With Roode Gone, What's Next for James Storm?

[It's Damn Real!]

He came back to TNA and signed a guaranteed deal. He cut a promo talking about how he needed to have fun again. Now he's losing his long-time partner.

Clearly, without posting spoilers, Beer Money will drop their titles in some fashion. Either by turning them in or in a match. Quick sidebar — this isn't an invitation to post the results here. Spoiler rules still apply. I'm just being pragmatic about this discussion.

So once that happens, in whatever method TNA chooses, it's going to leave Storm without a partner and without a team. It's also going to leave TNA less another tag team in a division with so, so few of them. In fact, if you count EY/Bram as one of them, they're also going to split in some fashion (see spoiler warning above), so they're actually down two.

Does he step back into a single's role amidst a very crowded upper-mid card and title scene? Because there's a lot of bodies to climb over there. EC3, Bennett, Spud (to some degree), Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Bobby Lashley, Tyrus, and others are all jockeying for position.

Or does he find a new partner and form a new team? Beer Money, if you remember, was a throw-together unit that created their own success. They both had little going on and decided that they were going to make their tag team work. And they did. Marvelously. TNA may have lost a lot of names in the last two years but there is still a pool of partners he could work with on the current roster, assuming someone isn't brought in as a free agent, which is a whole other can of worms. Also, on this note, if I hear the name "Chris Harris" uttered, I swear, I might lose it.

He's got all the talent to make any venture of his a rousing success, but it'll be interesting to see which he (or, well, TNA's creative) takes.

What do you think he should do in the wake of this?

 

[Rayne]

Remember the "with Kurt Angle gone, who replaces?" thread? My answer just changed.

Biggest on this list; he's the only guy in the post-Hogan recovery era to voluntarily give up on the WWE to come back to TNA- not TNA "we're going to be the biggest thing on Monday nights" TNA, but today's TNA. That speaks volumes as to the kind of loyalty we're talking about here. He's one of the few remaining links to TNA's halcyon days- a bridge from old to new, as it were. He's firmly established in TNA's histories as a former world champion no one disputes (there are real world champions and 'world champions', like The Miz), as well as his work with AMW and Beer Money. He's a 'homegrown' TNA star, which is completely meaningless but seems to matter for some people.

TNA won't build their company around one guy ala John Cena, but they will build their company around a firm, solid top 3-4 guys. James Storm is the piece of the puzzle that joins 'new TNA' stars like EC3 and Mike Bennett, with the TNA of yesteryear that's so fondly remembered by people. (Whichever year you thought TNA was best, James Storm was there.)

So long as he doesn't get stuck leading some cult or something ridiculous like that, the future's very bright for James Storm.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

That's actually a great point. Especially when you look at the current "title scene" and realize that most of the men involved (Eric Young notwithstanding for the next few weeks), are all part of that new group. Galloway, Bennett, EC3, Matt Hardy, Tyrus, Spud... all part of that new era of talent that came in after Hogan (or in Hardy's case, during, but then he got fired and came back).

Makes sense. Frankly, he's probably above the tag division at this point anyway. Reforming Beer Money was great and all, but with it dead and buried now for the forseeable future, I'd rather see Storm at the top of the singles card than tasked with helping to get one of the lower-end scrubs circling the drain at the moment over (here's lookin' at you, Melendez).

 

[Alex]

You saw Chris Harris last time he was in TNA right

Spoiler

Don't see that happening.

As to what Storm does. I see him being a main stay in the upper midcard/main event scene (I'd like hope so at least) Maybe TNA could give him a world title run that lasts longer than a week.

Storm's versatile so he'll be able to work with whatever is given to him (here's hoping it's not complete dross)

 

[Harthan]

Your point about finding another tag team partner is what speaks loudest to me, personally. I've gotten back into TNA with their revival on POP and the biggest thing I've observed is a lack of star power that isn't guys who've been around forever. Storm, at 38, while still a very good wrestler, is in some sense the problem with TNA - much of its its star power is collected in guys whose futures are limited in terms of time. I think they've done a good job of creating a nucleus of young-ish stars as well (EC3, Galloway, the Wolves come to mind) but you can also look up on down the TNA roster to find young(ish) singles guy who just don't have much going for them in terms of personality or history, and these are the guys TNA should be working with to bring together a new generation of stars.

In theory, then, the two best ways to use Storm would be a big feud with one of those guys, or to team with one (or several, but that didn't work out super well last time, so I'd prefer one). I think the gap is large enough at this point in time that a one on one feud with someone of that nature would just look lopsided (I'm thinking of Aiden O'Shea standing next to Storm, or something) and so I think James Storm, who's become a true tag team specialist, should be paired up with a young gun to try to create TNA's next star.

Who's the lucky guy? TNA's best two prospects right now are Mike Bennett and Trevor Lee, in my opinion. I don't think Bennett would benefit from another strong personality next to him in Storm - Maria already threatens to overshadow him sometimes, and it's a real balancing act to keep them even. Trevor Lee, meanwhile, I don't see as a guy who has to be chained to the Shane Helms thing. I think it would help elevate him, but I bet a team with Storm would do more. There's a lot of natural overlap - TNA loves reminding us that James Storm has a beard, and Trevor Lee also has a beard - I mean, let's face it, tag teams have been built on more tenuous connections before. It interferes with their clear plans to make Lee an X-Division star a little, to be fair, but TNA would do better at this point to create a guy who's seen as a legitimate star in any division.

 

[ECPirate37]

This may be too far fetched, but since Storm obviously showed his loyalty to TNA by deciding against signing with NXT to return, why not have him break Roode's record for longest Title Reign?

I was disappointed that James never got a chance to cleanly win over Roode a few times in a row to end their feud after Roode screwed him. That was a missed opportunity by TNA.

What better time to make it up to him than now? As someone said, James is 38, so although he should still have a few good years left in him, he is not getting any younger. He's awesome as a face, or a heel. Over the course of a year, real stories could get built up. Have him win soon as a face. Somewhere along the line he will turn heel, and then lose it at Bound for Glory 2017 to a face. Whomever takes it from him, will be legitimized.

I'm a huge James Storm fan, so I may be biased here, but I think having him as the champ is a good thing. He could definitely do well at cross promotion on the country channels and do some NASCAR tie-ins. He's the perfect champ for the NASCAR crowd, and a lot of NASCAR fans are pro wrestling fans, so it just works.

 

[dsotm5150]

James Storm probably has the most potential out of anybody left on the roster,he should have been a huge break out singles star years ago.

 

[New Hot Fed]

Talking about Harris, Storm looks more and more fat nowadays. I was just watching the tape of him in 2014 when he was teaming with Gunner and he looked much better back then.

Only thing I could see from him is cut his hair a bit, lose the beard, the cowboy is gone and Storm become a sort of commish on the show. One that can act as heel or face when he feels like it. A commish-wrestler that can work in the ring from time to time. A la Ernest Miller in the WCW days.

 

[TDFG]

James Storm deserves to be in the upper-card, he's had more than enough success in the tag-division.

There is plenty of talent for him to work with that he either hasn't worked feuds with or talent he hasn't worked with in a while.

James Storm deserves some single gold.