By Damian Chong
A match between famous wrestlers The Undertaker and Kane sparked his passion into wrestling. Danial Alias shares how he started his journey in wrestling and where he is headed to next.
Danial Alias, who goes by the ring name Da Butcherman won the Singapore Pro Wrestling Championship title in 2019. (Photo: Danial Alias)
personas like The Undertaker who takes on the persona of a deadman, often appearing with his eyes rolled all the way back, accompanied with a casket, and promising his opponent death. However, do you know that Singapore has its own blood-curdling wrestler?
Meet Da Butcherman, or Danial Alias outside the ring. He is the current and longest reigning champion of Singapore Pro Wrestlers (SPW). The 27-year-old has been participating in wrestling with SPW since 2014.
FIRST DIPS INTO WRESTLING
Growing up Alias was heavily exposed to action movies and had admired characters with the likes of The Terminator, characters that portrayed a sense of toxic masculinity—that was his gateway to loving wrestling. His cousins were big fans of wrestling. He recalls the very first time he watched a wrestling match with his cousins: “I remembered one particular night, they (Alias’ cousins) were going to stay up until 12 midnight. They said, “I heard Kane is going to chokeslam Undertaker through the ring’. I was like ‘who is this Kane and Undertaker guy?’”
That first match that he watched, Kane vs The Undertaker, he described as the “most intriguing thing” he has ever seen and as a kid it left a huge impression on him. Ever since then, he has been on the quest to become the first Singaporean wrestler.
In 2012, he went to Google and searched for the first Singapore wrestler to see if anybody had stolen this moniker. To his disappointment, Andrew Tang, the founder of Singapore Pro Wrestling (SPW), had already achieved what he wanted to—to be the first Singaporean wrestler. However, through the search, he found out about Singapore Pro Wrestling (SPW), an independent professional wrestling organisation in Singapore. In 2012, he was living in Qatar which made him unable to contact SPW to show his interest. But when he came back to Singapore in 2014, he contacted Tang to express his interest in wrestling, and the rest is history.
THE IRONY
Outside the ring, Alias works as a first-aid trainer providing emergency preparedness training. His journey in first-aid started when he was serving his National Service (NS). “When I was in NS I was a medical instructor where I was teaching the reservists,” said Alias. During his time in NS, he met his future boss who offered him a job in first-aid training as a way to explore possible careers. In a blink of an eye, Alias stayed in the job for six years and counting.
The irony? While he was preaching safety during the day, at night he was at war with his fellow wrestlers. Loud slamming, big punches, and the occasional bleeding was a common sight for him. Alias describes both his job as “one that saves and the other that destroys”.
He said that his day job is something that he is comfortable doing—teaching others how to do Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and how to bandage during an emergency; however, wrestling has always been his passion. “First aid is something that helps supplement my wrestling career,” he expressed.
Alias’ colleague, Caleb Josh Delure, 20, was supportive towards Alias when he first knew that Alias was in wrestling. He said: “When I first found out that Danial was in wrestling, I was very surprised because the juxtaposition of a wrestler working in first-aid was quite funny. I did went to a few shows to support Danial and I really enjoyed myself.”
Despite his day job, he always finds time to train for wrestling. Alias is appreciative of his boss and company for understanding his passion for wrestling, giving him the flexibility to juggle both first-aid and wrestling.
BECOMING THE CRAZY BUTCHER
When coming up with a wrestling persona, the crazy butcher that fans know and love today was not his first choice back then. “Initially, I came up with a mask character—a character I created in my childhood,” he said. However, when he pitched the character to his manager he rejected it as he did not understand the character.
After the rejection, he continued to search for a persona that is best suited to what he wants to portray in the ring. Drawing inspiration from cartoons and movies, some of the characters that inspired him to become Da Butcherman included the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes and Cookie Monster from Sesame Street, which are antagonists in their respective cartoon series. “Traditionally, my type of character is a very villainous character but I was told by my Russian boss to become a more heroic character. So, I was trying to think about how do I make these serial killers type of characters into a loveable character,” he shared while reminiscing the early stages of his career.
He also shared that other professional wrestlers have left an impact into his own wrestling persona, drawing inspirations from many of the prominent globally-recognised wrestlers. He said: “I draw inspiration from many wrestlers because if I were to be inspired by one particular wrestler, then I’ll just be a copycat. But if I draw inspiration from many it’s like I’m researching on my own character.”
From idols within wrestling to unexpected villainous cartoon characters that we recall in his childhood, he became Da Buctherman.
