Joe Cullen open on ‘pre-emptive’ nature of PDC World Darts Championship storm out
Joe Cullen open on ‘pre-emptive’ nature of PDC World Darts Championship storm out
During the 2025 PDC World Darts Championship, Joe Cullen made headlines for reasons other than his performances on the stage. Following his second-round victory over the much-hyped Dutch prospect Wessel Nijman, Cullen stormed out of his post-match news conference, citing a perceived lack of respect from the darting media.
A visibly frustrated Cullen snarled at the journalists gathered in the Ally Pally press room before proving to be a man of his word and storming out of the media room and headed home to Yorkshire.
Cullen has spoken for the first time exclusively to Online Darts since that moment about his thought process behind his sudden exit from the press conference. First and foremost, Cullen explains how he had always planned to pull off such a stunt.
“If I’m going to be honest, it was pre-emptive. I knew what I was going to do before I went into the interview.”
Cullen’s actions that evening elicited mixed reactions, with many darts fans criticising the former Masters winner in the aftermath. However, as evidenced by Cullen’s performance against Nijman, criticism of the Englishman may frequently bring out his best.
“I knew before the game that I wasn’t going to lose,” he recalls. “It was a good thing. It was nothing against the bookies, it was nothing against Wessel. I just felt that I’d been overlooked.”
“If I’d been overlooked for Luke Humphries, Luke Littler, someone who’s playing amazing, yeah, no problem,” Cullen adds, questioning whether Nijman deserved the hype he’d received. “Wessel was lucky to get through his [first round] game against Cameron Carolissen. I thought someone with that little experience on that stage… I think he was like 1/3, 1/4 with the bookies. He was like 7th favourite for the tournament. I just thought it was hideous, for want of a better word. I had a bee in my bonnet and I knew I wasn’t going to lose that game.”
