Re-Introducing Dan Lambert
The American Top Team founder is a wrestling diehard.
MLW lost a great talker when Killer Kross signed with WWE. But the renegade promotion gained two more by signing mixed martial arts star King Mo Lawal and his manager Dan Lambert.
Wrestling fans may already be familiar with King Mo. He dabbled in the sport several years ago, training at Ohio Valley Wrestling and appearing in Impact. His most memorable role was special guest enforcer for James Storm and Bobby Roode’s street fight at Bound For Glory 2012. Even though he was a lifelong fan (especially of Sting), Mo turned down an offer from WWE in the 2000s to pursue MMA.
Years later, he ended up in the squared circle as part of Spike TV’s attempt to foster synergy between properties Impact and Bellator. With an MMA record of 21-10 (13 wins by KO), the former NCAA Division 1 All American for Oklahoma State collected championships and tournament victories everywhere he went, including Strikeforce and Rizin Fighting Federation.
As for Dan Lambert, if you didn’t watch Impact during the short-lived Global Force Wrestling era, you missed out on some entertaining promos. The personification of hubris, Lambert bashed pro wrestling on a weekly basis, insulting its fans and claiming superiority over the competitors. He’s the founder of American Top Team, the world-renowned MMA training facility that has produced notable names like Amanda Nunes, Junior Dos Santos, Greg Hardy and Colby Covington. In the second half of 2017, Bobby Lashley brought American Top Team (where he trained for MMA) to wreak havoc over Impact. The storyline was supposed to culminate at Bound For Glory, when Lashley and King Mo faced Moose and UFC Hall of Famer Stephan Bonnar.
But Lambert was such a heat magnet that Impact management wouldn’t let him leave.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5QmNNpH_t0&t=52s
“(Jeff) Jarrett was going to bust his guitar over my head and kill me off at Bound For Glory,” Dan Lambert told The Wrestling Estate. “I couldn’t wait for it. I thought that was going to be the greatest thing in the world. Then Jeff left the company before that and they asked us to stick around for three or four months to take the angle a little further. Shit, I would have stayed as long as they wanted me to stay. I was having the time of my life.”
Despite his verbal jabs at wrestling fans, Dan Lambert is one of us. He used to record Georgia Championship Wrestling on his VCR every Saturday night while working as a valet parker in high school. He subscribed to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and tape traded with fellow diehards in Japan. His fandom probably runs deeper than yours – he has a collection of about 100 ring-used championship belts from every territory. Once a month, he and a couple friends bring an old wrestler into South Florida, put him up in a hotel and take him to a Brazilian steakhouse to eat dinner and listen to stories for three hours.
Guests have included every member of the Four Horsemen, Steve Keirn, Ted DiBiase, Stan Hansen, Larry Zbyszko, Bob Backlund, Magnum T.A. (refers to him as “Terry Allen”), Ron Bass, Terry Taylor, Terry Funk, Tommy Rich, Tony Atlas, Jerry Jarrett, Bill Dundee and Abdullah the Butcher, to name a few. Oh, and Greg Gagne is coming in a couple weeks.
“Hell, I like talking about pro wrestling more than I like talking about MMA,” Lambert says. “The stories they tell are so cool. It’s stuff I’ve never heard on the shoot interviews.”
A self-described “wrestling mark” for 40 years, Lambert recalls flipping through channels around noon on a Saturday and seeing Ox Baker tied up in the ropes as The Assassin beat the crap out of him with Sir Oliver Humperdink cheering him on.
He was hooked instantly, asking his grandfather to take him to the matches. In his teenage years, he and his buddies would go to the shows early and stay well after they ended, hoping to get autographs. Gordon Nelson (whose son Steve ended up doing MMA for a while) ran the ring crew for Championship Wrestling From Florida and was short-handed one night, so he asked for help in exchange for free tickets to the next show. Lambert and his pals would then set up the ring before every show in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
“It was super cool until I got the idea to get up to the top rope and drop an elbow on my buddy,” Lambert says. “It felt like I broke my back in half. It was great going to the back for autographs and getting access to the wrestlers.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq820W3YdRI&t=203s
As he got older and began tape trading, he discovered Japanese shoot-style promotions Pancrase and UWFI, which planted the seeds for his love of MMA. Those seeds blossomed when UFC launched in 1993. However, unlike most MMA enthusiasts, he didn’t view the sport as superior to pro wrestling. He simply considers them separate forms of entertainment.
