Austin Aries: The Early Years

                Charisma. Explosiveness. It’s all words that can be perfectly associated with one man. One man whom many may call “The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived”. I’m speaking of course, about the one, the only, Austin Aries.

*Yep. That Just Happened*

                Austin Aries, real name Daniel Solwood Jr., began his pro wrestling career in early 2000 when he started training under Eddie Sharkey and Terry Fox. His debut came mere months later when he faced “Sherriff” Johnny Emrald. Aries would then travel the Midwest, wrestling for small companies for the next 4 years, until Ring of Honor took notice and quickly signed Austin to a talent contract. Aries would make his debut for Ring of Honor on April 24^th, 2004 in a 4 Corner Survival Match, which pitted Aries against Rocky Romero, Jimmy Rave, and the winner of that match, Nigel McGuiness. Aries was scheduled to return to ROH for another show on May 22^nd that featured a one night only tournament that would feature young, up and coming talent in ROH. Plans would change however, as Aries was drafted to a stable that saw Aries align himself with Alex Shelly, Roderick Strong and Jack Evans, forming the stable known as Generation Next. Generation Next would take all of those spots in the tournament and even took their stable name from the name of ROH’s event that evening.

                Generation Next would continue to team together and gain one huge addition to their family when, on December 26^th, 2004, Aries was the first man to beat the then longest reigning ROH World Champion in history, Samoa Joe. Aries’ title success also granted him the spot as head trainer at the Ring of Honor Wrestling School, replacing CM Punk when Punk agreed to sign a contract with the WWE. Aries would then carry the ROH World Championship for six months, making non-stop defenses that would also be international, until Austin lost the championship to CM Punk on June 18^th, 2005. But gold would not be lost from Aries’ waist for long, as he teamed up with Generation Next member Roderick Strong, and the two pursued the ROH Tag Team Championships. They were finally successful in obtaining the gold as they defeated Sal Rinauro and Tony Mamaluke for the Tag Team Championships.

*The Start Of Something Huge*

 Aries would then compete in a first time ever match that pitted Austin against Pro Wrestling Noah star and former GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion KENTA. The match was highly successful but Aries suffered defeat at the hands of KENTA’s vicious finishing move, the Go 2 Sleep.

                Aries and Strong finally lost their Tag Team Titles to The Kings of Wrestling, Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli, on September 16^th, but continued to team together for the rest of the year. The team would fall apart on February 16^th as Roderick attacked Austin after their tag team title match against Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal (aka WWE Star Evan Bourne). Strong would go on to form a new stable, The No Remorse Corp., with Davey Richards, and feud with Aries’ new stable, The Resilience, comprised of himself, Matt Cross and Eric Stevens. The stables would feud for months, until Aries earned another shot at the ROH World Title against the monstrous Japanese ROH Champion, Takeshi Morishima, and was unsuccessful. But on May 4^th, 2007, Aries was pulled from all future ROH shows as he was under contract with Total Nonstop Action wrestling.

                Aries caught the eye of many people in TNA very quickly and was signed to them by 2005. Shortly after Aries signed, he formed a stable with former Generation Next members Alex Shelly and Roderick Strong. Strong and Aries however suffered suspensions from the company after deciding to stay in  Long Island for a Ring of Honor show, despite TNA’s last minute requests to travel to Florida due to the potential Snowstorm. Fast Forward to October 2006 and Aries would be re-packaged in TNA as a brand new wrestler under the name Austin Starr, who quickly became associated with Kevin Nash and his group Paparazzi Productions, after Paparazzi Productions lost Johnny Devine as a member. After the Paparazzi Invitational Tournament, Starr feuded with Senshi (aka Low-Ki) for months, until Aries suffered yet another suspension from TNA. During the suspension, Aries was granted his official release form the company, but it wouldn’t take long for Aries to bounce right back from his suspension…

Changes Are A'Comin....

Alright everyone.

This blog project has recently become rather hectic, and alot to keep up with. So i'm going to be making permanent changes to my blog in order to make things easier on me, and maybe even get a small staff involved with the project so my load is quite lightened.

The original format was a new character every week with so many entires on one guy. We're going to stretch those out now and cover one specific wrestler per month, but still follow a similar format to what we've already got set up. So it'll look a little like this:

Week 1: Tale of the Tape (now featuring movesets and quick snippets of in ring action)

Week 2: The Early Years

Week 3: The Main Event Status

Week 4: Top 5 Career Moments

This should lighten the workload considerably and make things alot less stressful for me, and whomever decides to hop in on the project.

