Yet Another TNA Column

Coffee Table Thoughts {21} : Yet another TNA column

TNA Tag Team Championship Scene

What we were hoping for

There were many of us who were hoping and praying for TNA to be bold over here. It would have been a hitherto unseen competition between two of the most entertaining acts in the modern history of professional wrestling.

The Bad Influence has been on a roll, entertainment-wise even before it was named as such. With their mere presence, they are able to convert even the worst of the segments and storylines in pure gold.

Even though the Clair Lynch farce of a storyline continued well over a decade, you cannot argue that it was still bearable due to the antics of Christopher Daniels. Alright, may be that was a hyperbole. Wait, where are you going? Please don’t go away, I promise I won’t mention that name again. Promise!

Bad Influence consists of Christopher Daniels and Kazarian, two of the very solid performers that have been in TNA, on and off, for a very long time. There are many admirers of the in ring ability of Christopher Daniels; his matches in the X-Division and against AJ Styles are still talked about to this day. He is no slouch in terms of mic skills either. In fact, he can make you puke by making you laugh so hard. With all that said, he is at the most, an upper mid-card guy in the TNA wrestling.

Kazarian is a solid in ring performer but he is not at the level of Christopher Daniels. He also is solid on the mic but you won’t find yourself get immersed in his promos.

However, when you combine both of them, it becomes a Super Combination. Christopher Daniels definitely leads the team but Kaz is very good in his role as a lackey of Daniels. They entertain in the ring, they entertain on the mic and you are always wondering what they will bring to the table next as they are constantly looking out for more and more things and people to fuck up with.

It’s an unmatched combination.

Or so we thought.

After having lost their world championship opportunities, both Bobby Roode and Austin Aries entered into a love-hate relationship. It followed with constant efforts of one-upping each other. For example, if Bobby Roode came out in his robe, Austin Aries would come out in his robe and wearing a t-shirt inside. Amazing, isn’t it?

As much differences as they had between themselves, they agreed on one thing. They agreed that they were both miles ahead of the rest of the roster. That was enough for them to form a tag team and begin a quest of capturing all the gold that TNA has to offer.

In terms of credibility, surely the team of Austin Aries and Bobby Roode are on a much higher rank than Bad Influence, if we take the individual achievements into consideration. However, as a team, I would argue they are quite on an equal footing. Austin Aries and Bobby Roode is a team of titans, while Bad Influence compensates that in the form of teacher-student kind of relationship. Kazarian is the least entertaining of the four guys involved but he can hold his own against any of them and his partnership with Christopher Daniels has only improved his charisma.

If TNA had been gutsy, they would have gone with a direct feud between these two teams. Let me tell you, if this would have happened, nothing in the weekly dose of wrestling would have been as much entertaining as this.

But alas, it didn’t.

What we got

For now though, they have gone with the 3^rd ranked team in the 3 team division of TNA Wrestling. That being the team of Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez.

In the last episode of Impact Wrestling, we saw an unusual Contract Signing for the World Tag Team championship match. These kinds of things are usually reserved for World Championships.  In the contract-signing, a stipulation was added to make it a best 2 out of 3 falls match. Going further, the heel team of Double A and It Factor went on to add a stipulation that if Chavo and Super Mex were to lose the said match, they will no longer be able to tag along in future. Basically, their team would be dead. This made sense because Hernandez and Chavo had ample opportunities at the Tag Titles but were unsuccessful in capturing them every time they faced against Aries and Roode. There was a need to raise the stakes in order to make them hungrier.

It was interesting to see how it all went down. When the stipulation was suggested by the heel team, it was Chavo who jumped on and agreed to the stipulation without any resistance. He was ready for the challenge, ready to risk it all. But Hernandez on the other hand, was sceptical and wasn’t ready to risk it all. He tried to talk Chavo out of it while Chavo was trying to talk him into it. Ultimately, Chavo convinced Hernandez to sign the contract, although it was clear from the expressions of Hernandez that he was doing it out of compulsion and not on his free will.

This disagreement, however little it was, led me to believe that we were about to see the Mexican team disbanded. I hoped that we would be getting a feud between the two of them. And to tell the truth, I was quite looking forward to that feud. How awesome it would have been if Hernandez would have called out Chavo for using his family name in excess of required and that Chavo is nothing but a self hyped glorified jobber.

In the match itself, there were many moments which could have led us to believe that the Mexicans were about to lose the gold opportunity as well as the right to stay together. Early on in the match, Team Extraordinary got an advantage as Super Mex was disposed off outside the ring while Chavo was rendered motionless inside the ring. They got the early first fall too. It was fitting, wasn’t it? The man who was hell bent on accepting the challenge was the man who got pinned. And that too in such a short time. Hernandez would have all the more reason to get angry.

Chavo, however, was able to get the balancing pin fall soon enough due to the unnecessary mocking and rejoicing of the Aries and Roode that followed the first fall. Soon enough Super Mex was back in action and was on a super strength roll.

Once again there came a point in the match where it seemed that the champions were about to win the match when Hernandez came running from the ramp straight into the ring on to the team of Double A and It Factor. However, both the champions were able to move out of the way just in time to keep Chavo right in the middle of the ring where he would take the crash landing of his own partner.

But alas, it was for nought. Chavo and Hernandez managed to win the match despite all the obstacles thrown at them. It was a beautiful story to see unfold before my eyes.

Here I would like to point out that I feel the wrestling product, that is the in ring product, presented by TNA is different from the product presented by WWE. WWE’s in-ring product seems to be an assembly line manufactured product whereas there’s a lot of difference in every match that TNA presents. Or maybe not. I need to observe a little more trend in TNA matches before I can conclude this. But I do get more entertained by TNA matches than the WWE matches as far as regular weekly television is concerned.

I was looking forward to having to get rid of Chavo and Hernandez as a tag team. I like Hernandez; he’s an absolute beast inside the ring and moves very fast in the ring for someone of his size and mass. But Chavo Guerrero bores me to tears. No, actually he irritates me a lot.

These ill feelings towards Chavo Guererro and this team changed, however, during the course of the match as I was able to comprehend just how solid a talent Chavo actually is. He is not going to win Oscars for his acting ability and he is not going to bring thousands of listeners through his promos (quite the opposite, actually) but he sure is a great wrestling talent. It always feels good to watch those three amigos thrown in any match! After the match and the result, I found myself excited for this team as the champions. I have to give the credit of this change of heart to the match and to the efforts put in by of all the four participants

Where do we go from here?

Now his win points out to an exit from the tag division of Austin Aries and Bobby Roode. Or maybe they will continue the feud with the Mexi-Guererro. May be this is a way of getting the strap from an awesome heel team to some team from Aces and Eights without making this phenomenal team look weak. Who knows really? It would be interesting to see where each of these teams goes from here.

May be Austin Aries and Bobby Roode will start feuding with each other by blaming each other for the loss of tag team straps. Or maybe they both join in the forces to fight against the Aces and Eights.

Meanwhile Bad Influence seems to be getting back in fucking up with the innocent mind of AJ Styles...

What if they go with a completely unexpected route by making Aries and Roode join Bad Influence? That would be an epicity of HAM! Or maybe we will eventually indeed get the feud between Bad Influence and the team of AJ Styles and Bobby Roode? May be they are waiting for a more opportune time? Slammiversary, anyone?