NUMBER 4:
The Cowboy – James Storm
In the last month “The Cowboy” James Storm wrestled every single week – on two occasions he wrestled twice – and fought for the TNA World Heavyweight title in a 4-Way match at Against All Odds. If that’s not enough he’s also the second best promo guy on Impact after Bully Ray and he’s earned himself a one-on-one title opportunity at Lockdown, coming off the heels of his victory over Bully Ray last week. After a decisive victory in his feud with Kurt Angle, Storm has come running out of the gates and only Bobby Roode’s heelish tactics have slowed him down.
Ken Napzok is a comedian, writer, and pro wrestling manager running a muck in Los Angeles. He can be heckled on Twitter at @kozpan and @TexTunney.
Ken Napzok: “If Bobby Roode is to be the modern day, Ric Flair-like territory champion with any degree of success, then a lot of pressure sits firmly on the broad shoulders of “Cowboy” James Storm to be Roode’s modern day Dusty Rhodes: so far it seems to be working. Storm comes to the world title dance with a decent fan base and is certainly catch phrase ready. His short title reign was correctly ended by Roode’s turn coat, cheating ways. Storm must continue to build on his “for the people” cred to make the constant pursuit of the world title stolen from him by a friend-gone-greedy work. There are legs to this program, it just has to have time to simmer to a boil.”
NUMBER 3:
WWE World Heavyweight Champion – Daniel Bryan
Chris Cash is really high on Daniel Bryan’s recent work…I’m not exactly sold on it. He’s got the data to back it up: several wins on both Raw and Smackdown as well as a successful title defense inside the Elimination Chamber were more than enough to firmly plant him in the #3 spot. But are wins and loses enough to merit you such high praise? Here’s Chris Cash to prove why, as per usual, it doesn’t matter what I think…
“D. Bryan has been on fire lately. His heel transformation is complete and he’s elevated his game tenfold since becoming World Heavyweight Champion. The WrestleMania match between Bryan and Sheamus is going to be interesting. The two of them were in the dark match in Atlanta last year and now they will be co-main eventing in Miami. Much deserved for both men. Daniel Bryan has certainly made a believer out of me.”
NUMBER 2:
TNA World Heavyweight Champion – Bobby Roode
He’s the “leader of the selfish generation”. He’s the Impact Player of TNA Wrestling. He is the World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Roode! The numbers don’t lie (I spent a lot of time making sure of it!), and neither does retaining the World title by any means necessary. At first I was just annoyed with the amount of cheap PPV endings we’ve been “treated” to by TNA because of Roode’s championship reign. And then it hit me that I don’t generally pay for their PPV’s and I started to be a lot more intrigued with how they’d have him cheat in each match. He narrowly avoided AJ Styles in the Ironman match, forced a DQ against Jeff Hardy, and most recently the World champ baited Sting into helping him retain the title. It’s been entertaining to watch, and the tension between Sting and Roode is palpable at this point. I can’t wait to see the pay-off at Victory Road, and you just know the feud with James Storm going into Lockdown will be excellent!
Chris Cash hosts the Voice of Wrestling radio show and writes for Wrestlezone.com. He can be followed on Twitter @RealityofChris.
Chris Cash: “By the numbers, Roode has had a great month. It still feels like something’s missing, however. The program between him and James Storm should be special, but I’m afraid TNA might already be looking past that and on to Sting/Roode. That’s good, in theory, for Roode, but I’ve been anticipating the Storm feud for a while now. In either case, it seems like TNA management has finally committed to the world champ and Bobby Roode just might be on top there for quite some time to come.”
