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"N-Crowd" Hangs Tough In Tag Team Contendership

Posted: Sep 17th 2011 By: CMBurnham

Tag team competition is a high-demand event in MSWA. But good tag teams don't just appear. They take chemistry and a type of awareness of your partner where you know what they're going to do sometimes before they even do it.

MSWA Mid-South Tag Team Champions The New Age Syndicate have that kind of awareness and as a result, they have set atop the tag team mountain for almost 6 months. In that time, there have been contender teams, but none bring with them the name recognition that the current number one contenders to those belts do: Nemesis.

Nemesis had been one of the victims of Shawn McKeaigg's corrupt regime. After losing the Mid-South Tag Team Titles, Damon Windsor and Rage Logan had been fired by McKeaigg. Meanwhile, Logan and Damien Morte had continued to compete as Nemesis in IZW. But on August 6, Logan suffered a devestating ankle injury which has him sidelined until early October. So it looked like Nemesis was off any Oklahoma card for the time being.

Damon Windsor introduced his newest tag segment at the MSWA show this past Sunday and his first guest was MSWA commissioner C. M. Burnham. He acknowledged that Burnham had made a lot of changes since gaining control of MSWA in June and also brought up that there was going to be a tag team Battle Royal on the show that day, but seemed upset that Nemesis wasn't entered into the match. This confused Burnham as Logan was sitting in the ring, cast clearly visable as well and there was no way that Logan could compete, so there was no spot for Greatness On Demand in that match. Logan said there was no chance of them being eliminated from the match and Windsor again pleaded for an entry, but Burnham refused, citing safety concerns on the part of MSWA. His apparently final declaration on the affair was that Windsor had no partner, therefore he could not be in the match.

Logan took the microphone and said that he had suspected that this might be the case, so he had a surprise in the back and, with Burnham's approval, he would be Windsor's partner in the match. Logan asked for the music to be played and the "Price Is Right" theme came over the loudspeakers. Then, through the entrance curtain came Damien Morte, who ran at breakneck speed to the ring and slid in, hugging his fellow Nemesis members and leaping into Burnham's lap, almost toppling over the chair that he was in. Burnham confirmed that this would be the pairing to compete in the Battle Royal and that was agreed on. Burnham then made it official and Nemesis was the 6th team to to vie for the #1 contendership to the Tag Team belts.

The Battle Royal began with the team of Shane Rawls & Maniac Mike facing off against The Canadian Red Devil & Crossfire Morrison. The Devil & Morrison had received a shot at the belts earlier that card, but Morrison fell victim to the Sanders' new finishing move: a combination belly-to-back/Uranage suplex. Team #3 was the odd couple pairing of Super Skunk Ape, Jr. & SWCW Tag Team & ComPro Oklahoma X Division Champion Se7en. Rawls was the first to be eliminated and Morrison was out soon after that, but in this match, both members of the team had to be thrown out for the team to be out of contendership. Then, the music hit and Windsor & Morte made their way to the ring, determined to earn their way back to the top quickly. With 6 men battling all over the ring, MSWA's version of the Clockwork Clique was announced, but when the curtain parted, only SWCW All-American & BYEW Entertainment Champion Drake Gallows was coming to the ring. He stopped when he sensed that his partner wasn't present, then turned back and returned to the dressing area, emerging soon after dragging BYEW Champion Sam Stackhouse with him. This duo obviously was not on the same page as Stackhouse seemed to want nothing to do with the match. But they both got in began to fight it out. The Canadian Red Devil was eliminated by Nemesis as the final team, the Loaded Stars, made their way to the ring and now it was just a matter of attrition. Super Skunk Ape, Jr. monkeyflipped Stackhouse (an impressive feat on the 400 lb-er), but was thrown over the top by Damon Windsor soon afterwords. Damien Morte went outside the ring and grabbed one of Rage Logan's crutches. He then dragged Rick Russo out and the pair began beating him with the crutches to the fans' delight.

At that point, a realisation began to occur to everyone in the ring. There weren't a lot of them and they were starting to get tired, so they might need to get the biggest man out of the ring while they still had the energy. That was Sam Stackhouse and 7 men teamed up on one to flip him over the top and eliminate him from the match. Stackhouse remained at ringside briefly and was instrumental at saving Drake Gallows from being eliminated by letting Gallows land on him (and thus his feet didn't touch the floor). But then Gallows jumped onto Stackhouse and dropped to the floor, eliminating that duo from the match. Very quickly, the numbers began to drop. Damon Windsor was eliminated. The Loaded Stars double teamed Se7en to get him out. And then it was 2-on-1. The Loaded Stars vs. Damien Morte. Things might not have looked so bleak if it had been 3 individual members of teams, but with Russo and Bobby Star together, there was the experience factor which appeared to be helpful here. For Morte's sake, that didn't prove true. He lowbridged the top rope on Russo as Russo charged towards him, eliminating "The Gunshow". And then he grabbed Star by the back of the head and tossed him over, winning the match and signalling a triumphant return to MSWA by Nemesis.

Morte & Windsor didn't get to enjoy their tag team title run for long, as The NAS, who had been sitting at ringside for the entire match, now made their move. C. M. Burnham had issued a decree that if they were to interfere during the match, they would be stripped of the belts and the winners would become the automatic new champions. The Syndicate agreed to this surprisingly easily. And it was something of a trap for, as soon as the bell was rung, signalling the match was over, the Sanders' hit the ring and attacked the winners. That lasted as long as it took Logan to climb up on the ring apron and enter the ring, swinging his crutch and driving Scott Sanders & Shawn Sanders away.

Nemesis now has a guaranteed shot at the MSWA Tag Team Titles. But it's not a guarantee that they will be successful. The Sanders' have years of experience tagging together while this combination of Nemesis is relatively inexperienced in comparison. Also, while it's true that Rage Logan is present on the Nemesis side, rumours are rising that a 3rd member of the NAS may be entering Oklahoma wrestling soon. If so, that unknown factor could prove the point to tip favour towards the Syndicate in retaining their belts. But with poor officiating costing Greatness On Demand the titles in the first place, they're not going to let this latch-ditch opportunity slip through their fingers easily.