James Drake

James Dowell (born 4 March 1993) is an English professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name James Drake. He is a former NXT UK Tag Team Champion alongside Zack Gibson.

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 & Danny Burch, Amir Jordan & Kenny Willams, & Moustache Mountain before losing it to Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster at NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff in a triple-threat tag team also involving Gallus. On the Sept 11 episode of NXT UK, Grizzled Young Veterans unsuccessfully challenged Andrews & Webster in a rematch. On the Nov 7 episode of NXT UK, during the Grizzled Young Veterans match against Andrews & Webster, Gallus and Imperium interfered.

On the Nov 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 & Alex Shelley in the quarterfinals and NXT Tag Team Champions the Undisputed Era in the semifinals due to a distraction by Imperium.