Our wrestler of th emonth for this month will still be "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived" Austin Aries however, so stay tuned!!!

Austin Aries: The Tale of the Tape

NAME: Austin Aries

HEIGHT: 5'9

WEIGHT: 202 lbs

HOMETOWN: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

FINISHER(S):

450 Splash

Brainbuster

ENTRANCE THEME

A Special Look At Christopher Daniels

This week's blog post has taken a bit of a hit thanks to the online SOPA and PIPA protests, and from me being sick, so today, to jump back into things, I'm going to show you the style of wrestler that Christopher Daniels is, thanks in part to YouTube User TheSuicidalDragon

With a fierce style like this, Daniels has enjoyed success in every company he's been in, earning such accolades as being the first ever Ring of Honor Tag Team Champion.

Christopher Daniels: The Tale of the Tape

It's week 2!!!

Name: Christopher Daniels

From: The City Of Angels

Heightt: 6’0”

Weight: 224 lbs

Finishing Move(s): Angel's Wings, The Best Moonsault Ever

Top 5 Phenomenal Moments

All week, we've been highlighting the illustrius career of one of this century's greatest performers, but today, as they say, all good things must come to an end. Today we're going to go through a whole timeline of this young man's career and share 5 of his most stand out moments....

5) A.J. Styles Wrestles TNA's First Match Ever

4) A.J. Captures The TNA Tag Team Championships With Christopher Daniels from America's Most Wanted

3) A.J. Wrestles The First Match For TNA's X Division Championship Belt

2) A.J. Wrestles TNA's Greatest Triple Threat Match Ever

*So Great That It Needs 2 Videos*

*Part 2*

1) A.J. Captures His First TNA Heavyweight Championship

Now wasn't that simply Phenomneal?

One Moment Is All It Takes To Be "Phenomenal"

            Over the course of A.J. Styles' career, you've seen ups, downs, read about thrilling moments and about every foot step A.J. has taken in the world of professional wrestling. It's hard to really figure out one certain moment in A.J.'s career that truly defines him or makes people even talk about him at the water cooler the next day. So, we'll travel to a more recent moment in A.J.'s career that made people talk about him; the moment his stable, Fortune, became the good guys again.

        THE SETUP

                      2011 was a hectic year in TNA, but one they were hoping would be a huge one. Dixie Carter, one of the owners of the company, made a legendary deal in signing the legendary performer Hulk Hogan as her co-owner in TNA, hoping things would be different and change dramatically for TNA. Little did Dixie know, Hogan had other plans, as afew months later, Hogan took every ounce of the company from Carter and joined the heel stable Immortal. Immortal's ranks grew quickly, as the faction known as Fortune, led by legendary perfomer Ric Flair, would hop right on the bandwagon and become part of Immortal.

        

         For months, Immortal ran things in TNA. Everything that happened in the company happened at either the approval or dissapproval of Immortal. Hell, Immortal even gained the WWE fan favorite Jeff Hardy, as Jeff became the most important person in Immortal's ranks. But not everyone was persuaded to do things Immortal's way, as former WWE star Ken kennedy, perfomring in TNA under the name Mr. Anderson, would set his sights on Jeff Hardy, the then TNA Heavyweight Champion. Hardy and Kennedy had tons of grueling matches, back and forth and back forth went the tides but thanks to interfearance from Immortal, Hardy would constantly come out on top. That's when Immortal started getting a warning from Abyss that "They" were coming, and "They" would change things in TNA for good. Well, Jeff Hardy and the rest of Immortal would find out the hard way that "They" were right under their noses all along, and it would cost Immortal their alst chance at regaining the TNA Heavyweight Championship.....

A.J. Styles: The Household Name

                 From 2002 to 2004, Styles competed for the wildly popular organization ROH whilst still under contract with TNA. Style’s first notable run in the company came quickly, as within a year he found himself competing against Low-Ki  and Paul London, two main event status wrestlers for ROH, for number one contendership of the ROH Heavyweight Title. The match would later see Paul London and A.J. Styles form a Tag Team that vowed to capture the ROH tag Team Championship.  Styles however would run through a gauntlet of tag teams on his own, later choosing The Amazing Red as his tag team partner when Styles received his Tag Team title shot. The titles were won off of a tag team known as The Prophecy, but Paul London took issue with Styles and decided to challenge him to a match at the ROH Pay Per View, Night of Grudges. After all things were settled, Styles decided to eventually pursue the ROH Heavyweight Championship again, this time earning himself Number One Contendership status as he took the fight to then ROH Champion, Samoa Joe, but failed once again to capture the championship. But luck would soon be found as ROH developed the Pure Wrestling Championship, ROH’s 2^nd Championship, which Styles would eventually win from CM Punk in a hectic match that saw legendary performer Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat as the special referee. However this title win would mark Styles’ last title in ROH for a while, as TNA withdrew every contracted grappler from ROH in late 2004.

