Fantasy Friday - The Trials of Styles: Part 2

Welcome, welcome, welcome, to the finest thing to happen to Friday since Carl Winslow, Fantasy Friday! Now, for those of you who were naughty and didn't join us last week, this feature represents my occasional urge to rebook a famous storyline from history. Maybe I thought that The Rock and John Cena should have had a monster truck tug of war match, or maybe I thought that Hogan/Sting should have taken place in a ball pit surrounded by grizzly bears. Hell, occasionally the ideas will even make sense, which will probably come as a pretty major surprise to both of us.

Today we'll be entering part 2 of my booking plan for the current AJ Styles storyline in TNA. The goal is to put 6 months on the clock and compose a storyline so compelling that leads AJ to Bound For Glory, that people will actually be willing to turn on TNA's shows in order to watch it. It's among the more daunting tasks that I've ever taken on, but my middle name is Danger and my last name is Cansuckit. In the first installment, I already covered the initial build up, leading up to a match between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, and a title match between Bully Ray and Hulk Hogan that actual makes some semblance of sense. Where do things go from here? Only one way to find out.

Cewsh: Before we begin, let's review exactly what needs to be accomplished in the build to this match in order for it to be successful.

5 Key Goals

1. AJ Styles must be a credible threat to the Aces and Eights.

2. The Aces and Eights must be seen as a dominant force.

3. Bully Ray must be the focus of the heel heat on Aces and Eights.

4. The storyline must be paced so that Styles and Ray are kept apart until it is time for them to meet.

5. The fans must be given a reason to care about the outcome.

Now obviously, these things are easier said than done. And in attempt to make this as realistic as possible, I will not be involving anyone who doesn't currently work for TNA, and I will be dealing with the booking of people on the show besides the core two guys, in order to illustrate how the booking of one feud spiderwebs its way across the entire promotion. I may succeed in this and I may not. Only one way to find out.

The Story So Far...

The the months covered so far, Bully Ray and his Aces and Eights stable have had their attention squarely on Hulk Hogan and Sting, as the story built to a match between Ray and Hogan for the title at Slammiversary. Meanwhile, AJ Styles has been on an undefeated streak, and has been showing a darker, more aggressive side of himself and refusing all interviews. This has led to a match with his former rival Samoa Joe at Slammiversary. In the background, Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian have been trying to talk people in reforming the Fortune stable in order to fight Aces and Eights, but are being dismissed by everyone for being untrustworthy douchebags. And now let's check out the fallout from Slammiversary.

TNA Slammiversary 2013

At the Slammiversary pay per view, we need to start moving guys into position for the Bound For Glory Series. We need 12 guys for the tournament, and we need them all to be significant contenders, while still trying not to castrate the rest of the show by having EVERYONE of worth competing in this, as this is all those guys will focus on from the start of the Series until Bound For Glory. One of the slots will already be filled by the winner of the Gutcheck tournament, and I have no idea who that will be. So let's just call that guy Gut Check. As you can probably tell, he won't be winning, but I'll treat him like the winner of a rookie tournament regardless of who he is. So the 12 people I'll be using are:

AJ Styles

Gut Check

Bobby Roode

Austin Aries

Christopher Daniels

Frankie Kazarian

Kurt Angle

Samoa Joe

James Storm

Doc

Devon

Mr. Anderson

There we have 3 members of the Aces and Eights, (who want to win so that they can lay down for their leader and ruin Bound For Glory to spit in TNA's face,) 6 terrific wrestlers with a lot of history among them, the rookie and AJ. This gives the opportunity to have great matches on the rest of the show, helps us build stakes for AJ's eventual victory, and it entwines Daniels and Kazarian further into both the AJ and Aces storylines.

So the card for Slammiversary looks like this:

(Red Font For winners)

TNA World Heavyweight Championship

No Disqualification Match

Bully Ray (c) vs. Hulk Hogan

AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe

Bad Influence vs. Austin Aries and Bobby Roode vs. James Storm and Kurt Angle

TNA X Division Championship

Kenny King (c) vs. Chris Sabin vs. Petey Williams

TNA Tag Team Championships

Chavo Guerrero and Hernandez (c) vs. Doc and Knux

TNA Knockouts Championship

Mickie James (c) vs. Velvet Sky

Jeff Hardy and Abyss vs. Devon and Mr. Anderson

Gut Check Tournament Finals

This isn't the fanciest card in the world, but right now we're undoing damage and putting ourselves in a position to succeed at Bound For Glory, which is the only show that matters.

