Alex Shelley: It's About Friggin' Time

[Jack-Hammer]

Tonight on IW, Austin Aries & Alex Shelley had a very good promo segment in which Shelley made his first tv appearance in months. Shelley, in no uncertain terms, declared his intentions by challenging Aries for the X Division Championship. All I can say is...well see the title of the thread.

Shelley is a fine X Division talent that's been primarily sitting on the sidelines for many a month when the X Division has been desperately in need of some fresh meat. Even though Shelley is an X Division veteran technically, Shelley brings a combination of personality and skill to the X Division that Aries has, for all intents & purposes, been carrying for months. Aries has beaten the other wrestlers in which the X Division consists of, none of whom have really been in his league from an overall perspective, and it's gotten old watching him constantly beat the same handful of guys in various combinations of matches.

Do you think Shelley will take the strap or will he be another stepping stone to Aries being the greatest X Division champ of modern times? Either way, it should be entertaining.

 

[SpecialFNK]

I think Shelley looks to be the best competition that Aries has feuded with since returning to TNA. I think it's good for the X Division to have Shelley back, but I don't think TNA can have Shelley beat Aries for the title. IMO that would hurt Aries. no disrespect to the others in the X division like Kash/Sorenson/Ion/Kendrick/ect, but they are all little little fish. not many TNA general viewers know or even care who they are. if Shelley was to beat Aries it would just make Aries look bad because he hadn't been able to defeat any real competition, regardless of how long he has had the title.
it would be nice for Aries to have multiple matches with Shelley, (also mixing in some of those other little fish) and for Aries to win. then it would be nice for Aries to also feud in with some more known names that people would recognize.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Easily the biggest mark out moment of the night for me personally. As a huge Shelley and Aries mark, this is a dream match-up that ROH fans were privileged to watch much earlier in the careers of these men during the Generation Next era, but for those who didn't or are just looking forward to Part II, this should be an epic journey filled with a series of incredibly innovative and exciting matches.

Ultimate payoff? Yeah, I think Shelley is the man to [finally] take the title off Aries, at least in the interim. Aries is going to be a bit of a staple in the XD a while longer, I'd imagine, until they can truly develop the necessary depth to afford to move him out, so what I'm really hoping for (with Sabin still on the shelf, despite being expected back in January of 2012) is a nice long back-and-forth feud here to help really elevate the division again.

 

[Justmatt972]

i just think Alex Shelley is going to get some spotlight to get him fresh in our minds again so they can bring Sabin in and reunite the MCMG.

I can see Shelley losing at the PPV to Aries and Sabin returns a week or so later. Aries is setting up for what appears to be a story that TNA has to bring in talent to fight him i.e. Morrison or something like that.

Aries is going to have that belt for a while I think

 

[mightbefun]

I haven't watched TNA in over a year, but I was aware that Sabin was injured and Shelley was waiting for him to heal. As soon as Aries said he had no competition, I immediately thought of Shelley. Even though I love Shelley the Wrestler, he crossed my mind more because of Shelley the Smack Talker. I just thought to myself, "Wouldn't that be great?" That guy has some mic skills. I marked out, too, when I heard those machine guns shoot off.

I think Shelley will be another stepping stone for Aries, but that's okay. He was already X Division champ, and his credibility as a champion is solidified with that title reign, as well as being a tag champ with MCMG. I never saw his matches with Aries in ROH, but I don't need to. This feud will provide some glorious matches, I can feel it. I know both of their abilities as wrestlers, and that's good enough for me. This will add credibility to Aries' title reign and back up all the smack talking he did tonight. I don't think a loss here for Shelley will hurt him at all. His official role in TNA right now is part of a tag team. Not only will Aries' rep benefit with this feud, but us the fans will benefit as far as X Division actions goes.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

i just think Alex Shelley is going to get some spotlight to get him fresh in our minds again so they can bring Sabin in and reunite the MCMG.

