| James Drake | |
| Birth Name: | James Dowell[1] |
| Birth Date: | 4 March 1993 |
| Birth Place: | Blackpool, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom[2] |
| Ring Names: | James Drake JD Sassoon Jagger Reid |
| Height: | [3] |
| Weight: | 181lb |
| Billed: | Blackpool, England |
| Debut: | 2010 |
James Dowell (born 4 March 1993), better known under the ring name James Drake, is an English professional wrestler and promoter, currently performing on the independent circuit. He is best known for his time in WWE NXT where he performed under the ring names James Drake and Jagger Reid. He formed the tag team Grizzled Young Veterans with Zack Gibson in 2017, becoming the inaugural NXT UK Tag Team Champions and three-time Progress Tag Team Champions. He and Gibson run a wrestling promotion called Burning Heart Pro Wrestling.[4]
In 2017, Drake and Zack Gibson formed a villainous tag team called Grizzled Young Veterans in Progress Wrestling. Grizzled Young Veterans defeated Chris Brookes and Kid Lykos of CCK to become the Progress tag team champions.[5] They successfully defended the titles against Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis) at Progress Chapter 59.[6] At Chapter 61, Grizzled Young Veterans defeated Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate and Trent Seven) to retain their championships.[7]
In January 2017, Drake participated in the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament to crown the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion, losing to Joseph Conners in the first round.[8] On 12 January 2019 Drake and Gibson defeated Moustache Mountain in a tournament final at NXT UK's debut TakeOver event in Blackpool, to become the inaugural NXT UK Tag Team Champions.[9] Grizzled Young Veterans would defend their titles against, Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch, Amir Jordan and Kenny Willams, & Moustache Mountain before losing it to Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster at in a triple-threat tag team also involving Gallus. On the September 11 episode of NXT UK, Grizzled Young Veterans unsuccessfully challenged Andrews & Webster in a rematch. On the November 7 episode of NXT UK, during the Grizzled Young Veterans match against Andrews and Webster, Gallus and Imperium interfered. On the November 28 episode of NXT UK, Grizzled Young Veterans and Andrews & Webster interfered during Gallus' title match against Imperium and Grizzled Young Veterans took the titles and ran but the general managers came and announced that Gallus would defend their titles at NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool II against Grizzled Young Veterans, Andrews & Webster and Imperium for the titles in a ladder match. At the event, Grizzled Young Veterans lost the match. Grizzled Young Veterans also competed in the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Classic and they defeated Kushida and Alex Shelley in the quarterfinals and NXT Tag Team Champions the Undisputed Era in the semifinals due to a distraction by Imperium.
On the 19 February 2020 episode of NXT, the Grizzled Young Veterans joined the NXT brand, defeating Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde before announcing their intent to take over NXT's tag team division, establishing themselves as tweeners.[10] At the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, The Grizzled Young Veterans made it all the way to the finals before losing to MSK. At NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver, The Grizzled Young Veterans were defeated by MSK for the vacant NXT Tag Team Championship also involving Fantasma. On the August 3, 2021 edition of NXT, The Grizzled Young Veterans defeated LA Knight and Cameron Grimes. On the July 19, 2022 edition of NXT, him and Zack Gibson were revealed as Joe Gacy's Dyad, being renamed to Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler, respectively.On 14 October 2023, both Drake and Gibson announced that their WWE contracts have expired and they would take independent bookings.[11]
On October 14, 2023, both Drake and Gibson announced that they would take independent bookings.[12] The following day, they made their first independent appearance since being released at Deadlock Pro-Wrestling's Live 3 event where they answered an open challenge set by DPW's tag team champions, The Workhorsemen.[13]
On April 25, 2024, Drake and Gibson announced the launch of their professional wrestling promotion, Burning Heart Wrestling. The promotion's first event will take place on June 21.[14]
On December 26, 2023, it was revealed that Gibson and Drake will make their TNA Wrestling debuts at Hard To Kill.[15] They were later announced as challenging for the TNA World Tag Team Championship, along with The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz and Trey Miguel) and Speedball Mountain (Mike Bailey and Trent Seven), against champions ABC (Chris Bey and Ace Austin), which was won by ABC.[16] [17] Director of Authority Santino Marella would then make a best of three series between the two teams over the titles, with GYV winning the first match[18] and ABC winning the second. GYV lost the third and decisive match at No Surrender.[19] [20]
On April 25, 2024, it was revealed that Gibson and Drake will make their All Elite Wrestling Debut on the April 27 episode of Collision,[21] where they were defeated by The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster).[22]