Professional wrestling has always been about bringing people together, but the Hot Tag Foundation is taking that sense of community beyond the ring and using it to make a difference in the lives of children.
Based in the north of England, the non-profit organisation celebrates the love of wrestling among fans of all ages while looking to give back to those less fortunate, particularly around the festive period. Toys are donated to multiple good causes each year, and Hot Tag is aiming to make 2026 its biggest year yet!
Described by founder Dan as a “community project in the community of pro wrestling”, the organisation has expanded to around 15 volunteers since its creation. In addition to work with local organisations, attendees can also get involved with various activities at the show:
“What we do is attend shows and just try to make it a fulfilling experience for people of all ages. We add that little bit of an extra thing at shows, including sign making, a bit of activities, just maybe getting young people involved in the show. It also gives an opportunity for the talent to be boosted as well. So, sign making, for example, the kids can get involved. But when a heel sees a sign, they’ve just got to rip it up. We attend shows up and down the country as many times as we can throughout the year, developing partnerships and collaborations with different promotions, and then just trying to give back to that community that gives us so much as young people and as adults. It’s such a fulfilling project that we work with.”
For founder Dan, this was an idea that started out with another group during the COVID pandemic. However, with both sides looking to go in a different direction, Dan saw his passion reignited while at a very unique stag party:
“I did a similar project with another group. It was a non-profit. We unfortunately parted ways. It was very creative differences kind of situation. I was still doing my degree. My wife and I were in the process of organising a wedding, so it was a very busy time. I was like, right, I need to fill this void that I’ve lost in the past couple of months. Funnily enough, it all started reigniting again on my stag do in Liverpool, and we went to TNT Wrestling. I just got the feeling again that I just had to be part of this community.
So once that happened, once the wedding was done, that was in February. By April, I was having the logo set up. In May I was recruiting, and in June we went live with Hot Tag Foundation. That was June 2024, and it’s such an adaptable product from two and a half years ago to where it is now. I think that was the beauty of it all was that it was it was you know it was never just one thing. We never had one goal in mind. That’s why we never became like a community interest company because we didn’t really have a goal. We just came into it thinking what can we do to better this community at the time, and anything that we do, we do for that reason: to better the community, to bring more people coming to shows, more reason for interaction and just to have a really cool time within the space of pro wrestling.”
A Hot Tag To The Toyal Rumble
What started as a small initiative has now become an annual tradition for the foundation. Dubbed the “Toyal Rumble”, the campaign has already resulted in more than 500 toys being donated over the past two years, with Dan hoping the latest drive will push that number beyond the 1,000 mark.
“So the Toyal Rumble basically started out as get all the toys we can. We had to pivot because of COVID. The hospitals and charities could only accept new toys or plastic toys that were wipeable. So we had loads of plushies that we couldn’t shift. So the first year we made boxes, and then sold them at the Kingdom Wrestling event, and then donated what money we got from that back to the charities and back to Kingdom as well as a Kingdom Wrestling charity, so that worked out really well the first year.
The second year was very much like, right, we need new toys. Doesn’t have to be wrestling toys. It can be for any age, all genders, whatever. That really works really well, especially since we started doing collaborations with hospitals. So the second year we did Leeds Children’s Hospital, Airedale Hospital, Bradford, and Liverpool Children’s Hospice. So we had some fantastic connections in the second year. This year, I still got a few things that are getting ironed out in terms of drop-offs. I can say that we are working with Leeds Women’s Aid this year, who are a fantastic charity, and they protect women and children in refuge from domestic violence and abuse.”
One of Dan’s most memorable experiences came when he personally delivered a wrestling ring and a Roman Reigns figure to a young fan in hospital, creating a moment that has stayed with him ever since:
“The first year when I went to Airedale Hospital, I got the opportunity to meet the children and hand them gifts personally, and it was a phenomenal experience. There was this one little boy who was a huge fan of The Rock and Roman Reigns, and we bought him a full-size ring. And they had a Roman Reigns figure in the ring. So I sat with this little boy, I helped him build the ring, put the ring together, and then he was telling me all about his life and telling me all about what he’s looking forward to, and all that. It was such a lovely experience.”