I can see Shelley losing at the PPV to Aries and Sabin returns a week or so later. Aries is setting up for what appears to be a story that TNA has to bring in talent to fight him i.e. Morrison or something like that.

Aries is going to have that belt for a while I think

I sure hope not. They could have brought back older X Division stars with shorter-term futures in the company if they wanted to run that angle — likely having him smash up Petey Williams, Amazing Red, etc. leading up to the debut of Morrison.

Feeding Shelley to Aries would be monumentally stupid. It kills his return, despite the fact he'd likely return to Sabin once he was healthy enough to help boost the tag division.

 

[HBsam31]

I think what would be cool to see here is maybe they exchange the title and finish off the feud with a best of five or a best of seven series. Clearly these are two of the best x division stars that tna has, and I think they should capitalize on that fact to rejuvenate the x division. To answer the question though i just don't see shelly winning the title at this point. Aries is hot and is not losing the belt anytime soon.

 

[MB1025]

I think Aries pulls a fasy one and gets the win at Against All Odds. Then they have the rematch at Lockdown and Shelley wins. However I wouldn't be surprised if Aries just keeps winning.

I kind of like how they are unintentionally making Aries a special attraction. He barely wrestles on Impact and he only shows up at most twice a month before his PPV match. They make you want to stream/order the PPV to see this man on your TV screen.

 

[Y2JBL]

Their stand off in the ring tonight was great. Both of them are really good on the mic and I had no idea as I'm not too familiar with them. I really enjoyed that segment.

Just based on what I saw last night since I haven't seen too much of either of them when I've bothered to watch Impact, I think Aries makes for an awesome champion and I don't think Shelley should beat him right now.

 

[Shakin' Abe]

It's hard for me to take this division too seriously the way TNA uses it. If they had more time, I might care. They traded barbs like school boys on Impact. There doesn't seem to be any real reason to care about any of this division right now.

 

[three count bout]

It's hard for me to take this division too seriously the way TNA uses it. If they had more time, I might care. They traded barbs like school boys on Impact. There doesn't seem to be any real reason to care about any of this division right now.

Last night WAS the reason to care about the division. Austin Aries has made the division fun, yet he has had no other standout challengers to face. With Alex Shelley we will get amazing, innovative, fast paced matches with a veteran X Division star. The story is set as Shelley noted last night that Aries had to cheat to retain his title. I would imagine Aries will fight Shelley multiple times, cheating and screwing shelley over which will protect both guys. Shelley will look strong until the Gunz reform, and AA will retain his title.

I liked the suggestion earlier, that AA should fight more of the X Divisions past stars. It would be similar to when Madison Rayne ran through the Knockouts past and present. When Aries finally drops the strap it will mean much more, and should give Impact enough time to establish the young guys, and hopefully sign a few established indy guys who fit the X Div.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

That was an awesome promo between the two for sure. I'll admit, I wasn't a huge fan of AA before last night, but I'm on board. I will swallow my own words and admit that I was wrong about him. He's got the mic skills, his charisma is both clever and funny at the same time, and he's an excellent in-ring competitor. I still don't think he's the greatest of all time or anything, but I'm sorry I gave him such a hard time before. I missed most of his time in Ring of Honor, if that makes more sense.

Anyways, to the topic at hand. Shelly had a great return. The two of them seem to have excellent chemistry, and I can't wait for their inevitable PPV match. I'm predicting that AA retains the belt at Against All Odds in some screw-job type of finish. Whether he grabs the tights, gets himself DQ'd, or counted out, it doesn't really matter. The only reason I say this is because TNA clearly has faith in Aires as the champion. I don't think Shelly takes the belt off him at all, but I think they will build towards it and tease it, going into Victory Road which is a bit larger PPV for TNA usually. I don't know that Morrison will ever go to TNA, but if he does they should keep the belt on AA to feud with him. You know...unless they use Morrison in the main event (bad idea if you ask me).

 

[willross]

Being a part of the business at the independent level I will say this:

When doing alot of unnecessary turns, flips, and holds....its called "Doing an Alex Shelley".