*A.J. versus CM Punk in ROH for the Number One Contender's Trophy*

                Styles would however be brought back for rare appearances and story line angles for ROH throughout the summer of 2005 and 2006. Styles wrestled his final match for ROH against long time rival Samoa Joe at the pay per view Time To Man Up in 2006, but has not returned to ROH since, for A.J. Styles, 2006 would be a year fans wouldn’t forget, as Styles teamed up with a wrestler many saw as his equal in TNA; “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels.

                During Style’s reign in TNA, he quickly rose to the top of the fan favorite list after shedding his heel character and disbandoning himself from Vince Russo’s Sports Entertainment Extreme stable. Through those years, Styles would set his sights on one of the more exciting championships in TNA: The X Division Title. Well into his many title reigns, A.J. had a phenomenal (Pun Intended) Iron Man Match against Christopher Daniels in which Style’s retained the X Division championship. After said match, Daniels was attacked from behind by Samoa Joe, who had put Daniels out on the injured list indefinitely at that point. Styles took issue and began feuding with Samoa Joe over the course of the next couple months, losing the title to Joe on December 11^th at TNA Turning Point. After the match, Joe would try to do to Styles what Joe did to Daniels, only to have his plans thwarted by a returning Daniels. Daniels and Styles would both get their chance at Joe’s X Division Title at Against All Odds. Joe went on to retain in that match too, only to lose his title to Daniels in another Triple Threat rematch against Styles and Daniels. Daniels would lose the belt to Joe again, only to have the opportunity of a lifetime rise.

*America's Most Wanted versus Christopher Daniels and A.J. Styles*

                Styles and Daniels decided it was time to put their unique skills to use and form one of the most talked about tag teams in TNA history, with a run from 2005 to 2006. They didn’t hesitate long, as they took the fight right to the then TNA Tag Team Champions, America’s Most Wanted. AWM would retain their titles against Daniels and Styles on two separate occasions, but at TNA Slammiversary, Styles and Daniels would finally add the TNA Tag Titles to their waists, giving Styles his 2^nd of 3 TNA Championships. Styles and Daniels went on to defend their titles against The Latin American Xchange, a tag team comprised of Homocide and Hernandez, on several occasions, only to lose the titles for good to LAX during Bound For Glory, with the coming months seeing A.J. turning heel once again.

                Fast forward to 2009 after years of high profile fueds, and A.J. has his sights set on the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. A.J. would win his first TNA Heavyweight Title in a Five Way Bout against Matt Morgan, Sting, Hernandez and the reigning champion at the time, former WWE Superstar Kurt Angle, becoming not only the TNA Heavyweight Champion, but TNA's first and only Grand Slam Champion; the only man to win all 3 major championship belts from the orginization. Styles would then see one of the longest TNA Heavyweight Title reigns in the company’s history, defending his title against tons of performers ranging from his former tag team partner Christopher Daniels to Samoa Joe to legendary performer Sting. Styles even surpassed the reign of Sting, who’s championship record lasted 189 days. Styles would eventually lose his title to Rob Van Dam the Impact after Lockdown, securing Styles’ place in history with a title reign that would last an astounding 211 days.

                It’s clear to see, after viewing the life and accomplishments of A.J. Styles, that no one else in this business truly deserves the moniker of Phenomenal more that A.J. Styles does.

A.J. Styles: The Early Years

                The words “Southern Gentleman” and “Professional Wrestler” aren’t often thought of in the same light. Professional Wrestlers are typically seen as jacked up beefcakes with Steroid issues, and Southern Gentlemen are….well…not professional wrestlers. But one man came along in 1999 and began changing the entire world’s perception of both words. That man was the wrestler who’d eventually become known as The Phenomenal One, A.J. Styles.

                A.J. Styles, better known to his friends as Allen Neal Jones, was born and raised with the good ol’ South in his blood. After making it through the hardships of poverty and fathers that abused alcohol and graduating from Johnson High in Gainesville, Georgia and an Anderson, South Carolina college, A.J. discovered his professional wrestling school on the whim of his friends, and quickly realized he was a natural in the squared circle. A.J. flew under the tutelage of Rich Michaels and within afew years, A.J. finally got his feet wet in the Pro Wrestling Buisness.

