THE Brian Kendrick's Biceps
Guest
Backstory
In March of 2001, the World saw the buyout of WCW by the WWF, who at that time, became the only dominant wrestling company. A few companies were launched, but never succeeded, such as the UWF. Companies tried to follow in the footsteps of ECW, which had also shut its doors down in early 2001. Companies like XPW tried to emulate not only the success of ECW, but also the cult-like feeling. They were also destined to fail, just as UWF had. It was not looking good for anyone in wrestling beside the McMahon’s, who had the wrestling business effectively under their control. There was no way that any competition was going to suddenly challenge Vince and the WWF.
The beginning of a promotion called NEW took place in November of 2001. At the time, there were quite a lot of free agents who the WWF had not decided to keep to their WCW contracts. Others were just fired. NEW hired a few of these men, such as AJ Styles and Buff Bagwell, but they could not hire many, due to them being a company that was seemingly on a tight budget. NEW was just a small independent company trying to make a profit, and put on a decent show, with whatever talent they could seemingly scrape together, with the General Manager; James Patterson seemingly always on the hunt for new talent. The owner of the company however had never been seen, or even mentioned.
In early 2002, NEW decided to make the decision to cut Buff Bagwell, as he was doing nothing for the company. AJ Styles then left to pursue his career more heavily in NWA Wildside, and two relatively new companies by the name of Ring Of Honour and NWA Total NonStop Action Wrestling, which was run by the Jarrett’s. NEW had lost their two main draws, and were back to just being a regular independent company. Things continued in the same way for NEW throughout the rest of 2002, and then also throughout 2003. Meanwhile. The World Wrestling Federation had been forced to change to the World Wrestling Entertainment, due to the World Wildlife Fund owning the right to the initials WWF.
2004 was an uneventful year for NEW. It continued to exist, and was using talent such as Austin Aries until he became the ROH Champion and decided to move on. Meanwhile, TNA had secured themselves a monthly Pay Per View deal, and had one hour weekly shows on TV. TNA looked to be the next challengers to WWE. It was just a matter of when TNA would be able to make the move against WWE.
As 2005 rolled around, TNA were continuing their Pay Per View’s to a degree of success, while WWE were still the number one wrestling promotion in the World. TNA worked hard, and finally found themselves a good TV deal. They had signed with Spike TV for a one hour Impact! Spike was of course the channel that used to have Monday Night Raw, so this brought some hope to the Jarrett’s and other TNA officials. ROH meanwhile looked like a distant third, and didn’t look like a challenger at all to WWE. WWE were still sitting on top in wrestling, despite the unfortunate passing of Eddie Guerrero, as well as the departure of Chris Jericho from the WWE, so that he could pursue a career in music and acting.
In 2006, TNA continued to gain momentum, however they were only taking small steps at a time. They had signed Sting at the start of the year, hoping he would do wonders for the show, which unfortunately for TNA, he couldn’t. In September, TNA made an even bigger signing when they signed Kurt Angle to a contract, after he was released from WWE a few months earlier. TNA ratings were looking up, but they were still nowhere near the standard of WWE’s ratings. Meanwhile, down in third spot, ROH were still not looking like doing much. NEW had moved up to forth spot, after some former WWE guys signed with them, and they had started to post a weekly one hour show called Revenge on their website.
2007 was a big year for two companies, who both gained a Pay Per View deal. Both ROH and NEW had gained Pay Per View contracts, and were looking on the up. NEW also began to run all of their weekly shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom. TNA was not going anywhere at the time, as they had nothing changing for the better and everything seemingly the same. Meanwhile WWE’s ratings had dropped, because of the double murder suicide of Chris Benoit, where he killed both his wife Nancy, and his son Daniel. WWE was still well on top, but their ratings had taken a hit after the shock developments. Rob Van Dam was the only other major name to leave the company, but WWE had covered his loss with the return of Chris Jericho.
As 2008 rolled around, nothing big seemed likely to change. No one was really expecting anything. Then suddenly in late February, NEW made two huge signings that no one would have ever suspected in Rob Van Dam and Brock Lesnar. NEW seemingly had found some money, as they also signed some wrestlers away from TNA in early April. Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin both joined NEW, and in another shock to the industry, AJ Styles came back to NEW, a place he had started at seven years ago. In July, three more wrestlers joined NEW from TNA. Robert Roode, Rhino and James Storm had all jumped across to NEW, who had supposedly somehow made them better offers. Suddenly, it seemed like the owner of the company had money. It was still a mystery as to who this person was though.
At the beginning of June, many WWE wrestlers were coming out of contract. No one thought they would go anywhere, but once again, they were wrong. People like Shelton Benjamin, DH Smith, John Morrison, MVP, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton and even John Cena all signed with NEW. Suddenly, there was a new challenger to WWE. NEW had made the move, and stepped up above both ROH and TNA. Fresh off of their Pay Per View; Starrcade, the time for the rise of NEW was now, with the debut of their first ever two hour televised Revenge on this coming week.
Roster
AJ Styles
Alex Shelley
Andy Douglas
Billy Kidman
Brian Kendrick
Brock Lesnar
Charlie Haas
Chase Stevens
Chris Harris
Chris Jericho
Chris Sabin
CM Punk
Colt Cabana
Harry Smith
James Storm
Jimmy Rave
John Cena
John Morrison
Lance Cade
Low Ki
Matt Bentley
MVP
Paul London
Randy Orton
Ricky Banderas
Rob Van Dam
Ron Killings
Sabu
Shelton Benjamin
Tomko
TJ Wilson
Tag Teams
America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm)
Canadian Bulldogs (Harry Smith and TJ Wilson)
Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin)
Paul London and Brian Kendrick
The Naturals (Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens)
The World’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin)
Champions
World Heavyweight Champion: CM Punk
NEW Champion: Brock Lesnar
North American Champion: Rob Van Dam
NEW Tag Team Champions: The Naturals
Non Wrestling Talent
Owner: ???
General Manager: James Patterson
Commentators: Joey Styles and Jonathan Coachman
Ring Announcer: Torrie Wilson
Backstage Interviewers: Kristal Marshall and Joy Giovanni
Pay Per View Results
Starrcade
Last Team Standing
Motor City Machine Guns defeated America's Most Wanted
John Morrison defeated Colt Cabana
NEW Tag Team Championships
The Naturals (c) defeated Paul London and Brian Kendrick
Ricky Banderas defeated Sabu
MVP defeated Ron Killings
Randy Orton defeated AJ Styles
Rob Van Dam defeated Chris Jericho
NEW Championship
Brock Lesnar (c) defeated John Cena
Redemption
America's Most Wanted defeated Canadian Bulldogs
Hardcore Match
Ricky Banderas defeated Sabu
Colt Cabana defeated Robert Roode
NEW Tag Team Championships
The Naturals (c) defeated Motor City Machine Guns
John Morrison defeated Ron Killings
North American Championship
Ladder Match
Rob Van Dam defeated Chris Jericho
NEW Championship
Fatal Four Way
Brock Lesnar (c) defeated AJ Styles, John Cena and Randy Orton
