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#Post#: 33372--------------------------------------------------
Look At James storms Run In TNA & Joining NXT
By: tnafan Date: October 20, 2015, 3:42 pm
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Less than 24 hours after the stellar NXT special on the WWE
Network, it was revealed at the next set of tapings that former
TNA star, James Storm was signed to compete for the brand.
First, it should be mentioned that it’s great to see Storm land
a job in the WWE after an abrupt exit from TNA and the continued
uncertainty that surrounds the Nashville based promotion. Storm,
one of many that was completely underutilized in TNA, has the
talent to work on a main stage and it’s another solid veteran
signing for NXT.
A nearly two decade veteran of the business, James Storm
initially gained notoriety in the early days of TNA, where he
worked from the inaugural show until his departure this past
July. Originally, a member of America’s Most Wanted, Storm and
Chris Harris had a good run as one of the top tag teams, and had
memorable matches during the “Asylum era” of the company. In
2006, America’s Most Wanted concluded and it was generally
thought that Chris Harris would have the better run going
forward, but that wasn’t the case. Storm continued to evolve
into a well rounded performer, while Chis Harris had a cup of
coffee in the WWE as Braden Walker and faded into obscurity.
Despite a lack of any real direction booking wise, Storm had a
solid series of matches during the next few years and eventually
joined Bobby Roode to form Beer Money. During their time as a
team, Beer Money was the top team in the promotion and one of
the organization’s most entertaining acts.
In 2011, James Storm was introduced to the TNA World Heavyweight
title picture and ironically, it was the start of TNA
underutilizing him. Storm was becoming one of the promotion’s
top stars and his blue collar character was extremely over with
the audience. There were some similarities to Stone Cold Steve
Austin, who praised Storm’s work, but he did enough to make the
persona his own in TNA. After the Bound For Glory series, Storm
defeated Kurt Angle to win the title, but dropped the belt to
Bobby Roode a week later. Keep in mind, Roode won the Bound For
Glory series that year to get a title shot, but was defeated by
Angle. As I said at the time, if Roode was going to eventually
win the title anyway, why not book him to defeat Angle in the
finals? Wouldn’t it have made Roode look stronger if he won the
title in the finals? Instead, the booking made Storm look weak
because he only had the title for a short run and it made Roode
look secondary to a former WWE star when he didn’t defeat Angle
for the championship. Roode is a great talent and had a decent
run with the belt, but if TNA was going to book Storm as the
champion, they should have at least given him a decent run,
especially considering how over he was with the crowd.
From there, Storm eventually returned to the tag division and
while he had another run as a tag champion, it was more of a
throw together team with Gunner and not nearly as popular as his
previous tag team run. In 2014, Storm was booked in a cult
leader angle and despite random members being added, Storm made
it work with some great mic skills and even without too many
major angles to work, it provided some entertaining TV. As
mentioned, Storm left TNA in July after working for the company
during its entire existence and there was some speculation he
could sign to work for Global Force Wrestling.
Ultimately, Storm was underutilized in TNA and they missed the
boat on him, but that’s nothing new for the company. During his
initial push, Storm could have been used to help establish the
TNA brand as something other than WWE lite, but it was a missed
opportunity and again, that’s nothing new for TNA. Storm is a
solid in ring competitor and he did the best he could with
whatever he was booked to do in TNA, which is why Storm is a
great signing for NXT. He’s versatile enough to adapt to a new
system and it seems like he will do well in the NXT environment.
It’s a win-win situation because Storm gets a platform to apply
his trade and his veteran experience could help the younger
talent. It’s also great to see that he will retain his name and
character for NXT because sometimes a specific formula works for
a performer and it would be counter productive to spin it just
to be able to put the WWE stamp on it. Samoa Joe is another
example of this and he has done well so far in his NXT career.
Granted, Storm already has several years of network TV exposure
so some WWE fans will know who he is, but I think the reasoning
behind certain talent keeping the names they used prior to their
WWE career could be simpler. This is just a guess, but the WWE
is the top promotion in the United States and if a particular
talent would go elsewhere using the same name they used while
wrestling in NXT, would it really be any threat to WWE? The
point being, James Storm is a solid signing for the WWE and he
provides some substance to go along with the sizzle of the NXT
brand. The debut of Storm allows NXT to remain strong even if
certain competitors get transferred to the main roster and
assuming he has a decent contact, Storm could make a WWE career
out of his work at NXT, which would further establish it as
another WWE brand instead of just a developmental system. The
bottom line is, James Storm deserves the opportunity and he will
probably have a solid run in NXT.
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