Despite the joy that professional wrestling can bring to children, the foundation initially encountered resistance when trying to donate wrestling-related toys to one hospice. The reason for this was that there was an assumption that pro wrestling was violent and was therefore not something appropriate for the children. However, after a group of volunteers were taken to a True Grit show in Leeds, they saw the appeal and embraced the idea.
“We invited them to come down to a show. They came down to True Grit Wrestling Leeds for our collaboration show. We collected about 80 toys from there, which were all going to the Leeds Hospital, and the people there were like, ‘Wow, we had no idea this is what it was. My son’s hooked now. He wants to come again.’ They left happy knowing that they were going to take away 80 toys to kids.”
While the idea behind Hot Tag was simple, convincing people within the wrestling industry that there were no strings attached proved considerably more difficult. Unfortunately, the wrestling industry has had a history of individuals and organisations looking to get a quick cash grab as opposed to benefitting others. Dan admitted that there were a lot of noes before ultimately being granted permission to be at a show.
“The first year when we started speaking to promoters, they were like, ‘What do you want out of it?’ I was like, ‘Nothing. We don’t want anything out of it.’ ‘How much do you charge for it?’ We don’t charge. It’s all volunteer-based. I was very determined at the start. I was going to get myself in front of a camera face to face. I was going to meet them face to face. I wasn’t going to hide behind the phone. I’ll come to Tidal Wrestling. I’ll come to Rise Wrestling. I’ll come to NGW. I was there in the front lines, going, I’m just a genuine person who’s passionate about pro wrestling. I have no ulterior motive. I am here just to spread a bit of love and fun in pro wrestling
So building trust, I think it was they had to let us cook in a sense. They had to let us go right, we’ll see how it plays out. See if they’re actually legitimate. We had all the evidence to prove that we were legitimate by the end of December, and I think that was the whole icing on the cake of trust. One of my biggest accomplishments is that people came to us and asked us to come down to the shows. So I was very, very, very, very, very appreciative of that.”
Dan also admitted that although they were only accepting toy donations in the first year, some of the figures were associated with the 2020 Speaking Out movement, meaning that they were not suitable:
“In the first year it was we’ll take anything physical. We won’t take any cash donations for the first year. We refused to take cash donations throughout the whole year. We could only accept physical toys from that. Also, the first year we had to refuse some toys as well because the Speaking Out movement was like we can’t accept this person’s toy because if someone gets the toy and then Googles this person, it’s not going to look good on us. Sometimes we have to respectfully say we can’t take it. It’s harmful or could be potentially cause harm to children. We can’t take it. People are very understanding of it, and it was very important that we laid down that foundation.”
Hot Tag X PROGRESS
One of the biggest signs of how far the foundation has come arrived in September, when PROGRESS Wrestling invited Hot Tag to be part of its Odyssey Tour. Now under the ownership of Nikki Storm (formerly Nikki Cross) and Big Damo, PROGRESS has continued to establish itself as one of the leading promotions in British wrestling.
While Dan was unable to make it that night, he was extremely proud that what he built could be a part of it:
So it all started a couple of years ago. I reached out to PROGRESS to talk about it, but the owner at the time was very distant because he had similar experiences with people doing this kind of stuff. Then when Nikki and Damo took over and they bought PROGRESS, I was reached out to by Pete Davis of PROGRESS, who was like, “Can you just remind me what you do?” And this was on LinkedIn. I said This is all the evidence would prove to prove we’re legitimate. All of our volunteers are DBS-checked. We have first aid and mental health first aid certifications for the majority of us as well.
“Sadly, I wasn’t able to go. It started off with a few shows, and then it kind of whittled down because they’d sold out certain parts of the tour. They were like we can’t have more people in the building. I was like, that’s fine. Then they said we can get you in Leeds. I was like, fantastic, phenomenal. From what I understand, on the day, Nikki Cross came over, Damo came over, Tommy End came over, and was like, “What are you guys doing?” Kind of thing. People were seeing our bright blue banner and going, “Ah, we’re just going to see what those guys are about.” We got a lot of great followers. We had some fantastic stats on social media. I even had a message from Nikki Cross the other day saying, hope all goes well with the toy drive.” She shared our story out of nowhere as well. So Nikki’s fantastic. I really, really hope to be invited back to PROGRESS again soon
All the photos were just phenomenal to look at. Even Tom Campbell got in the ring with our belt and pointed us out and stuff like that. He didn’t have to do that. Tom didn’t have to do that. PROGRESS didn’t have to do that. But he made it a whole part of the show. Yeah, it’s beautiful to see.”
