The Reality of Wrestling: The World X Cup
By Phil Clark, J.D. Speich, & Kevin Wilson
With a World X Cup preview match that delivered at TNA’s all cage PPV, Lockdown, we decided that it was time for a TNA column. And of all the topics that TNA has, none should be talked about more than the upcoming World X Cup tournament. Yes, we can talk about Sting and Jarrett and Steiner until we’re blue in the face, but this tournament is a lot less depressing than talking about TNA’s WCW reject trifecta. Of course, we wanted to bring in someone else for a third opinion and we got Kevin Wilson from The Wrestling Encyclopedia to give us his two cents on the upcoming junior heavyweight extravaganza.
K.W. Says: K.W. says: The TNA World X Cup Tournament has a load of potential, but right now there are too many question marks to convince me that it will be a must-see event.
In terms of in-ring action, the World X Cup should certainly be fun to watch. I am a big fan of the four members on Team USA (Jay Lethal, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, and Alex Shelley) and this tournament should be used as a way to get them to the next level. While they have been mid-card fodder for several months, this will give them a great opportunity to put on a good show. I’d like to see Lethal come out the strongest, as Shelley already has a prominent role in TNA and Sabin has been around long enough that the crowd gets behind him at the appropriate times already. Lethal has proven his loyalty and I have seen him have very good matches outside of TNA. The World X Cup could catapult him up the ranks of the X Division and he could be a solid challenger for the belt by the end of the summer.
Unfortunately, once I get past Team USA my excitement weans, as the rest of the teams at the moment don’t have much appeal to me. I have trouble getting excited for Team Canada. Petey Williams and Eric Young are fun to watch, but the Canadian gimmick has been in TNA for years. Let’s face it, in TNA the Americans and Canadians have been battling for a long time. But I do like they are bringing from Canada two fresh wrestlers instead of plugging in Roode and A1 (especially since I have never been the biggest fan of Roode or A1). If nothing else at least you know that Team USA and Team Canada are sure to have good chemistry together and put on watchable matches.
Team Japan and Team Mexico are still question marks, and until I see the wrestlers in the ring as far as I am concerned the card is “subject to change.” Liger being pulled out of this month’s PPV (whether the reason was legitimate or not) shows that New Japan doesn’t have any problem not letting their talent attend TNA events if they feel so possessed. Between possibly conflicting schedules and other problems I wouldn’t be surprised if the New Japan representatives change in the week before the event. Team Mexico hasn’t even been completely named yet, with the word getting around that the wrestlers TNA requested can’t make it. Of the ones listed so far I have seen Shocker and Puma, but I have no idea who Magno is. Until the team is fully announced I will try to hold off full judgment and hopefully TNA can get a full team announced sooner the later.
The World X Tournament is giving 16 wrestlers a real chance to show their talent in front of a large American audience, a chance that many of these wrestlers might not get again any time soon. Because of this I expect the wrestlers to be pulling out all the stops and it should be a lot of fun. I can’t really pick a winner considering one entire team has not been named, but unless New Japan has agreed to allow their wrestlers to come back I’d have to take the obvious pick and say the Americans will win it all. As it stands right now I can’t imagine the tournament getting their own PPV as the fact is none of the
wrestlers are seen as main-event quality on the American stage. Most are mid-carders, while the average fan won’t know some at all. Even if they want to have a PPV focus on the tournament, they will need to have at least two non-tournament matches (for example Sting vs. Steiner and Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki) if they expect to keep their buyrate up. You can’t expect fans to pay 30 dollars to not see Styles, Samoa Joe, Christian, Sabu, Jarrett, Sting, Steiner, and Daniels. If would be best if they had some of the matches on Impact! to introduce the wrestlers to the fans that have not seen them, but with wrestlers coming from other countries I don’t know if that will be possible.
Right now it is simply too early to form a solid opinion on if the tournament will work or not. I am worried about Team Mexico and sad that I will see more Team Canada wrestlers winning after their opponent takes a flag shot to the back, but otherwise the tournament should be fun if nothing else. Whether it is worth 30 dollars is a different story, and with no big name talent I wouldn’t expect it to be a success if that is the route they take. But if the tournament does end up being a PPV by itself, then it would be perfect to chip in five dollars with a bunch of friends to watch the show, as it is almost guaranteed to have some fun fast paced matches with memorable moments that will make the tournament worth checking out.
