by Alex Archer
TNA has been scrambling to take steps towards improving their product since announcing Hulk Hogan as their storyline GM. They've introduced Gut Check, implemented Open Fight Night, and they've also just announced that Impact Wrestling will be going live throughout the summer. While the effects that these new measures will have on the product and the ratings are yet to be seen, the re-signing of X Division Champion, Austin Aries, is very clearly a huge step in the right direction.
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| Austin Aries : Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly |
Aries is no stranger to the company, making his debut on August 14, 2005, facing off against Christopher Daniels. He later signed his first contract with TNA on September 22 of that year. Prior to this initial run with TNA, Aries was wrestling for Ring of Honor. If you haven't seen his match with Samoa Joe from Final Battle 2004 for the ROH World Championship, go find it. It is worth your while.
His first stint with TNA ended with some dramatics that saw Aries suspended twice, putting him on the shelf for a total of 5 months over the span of a year and a half. During his second suspension, Aries asked for his release, and TNA obliged in May of 2007.
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| Ring of Honor World Champion |
Aries then returned to Ring of Honor, where he would spend much of the 2007 and 2008 feuding with Jimmy Jacobs and his group, Age of the Fall. After his feud with Jacobs had come to a close, Aries transformed himself into the Austin Aries you see these days on Impact Wrestling. He cut his hair, started wearing flashy ring gear, and started referring to himself as both "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" and "A-Double".
After being released from ROH in October of 2010, Aries wrestled for Dragon Gate USA / Evolve for the next year or so. He would eventually leave the company in June of 2011, and make his TNA re-debut that same month.
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| The Future of TNA? |
Since his return to Impact Wrestling, Aries has been a show-stealer every time they put him on the air. He's elevated the X Division title in ways that his predecessors have not been able to do, and he's become the longest reigning X Division Champion in the history of the company in the process. His feud with Bully Ray that culminated in a great match at Sacrifice was very well done with Aries getting the win via Last Chancery submission. It not only gave Aries the credibility he needed to be seen as a main event talent, but it also gave all of the smaller X Division guys a rub in the process by showing that a guy doesn't need to be 6'0 and 250 lbs. to draw.
Austin Aries has future TNA Champion written all over him. If the TNA brass has any concept of what is good for business, we'll see a lot more of Aries (and wrestlers like him) in the near
and distant future.
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@TheAlexArcher |
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