*AJ Styles in his early years in NWA*

                In 1998, A.J. had his very first professional wrestling match for the Georgia based promotion Nation Championship Wrestling, but under a different persona. A masked persona by the name of Mr. Olympus. Within a year, Mr. Olympus had finally captured his first championship, the NCW Television Championship. But things would be changing for NCW that would send A.J. into a brand new horizon, as NCW merged with the promotion known as the National Wrestling Alliance. The merger of NCW and the NWA would spawn a new branch of NWA; Wildside, where A.J. Styles would officially be christened A.J. Styles. Styles would go on to wrestle for Wildside for years, capturing his second Television Championship on January 8^th, 2000 by defeating K-Krush, who is currently known as WWE Superstar R-Truth. His second title reign came to an end as he lost the TV Title on  April the 1^st to Eddie Golden, only to regain the title for a time on January 6^th, 2001, defeating Air Paris during Style’s run as a Villain, or Heel. A.J.’s third title reign as NWA TV Champion came to a thrilling close when he lost the title to Robbie Rage in the city of Athens, Georgia on February 21^st. But all the work that A.J. put into NWA during his years was about to be noticed by some higher up individuals, as A.J. would receive a call from the now defunct promotion World Championship Wrestling.

*AJ Styles and Air Paris in WCW*

                2001 and 2002 would be some hectic years for young A.J. Styles. WCW observed the feud that Styles had with Paris and decided to bring the two gentlemen into the organization as a Tag Team under the name “Air Raid”. However their run would be somewhat short lived, as in March 2001, WCW was purchased the mega-power known as WWE. But with the purchasing of WCW, Styles was left out of a job. WWE took notice to the talent A.J. possessed however and offered him a developmental contract with the company, which would require him to move to the Heartland Wrestling Association in Ohio, WWE’s developmental organization at the time. Styles turned them down however, as accepting the contract would interfere with the plans his wife had for college. Styles eventually found himself touring overseas for a short while with the WWA, capturing the WWA International Cruiserweight Championship by defeating Nova and Jerry Lynn in the same night. Styles later vacated the title to return home to the NWA.

                His return to NWA saw him feuding with many high profile stars, but his talents became recognized even farther as NWA decided to sign Styles to their newest branch; NWA: TNA. Styles pursued the NWA Heavyweight Championship during his return run to NWA and managed to capture it for the first time from the very man who trained him, Rick Michaels, at NWA Christmas Chaos.  But after months of feuding for the NWA Heavyweight Championship, a brand new organization would come calling for A.J.’s unique talents. An organization that would soon take the world by storm.  That organization was Ring of Honor.

The Tale of the Tape for: A.J. Styles

GET READY TO FLY!!

"The Phenominal One" A.J. Styles

HEIGHT: 5'10

WEIGHT: 215 lbs.

HOMETOWN: Gainesville, Georgia

FINISHING MOVE: The Styles Clash

*This Is What Getting Dropped On Your Face Looks Like*

PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING DEBUT: 1998

*Thank You For Flying AIR STYLES*

With a moveset that lets Styles travel through the air, it'd be hard to see A.J. as anything less than truly Phenominal. And his skills haven't exactly gone unrecognized; A.J.'s talents have taken him all over the world, starting here in America with promotions like NWA, TNA, WCW and even a short run in WWE, going all the way to Japan and Austrailia and right back home, where he currently wrestles for Impact Wrestling, aka TNA.

*Did I Mention He Can Do This? Not Even 7 Foot Monsters Are Safe*

 

*Image Sources: Yahoo Imagining

Video Source: YouTube.com*

An Introduction

This. Is. Wrestling.

Tons of people can associate different things with those three words, but when it comes to the world of Professional Wrestling, there's no denying that the art itself is in fact a REVOLUTION.

But as G.I. Joe, Knowing Is Half The Battle.

This is the purpose of this Blog.

Each week, I'll be highlighting the different athletes that call the Squared Circle their home from every stretch of the globe. orginizations can include the ever famous WWE, TNA, Ring of Honor, PWG, All Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling NOAH, and a host of other orginizations.

Each week will follow similar formats:

Mon: The Tale of the Tape

Tues: Emergence into Professional Wrestling

Wed: Main Event Status Moments

Thurs: Career Defining/Career Changing Moments

Fri: Top 5 Matches and Accomplishments

With each month having some sort of theme, you'll gain knowledge of true modern day Gladiators.