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With Friends Like These...

Posted: May 7th 2012 By: CMBurnham

Bad times seem to have fallen on the current SRPW Tag Team Champions, The Future Endeavours. A series of miscommunications and frustrations have made it apparent that the two are not on the same page and with tag team competition as unpredictable as it has been in that federation, those belts may soon find themselves in new hands.

Sam Stackhouse & Crossfire Morrison had always been looked upon as a accidental champions since they never actually beat the previous champions, The Jersey Kings, for the titles. They resolved that issue at the end of March when they finally got a match against Scott Riley and King James and walked away as champions (while Riley & James walked away from each other.)

The FEs were off the hook for a title defence the next show, as they were in a main event 6-man tag team match, teaming with Ray Martinez against the combination of Kid Krazy, Mitch Baxter & SRPW Champion Jake O'Brien. Suffering some timing issues at first, the Stackhouse & Morrison were able to turn things around when they isolated Kid Krazy and work him over. A desperate tag brought in a fresh man in the form of O'Brien and then Mitch Baxter was entered into the match. Baxter was caught in a Bubba Bomb and Stackhouse went to the top rope, prepared to finish him off. But Baxter was just playing possum and delivered a Curb Stomp after avoiding Stackhouse's Big Splash. Morrison was still the legal man in the match, though. And he felt the effects of a Baxter Climax followed by the Ginger Elbow of the SRPW Champion, bringing victory to the fan favourite team.

At that point, things began to fall apart as Stackhouse took the kendo stick that he had brought to the ring and lit into Morrison, blaming him for the loss. Even the FEs opponents were astounded by the viciousness of the actions and ran to Morrison's rescue. A couple of days later, heated words were exchanged by Morrison & Stackhouse on the SRPW Facebook page and it appeared that another tag team in the company was disintegrating.

That all appeared to be proven false when the SRPW show began at Club Chaos in Sapulpa last week on Saturday. Though not booked to appear in tag team competition, the FEs were still very present and accompanied each other to the ring for their matches. Stackhouse once again found himself in singles competition against Kid Krazy, a man he has never been able to beat one-on-one. Seeing this as once again being a strong likelihood for the outcome, the FEs had Plan B in place, which involved Morrison and a steel chair. With the referee down, Morrison brought the steel chair into the ring. Stackhouse held Krazy, but when Morrison swung the chair, Krazy moved and Morrison hit his own partner. Krazy then yanked the chair from Morrison, threw it at him so he caught it and hit a Van Damanator on the tag team champion, knocking him from the ring so that he could pin Stackhouse and again pick up the win. Things looked to get nuclear between the champions as the meltdown almost happened again in the ring.

But the chance to be dual champions allowed cooler heads to prevail. Morrison had a shot at SRPW Champion Jake O'Brien for the title. This was Morrison's first opportunity at Heavyweight gold and, while not visually what most people would consider a heavyweight, he nonetheless has an ego which surpasses his body size and that allows him to aim high. Stackhouse accompanied him to ringside for this match and it was obvious that, while not currently punching each other, things were obviously unresolved betwen the pair as Stackhouse could be heard still complaining about the events of the previous match. And again, things didn't work out well for the champions. As their plans never coalesced, Stackhouse climbed onto the ring apron to argue with Morrison. O'Brien took the opportunity to dropkick Morrison into his partner, knocking Stackhouse to the floor. O'Brien then connected with a Falcon's Arrow for the win, successfully defending his title. And once again, Stackhouse's temper flared, erupting into a flurry of kendo stick shots on Morrison, followed by a gut-buster on the corner post, leaving Morrison in a crumpled heap on the floor. More kendo sticks followed, each more vicious than the last. But whereas in Tulsa, the crowd had jumped straight to Morrison's defence, in Sapulpa, the crowd actually urged Stackhouse to continue his assault. And he did so, ultimately taking both belts and leaving, claiming that he might as well have no partner.

No easy solution to this problem seems visable. There are deep seated problems to be resolved if The Future Endeavours are going to continue to function as a tag team. At this point, though, the only thing that seems to be keeping them together are the tag team championships. And if their relationship has deteriorated to this point, even that may not be enough very soon.