Danny Basham

Danny Holliday

In 2000, Basham made a few appearances on *WWF Jakked* and in dark matches under the ring name **Danny Holliday**.

In late 2002 through early 2003, Basham worked dark matches before the *Raw* and *SmackDown* tapings under the ring name, **The 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 were later aligned with the valet, Shaniqua. 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 and they won their first WWE Tag Team Championship from Los Guerreros on the October 23 episode of *SmackDown!*, after they switched places behind the referee's back, and hit Eddie Guerrero with a foreign object. 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 when Shaniqua was pinned. Right after this match, Shaniqua was released.

The Basham Brothers joined John "Bradshaw" Layfield's Cabinet stable on November 25, 2004. 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 on January 13, 2005 in a four team elimination match by last eliminating Mysterio and Van Dam. 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.

On June 30, 2005, 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 episode of *Raw*, Basham made his first appearance on the *Raw* brand as one of Chris Jericho's handpicked lumberjacks in the Lumberjack match between John Cena and Gene Snitsky.

In August 2005, Basham worked dark matches during *Raw* tapings under his former gimmick, **The Damaja**, and made his televised debut on the September 11 episode of *WWE Heat* (as **Danny Basham**) under his Damaja gimmick, only more gothic 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.

Basham soon disappeared from television to grow his hair 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.

Danny and Doug reunited in WWE's revived *ECW* brand during July 2006 at several house shows. They re-debuted on television on the July 18 episode of *ECW*, as Paul Heyman's personal security guards under helmets. 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. Danny's final WWE appearance was on the December 12 episode of *ECW*, where he and Doug were quickly defeated by Bobby Lashley. Danny was released by WWE on January 18, 2007.