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York's Undefeated! How Crazy Is That?

Posted: Jan 29th 2009 By: CMBurnham

People have found many things lacking in the career of Michael York since its inception 4 years ago.

They said he wasn't technically sound, that didn't have the right look, that he just didn't "get it".

Maybe all that was lacking was a certain amount of confidence. After all, when York has that confident feeling behind him, his success rate is pretty good. He was confident a the beginning of his career and racked up 2 titles in TPW as well as the FCW Title. But that waned and his in-ring success went downhill with it.

Since turning his back on the fans last year, York meandered through his matches, achieving little more than riducule and scorn. But he found an ally in the form of Brett Taylor and the two of them seem to have overcome their individual weaknesses on a path to career rejuvination.

And it's paying off. For the first time in his career, York was included in the Oklafan Top 50 (coming in at #38. But more impressively than that, York remains undefeated in 2009 and could be on the path to championship gold once again.

This is not to say that York has achieved this undefeated streak cleanly. In FACT, it's been anything but that. York began the year facing off against Tyson Armstrong. Tyson dominated the match until York took the referee to the corner. This allowed Brett Taylor to enter and hit the Backstabber on Armstrong, giving York the win.

York's next win was not due to anything he or Taylor did. York faced off against his former tag team partner The Canadian Luchadore. York controlled a lot of the first half of the match, while the Luchadore regained control towards the end. Then, out of nowhere, Tyson Armstrong ran into the ring and attacked York. This forced the referee to disqualify the Luchadore and again, York walked out with a win. The Luchadore was obviously unhappy with this decision and engaged in a war of words with Tyson after the match, but the pair didn't come to blows.

York didn't compete on January 17, although he was Brett Taylor's corner for his match against Tyson Armstrong and did interfere when Tyson had Taylor pinned, getting Taylor DQed.

On January 24, Tyson & York were both recruited into other teams' feuds. With "Outcast" Kenny Campbell competing down in IZW that evening, Team SuperBad needed a 3rd man for their match against ComPro Tag Team Champions Legion 13 and Michael York. They chose Tyson Armstrong. Neither team worked fluidly, but Armstong, Justin Lee & El Super Colibri were more cohesive than their opponents and York seemed to lose some of the confidence he had built up over the past few weeks. With 6 men plus manager Ray Martinez all around him, it was too much for referee John the Encourager to handle at times and there came a point where he turned his attention outside the ring. This allowed Brett Taylor to come to ringside and get in Tyson Armstrong's face. While Brett distracted him, Dutch Hagen snuck up behind him and hoisted him for the Kryptonite Krunch and another win went in York's record, even though he didn't get the pin.

Karma came around a little later in the show for York & Taylor as Taylor faced Brandon Groom (who is also undefeated) in the semi-main event. Groom controlled this match from the outset and York could see that his partner wasn't going to be able to win on his own, so he tripped Groom which infuriated "The Bodysnatcher" and Groom left the ring to chase York around it. They made the full circuit around, but upon returning to where they started for, York found something there that wasn't there before: Tyson Armstrong, who had come out of the curtain and stood waiting for York to arrive back. Armstrong & York came to blows while Groom went back in the ring and got the win over Brett Taylor. Armstrong also gained a little revenge by entering the ring and putting some smack down on Taylor as well.

Several ComPro fans have recently called for a match between York & Groom, which would end one of their respective unbeaten streaks, but that seems unlikely to happen as the two grapplers have a healthy respect for each other. York was trained by Groom and the pair are preparing to challenge for the TAP Tag Team Titles held by The Innovators on February 20.

Tags: Michael York, TPW, FCW, Brett Taylor, Tyson Armstrong, Canadian Luchadore, Kenny Campbell, IZW, Team SuperBad, Legion 13, Justin Lee, El Super Colibri, Ray Martinez, John the Encourager, Dutch Hagen, Brandon Groom, TAP, The Innovators