P.C. Says: So far, it’s all a mess
Looking back, the last time TNA did the World X Cup it didn’t seem like the most organized tourney in the world, but I’m guessing the preliminary troubles weren’t as bad then as they are this time around. As of now, TNA’s World X Cup for 2006 will go on, but we don’t know a whole lot more other than that. What we do know is that Team Canada and Team TNA are already made. This is not at all a big deal since every member of those two teams is currently wrestling in TNA. However, everything else seems to be up for grabs.
First off, let’s look at the teams.
Team TNA is not only set up, but they have a story that is going to make their whole run in the tourney interesting: Alex Shelley is a heel in a group of faces. Not only that, but as we saw on last week’s iMPACT! he’s not thrilled with teaming with the men he has to team with. That is something that should bring a little interest to the tourney itself.
Next, Team Canada. No real stories here, except that they’re the only team that will use interference during the tourney. That makes sense for two reasons: it gives their team an identity (one they made that way back in 2004) and it makes them the heels for the whole tourney.
Team Japan is set, but there are some circumstances that make me wonder. For one, Liger’s backing out of the cage match with Danielsâ€â€Âdespite being for a valid reasonâ€â€Âmay turn him heel with the Orlando crowd. If that should happen, do we get to see EVIL LIGER mid-way through the tourney? I sure hope so. Also, Hirooki Goto has an injury, but will be competing in the tourney regardless. Of course, considering the fact that he was on and off the team a couple of times this week, I’m still waiting until the tourney itself to see what happens.
And what happened to Team UK. I know they didn’t play a big role in 2004’s version of the tournament, but apparently they aren’t even going to be involved this time around. I hate this simply because it means I’m going to have to wait even longer to get a second dose of Nigel McGuinness.
Of course, the biggest disaster so far seems to be Team Mexico. The problems with wrestlers south of the border continues for TNA as moving to Orlando may have been a curse when it came to their relationship with Mexican wrestlers. When they were in the Asylum in Nashville, they had no problems getting Mexican wrestlers to come up and compete. Of course, when they moved down to Orlando, the shit hit the fan: Hector Garza was nearly kicked out of the country and was forced to leave, Apollo got all bitchy about jobbing and left, and Shocker phoned in just about every single match he had and left. Still, I’m hoping they can get Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Buccanero because I’ve heard so much about them, but have yet to see them in action. We saw at Lockdown that Shocker, Puma, and Magno are confirmed; plus I’ve read rumors that TNA actually got in contact with Abismo Negro as he’s been confirmed. Wasn’t Ultimo Dragon supposed to be on Team Mexico? Of course, I’m going to wait until the very start of the tournament before I get bitchy about who’s on what team because they could still change.
So right now, TNA really needs to get things straightened out when it comes to who’s going to compete in this tourney.
The other big brainfart from TNA for this tourney is that there is still no format for the tournament or start and end dates for the tournament. If I may quote Carlos Mencia, “Dee Dee Dee.” Seriously TNA, you’ve had more than enough time to get this tournament set up; I mean Mike Tenay has been hyping it for nearly the entire year so far. And yet, TNA has neglected the little details as they have done on more than a few occasions. Wouldn’t getting the dates set up be the first thing on the checklist? I’d think it would because then you have something to tell the people to get them ready and present to the companies whose wrestlers you want to come in and participate in the tournament. Not having a format set up doesn’t mean that TNA doesn’t have one, they just haven’t told us yet. It’s obvious that an Ultimate X Match will finish things off, but what other than that? My guess is a couple of singles, tag, and 8-man tag matches considering they can’t do ladder matches (I think) and there are few options otherwise.
Of course, I’m pretty confident that TNA will straighten all this crap out in time for the tournament (whenever it happens). And I’m more than confident that this year’s World X Cupâ€â€Âlike the 2004 versionâ€â€Âwill be a success.
J.D. Says: The World X Cup might be filled with questions, but there is no doubt that it will be exciting to watch
Right now the World X Cup is kind of screwed up with the fact that there is no set date to start the tournament and some of the teams haven’t even been formed yet. Team U.K. still has yet to have one member so they really can’t even be considered a team. Team Mexico has finally been formed, as was evident on Lockdown this past weekend, and Team Japan was thrown together at the last minute for the Lockdown pay-per-view. So what we can get from this is that TNA is having trouble recruiting wrestlers for their teams, which is unfortunate because this shows TNA cannot rely on the Indy companies they once used to be able to. Even though the teams aren’t set in stone yet, it’s still respectable to take a look at what we’ve got so far.