Bluey: Hot Tag’s Prized Possession
While the foundation’s toy drive is its biggest annual initiative, another member of the Hot Tag family has become a familiar sight at independent wrestling shows. Nicknamed “Bluey”, the organisation’s signature championship belt has become a hit with fans and wrestlers alike, providing another way to get people involved with the foundation.
“So Bluey is our beautiful blue championship belt. That was another major accomplishment. I reached out to a few people to sponsor it. The four sponsors were Kingdom Wrestling, Fast Count Clothing, Big John’s Rehab, and Heavy Metal Therapy, who are a community interest company, and he just looks so beautiful. When we got Bluey, he was meant for the Toyal Rumble show to be given to the winner, and then they can cash it in for a Kingdom Wrestling World Championship opportunity.
Then one day, it came to True Grit, and there was a sponsored match. Our good friend Mark Brown always sponsors the match at True Grit, and he always uses Hot Tag as the business sponsor. It came to one day when we had Bluey there, and it was Vusyk versus Luke Jacobs that sponsored this match. And James Carr [True Grit owner] was like, “I want something that’s going to make it a bit more interesting,” and I was like. ‘I’ve got a championship if you want to put that on the line?’ I was thinking he’d just kind of laugh it off. He was like, “Great idea, let’s do it.” I was like ok, and then that was it.”
Although Bluey is technically a professional wrestling championship, it operates somewhat differently from a traditional title. Rather than being tied to a particular promotion or storyline, the belt is defended in specially sponsored matches at events attended by the foundation.
While the belt did unexpectedly make its way into the pro wrestling world, Dan elaborated on Bluey’s significance:
“The reason behind Bluey definitely at the beginning was like we need something like a PR kind of thing that we can because everyone loves a belt. Doesn’t matter where you go, even if they don’t like wrestling, they’re like, ‘Oh, can I take a picture of your belt?’ Even when little kids are shy to come to sign making, they can go, ‘I really want to hold that belt.’ I’m like, ‘Let’s hold the belt.’ We’ll stand there, we’ll take a picture of them with the belt, and then we might as well make a sign while you’re here, and then people get involved that way. Then it gives us an opportunity to speak to the parents as well to say that we’re doing a toy drive at the end of the year; would you consider being a part of it? There’s so many layers to to Bluey, and Bluey is just such a lovely, lovely, lovely thing to to have, lovely belt to have. And we’re hoping to expand on it soon.”
The Future Of The Hot Tag Foundation
Although Dan is hoping to pass more than 1,000 toy donations by the end of the year, he is hoping for bigger things for Hot Tag. While also being aware that the landscape is forever changing, Dan’s bigger vision is to have an end goal:
“I’d like to have a goal. I’d like to have an end result, but it’s such a dynamic community project that it changes all the time. That’s always what it’s been. Let’s get to where we need to be. Then we’ll think about next. Then we’ll get to where we need to be, and then we’ll think about where we are next. Taking some time out this year was very important. Early on in the year, we took a bit of time away, re-evaluated, restructured, and it’s been a phenomenal experience.”
One of Dan’s goals for Hot Tag is for the foundation to run their own show as opposed to being guests at other UK indies:
“I’d love to be able to put on my own show. If I’m honest, I’d love to find the funding and the finances to be able to do it. I’d love to be a community interest company, but like I say, they won’t even look at it if you don’t have a goal or a reason for doing it. I think that’s the beauty of what we do is that if we continue doing this, we just continue to be a blue shining light in pro wrestling, and reach out to as many hospitals and as many kids as possible.”
For all the championships, rivalries and memorable moments that professional wrestling provides, its greatest strength may well be the community that surrounds it. Through Hot Tag Foundation, Dan and his volunteers are ensuring that the positive impact of wrestling extends far beyond the four sides of a ring.
“Just the opportunity to keep putting smiles on people’s faces and making sure that we can give the gift of pro wrestling as well as everything else at Christmas.”
For more information on the Hot Tag Foundation and to find out their upcoming shows, check out their Instagram page.
Thanks to Hot Tag Foundation for the use of images.
