EXCLUSIVE Luke Littler was huge wrestling fan growing up and he’s now broken his silence on the darts Royal Rumble concept that has taken the internet by storm
It’s no secret Luke Littler is a wrestling fan.
Littler, 18, picked his now-famous walk-on song, Greenlight by Pitbull, as it was the Wrestlemania 33 theme song. And he’s swapped that – on one occasion – for Cody Rhodes’ Kingdom.
And with Littler’s sudden rise has come the pitch for a darts Royal Rumble. “It would be very funny,” Littler admitted when speaking to Daily Star Sport .
“When it comes to mind it would probably have to be one leg of 501 – and you’d either do top 32 or top 64. It won’t be the longest.
“I think it would be something to do in the future!”
The idea gained steam after Littler’s World Darts Championship win in January – when Paul Nicholson called for a Royal Rumble-style competition to be introduced to the sport.
“I think this idea of a Royal Rumble has been floated around for a little while now but nobody’s done it before and it’s still something that the public really want to see,” he said.
“This idea of starting two players on stage after drawing number one and number two and playing each other in whatever format is chosen whether it’s 101, 201, 501 or even 1001.
“There’s a winner in that small match but at the conclusion of that somebody else comes out at position three and then you have another match – number four – and so on and so on.
“But the thing about this, it’s about audience interaction and it’s about surprises because the person on the stage who remains there after winning, they don’t know who they’re going to play next.
“And the audience haven’t got a clue who’s coming.”
Chris Hammer added: “That’s the thing. It’s the element of surprise.
“I think I would like to see this more invitational. So you could have a legend from the past. Imagine Phil Taylor’s music hits with three players left to come out.
“You’ve got Rob Cross up there and then, bang, Phil Taylor’s music comes on and he can get revenge for that final.”
Watch Luke’s masterclass and follow Tunley Athletic’s journey on the Specsavers’ Best Worst Team YouTube channel, with Episode 1, Episode 2 and Episode 3 available to watch now.