EXCLUSIVE: The ECHO chats to former WWE wrestler and Liverpool fan D’Lo Brown about his life as a Reds fan in America
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Ten years ago, D'Lo Brown was on the lookout for a football club to call his own.
Having been struck by the passion and the noise on display throughout grounds across England, the New Jersey native was a fully converted "footy fan" by 2012, but still needed someone to lend his support to.
The American wrestler might have made his name as a star during the then WWF's legendary 'Attitude Era' of the late 1990s, but when looking to broaden his horizons further, he found himself searching for a team to follow having been swept up by the drama of the Premier League.
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And like so many others who had tread a similar path before him, once he had been bitten by the 'soccer bug', there was only ever going to be one winner in the battle for his affections.
"I liked the You'll Never Walk Alone anthem and I was ready to go," the former European and Intercontinental champion tells the ECHO in an exclusive chat. "I spent some time over here in 2010 or 2011 and I'd never been a football fan at all.
"I was an American Football fan, I'd never been a 'footy' fan. So I went to watch a match just to take in the environment and I've never seen such passion inside of a ground. Ever. And I was like 'man, this is awesome!'
"Then you see the beauty and grace of the game and it's like 'damn! This is OK. This is a lot different than I thought.' So then just spending time over here (in England) and whittling it down to which team I wanted to support and it ended up being Liverpool.
"At the time Liverpool were like eighth or ninth in the table and switching over to Brendan Rodgers as their manager and I was like: 'OK, I kind of like that!'"
It was perhaps an inauspicious time to take up supporting the Reds. With Rodgers overtaking Sir Kenny Dalglish in the summer of 2012, having just come off an eighth-place finish, the Northern Irishman was tasked with an Anfield rebuild without the budget of their main rivals at the top of the game.
It was a far cry from the halcyon days of the 1980s when Liverpool ruled the land. League title No.19 was still years away from being realised at Anfield, but the master of the Sky High finishing move knew the Reds were for him.
He says: "We went through the Brendan Rodgers era when we were good but not great and I consider myself so lucky because there are so many Liverpool supporters who have gone through so many down times in the doldrums of the bad years and I come in right as it's about to take off and watch Klopp reshape that team and turn it into something special.
"I was talking to one of my friends and talking about in the last five years we've been in the Champions League final twice, losing the league by one point, winning the league by 20 points, competing this year, I mean it's a supporter's dream of consistent play across the board.
"And the amount of silverware they've brought in particularly in the last few years it's like wow, it's awesome just to support such a great time."
Now working for IMPACT wrestling as a backstage producer, the former wrestler and Reds fan will be on hand at the company's REBELLION pay-per-view on April 23 when world champion Moose puts the gold on the line against Josh Alexander and Violent By Design defend their tag team titles in Poughkeepsie, New York.
And despite his hectic schedule in the outrageous world of professional wrestling in America, Brown, whose real name is Accie Connor, still makes sure he is front and centre whenever Jurgen Klopp's men take to the field on the other side of the Atlantic.
"I get up normally on a Saturday at 4.30am, local time in Las Vegas, and I throw on my red kit and I sit there and I watch the Reds play," he says with more than a hint of pride in his voice.
But just who are some of his favourite players? At a time when many have championed this squad to be the best at Anfield in decades, there are plenty to choose from.
"Obviously Steven Gerrard, I still love Luis Suarez and then I look at guys like Sadio Mane and Mo Salah and Alisson Becker. I don't go back that far, I only go back about eight or nine years, but those are my players and obviously if you don't love Klopp, you don't love the game. So those are my guys."
Like all Liverpool supporters, the former Nation of Domination member, has been thrilled by the Reds' quadruple quest this season. With around six weeks of the campaign left, Klopp's side still have it all to play for as they head into Saturday's FA Cup semi-final with Manchester City.
"The quad…wow!" he says. "It's amazing when you think you're playing so well you would dominate the league, but there's this other team and that equal rival there in City and it's fun.
"I mean, I hate to say it but I had a great time watching the 2-2 draw and I can't wait for the FA Cup semi this weekend to see how they play again. It's great to have that foil to always challenge you and you have to play up to every time you see them.
"And even when you're not on the pitch with them you're playing against their score somewhere else in the country or the world. So it's awesome to have it.
"Now do I want to lose to them? Hell no! So I hope we prevail in the league. We're down by a point with seven games to go and then with the semi-final coming up. It looks like they're going to meet up in the final of the Champions League too. Man, this is going to be a fun next month or so."
So, with the margins so fine at the elite level, just how will Klopp try and give his team the edge this weekend? Could the Liverpool manager use some mind games on Pep Guardiola by using the time-honoured wrestling tradition of some pre-match 'trash talk'?
If so, the former tag team partner of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has some choice words for Klopp to use.
"Well, if I was to say that," Brown says, "I would say…Man City, this week in London, you better get ready because the red storm is going to come! Salah is going to fly by and Mane is going to put two or three in the back of your net and you better recognise just who the hell we are!"
All roads now lead to the annual REBELLION PPV, set for Saturday April 23 and live on FITE.tv. Fans in the UK can watch IMPACT Wrestling on IMPACT Plus and/or the IMPACT Insiders YouTube channel, available from 1am Friday mornings
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