Doug Basham

Lyle Douglas Basham Jr. (born May 12, 1971) is an American retired professional wrestler.

Basham made his debut in 1993, wrestling in Indiana and for independent promotions in Kentucky.

In 1994 he wrestled for the United States Wrestling Association located in Tennessee.

He stayed there until 1996.

Before being called up to WWE's main roster Basham competed in its developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling.

Basham is the nephew of OVW founder Nightmare Danny Davis.

Basham was a top fan favorite in the company winning the OVW Heavyweight Championship on a number of occasions.

Basham turned villainous and was involved in a unique storyline that saw him compete under a mask as Machine.

The story was that Basham and his real-life uncle and trainer Danny Davis had a falling out which led to Basham quitting the wrestling business.

However, as his uncle's other OVW-trained superstars like Nick Dinsmore, Rob Conway and Damaja began getting opportunities to wrestle on WWE television and become contracted talents, Basham grew resentful and resurfaced as the masked Machine to spoil the opportunities for the other men Davis had trained.

Dinsmore would go on to defeat The Machine in a Retirement versus Mask match at the Last Dance on June 27, 2001, and unmask Machine as Doug Basham.

Basham went on to create the Revolution faction and feuded with OVW's top stars.

He is best known for his appearances with World Wrestling Entertainment between 2002 and 2007, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Basham in 2007.

Basham signed a WWE development contract in April 2002 and was soon signed to SmackDown! in May 2003.

In OVW Doug took credit for The Basham Brothers gimmick as his way of getting back at Danny a.k.a. Damaja.

The two took part in an epic final encounter which saw Revolution members (including Johnny Spade, Mark Magnus, and Rob Conway) handcuffed to Damaja's allies (including Nick Dinsmore and Johnny Jeter) with Matt Morgan on the entrance ramp to prevent any more run-ins.

Damaja was victorious leading to Doug being forced out of OVW.

After the match, Doug disbanded Revolution causing the members to attack him and Damaja running back into the ring armed with a Louisville Slugger to make the save.

Doug then embraced former partner Damaja and his uncle OVW owner Danny Davis, before going to the back shaking hands with the OVW fans thus making him a face.

With WWE impressed by his in-ring ability, Doug received numerous try-out matches in late 2002 and early 2003 against opponents such as Mark Jindrak, Charlie Haas, Lenny Lane, Val Venis, Nathan Jones, Redd Dogg, Nova, Johnny Jeter, Horshu, Shannon Moore, and Billy Kidman.

He also teamed with the likes of Damaja, Sean O'Haire, and Bull Buchanan.

Basham made his official debut on the May 29, 2003 episode of SmackDown! as one-half of the tag team, The Basham Brothers with his tag partner Danny Basham.

The Basham Brothers debuted as a team on May 29 and defeated the team of Rikishi and Brian Kendrick.

The Basham Brothers were later joined by Shaniqua.

They were given a bondage-based S&M gimmick and won their first WWE Tag Team Championship from Los Guerreros on the October 23 edition of SmackDown!.

The team would go on to lose the titles on the February 5, 2004 episode of SmackDown! to Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty.

On February 15 at No Way Out, The Basham Brothers and Shaniqua faced Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi in a handicap match and lost when Shaniqua was pinned by Rikishi.

The Basham Brothers would go on to lose their manager Shaniqua when she was sent to OVW for training not long after No Way Out.

For the next few months The Basham Brothers were regulars on Velocity and appeared on a few occasions on SmackDown! generally losing.

The Bashams were given a one-off television appearance on SmackDown! as part of the Tough Enough IV qualifiers.

The remaining contestants received 30 seconds each to retrieve a flag from the far corner of the ring.

Anyone who succeeded within the time limit would be immune from elimination until the next round.

However, the Bashams were the obstacles that were put in place to prevent the challengers from reaching the flag.

The Bashams managed to resist all seven finalists consecutively.

They also teased hot favorite Daniel Puder by letting him get within 1 inch of the flag in his final seconds of his turn.

(Puder had become the hot favorite one week earlier when he almost defeated a fresh Kurt Angle in a real wrestling match in seconds immediately after 3 hours of circuit training specifically designed to wear the contestants out.) Impressed by their performance, the tag team were given a push.

The Basham Brothers would go on to join John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL)'s Cabinet faction on November 25 and became known as JBL's Co-Secretaries of Defense.

After disappearing from WWE TV in September 2005, Doug would return to OVW under a new gimmick; "The Superstar of Superstars."

At this time, he came out to the ring using the Superman theme before signing a new deal with WWE in April 2006.

On March 7, 2007, The Basham Brothers returned to OVW and defeated Wyatt Young and Mike Tolar in a dark match.