Former WWE Tag Team Champion Doug Basham was the latest guest on the Pancakes and Powerslams Show. Basham had much to say about his time in WWE and OVW, winning multiple title for both promotions. He also briefly commented on his stint with TNA.
Doug Basham found success in Ohio Valley Wrestling as The Machine, and then without the mask going by his real name. His achievements in OVW allowed him to get called up to the main roster, teaming with fellow OVW alum The Damaja, who became Danny Basham.
WWE decided to partner the “Basham Brothers” with 2002 Tough Enough winner Linda Miles, who later donned the ring name “Shaniqua.” On how the trio formed, Basham stated, “It is a very interesting story. I’ve been waiting to get this story out in the airwaves, because nobody knows how she got with us. When me and Danny got called up to WWE, we were sitting in catering at a table. They had no clue what they were going to do with us. We went out and did some dark matches, and had some great matches, because Danny and I were very in tune with one another. We were a very good team.” He added, “We were supposed to debut against Rikishi and Brian Kendrick in Pensacola, Florida. They came up to us and had no clue what they were going to do with us. They just knew we were going to debut. Johnny Laurinaitis came to us with the idea of we were gonna be called the Basham Brothers. I loved it. I said that is a great idea.
They wanted to push us off as twins, we had a similar build, we wore black pleather pants, and we looked like a couple hard-nosed biker dudes. One of the writers saw Britney Spears get some sort of S&M get-up on one of her concerts, and he saw Linda Miles and said oh my gosh, I have a great idea. Let’s put Linda Miles with the Basham Brothers and have her be a dominatrix, and them two be her pets. But Linda Miles, she was an impressive specimen. She was six feet tall, she was shredded, she played basketball for Rutgers. She was an athlete, and she was quite a specimen.”
While this gimmick received a fair amount of success and led the team to a WWE Tag Team Title run, Vince McMahon was not a fan of S&M concept, and eventually nixed it. As a result, the team was forced to return to OVW. Basham stated that both Vince and Stephanie McMahon “said that we got the wrong kind of heat with the whole gimmick. Vince McMahon said that it was a sick kind of heat, because we researched S&M, we researched bondage and all that sick crap, and we brought it to the stage. That’s what they wanted. Then Vince McMahon, believe it or not (laughs), said that it was the wrong kind of heat. It was sick. And so they kind of squashed it and pushed us away and forgot about us for a while before they brought us back with JBL.”
Basham credits JBL for being a genius in the ring, having the right psychology to know how to garner heat. While he was aligned with JBL as a member of The Cabinet, Basham observed a number of qualities from JBL regarding honing in a character. “He was a genius,” said Basham. He generated so much heat with the crowd, he was a champion for so long, and people would come to the arenas, and watch the pay per views, just to see JBL get his butt kicked. Even though wrestling is predetermined, you could feel the hatred and the anger when you walked out there with JBL because he was so good at taunting the crowd. He was so good at what he did, he was so good at cutting promos, he was so good on the fly. I learned a lot from that man.”
He also commented on the heat received at the ECW One Night Stand PPV. “There was only one time in my life in professional wrestling that I walked into an arena that I was actually on DEFCON 5. I was on Code Orange, Code Red with the ECW pay per view in New York. JBL had generated so much heat with that crowd, I was worried that I was gonna get stabbed, or hit, shanked, or whatever, when we were walking through the crowd. That man was very good at what he did. I was very thankful to be a part of the Cabinet and a part of that era.
Basham would then go to TNA, but his career there was only short-lived. “Me and Danny just didn’t make the cut,” Basham stated. “We just didn’t fit the bill for TNA, and maybe we ticked off certain people, and maybe they didn’t speak too highly of us. That’s about all I can think of when it comes to TNA.”
He also talks whether he is offended at “The Cabinet” name used currently in ROH, being Heyman’s security enforcer, OVW stints, whether he is fully retired, and more.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