Figuring out who and what he is in the ring is only half the job done. When he was competing in his first few matches, he struggled tremendously. He felt that he was still Danial inside the ring and not Da Butcherman. He recalled: “I had troubles in my first few matches. In my third match, I think that my persona was starting to form but it was not fully developed yet.”
Comparing himself with Academy Awards winning actor, Robert De Niro, he asked himself this—”How do I just get into character and hopefully eliminate my own personality?” Unexpectedly, he follows acting methods of how actors would get into their on-screen character.
“I needed to be alone. I cannot communicate with anybody, I just need to dive inside my own mind and get into Da Butcherman. So, I talk to myself a lot. I also find lights to be a bit distracting because I can see everything, and I need to focus on finding Da Butcherman, so I turned my lights off with only one lit candle so I can see what’s around me so I don’t trip or fall.”
Being alone with just a candle was not enough for Alias. To experience the full persona of Da Butcherman, he would prepare raw meats to lick. “I knew that it was going to be disgusting but back then, I needed to convince myself that raw meat tastes good so that when I’m in the ring, that is what I’m thinking of,” he said. Alias makes a clear distinction as to when he is Danial and when he is Da Butcherman. “In the ring, it shouldn’t be ‘Butcherman is thinking of this’. It should be ‘I’m thinking of this because I am the Butcherman’.”
This initial routine into finding Da Butcherman was repeated for a week in his early days to find his wrestling persona in him. However, after that week, it was hard for Alias to think as Danial instead of Da Butcherman. “After that week of solitude, it was hard for me to concentrate on work sometimes,” he shared. “It wasn’t physical like lashing out on my first-aid students but I was just in the constant mindset and thinking of how to develop Butcherman, how do I make it more interesting, and how do I limit my weakness in the ring.”
Alias eventually learnt to draw a line between reality and in the ring. However, the constant thought of levelling up Da Butcherman is still a persistent one, especially when a show is nearing.
Alias (right) and his wife when he won his championship in 2019. (Photo: Danial Alias)
PASSION OVER MONEY
Like many careers that started from passion, there will always be struggles and challenges that are unseen. For Alias, money will always be a challenge in his wrestling career. “I put my heart and soul into a project but I don’t get paid for it,” he said. “In a perfect world if money doesn’t matter I will just do this (wrestling) every day, without my first-aid job. But the fact is that a lof of us (wrestlers) in Singapore cannot get a proper career from wrestling.”
What keeps him going apart from his passion is the fulfilment he gets seeing how wrestling continues to grow in Singapore. In fact, this November, SPW is holding their anniversary show to celebrate 10 years of Singapore wrestling. “The fact that Singapore wrestling has lasted for 10 years motivates me to want to make it last for a long time so that those who want to join us don’t have to go overseas. They can come to Singapore,” Alias said.
However, the thought of giving up did strike him. “There have been times where I felt that I’m putting so much effort but I’m not getting paid or I’m feeling all the aches and pains and I ask myself do I want to live like this for the rest of my life?,” he said as he looked down to the floor. To Alias, his passion and love for wrestling triumphs all the shortfalls of being in this line of work.
“Because of my love for wrestling, all of these things (the shortfalls of being in wrestling) is kind of erased,” he said.
REACHING YOUNGER SOULS & DEFINING SUCCESS
Alias started his TikTok in 2021 which has helped him grow his persona and reach a wider audience “tremendously”. He recalled an instance where he was recognised when he was teaching first-aid: “I went to teach first-aid in a secondary school and one of the students came to me and asked if this was me in the TikTok.” Alias was “pleasantly” surprised by the popularity that he has gained through TikTok which have made a significant impact on his career. He shared that before he ventured into the realm of social media, he would not have been recognised on the streets.
Through TikTok, Alias has gained many more followers who are now exposed to the wrestling scene in Singapore. Jezvier Leong, 18, a polytechnic student said that he got to knew Da Butcherman through TikTok. “I first knew about Da Butcherman through TikTok and that’s how I found out that Singapore has its own wrestling committee,” he shared. “It was very fascinating to fellow Singaporeans participating in such a globally recognised sport.”
Some might consider Da Butcherman to be one of the most prominent wrestlers in Singapore, and Alias, of course, acknowledged that he have “achieved quite a moderate success in Singapore” but does not think that he have “made it”.
“I don’t think that I will ever make it to where I’m satisfied. There’s always me asking myself ‘what’s next’ and how do I level up from here,” he shared.
