Joshua Modaberi sent along the following:

PDC Darts Player and currently ranked no.17 on the PDC rankings Paul Nicholson spoke to SportsVibe.co.uk discussing his career in 2012, the comparisons between professional wrestling and darts, how he is a big fan of the current WWE Champion CM Punk, some of his favourite wrestlers growing up, attending TNA Wrestling’s events this week in what has been billed as Sting’s final UK appearances and more.

Highlights are below:

Nicholson on what he is looking to achieve in Darts this year: “I’ve set myself some goals, and I would like to win at least three pro tour events this year. I would like better in the UK Open qualifications and I’ll like to break my duck of winning a pro tour event on the continent either in Holland, Germany or Spain as I haven’t achieved that yet.  With regards to the major championships I want to qualify for all of them and content in most of them in order to move up the rankings.”

Nicholson on being billed as “The Bad Boy Of Darts”: “When I first started as a professional I was quite timid compared to what I am like these days. A lot of people that know me know I’m quite placid and private away from the game, but when I’m in the game I turn into somebody different which in my opinion goes well with the wrestling because some of the guys that are outlandish and outspoken on camera, I’m sure there quite placid away from it. I find it a great way of venting any anger or frustration in your life and you can use it as an advantage when you play a sport like darts which is one-on-one or wrestling when it’s one-on-one, I know wrestling is scripted but you can use that to perform better, it’s a way of expressing yourself. I love that side of the game and its one of the things that attracted me to being a professional. It’s far more enjoyable if your doing something like that as a posed to just going up their and having a game of darts in my opinion.”

Nicholson on when he first watched wrestling and who his favourite wrestlers were growing up: “I remember getting into it in the late eighties, one of the first PPV’s I ever watched was when Hulk Hogan was paired with Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake at SummerSlam in 1989, and I was only 9-years-old when I started watching that. However the coverage of the WWF back then wasn’t very comprehensive, we were watching the likes of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, but we always wanted to watch the WWF and would crowd around the TV when they showed the highlights. When Sky came out in the early nineties and showed it on a regular basis it was a lot easier to follow but my favourite wrestlers would have been the Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude, and I loved the tag-teams like, The Rockers and Legion of Doom, they were fantastic back then. Going into today I loved everything to do with the attitude era with De-Generation X, and the battle with WCW, in my opinion will never be topped, it was a phenomenal period in professional wrestling. Today you can’t look past CM Punk, he is just so funny, so intelligent and he just speaks to me, that is one of the reasons why I’ve done some of the stuff I’ve done.”

Nicholson on whether he has ever talked to Punk on Twitter regarding what he does on stage in Darts: “I have tweeted him a few times and included him in some of the conversations I’ve had and done some of the hashtags that show up on Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown, but I’ve never had a reply unfortunately, I’m not sure if he is aware of what I have done. As far as I’m concerned the guy is a visionary, what he did when he sat on the stage when he was talking about the McMahon family, it was the first time in a long time that wrestling fans and even my friends in darts, were asking it was really or scripted? It was edge of your seat stuff. When I started to do some of the things that I do, I just wanted to give people the impression that anything I do is off the cuff and it’s not scripted I just want be a bit unpredictable in a game that has sometimes become predictable with major champions going onto dominate the sport. When I come on I want people to think what is he going to do next? And thats one of the reasons people watch wrestling is because they want to know what is going to happen next.”

Nicholson on his favourite Royal Rumble moment: “I have to admit I really enjoyed the Santino Marella bit last year with Alberto Del Rio, I was watching it live and thinking Del Rio is going to win this, and then all of a sudden Santino comes from under the ring and I was off my chair saying ‘go on give him the cobra, get him over the rope’ that was a good moment. My biggest Royal Rumble moment will probably have to be Shawn Michaels with his one foot touching the floor against the British Bulldog, I’ve always remembered that one, I think that’s everyone’s favourite to be honest.”

The interview is available in full at this link.