
36:14
show, buy AT shirt for the guys, you know, buy an 8 by 10, you
36:18
know, stick a couple of quid in their pocket.
36:20
Just be like, you know what, you did really well on that show.
36:23
I really enjoyed it. You know, I'll buy AT shirt,
36:26
I'll support you because, you know, these guys are doing it.
36:28
They even the workers on the show sometimes they're driving
36:31
miles and miles and miles, you know, they're racking up miles.
36:34
They're bump, you know, their bump cards are not going to be
36:37
great because you know, some of this high intensity action, you
36:41
know, at least people can do kick a few quid back to them
36:43
and, you know, give them a little bit of support there.
36:46
And you can also buy my T-shirts as well.
36:48
So I notice you ain't wearing one, George.
36:51
So let me know the size and you can pick one up at the next show
36:55
and I'll tell him stick double the price on for you.
36:58
Cheers. Mate.
37:00
Cheers mate. No discount.
37:01
For the commentator, but no obviously, yeah.
37:04
Also just want to say massive shout out and a massive thank
37:07
you to Lucas as well, who trains all the talent down at DKW
37:10
Academy and you know, pretty much DK wouldn't be what it is
37:14
today without him. Big shout out to you as well for
37:17
helping us with commentary. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and
37:32
girls, children of all ages, it's time for What Do You Call
37:38
It podcast.