The World X Cup 2008
I've spent a lot of time talking about World Wrestling Entertainment lately, so I thought it was about time to look at one of the best things happening in wrestling these days, TNA's 2008 World X Cup Tournament. A bi-annual event, the World X Cup pits the stars of TNA's X Division against some of the top lightweights from around the world. In the past, the tournament has kick-started the careers of several wrestlers, including Team Canada (Petey Williams, Robert Roode, Johnny Devine and Eric Young), all of whom became full-time TNA wrestlers once the 2004 tournament ended.
Representing TNA this year are the Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin), Curry Man (Christopher Daniels) and team captain Kaz. It's a well put together team- the Guns are an incredible tag team, and the tournament puts a spotlight on them at a time when they're not involved in the TNA Tag Team Title picture. Daniels is both entertaining and technically impeccable, and the humor he uses in his Curry Man gimmick is a breath of fresh air. As for Kaz, he is in much the same position as Samoa Joe and AJ Styles were a few years ago, in that he's ready to step out of the X Division and into the main event, only there's no room for him at the moment. As captain and mouthpiece of Team TNA, Kaz is in a position to come out looking like a huge star. Hopefully, he'll be able to use this to springboard into the next stage of his career.
Facing off against the TNA regulars in this year's tournament are Team Mexico, Team Japan and Team International. The Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre provides the stars for the team hailing from south of the border, thus far consisting of the veteran tag team "Los Guerreros del Infierno" (Rey Bucanero and Ultimo Guerrero). Though the two officially split in 2004 and even feuded over the CMLL World Light Heavyweight title, they can easily be considered one of the most accomplished tag teams in CMLL history, and one of only two teams to ever hold the CMLL World Tag Team Championships on three separate occasions.
Team Japan is so far made up of Dragon's Gate's Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi, and journeyman wrestler Milano Collection A.T.. Unlike the members of Team Mexico, who have both been in the business for close to twenty years, all three members of Team Japan are hungry new stars. Yoshino and Doi have made names for themselves as the impressive tag team "Speed Muscle", capturing gold both in Dragon Gate and in Ring of Honor. Milano Collection is one of the most popular wrestlers in Japan today, and a former "Best of the Super Juniors" tournament winner.
Team International is bit of a hodge-podge of wrestlers with no real common ties to one another. Alex Koslov holds the interesting distinction of a former NWA British Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion, native to Russian, living in the United States and currently wrestling in Mexico. Englishman Doug Williams is one of the finest technical wrestlers on either side of the pond, who has put on show-stealing matches for Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling NOAH- think William Regal, but far more athletically gifted. Tyson Dux is a standout from the Ontario independent wrestling scene, and one hell of a dancer to boot. Team captain Daivari (an America of Iranian descent) is easily recognizable to WWE viewers as the loud-mouthed former manager of Muhammad Hassan, Mark Henry and the Great Khali.
The 2008 World X Cup teams first started showing up on Impact four weeks ago, initially competing in several "preview" matches, including an absolutely outstanding match between the Motor City Machine Guns and Speed Muscle. A week later tournament kicked into full force. In round one, Team TNA defeated Team International and Team Mexico beat Team Japan in a pair of two-on-two tag team matches. Round two began after that, with a series of singles matches. Rey Bucanero kicked things off with a victory over Koslov, thanks to a cringe-inducing Piledriver variant. In a battle of the crazy gimmicks, Milano Collection stole a win from Curry Man with a low blow and a beautiful corkscrew Lionsault. Last night's broadcast saw Williams pin Yoshino with his "Chaos Theory" rolling German Suplex after another excellent match. Finally, in a match between the American and Mexican team captains, Kaz polished off Ultimo Guerrero with the Wave of the Future, finishing round two on a strong note for Team TNA.
The World X Cup wraps up this Sunday, at TNA's Victory Road pay-per-view. Two matches are scheduled to take place: One member from each team with face off in a four-way Ultimate X Match, while the remaining twelve competitors will compete in some sort of elimination match. Exactly what type of match, I have no idea, since one week it was announced as a four-corners tag match, then a week later as a Battle Royale. I suppose we'll just have to tune in to find out.
True to typical TNA luck, the World X Cup Tournament hasn't been without its problems. Though Mike Tenay and Don West have gone on and on for weeks about some form of needless point-system by which the tournament is supposedly judged, they've both been rather vague on some of the finer points of the tournament, such as the details behind the elimination match. This is quite likely because the TNA writers aren't quite sure themselves what they're going to do. Problems also arose regarding the booking of international wrestlers. The tournament was originally scheduled to take place in the spring, but was pushed back until the second week of June in order to find talent and to sort out the legal details involved. As it is, half of Team Japan missed two week's worth of tapings due to trouble getting into the country. With two days left before the tournament finals, it's unclear if the announced fourth member of the team, Taichi Ishikara will even be able to compete. Team Mexico has had similar problems- a month into the tournament, only two members of the four-man team have appeared, or even been announced.
Ultimately though, none of that matters. For over a month, TNA has offered one solid match after another, all of them deigned to elevate new talent, and every single one ending cleanly- not a run-in or Russo Swerve to be seen. Because of this, the X-Division once again feels like a prestigious class of wrestlers, the true heart and soul of TNA. It may not last, but right now, for one brief shining instance, the hardest working wrestlers on national television are actually getting their due. As of right now, I have no idea how the winners of the World X Cup will be decided, or what the scoring system is good for. Frankly, I don't care. Win, lose or draw, both X Cup matches on Sunday are going to be great, and that's more than enough to make me tune in. Selling a pay-per-view based on having good matches instead of goofy storylines- who'd have thunk it?