Alias would look back on his wrestling matches and find faults in how he performed. For him, to say that he has “made it” in wrestling is his idea of “a perfect match”; a match where he can look back at his performance and would not change a single thing about it.
A PERFORMANCE OR A SPORT?
Wrestling is a predetermined sport where the main moves of the match and the winner of each match is pre-determined even before the show. Alias shared that despite wrestling being a scripted sport, there are still many risks when wrestlers go into the ring. “When you go into the ring, sometimes you might think that you are keeping yourself safe in certain positions but one wrong step and you might break your leg or break your neck, it’s possible,” he said sternly.
Even Alias, who dedicated close to a decade of his life to wrestling, said that he would consider wrestling more of an entertainment rather than a sport. “I would say wrestling falls more towards the entertainment and arts side rather than sports. Even though we try to portray it as a sport, but it is actually a performance,” he said.
Drawing comparisons from movies like Avengers, he explained how Ironman hates Thanos but the actor of the movie, Robert Downey Jr. does not actually hate Josh Brolin. He added: “We (wrestlers) don’t really hate each other and we don’t try to compete. I think it is okay for wrestling to not be categorised as a sport but more of entertainment and arts.”
It is the performance and how wrestling is portrayed that drew Alias to love wrestling.
To make wrestling a complete competitive sport means that it will be hard to make it an entertaining one for audiences. Having a script of the match and making the results predetermined means that it will be a lot easier for wrestlers like Alias to add and enhance the entertaining aspects of the match. “If we make it (the match) pre-determined, we can add more entertainment because wrestling is all about the emotional hook,” he explained. However, some experienced wrestlers do not plan their match. Alias added: “I cannot fathom this but a lot of experienced wrestlers don’t plan and just improvised on the spot which I feel is very scary and I hope to get to that level.”
A match between Da Butcherman and Destroyer Dharma sets the path for Da Butcherman as he retains his title as SPW’s champion. (Photo: Danial Alias)
Surprisingly, there are times where reality is moved into the ring, like the infamous feud between Da Butcherman and Destroyer Dharma. Alias shared that outside of the ring, he and Destroyer Dharma did have some disagreements on their wrestling philosophies which has caused some tensions between them. He said that the match between them was already predetermined, and that Da Butcherman was supposed to win. “For that match, I found that it was a good opportunity to just use real life and make it into a promotion for the match,” he said.
FOSTERING YOUNG WRESTLERS
Since early 2019, Alias has become a trainer for SPW. Initially, he was apprehensive about becoming a trainer as he only knew how to develop his own persona and what is good for him, not for others. However, the more he trained, the more he knew how to guide the younger wrestlers. “The more I started to train, like the basics of wrestling or giving ideas of character work, I found it quite satisfying and gratifying because you give these young wrestlers an idea and they run with it to create their own success,” he shared.
Alias (right) trains minimally once a week to ensure that he keeps his stamina up. (Photo: Damian Chong)
Alias also shared that to whoever that wants to become a wrestler, training in a wrestling school like SPW is a good start as it provides the trainees with a very rigorous plan to ensure that they are conditioned for matches. Apart from the physicality of wrestlers, having the passion and grit is also important. “Being a fan of wrestling gives you the drive to continue and gives you the heart to want to train. If you have a good body and are chiselled to the bone but you don’t have the heart, you won’t last,” he said. “Without the heart for wrestling, every little ache will throw you off and make you leave.”
He added: “You just need to ensure that when you train, you’re able to just take whatever adversity is thrown at you during training.”
SUPPORTING THE LOCAL WRESTLING SCENE
The wrestling scene has grown to have a decent fanbase since Alias joined SPW. He said that any support given to wrestlers is better than no support. But the biggest support one can give is to patronise wrestling shows. He said: “The only way that support can grow is when you actually come to our show. Just try it once to see what it’s all about.”
Founded in 2011, Singapore Pro Wrestling has become a leading force in South-East Asia’s wrestling scene. (Photo: Singapore Pro Wrestling)
Being a wrestling veteran, Alias has dreams for what the wrestling scene will be like in the next few years. “My visions and dreams are quite ambitious but if we were to perform at the Indoor Stadium with many people wanting to come, that would be sick,” he said with a grin. With the wrestling scene still being rather small, Alias is aware that his dream is far-fetched.
“We just really need to work hard to make sure that our quality is up. We need to give people a reason to come and watch us because people can support but if we don’t give them a reason to support then it’s not fair to them,” he added.
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