The Basham Brothers

The Basham Brothers were a professional wrestling tag team in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

History[]

Before they went to work in 2003 with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), they wrestled for the All World Wrestling League/Big Time Wrestling in Michigan. They were part of the talent signed by Ed and Tom Farhat, sons of the 'original' Sheik, who died in January 2003, to bring back the 'original' BTW that was requested by the fans.

World Wrestling Entertainment (2003-2007)[]

SmackDown! (2003-2007)[]

The Basham Brothers made their official WWE debut on the May 29, 2003 edition of SmackDown! defeating Rikishi and Brian Kendrick. Shortly after this Shaniqua became their valet. Their gimmick was originally that of two S&M fans, with Shaniqua as their trash-talking dominatrix. The Bashams, who were kayfabe twins (despite obviously having no resemblance to each other), often switched places mid-match, so the "fresher" wrestler was always in the ring.

The Bashams won their first WWE Tag Team Championship from Los Guerreros on the October 23, 2003 edition of SmackDown!. The team would go on to lose the titles in February 2004 to Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty. The Basham Brothers and Shaniqua faced Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi at the No Way Out pay-per-view in 2004 in a handicap match for the tag team titles but lost the match when Shaniqua was pinned. Right after this match The Basham Brothers would lose their manger Shaniqua as she was sent to OVW for training. For the next few months the Basham Brothers were regulars on Velocity. Occasionally they appeared on SmackDown!, usually taking on upper midcard/main event level wrestlers in handicap matches, generally losing in the outcome.

The Basham Brothers would go on to join John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL)'s cabinet stable on the November 25, 2004 episode of SmackDown!, where they were known as JBL's "Co-Secretaries of Defense". Their role was often to sacrifice themselves to prevent Layfield from getting harmed after he had provoked an opponent. The Bashams would once again win Tag Team gold defeating the teams of Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam, Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak, and Eddie Guerrero and Booker T in a four-way elimination match in January 2005. The Basham Brothers lost the titles to Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero at No Way Out 2005 on February 20. From here on The Bashams would either be jobbing on SmackDown! or defeating any team that came in their path on Velocity. The Basham Brothers quit Layfield's Cabinet on the June 16, 2005 episode of SmackDown!, claiming that they were tired of being "JBL's crash test dummies" and not getting enough respect.

Split (2005)[]

On June 30, 2005, Danny Basham became one of the last minute trades in the 2005 WWE Draft lottery, which saw him jump from SmackDown! over to the Raw brand. This left both men in singles competition in WWE on different brands. Doug would portray an egotistical poser nicknamed The Bash Man, while Danny reverted to his dark, Raven-like character The Damaja (albeit under the Danny Basham moniker).

ECW (2006-2007)[]

Both would reunite in WWE's revived ECW brand in July 2006 as masked enforcers for ECW leader Paul Heyman. Primarily known as Paul Heyman's Personal Enforcers, they would wrestle with no identity, although they were often referred to as "Basham Security" by fans. In September, Danny suffered a triceps injury, and he was replaced by Derrick Neikirk. The team disappeared again shortly after Heyman was removed from WWE television in December.

On January 18, 2007, both Basham Brothers along with several other superstars were released by WWE. However, they did return to OVW on March 7, when they defeated Wyatt Young and Mike Tolar in a dark match.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2007)[]

Doug and Danny made their first appearance in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) at a live event on April 20, 2007 as a surprise replacement for the injured Abyss.

The two then made their Impact! debut on May 10, 2007 as "Basham" and "Damaja", attacking the Voodoo Kin Mafia, as Christy Hemme's newest mystery team. At Sacrifice they defeated Kip James. On the May 24 episode of Impact!, Basham and Damaja would defeat James and Lance Hoyt (who replaced B.G. James, whom they'd injured prior to their match at Sacrifice).

At Slammiversary, B.G. and Kip James defeated Basham and Damaja, but as they were about to attack Christy Hemme post-match, they were betrayed - and Basham and Damaja were apparently joined under Christy's management - by Lance Hoyt, who attack VKM and kissed Christy. At Victory Road, Basham and Damaja were defeated by Voodoo Kin Mafia after B.G James hit Damaja with a steel chair and Kip James pinned him.