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Dynamic New Tag Team Champions Take UWE By Storm

Posted: Aug 12th 2012 By: CMBurnham

Many wrestling analysts say that tag team competition in the sport is on a steep decline. Those who came up in the 1980s remember a heyday of tag team competition. Even into the turn of the century, competitive pairings of wrestlers still put on great showings and thrilled audiences into becoming tag team wrestling marks.

But from the WWE down to the independent leagues, tag team wrestling just isn't what it used to be. And almost one year ago, the UWE shut down their tag team championships. The reason: their current champions, Ray Martinez & Brett Taylor, failed to defend the belts for over 60 days. And the Tahlequah-based federation didn't have enough established tag teams in their ranks to justify having tag team gold. So for one year, those belts lay dormant.

But not anymore.

A tournament was held on August 4th to crown new UWE Tag Team Champions. 8 teams, some experienced, some brand new, entered into the tournament to claim the brand new UWE Tag Team Championship belts. And while the result of the tournament wasn't exactly a decision that the fans agreed with, it also can't be called a surprise by anyone.

The opening rounds of the tournament saw two established tag teams, Dynamic Storm and The K. C. Wolves, face off. Although Justin Dynamic & Daemon Storm were familiar to the crowd in the UWE, it was Graham Bell & Luke Langley's first time to compete for the federation. Both teams put on a great showing and on 3 separate occassions, the K. C. Wolves had Daemon Storm pinned,but a foot would end up on the ropes. A very upsetting decision for the Wolves came when Bell was thrown out of the ring and then Dynamic Storm double-superplexed Langley to advance to the second round.

The next match saw two new teams as Crossfire Morrison & SRPW Tag Team Champion Kid Krazy were supposed to face off against the Velocity Renegades. But the month before, Dynamic Storm had defeated the Velocity Renegades in a match with the stipulation being that whichever team lost could not compete together in UWE again. With Anarchy 2nd preoccupied with his brother Fuel, X-Stat!k was left potentially in a 2-on-1 situation in the tag team tournament. But to his rescue came Keith Knight and together the unexpected duo overcame tremendous odds to advance to the second round, using a wheelbarrow/codebreaker combination on Kid Krazy for the win. During the course of the match, though, when Morrison attempted his Exploder suplex from the top rope on X-Stat!k, the young man's foot got hooked in the top turnbuckle, causing the knee to be twisted and injured. This single action would prove to be decisive before the night was over.

The 3rd opening-round match saw the masked duo of Team Thunder take on Rolling Thunder & Magnum XL. This was an extremely odd match as Team Thunder are obviously proteges of Rolling Thunder and did not want to compete against (or anger) their mentor. They had seen what happened when Magnum XL did not live up to expectations. And, as usual, when Rolling Thunder wanted something done, he didn't want to do it himself, sending Magnum XL in to get things done and then complaining when those things didn't turn out correct. RT even sacrificed the match by crotching XL as he tagged him in, then hitting him in the back of the head with brass knucks to give the win to the masked duo. It was the end of a partnership that had been failing from the beginning as XL had been nothing but RT's whipping boy and was finally cast free of the role.

The final opening round match was something of a random pairing as newcomer Robert Lee teamed with the returning SRPW United States Champion Kyle Everlast to face Bryan Washington & Big Smooth. Smooth had been having problems with Ace Archuleta and "The Franchise" has had some interaction with "Mr. Nasty". So there was more than one level of business being taken care of here. But neither team was able to accomplish what they were there for: to advance to the next round. Kyle Everlast & Big Smooth battled each other to the back, leaving Washington & Lee in the ring. Then as the final 10 seconds in the time-limit ran out, those two battled to the outside and the time limit expired. That meant both teams were eliminated from the tournament and their opponents in the second round received an automatic bye.

That team was Dynamic Storm, who were overjoyed at being able to rest and recuperate before competing in the finals. X-Stat!k & Keith Knight, however, unexpectedly found themselves in a Handicap Match as Rolling Thunder announced that he and his two proteges, as a unit, were "Team Thunder", so they should be allowed to compete together. UWE President Dale Robinson found no way to counteract this and the match was made. The numbers game appeared to be heading in the favour of Rolling Thunder until an unexpected appearance by Magnum XL, who gave Rolling Thunder a Stunner over the top rope, allowing X-Stat!k to roll Thunder up for the win. Then, as if having a bye to the finals wasn't enough, Dynamic Storm hit the ring and attacked the injured left knee of X-Stat!k, attempting to put him out of the tournament and hoping to win the titles through a forfeit. Thankfully, the assitance of Fuel drove the Commission's tag team away, but the damage had been done and X-Stat!k had to be helped from the ring.

After intermission, the time for the finals of the Tag Team Title Tournament arrived. And just as X-Stat!k had been faced with a potential handicap situation in the opening round, Keith Knight now found himself in the same situation. X-Stat!k's injuries had seemingly prevented him from coming to the ring, but Knight refused to step aside and allow Dynamic Storm to take the belts without earning them. Mustering every ounce of will he had, he took it to the opposition, hitting them with a flurry of moves including a one-man-double-dropkick from the second rope. This burst of offence could only last so long, though. And with Knight expending twice as much energy as his opponents and having no one to tag, the situation soon became grim. Then, X-Stat!k came through the curtain, followed by a mass of referees who were attempting to hold him back. His knee heavily bandaged, X-Stat!k shrugged off the referees and climbed into the ring, blindly tagging into the match. Another flurry of motion from X-Stat!k as he put down both opposing team members, even connecting with an Eye of the Hurricane. But then, Storm clipped the injured knee and rolled him up for a pin. And Dynamic Storm stood proudly as the first claimants to the UWE Tag Team Titles in a year's time.

As if their ego needed any assistance, they soon posted pictures of themselves with their newly won belts all over Facebook, proudly proclaiming that they were better than everyone else. And it's hard to argue when they did exactly what they said they were going to do: go out and win the tag team championships. So the circle comes completely around. One year prior, the Commission abandoned the belts. Now, they have them under control again. It's going to take a team with an amazing skill set to knock the new champions off their perch. And while they're up there, they're going to enjoy looking down on all of the UWE fans.