So in other words, lets see if Austin Aries can keep the guy under control so the realism can stay as much as it can during an X-Division style match (which is very minimum)

 

[andrewp488]

i think having shelley back is great as it will give him a good storyline with aries. granted he will no doubt join the tag team division eventually. ring time,storyline,match ups and mic skills he needs at the moment as he has been out for a while and when the mcmg come back they will no doubt stirr things up in the tag division. which IMO needs revamping as not really much good teams so in short i agree shelley coming back is really good.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Alex Shelley, when he has a microphone in his hands, reminds me of CM Punk. He's not quite on the same level as Punk - let's not be silly - but his mannerisms and the form of his promos strike a similar chord. They have the same self-assured swagger, and I'd imagine they both have a similar amount of people in the back of their respective companies that dislike them for it, rightly or wrongly. Speaking of his promo skills, Shelley and Aries had a really good verbal spar going there.

I've long been a fan of Shelley. In fact, dare I say it, I've been a fan of Shelley longer than I've been a fan of Punk. No, I'll not drop that comparison for a little while yet. Since even before he was a Machine Gun, I've rated him. I used to call him "the best wrestler in TNA that hasn't won a title belt." Catchy, huh? They should put that on a t-shirt. Always fun to watch, always fun to listen to. Remember Paparazzi Productions? As Colt Cabana put it, they weren't just good segments for wrestling, they were good segments for television.

Edit: Seriously.

[youtube]chb8DjmjnCY[/youtube]​

It's nice to see the man back - I'm glad that he's not just been left to sit on the shelf. Matt Morgan and Crimson are hardly my idea of tag team excellence, but I think both Shelley and Sabin would benefit from being - ahem - unleashed à la Beer Money. Shelley's first reign with the X Division title, the one which unfortunately cost him the title of "the best wrestler in TNA that hasn't won a title belt," was really a nothing reign. Not Shelley's fault; it just seemed, in that age old fashion, that they didn't have anything for him. Maybe they have something for him now.

If there's one thing I'm unsure of, it's that hair. It makes him look tough, I guess - you have to have balls of steel to walk round like that.

 

[scottyshowman82]

It was funny I PVR'd about 5 wrestling shows over the past week WWE and TNA. While I was watching the wrestling I was also making some CAWS in Fire Pro Wrestling and not too many things made me stop playing, watch the TV and see what was going on. That promo with Austin Aries and Alex Shelly made me stop and watch. Aries man, something special about that guy. Great promos and fantastic worker, you do want to see what he says when he's on the mike.

Loved when Alex Shelly said his life was WRESTLING WRESTLING WRESTLING Punk Music WRESTLING WRESTLING WRESTLING videogames and then WRESTLING WRESTLING WRESTLING WRESTLING.....WRESTLING.

Shelly reminds me a lot of Jericho, his promos are awesome too, I'm curious
how big of a star he could be if he had the WWE Machine backing him.
Great promo. They play off each other well and it would really nice to see that match.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

While I really enjoyed the segment and I'm even more stoked about a short series between Aries and Shelley, I can't help but feel that this is just another stepping stone for A Double until the inevitable feud occurs.

Credit to TNA for how it has handled the XDivision recently, would a series between Aries and Shelley have meant as much if it had come immediately after the three way storyline with Brian Kendrick? Doubtful. Instead, they reestablished a grizzled veteran in Kash and they have introduced new blood in the forms of Sorenson and Ion. I realize that many have stated issues with all three but, at the same time, Aries is still garnering much praise despite not being on TV every week and facing these 'weak' opponents, so how bad were they really then?

My prediction for Aries is that he will come out triumphant against Shelley, tease a face turn against Daniels and Kaz before revealing his true intention of establishing himself as the greatest XDivision champion against the guy synonymous with the division, in the event that embodies it at the event dedicated to it - AJ Styles in an Ultimate X match at Destination X (6 sided ring and all). That's a six month plot I'd enjoy watching anyway.