“Growing up as a wrestling fan and following its history and what went on behind the scenes, it’s kind of like you’ve already seen that movie when you watched MMA evolve,” Lambert says. “These people didn’t realize how similar so many things are between talent relations, promotional wars and what gets guys over. As MMA started to see some of the success that they got by incorporating certain parts of pro wrestling, people have started to get more tolerant, especially with the crossovers. I know many, many people on our team who have crossed over to or from pro wrestling and every one of them have said pro wrestling is so much harder on their body. You take such a bigger beating in a wrestling ring than you do fighting in a cage twice or three times a year. Those guys get a respect for pro wrestling pretty damn quick when they get involved.”
It was Lashley’s crossover that prompted Lambert’s official entry into the wrestling world. A fan of TNA during its first few years on Spike TV (especially the X-Division), he happened to sit next to Jeff Jarrett at a UFC show in Nashville. A couple weeks later, Jarrett pitched an angle involving American Top Team joining Lashley in Impact. That angle spanned several months and even included Dan Lambert defeating James Storm, forcing “The Cowboy” to leave the company.
“Maybe they recognized I was a mark for them, so they appreciated and respected that,” Lambert says. “I remember James Storm giving advice: ‘Keep in mind, when you’re going to say something to shit on me, you’ve got to build me up a little bit. You can’t just make me out to be a piece of shit because if you beat me, you beat a piece of shit and what does that do for you?’ It was like, wow, I never realized that. It was so cool. I just wanted to grab a bag of popcorn and watch it all.”
As Lashley’s contract came close to expiring, the writing was on the wall for American Top Team’s foray in pro wrestling. Lashley finally shut Lambert up at Genesis in January of 2018, spearing his manager through a table. A few months later, Lashley left Impact to return to WWE. Lambert has been keeping tabs on how his buddy is doing in WWE and doesn’t sugarcoat his feelings on the love triangle storyline with Rusev and Lana.
“I fucking hate it,” Lambert says with a laugh. “I guess it’s drawing some heat and it’s gotten over at least based on its position on the show. It’s helped propel Bobby because I don’t think they’ve used him that intelligently since he’s gotten there. Bobby had way more to offer than what they’ve casted him in, going back to the angle with his sisters. Aside from the match with Roman Reigns where I thought they were going to cast him in the right role, they’ve wasted his talents in WWE. If this angle with Rusev gets him over, let’s see how Bobby gets propelled forward after this.”
As for Dan Lambert, he returned on-screen to the wrestling world just a few weeks ago. During MLW Fusion episode 95, Lambert and King Mo interrupted Low Ki’s interview, mocking him for being trained by the Gracie family – royalty in the MMA world. King Mo just so happened to knock out Roger Gracie in 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o6CnkGM6Ys&t=1903s&has_verified=1
According to Lambert, MLW recruited King Mo last year after he retired from MMA. He had been coaching part-time at American Top Team over the past few years, transitioning into a full-time role six months ago. MLW brass wanted Lambert, too. “I’m the last one in the world who’s ever going to complain about somebody doing pro wrestling,” Lambert says. “Shit, this is fantasy camp for me. Fuck yeah, let’s go.”
King Mo had his debut match for MLW on the Thanksgiving episode of Fusion, forcing Ricky Martinez into submission. Lambert has since joined the flamboyant fighter at tapings in New York City, Dallas and Philadelphia. Once again, he’s like a kid in a candy store.
“I was in the ECW Arena talking to the Von Erichs backstage,” Lambert says. “Fuck, what’s cooler than that?”
The Dallas event was MJF’s last night in the company. Lambert got to be a fly on the wall as the most hated wrestler in the world gave a “crazy pep talk” to the locker room. Lambert paraphrased it: “If there’s somebody in this room who has wrestled longer than you, they fucking know more than you. Listen to them because everybody here just wants to help the younger guys.”
Speaking of the younger guys, Lambert says he was blown away by Injustice. Jordan Oliver, Kotto Brazil and Myron Reed wowed him so much at the Philly event that he grabbed them backstage and asked how old they are. “Holy shit, they’re not just so good in the ring – they’re good at interacting with the crowd and getting over and the psychological side,” Lambert says.
As evident by what went down at the Philly event, it appears there will be an affiliation between Dan Lambert and Mo and Team Filthy. While the MMA connection is a given, that’s also a good amount of shit talkers all on one side. MLW has already featured some fantastic stables, but this alliance may draw the most heat since the Freebirds in World Class.
“The old-school heel guy is really the only role I’d be interested in playing,” Lambert says. “When we first got there, they said maybe we’ll start you off as faces. Oh God, please don’t do that. Managers aren’t good guys. Who the fuck remembers Arnold Skaaland getting over as a good guy?
C’mon, it’s Capt. Lou., Grand Wizard, Freddie Blassie. I want to call people pencil-neck geeks.”
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