Daniel Hollie

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Danny Hollie


Statistics
Ring name(s)	(The) Damaja Danny Basham Danny Holliday
Billed height	6 ft. 3 in. (191 cm)
Billed weight	250 lb. (114 kg)
Born	October 3, 1977 (1977-10-03) (age 30)^[1] Seymour, Indiana^[2]
Died	June 6 2008
Resides	Indianapolis, Indiana
Billed from	Columbus, Ohio, United States
Trained by	Doug Basham Jim Cornette Danny Davis
Debut	1999^[1]

Daniel "Danny" Hollie^[3] (born October 3, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, currently working in the Independent Circuit. Hollie is best known for his appearances with World Wrestling Entertainment between 2000 and 2007 under the ring names Danny Holliday, (The) Damaja and Danny Basham.

1 Professional wrestling career
2 In wrestling
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Professional wrestling career

[edit] Ohio Valley Wrestling (1999–2003)

Hollie made his wrestling debut in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), as the Damaja. On January 6, 1999, he and David C. were awarded the OVW Tag Title when Nick Dinsmore no-showed and Rob Conway was counted out. He was also a three-time OVW Champion, defeating the likes of Dinsmore, Flash Flanagan, and Nova.

In 2000 Danny Hollie made a few appearances on WWF Jakked and in dark matches under the ring name Danny Holliday. In 2003, he was given the managerial services of Tough Enough II winner Shaniqua.^[2]

[edit] World Wrestling Entertainment (2003–2006)

In late 2002 through early 2003 Hollie worked dark matches before the RAW and SmackDown! tapings under his OVW gimmick and ring name, Damaja. On May 29, 2003, Danny made his WWE television debut (as Danny Basham), teaming with Doug Basham to form the heel tag team, the Basham Brothers. The Bashams (as they were commonly known) were later aligned with the valet, Shaniqua. As well as being portrayed with a bondage-based S&M gimmick, the "brothers" often switched places mid-match, so the "fresher" wrestler was always in the ring. In almost all cases, the referee acted oblivious to the switch, despite their easily differentiated faces and won their first WWE Tag Team Championship from Los Guerreros on the October 23 edition of SmackDown!. The team lost the titles in February 2004 to Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty. The Basham Brothers and Shaniqua faced Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi at No Way Out 2004 in a handicapped match for the tag team titles but lost the match when Shaniqua was pinned. Right after this match, Shaniqua was sent to OVW for training and was eventually released.^[2]

The Basham Brothers joined John "Bradshaw" Layfield's cabinet stable on November 25. They were known as JBL's Co-Secretaries of Defense. The Bashams once again won Tag Team gold by defeating four other teams including Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam, Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak, and Eddie Guerrero and Booker T. The Basham Brothers lost the titles to Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero at No Way Out on February 20, 2005. From here on, The Bashams either acted as jobbers on SmackDown! or defeated any team that came in their path on Velocity. The Basham Brothers quit Layfield's Cabinet on the June 16 episode of SmackDown!, claiming that they were tired of being "JBL's crash test dummies" and not getting enough respect.^[2]

On June 30, 2005 Danny Basham became one of the last-minute trades in the 2005 WWE Draft, which saw him leave SmackDown! for RAW. This marked the end of the partnership with his "twin brother," who remained on SmackDown! On the July 18 edition of RAW, Danny Basham made his first appearance on the RAW brand as one of Chris Jericho's hand picked lumberjacks in the Lumberjack match between John Cena and Gene Snitsky.

In August 2005, Hollie worked dark matches during RAW tapings under his former gimmick, The Damaja and made his televised debut on the September 11 edition of WWE Heat (as Danny Basham) under his Damaja gimmick, only more gothic and Raven-like. Danny came out with new music, black face paint, and ring attire consisting of black boots and baggy black pants with hooks and chains on them.

Hollie soon disappeared from television to grow his hair out but continued to work squash matches under this gimmick very sporadically at house shows or in dark matches over the next several months before completely disappearing from in-ring competition in 2006 before signing a new deal with WWE in April of that year.

[edit] Ohio Valley Wrestling and ECW brand (2006–2007)

On November 18, 2006, Hollie made a surprising return when OVW owner Danny Davis introduced Danny Basham as the "OVW TroubleShooter" (similar to a General Manager), granting him the power to direct each OVW show. On March 7, 2007, The Basham Brothers returned to OVW and defeated Wyatt Young & Mike Tolar in a dark match. Hollie has been wrestling under the ring name The Damaja.

Danny Hollie and Doug Basham reunited in WWE's revived ECW brand during July 2006 at several house shows before becoming on-screen unnamed masked "Security Enforcers" for ECW leader Paul Heyman. However, when Danny was injured with a torn biceps, he was later replaced by Derek Neikirk, who continued Danny's role as the second masked enforcer.^[2] On January 18, 2007, WWE announced the release of 11 superstars, both of the Basham Brothers included.^[4]

[edit] Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2007)

On April 20, 2007, Damaja and Doug Basham took on Rhino in a Derby City Street Fight, which Doug Basham lost. Basham and Damaja both appeared alongside Christy Hemme at the April 30 TNA Impact! TV Tapings. They were then revealed on the May 10 Impact! to be the mystery team facing the Voodoo Kin Mafia at Sacrifice 2007 in a match which they won. On August 15, 2007, Damaja was released from TNA due to no-showing an event along with his partner.