Danny Limelight had a heck of a year in 2024. He got engaged to his lady Ana, and he continues writing screenplays that are getting serious interest. As far as his acting career goes, it was one for the books.
“I got to do four movies and two TV shows,” he said. “I got to stunt coordinate some stuff and really have consistent work. I think every three months last year, I was making a movie. That’s incredible for somebody who’s been in the business for such a short time as I have.”
Yet despite all this success, he makes it crystal clear that his heart is still in the ring and his ambitions for 2025 are bigger than ever.
“I want WWE,” he says bluntly. “That’s my goal. I want to wrestle with WWE. I want to be on NXT. I want to get to Monday Night Raw or SmackDown and wrestle at WrestleMania. Those are my goals and dreams, and I’ve been working hard. I’m alongside Booker T and everything they got going on in Reality of Wrestling, being a new WWE ID school, and just grinding and taking every opportunity I get in these bookings and making the most of it. I’m just trying to tell good stories and show everyone I’m TV-ready. I think that a lot of people sleep on me, but they know I’m good. They just choose not to give me my flowers and I feel like I got to keep working. The cream always rises and I’ve got to believe that.”
The 33-year-old has had his time in the limelight (pun intended), with stints in AEW, NJPW and AAA. While those runs in the big shows didn’t last, he’s not the same person or wrestler he was then, and he wants the world to know that.
“I had some contracts, I had opportunities, and kind of f**ked those up with some immaturity,” he admits. “But I’ve grown over the last three-and-a-half years. I’ve matured a lot more and I know how to conduct myself outside of the ring. I think that was the biggest problem. People didn’t like me or they had a problem with the way I carried myself because I liked to party and pop bottles and have women with me all the time. And I was just living my life, though. That was me. I never did anything weird, but I just like to enjoy my life. I like to live in the limelight. Everything that I say in these promos is real. But I just think that a lot of people felt like maybe I shouldn’t conduct myself that way, and I got a little black eye and I got some heat. I was immature. Now I know better.”
God is Good pic.twitter.com/G4nKPcEQAI
— Danny LimeLight (@DannyLimeLight) January 6, 2025
As a father of two and a soon-to-be husband, Limelight has matured outside the ring. As for what happens inside the ropes and on the mic, he’s as edgy as ever, and one notable legend of the game who has given him a shot to prove himself is Booker T.
“I give him a lot of flowers and I have the utmost respect for him because he’s seen past that (everything in the past),” Limelight said. “He gave me a chance and I’ve shown every time I show up. I come there, and I add to the company, the product, and I help anybody I can help. Hopefully, I can help somebody else fulfill their dreams by helping them get down to character stuff and understanding the importance of a promo.”
Mic On Safety Off
Promo Reel pic.twitter.com/5vjjk5bUs1
— Danny LimeLight (@DannyLimeLight) January 7, 2025
Limelight isn’t where he’s at today without being able to perform between the ropes. But when it comes to promos, few do it better than the Puerto Rican from New York City, who has the uncanny gift of making every word out of his mouth sound as real as it gets.
“It’s authentic for me,” he said. “I believe the best way to cut a promo is to come from somewhere real. You’ve got to feel what you’re saying. It has to be authentic. A lot of people try to come out there and come up with fake catchphrases and cool little one-liners and stuff like that, and it sounds like bulls**t. It sounds like something somebody gave them a piece of paper and said, ‘Hey, say this.’ So it’s not their words. Me, on the other hand, I have taken classes in acting. I’ve gone to acting school. I’ve learned how to read a script and break it down and do what I like to call scene study. And I break down a script and I understand the character. I take that same method and I apply it to pro wrestling. I break down Danny Limelight. I think of where I’m at in this story, what my character would be feeling, what my character shouldn’t be feeling.”
I’m a Free Agent & I shouldn’t Be!
Where do you wanna see Papi show up?!
NXT? TNA? AEW? NJPW? Let It Be Known!
2025 I’m Coming For Everything They Said I Couldn’t Have!
I’m the Most TV Ready Free Agent & I’m Standing On That!
Ring Work ✅
Mic Work ✅
Charisma ✅ pic.twitter.com/5QcBLWgv6j— Danny LimeLight (@DannyLimeLight) January 4, 2025
Then he’s off and running, drawing not just from the story, but from real life. Limelight gives a recent example from his feud with Josiah Jean in ROW (Reality of Wrestling).
“You asked him to join your group and he said no, and you belittled him and then he hit you,” he said. “That’s the blueprint. So, for me, it’s like, okay, what am I feeling? I’ve been in this situation before in real life in the hood growing up in New York, where I used to run around with these little crews, little gangs and s**t like that. You’re trying to get somebody to join or there’s somebody who wants to join, and it just doesn’t go the way you want it or there’s confrontation and you throw hands. That was normal for me growing up. I was a smaller kid. People would try to bully me all the time. I had to defend myself. And I think that when I’m cutting my promo, I take from all that. I take from my real-life experiences. Everything I say, I mean. I don’t just say it to say it, but I also know how to make it theatrical, if you will. I also know how to make it what the kids call cinema these days, where I can turn it into a segment that people can watch on TV and be interested in what we’re doing. I make people care about what I’m about to do.”
They do. That’s why there’s a groundswell of support for Limelight to return to the big shows in 2025, and he’s just as hungry to do just that even if he doesn’t need wrestling to make ends meet, especially with On Call airing on Amazon Prime and the films Dirty, Til Death, and The Roaring Game all on the way. That makes him even scarier because he wants to do this.
And always will.
“I want to do this,” he said. “No one joins wrestling to pay the rent because, at first, you’re grinding, and the money isn’t what you want it to be. But there are ways to make good money in pro wrestling. Fortunately, I have found a way to make money and make it consistently every month. I’ve done more in this business than most people thought I would. I’ve got to wrestle for every major company except WWE. I got to travel the world and go see all these places doing it. I got to meet some really cool people and win championships and all that and sign autographs. But I just wouldn’t feel complete if I didn’t step foot in that (WWE) ring.”
Discover more from Fights Around The World
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
