Five Questions With...Jason Daniels

Welcome to the first of what will hopefully become a new series of interviews, entitled Five Questions With... The concept is that each week we will feature a five question interview with a Professional Wrestling star from the United Kingdom and across the World.

The week it's the turn of British Wrestling star Jason Daniels.

Question 1: 

 When did you first get into Professional Wrestling and what drew you to the sport?

 

Jason Daniels:

 I first began training at the age of 15 in August 2007, with a company called wZw in Newcastle. I had always dreamed about becoming a Pro Wrestler ever since being a kid at school. My dad had been a Professional Footballer, playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers and in a cup final at Wembley. But my love had always been for Wrestling. While the teachers at school tried to make me practice and play football with the rest of the team at break times,I would always sneak off to play wrestling. We would make up storylines and pretend to be WWF characters. 

      Eventually though, I lost my love for wrestling and began to focus only on football. However, when I was about 12-13 years old, that passion came back. I got a group of my friends together and we began 'backyarding'. We did this right up until I began training. I had no idea that you could train to be a wrestler in the UK, so when I found out about wZw, I was over the moon. I turned up to my first session and immediately realised that everything I had been doing in the 'backyard' had been totally wrong, and that pro wrestling was going to be harder than I had ever imagined. 

      I kept my head down, turned up every week and trained with my heart and soul. Sadly though, the company was going through a bad patch and had to relocate to a different venue. A few months later, it closed down completely - so I was left with nowhere to train. It's a shame, because in my opinion, wZw were one of the best promotions in the country. They did everything the way it should be done. Everything about it was professional and I learned my most valuable lessons there. 

       So from June 2008 until January 2010, I did nothing in wrestling. It was then when I found CRW, who had a permanent ring setup and their own training facility. They weren't the best in terms of professionalism, as none of the group were professionals themselves. But it was somewhere where I could train regularly. I would go 2-3 times a week and eventually debuted on my first show in April 2010. Since then, I have been trained by some top names in British Wrestling and also, International stars such as Doug Williams and PAC (WWE NXT's Adrian Neville).

Question 2: What is your favourite match of all-time?

JD: Not sure that I have a favourite in particular. I'm just a fan of anything that has great build up and psychology. I have no time for the typical 'Indy' stuff, where nearly every match the guys hit a million moves and you see a thousand kick outs and false finishes. When used sparingly it works, but it's done FAR too often. A match that can provoke pure emotion with the simplest of moves is brilliant in my view. Stone Cold vs The Rock at WM17 is one of my favourites from when I was a kid.

Question 3: Who is your favourite wrestler to work with in the ring?

JD: My favourite wrestler to be in the ring with is my best mate, known to some as 'The Suicide Youth' Caden. Although, like myself, he isn't that well known - he simply GETS wrestling. He came into wrestling exactly the same way I did, with wZw, even though we didn't meet until 2010. We know each other so well outside of the ring, that whenever we face each other inside it, it all comes together like magic. We feed off each other and everything comes naturally. We hardly have to talk before we go out and wrestle. We are currently in the process of coming together and working as a tag team.

Question 4: If you could face or team with any wrestler, who would it be and why?

JD: I would love to face PAC (now known as Adrian Neville in WWE). Although I've wrestled alongside him on several shows and met him on numerous occasions, I've never had the chance, like my friend Caden did, to actually wrestle him in a match. In my opinion, athletically, he is the best in the world. Backstage, he is the most professional and down to earth lad I have met and is someone I look up to very much. Although I can't do 1/10th of the stuff he can do in the ring, I base a lot of my stuff - both in the ring and out - on what I have learnt from him.

Question 5: Where can the readers of Across the Pond Wrestling catch you action next?

JD: Like I mentioned earlier, I am currently in the midst of forming a tag team with my friend Caden. We're hoping to debut as a team within the next couple of months, so all I'll say is - watch out for The Runaways!

Across the Pond Wrestling would like to thank Jason Daniels for taking time to be interviewed. You can follow him on Twitter at @JDanielsUK.

Next Time: Chikara Pro's Veronica Ticklefeather