The Reality of Wrestling: Aries & Strong
By Phil Clark & J.D. Speich
This past Wednesday, one day after the latest iMPACT! tapings, Austin Aries and Roderick Strong were suspended by TNA pretty much indefinitely as a lesson to the rest of the locker room about making it to pay-per-views. The difference here is that Aries and Strong did make it to the Against All Odds pay-per-view, and wrestled in the opener as a team against The Naturals. So why are the people in charge of TNA getting so huffy about Aries and Strong? With the winter snow storms just beating the shit out of the northeast this month, TNA management were afraid that many of their people would miss the pay-per-view because they had bookings for the RoH show that was taking place in New York the night before the TNA show. TNA asked all of the people on the RoH show (Jay Lethal, Aries, Strong, Alex Shelley, and Homicide) to skip the show and fly directly down to Florida leaving nothing to chance that a Sunday flight may get cancelled. Shelley, Lethal, and Homicide abided by the request, Aries and Strong didn’t. So since everyone ranging from Sheldon Goldberg to Scott Keith has given their opinions on this one, it’s our turn.
P.C. Says: TNA did the right thing suspending Aries & Strong
What most people have to understand about this situation is that it’s a two-headed beast. Aries and Strong did get to the show and performed on it, BUT they did disobey a request from TNA. Now, this is the first instance of something that I’ve known would happen for a while: TNA forced at least some of their workers to choose between their Indy fed bookings and them. While I agree with TNA for doing what they did, I’m giving them this bit of advice free: don’t do this too often. What TNA should understand based on this incident is that making workers choose between them and any other bookings when TNA still does their contracts the same way Indy fed’s do theirs (show-to-show) is a no-win battle. Wrestlers, when it comes to show-to-show bookings, will always go with the Indy scene.
Now, I’m with TNA on this one mainly because they made a request to Aries and Strong, the two broke it, so it’s up to TNA to decide the appropriate punishment. If you want to go real in-depth, Jeff Hardy ruined it for everyone. Because at this time last year, TNA was still pretty lenient about this, but then when Hardy began to miss show after show with excuses that got more pathetic each time, TNA decided to look into becoming something of a stricter headmaster when it came to missed shows. Apollo missing last month’s pay-per-view and then throwing a big stink over jobbing on this one furthered that sentiment. Now if I’m sounding just a bit authoritarian towards Aries and Strong, let’s look at this possibility: Aries & Strong work the RoH show and then aren’t able to show up to the PPV due to a flight or flights being cancelled. This was the alternate scenario that TNA used as their reasoning behind the suspension; they didn’t miss the show, but could’ve. Had they missed the show, TNA is left without the tag-team for their opening match. What do they do? They already have their X-Division four man spotfest, they’re using most of their undercard talent on the pre-show matches; so what do they do? Luckily for them, TNA never had to ask themselves that question just hours before a pay-per-view. To me, this suspension seems to be TNA’s way of preventing such a scenario from happening.
Finally, I agree with TNA on this one because they were in the right in making the request. TNA is better for Aries and Strong’s careers than RoH is. Now, don’t think I’m hating on RoH, I’m not. I love RoH’s product, I love the fact that they’ve helped so many people’s careers and introduced me to so many kick-ass wrestlers (Danielson, Punk, and Joe just to name a few) and I’m still pissed that I missed out on going to the only RoH show to hit Wisconsin back in 2004. However, TNA has a higher platform for these guys to show their stuff on. A cable T.V. deal (RoH only has that in Canada and The Wrestling Channel in the UK), and pay-per-views (RoH wouldn’t even think of doing one) are the two big things that should convince any RoH wrestler who also wrestles for TNA to choose them over RoH. Now I’m aware of the loyalty that a lot of these guys have for RoH; I agree with them for having it; RoH gave a lot of these guys their bread and butter. However, as A.J. Styles proved, RoH will take you back if you miss a show; this would go more for Aries than Strong since Strong didn’t end Joe’s 21-month title reign. And I’m fairly sure that Homicide and Shelley (RoH veterans) will be welcomed back as well as that Lethal guy.
