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Bromance Dominant Against Varied Championship Competition

Posted: Nov 11th 2011 By: CMBurnham

They're the 3rd longest reigning champions in Oklahoma and until this past week, it didn't appear there was anyone that could present them with a challenge. Now MWA Tag Team Champions Bad Bromance might have finally met their match in the veteran pairing of Angel 5th & "Hacksaw" Butch Reed.

Justin Lee & Max McGuirk had established themselves as strong tag team competitors in both MERC & UWE, winning tag team gold in both companies. And there were those who complained about the circumstances of their title win for the MWA Tag Team Championships. 1/2 of the champions, "Gentleman" Joe Cothern was unable to be at the title defence as he had been booked in California previously. This meant that Stevie Caballero had to find a substitute, but noone was willing to step forward and assist him. So Caballero did the only thing possible in the circumstances, he put himself in as the tag team partner of Dutch Hagen. But Caballero is not a wrestler, which meant that it was a glorified handicap match and the result was the beginning of a 6 month title reign which shows no signs of stopping.

The common understanding is that champions have to be ready for whoever gets thrown at them and Bad Bromance's title reign seems to have exemplified that. The began with a win over The Longhorn Assassin and Oklahoma newcomer Mark Jacobs. Following that, they were successful in singles competition as Justin defeated Sebastian Envi and Max pulled out a win via DQ over Bobby Lambert. Singles victories were fine, but Lee & McGuirk wanted tag team matches. There was thought that they would be facing Envi & Lambert in a title match in June, but the Texas-based duo never returned to MWA, so instead, Justin & Max faced off against the uncooperative team of Richie Adams & Crossfire Morrison.

MWA took its traditional summer hiatus and returned in September. Now the competition stepped up a little as Bad Bromance faced members of the Clockwork Clique, current SWCW All-American Co-Champions Bobby Star & Drake Gallows. Victory there brought them to October, where they faced off against Jordan Jacobs & IZW Champion Jermaine Johnson, The Pimp Squad. With 6 months under their belt, it would be easy to be complacent about things. But that's not how MWA worked as they proved in November.

The main event saw Bad Bromance put the tag team titles up for grabs against the team of ECW original "Baldy" Angel 5th and "Hacksaw" Butch Reed. Angel had already competed earlier that evening against MWA MAX-Division & IZW Impact Division Champion Michael Barry. Also, the duo's manager, Stevie Caballero, was unable to be at the show that night. Both these factors certainly shook the team's strategy, but their experience, especially in regards to Reed, compensated to a degree. They were able to isolate Justin Lee, keeping him in the ring for much longer then he had a desire to be there. But Justin eventually made the tag to Max and soon all 4 men were in the ring. Reed shoved referee Jeremy Evans down and Evans showed great leniency by not calling for the DQ at that point. But a few moments later, when Max McGuirk did the same thing ,there was no option and Evans signalled for the bell to ring. Reed & Angel grabbed the belts and began to walk away, as if they'd won the titles. Meanwhile, Justin & Max led the crowd in a chant for "5 more minutes", which the crowd clearly wanted. But Reed & Angel had no desire to give them their opportunity, instead promisin to return next month to capture the tag team titles. Whether that happens remains to be seen as Reed remaines rather sporadic in his MWA appearances. His last Oklahoma appearance was for MWA at the beginning of June and if fans thought him uncommitted, they could be forgiven for it. This might work in Justin & Max's favour if Reed takes another 4 months off before reentering the the ring. Otherwise, the belts could be won and then taken back to Caballero's stable where they were 6 months ago.