Team U.S.A.: For Team U.S.A. we get a combination of wrestlers that’s seemingly unique in the sense that due to storylines of the past couple of months didn’t seem likely. Team U.S.A. is set up as follows: Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, Alex Shelley, and Jay Lethal. Chris Sabin and Sonjay Dutt I originally thought should be give-ins because they’re loyal TNA wrestlers through and through. Next we have the 20-year-old pheonom Jay Lethal. This guy has been over with the crowd the moment he stepped into TNA and has proven himself in the X Division so making him part of TNA looked like the right, but not obvious, decision. Then we come to the uncertain Alex Shelley, and I say uncertain because he’s a heel who’s part of Jarrett’s army. I have to admit I didn’t see this one coming because of the fact that Shelley is a heel. His joining of Team U.S.A. means that we’re probably going to get an inside storyline and feud during the tournament between Sabin and Shelley. All in all Team U.S.A. is going to be very interesting to watch as we anticipate if Shelley will be a cancer on the team, or will stay loyal to his team. This scenario is remembrance of the WWE’s angle with Jericho ad Rock’s feud during the brand wars.
Team Canada: Same old same old out of these guys. Team Canada is the full-fledged heel team in this tournament and will definitely use that to their advantage. I see Team Canada as the team to watch in this tournament because if TNA goes with a realistic point of view on this tournament Canada will defeat U.S.A. like they have in everything else this year.
Team U.K.: Like I stated before Team U.K. doesn’t even have a team yet and may not be in this tournament at all so I can’t really comment on this subject at all. All I can say is if TNA comes up with a team, more power to them and more power to the tournament.
Team Japan: Team Japan is set as follows: Hiroko Goto, Jushin Liger, Black Tiger, Minuro Tanaka. Here we some question marks because we don’t actually know how good this team will be considering TNA basically had to throw these guys together just to make a team. The only thing we don’t have to worry about with this team is that we know that they’re talented and are going to be lead into the tournament by a true veteran in Liger. So far the team looks good, as was evident at Lockdown. All TNA can hope for now is that these guys perform like they’re known to and put on some quality matches.
Team Mexico: Last, but not least we have the most controversial team of all. Although Team Japan was thrown together, Team Mexico was worse off coming into Lockdown. Right now Team Mexico has the biggest question mark hanging over it’s head, that question being whether or not Mexico will even be worthy of being in this tournament? The team so far I believe is Abismo Negro, Shocker, and Puma with no fourth guy set in stone yet. So what can we make of this, how about the fact that TNA can’t even get legitimate contracts from wrestlers south of the border and are desperate to put together a team. Bottom line is I really don’t see Team Mexico bringing much to the table in this tournament aside from the fact that Puma most likely will become the dark horse MVP of the tournament.
What we can take from this so far is that the tournament isn’t looking too good, but like K.W. said earlier, it’s too early to tell how the tournament’s going to turn out. We’re faced with questions all around but I feel TNA will pull through in the end, and who knows, this tournament could turn out to be the best World X Cup Tournament we’ve seen to date. Although that last statement is highly unlikely we can still hope that the tournament will remain entertaining and if nothing else will get some quality matches out wrestlers we don’t get to see on television too often.
The Reality is…nothing is for sure. TNA has a history of planning problems as they always seem to be a company that wants to do too much at one time. Saying that, they’ve always come through with picking up people whether it be from North American Indy feds, Japan, Mexico, etc. This year, we’ve seen Puma and Jay Lethal become instant hits with the Orlando crowd, and last year Jushin Liger came to TNA almost to a hero’s welcome. With TNA planning World X Cup preview matches for iMPACT, they need to get these teams set in stone in a hurry. They also need to start hyping the tournament (when to watch it, what you’re going to see, etc.) so that it has a chance of being a success other than qualitatively.
PLUGS
Check out Kevin’s work at The Wrestling Encyclopedia.
Also, check out Kevin’s review of last year’s Super X Cup Tournament.