J.D. Says: Aries and Strong shouldn’t have gotten suspended
This past week Aries and Strong were suspended for not following company policy by participating in their RoH bookings. I think that both men should not have gotten suspended for a number of reasons.
One, TNA has got wrestlers who have no showed pay-per-views continuously and have gotten minimal suspension, at least Aries and Strong still made it to the show. Although I agree with TNA’s policy because they were worried about weather conditions I still feel it was inappropriate to use Aries and Strong as an example in this situation. Even though they went against policy, they still made the shows on time and in one piece. I mean seriously, you can’t fault wrestlers who have a dedication to more than one company. This brings me to reason number two on the suspension, you can’t fault these guys for going to Indy shows that they have been booked for for months, just because the weather was bad and there was an off chance that they might not make the shows doesn’t mean you should tell them not to go. Both Aries and Strong were wrestling for RoH long before they ever wrestled for TNA, that’s like asking Shawn Michaels to drop a match to Hulk Hogan instead of screwing over Bret Hart; oh wait, that happened. Reason number three on the suspension is that Strong and Aries have been climbing the ladder in TNA as of late and are in a good story line; why would you take two of your hard working wrestlers off of television when they’re putting on good matches and they’re leaving Alex Shelly in storyline limbo?
The only logical reason I can see for their suspending Aries and Strong is that they’re taking the money they don’t have both men now and using to fill that open void in Sting’s contract. I think TNA made a mistake in suspending Aries and Strong because they only went against company policy once, how many times has Jeff Hardy not shown up and as far as I can recall he’s still with the company. Bottom line, TNA needs to lift the suspension of Aries and Strong as soon as possible. Now, for anyone who might respond to my article stating that TNA was in the right because all Aries and Strong are in TNA right now are mid-carders, I say bullshit. Aries and Strong may be mid-carders now but they were putting on good matches and were getting pushed, take them off of T.V. now and when they come back they’ll have to start all over again, not a good idea. Also, some people might say that the suspension was a good thing because now Aries has time to heel his knee, well to this I can’t really argue anything except that Aries is a wrestler, meaning like most wrestlers he would work through his injury and eventually be fine, I mean the guy just worked a decent match with Christopher Daniels while injured and you’re telling me he couldn’t keep wrestling with that injury.
All in all I think TNA might need to rethink this one and even though Aries and Strong’s suspension won’t get lifted they should use this knowledge I have just stated for future times when this sort of situation crops up again, because it will crop up again.
The Reality is…the punishment has been made. It doesn’t appear that TNA will be relenting in their decision to discipline Aries & Strong. At the best, we can anticipate Aries & Strong to make their voices heard in RoH about this (it worked for Matt Hardy last year) and possibly start a REAL heel turn in TNA when they come back. Worst case scenario: they come back and continue exactly where they left off as this is one case where going back to the drawing board could be a good thing.
PLUGS
For the man I consider the Simon Cowell of pro wrestling (I mean that in a good way) Mike Campbell, check out Splash Mountain.
Also, check out Gordi’s The Art of Wrestling. He may not agree with my opinions, but you should read his.
Finally, check out Zach Arnold and one of the best online radio shows for wrestling coverage, the Puroresu Power Hour.
This week’s “FUCK YOU!” goes to:
WHOEVER BOOKED MNM LOSING THE TAG-TEAM TITLES AT NO WAY OUT
This is more of an annoyance than anything. For one thing, J.D. has been a fan of this team since they first appeared on T.V. in early 2005. Since then, not even a year has passed, they’ve won the tag titles (and dropped them) three times. While three reigns may look good, it doesn’t when they come in a ten-month stretch. As of right now MNM may not be the best team in the world (far from it), but they are, for better or worse, the team that is going to have to re-build the tag division on SmackDown! In other words, jobbing them out to Matt Hardy and Tatanka (?!) may not have been the smartest move in the world. Then again, rationalizing any booking decision that the E makes these days usually ends in a migraine.