As for the pay per view itself, we'll have Roode and Aries lose a 3 way tag match to James Storm and Kurt Angle. Daniels and Kazarian will also be in that match, but they'll bail before the end of the match. (It's okay for Roode and Aries to take a loss when I'm building them up, as they're both quite over and recent World Champions. They can get their heat back, and Angle and Storm need wins.) Later in the show, Daniels and Kazarian will congratulate Storm on the victory and invite him back into Fortune, only to have him tell them off for being untrustworthy cowards who aren't in it for anyone but themselves. Significantly, this will seem to bother Kazarian, while Daniels will be his vivaciously heel self.

In the Styles/Joe match, Styles will win clean with his submission in a solid 12 minutes. We're looking for a great match here, both to reestablish that this is a company where nice things happen, and to give AJ time to get over his new, aggressive style. A shot of Joe looking incredulous at how much harder AJ is to beat now is vital to this, and Joe does wide eyed shock/anger effectively.

Then, in the main event, Bully Ray will beat Hulk Hogan in a match that is sports entertainment from start to finish. There's no actual way for Hogan to work a real match, so we're not even going to try to go that route. This is a No Disqualification Match, so they'll take it backstage and do all kinds of interesting spots and all, before coming back to the ring. Inevitably, Aces and Eights will pour out of the locker room when Bully looks like he's in trouble, and they'll beat Hogan down. Then Sting will run down, and they'll beat him down too. And then they'll pile Sting and top of Hogan and Bully will go to pin them both with one foot, when suddenly...

Down comes Jeff Jarrett, along with Matt Morgan, Abyss, and Jeff Hardy, all carrying guitars, and run down to the ring and start brawling with Aces and Eights. Jarrett will manage to bust a chair over Bully Ray's head, evening the odds for Hogan, but in the end, Devon will sneak back in and he and Bully will 3-D Hogan through a table to end it, while the rest of the group is brawling. The show ends with Jeff Jarrett pointing a guitar at Bully, who is bloody and alone in the ring, but still holding the title.

Doing this booking exercise is interesting, because while I would never in a million years ask for Jeff Jarrett to form a stable with my 3 least favorite TNA roster members, from a booking perspective, this makes the most sense. Jeff Jarrett is a guy that the fans will immediately identify as someone who would have a problem with what Aces and Eights has been doing to TNA, and the other 3 are established as anti-Aces, (we're just going this way with Morgan, because he doesn't have the talent to carry a program by himself.) Aces looks strong by destroying Sting and Hogan, the new group looks strong by running off a larger stable, Jarrett looks strong by walloping Bully Ray, but Ray is protected, because him with the title is the last thing we see. The maximum gain with the minimum loss. That's what TNA needs to be concerned about at this point, and this is the best case scenario for this situation.

Now, with Jarrett, I have someone to occupy Bully with through the BFG Series, and it's a built in storyline, which means less work for me. And I think it will surprise people exactly how good Jarrett can be at playing a classic Memphis babyface, which is exactly what is called for at this point. If you're wondering why I didn't use the fact that this is fantasy booking to bring in someone completely different like BATISTA or OPTIMUS PRIME, the reason is pretty simple.

Optimus Is A Huge Diva Backstage.

I'm only operating with the resources that TNA has at it's disposal, and I'm building off of the storylines that TNA had running when I took over, because basing this in reality is the only effective way to do it. I would love to have Bobby Lashley and Chris Masters come in and win all of the titles and then just dance around for two hours, but go dammit I'm trying to be a professional here.

But Seriously You Guys, I Would Die If That Ever Actually Happened.

So now we have the title storyline that will carry us through the next few months, and everyone we want to be looking good is looking good. We're not focusing on a lot of the undercard storylines right now because a) the X Division isn't in a position to succeed with them, and b) the Knockouts need even more work than the X Division and c) we don't need these posts to be 8,000,000 words long. But now, all the key players are in place, and there are no more pay per views between here and Bound For Glory. It's going to take some artful construction to craft 4 months of television that rises and falls and then builds to a climax. Unfortunately you have me doing it. But what the hell, somebody's got to.




And that's where I'll leave off for this week. I hope you enjoyed another peak into my grandiose plans for TNA. The march from where they are now to where they need to be is a long one, and it involves an almost total rethinking of where and how all of the talent in TNA is pushed, but at the end of it all, god dammit, AJ Styles will be standing on top of a promotion worthy of him. So tune in next time to find out how I'll manage the impossible act of making Jeff Jarrett likable, Aces and Eights dangerous and AJ Styles mysterious. And who knows. We may even meet another old friend. But until then, keep reading, and be good to one another.