| A.J. Styles and Tomko | |
|---|---|
.jpg) A.J. Styles and Tomko asTNA World Tag Team Champions in 2008 | |
| Tag team | |
| Members | A.J. Styles Tomko |
| Name | A.J. Styles and Tomko Christian's Coalition The Angle Alliance |
| Debut | March 29, 2007 |
| Years active | 2007–2008 |
A.J. Styles andTomko are formertag team partners inTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) who were a part of two factions together,Christian's Coalition andthe Angle Alliance.
Styles and Tomko are notable in history for their run as TNA World Tag Team Champions. Stopped at 184 days, it stood for three years as the longest run in the history of that championship, and second longest of all tag title runs (only toAmerica's Most Wanted's 250-day sixth reign with theNWA World Tag Team Championship while TNA was still using that title) in the history of the company, untilBeer Money, Inc., in the midst of their fourth reign, pushed it back a spot in both categories on July 13, 2011. They were also involved in many headline matches due to their associations withChristian Cage andKurt Angle.
By early 2007, after Tomko's then-recent arrival reprising his WWE role as Christian Cage's enforcer resulted in Christian regaining theNWA World Heavyweight Championship, Christian would expand his leadership into a fullcoalition to enforce his reign. WhileScott Steiner would officially come on board as Cage's "consultant", recently turned villain A.J. Styles would align himself with Christian on occasion. Styles and Tomko, however, would have yet to interact, as Styles' appearances alongside Christian came without Tomko present.
Immediately followingDestination X 2007, the champion Christian andKurt Angle were informed by TNA management directorJim Cornette that they would each be captaining five-man teams to compete in aLethal Lockdown cage match at the upcoming pay-per-viewLockdown.[1] In the upcoming weeks, Christian's Coalition, which had somewhat broken down by Destination X, officially formed for the second time in as many months under the name Team Cage, also includingAbyss and Steiner along with Styles and Tomko (the latter whose rejoining finally united the duo), while Team Angle went on to consist of four recent rivals of the Team Cage members (Angle included) andJeff Jarrett. At the match itself, Team Angle won when Jarrett hit Abyss with a thumbtack-loaded guitar and let Sting make the pin to become number one contender to Cage's title.[2] From there, the collective would systematically betray and destroy Abyss, and eventually Scott Steiner and Tomko's trust issues would cause Steiner to leave toteam with his brotherRick, all of which in effect left only Styles and Tomko to carry on together behind Cage as Christian's Coalition.
Tension would develop between Styles, Tomko, and Cage heading into theKing of the Mountain match atSlammiversary, which all three men were in qualifying for. On May 31, 2007, Styles had originally been scheduled to faceJeff Jarrett in a qualifying match, but since Jarrett couldn't appear due to his wife's death, Tomko was put in his place. Styles defeated Tomko thanks to "botched" interference from Christian Cage, causing tension between Tomko and Cage, later resolved on the June 7 episode. On the June 14, 2007 episode ofImpact, Styles and Tomko showed that they were once again a united front, helping Cage defeat Abyss bydisqualification to get into King of the Mountain after Abyss hit him with asteel chair. The group came out empty-handed at Slammiversary,[3] and Styles and Tomko lost to Sting and Abyss in a tag team match at the following pay-per-view,Victory Road.[4]
After being attacked byJudas Mesias and theRobert Roode-assisted Coalition, Sting and Abyss overcame Styles and Cage to secure a contract for an Abyss vs. Christian match atHard Justice 2007 with the help of the TNA debut of "The Punisher"Andrew Martin to counteract Tomko's Coalition enforcer role. On theImpact! prior to Hard Justice, Jim Cornette announced that Christian's Coalition would take on Abyss, Sting and Andrew Martin in a Doomsday Chamber of Blood match, a barbed wire steel cage match in which a person could only be pinned once they were bleeding, at Hard Justice in which the wrestler who scores the pinfall for his team in the match would receive the next title shot at theTNA World Heavyweight Championship.[5] At Hard Justice, Styles was pinned by Abyss as the Coalition lost.[6] Styles and Tomko next accompanied Christian in his feud withSamoa Joe over who the "real World Heavyweight Champion" was.
AtNo Surrender, Styles and Tomko won a ten-teamGauntlet Match to become the number one contenders for theTNA World Tag Team Championship atBound for Glory against the team ofAdam "Pacman" Jones andRon Killings; Styles started the match againsthis former tag team partnerChristopher Daniels (and would align with him against various opponents during the match), survived the entire over-the-top elimination portion, and even picked up the winning pinfall for himself and Tomko.[7] At Bound For Glory, Styles and Tomko defeated Killings andRasheed Lucius "Consequences" Creed, Pacman's surprise substitute, for the TNA Tag Team Titles.[8] At this point they were still solidly Christian's enforcers in his feud with Samoa Joe and later hisFight for the Right Tournament efforts, but were also branching out on their own and establishing their act as a tag team, even becoming somewhat popular with the audience despite their villainous status.
After retaining the tag titles againstthe Steiner Brothers atGenesis, Styles and Tomko came out during Christian's number one contendership ladder match withKaz right as Cage was about to win, despite his specific instructions not to.[9] This distracted Cage, costing him the match. Immediately afterwards, they assisted Kurt Angle in retaining hisTNA World Heavyweight Championship, officially joining Kurt and his wifeKaren inthe Angle Alliance. The hopeless dreamer Styles and major skeptic Tomko from then on would attempt to be part of both the Angle Alliance and the Christian Coalition, despite the clashing egos and animosity between Christian and the Angles. It was implied during that time that Karen, who'd been shown on-screen to have a seducing effect on A.J. on occasion, conned him into thinking this union was possible.
On the December 6, 2007Impact!, when Cage's leadership-conditioned attempt to followRobert Roode into accepting Angle's offer to join the group backfired after one match and led to his betrayal at the hands of Angle and Roode, Styles tried in vain to hold the assailants back by himself as Tomko walked away from the situation.[10] At that point, Cage was out of the Alliance, but Styles and Tomko's status was unknown regarding both the Alliance or the Coalition. On the following episode ofImpact! Cage was again attacked by Angle and Roode but this time an upset looking Styles just watched from the ring apron.[11]
In following weeks, Tomko made it clear to Styles that they needed to choose sides, and while Styles was indecisive, Tomko firmly established his own foothold in the situation by leaving both the Coalition and the Alliance on the January 3, 2008 episode ofImpact!.[12] Styles later succumbed to Karen's seductions once again and chose to join Angle at theFinal Resolution pay-per-view by helping Angle retain the TNA World Championship against Cage.[13] Following Final Resolution, Angle and Styles continued to try to recruit Tomko, only to be rebuffed each time, eventually leading to Tomko attacking Angle after he insulted Tomko's wife over Karen and appearing to side with Christian leading up to the title rematch between Angle and Cage. AtAgainst All Odds, Tomko and Styles surprisingly showed no signs of conflict in their defense of the Tag Team Titles, and in the end Tomko cost Cage the championship again in the main event.[14][15] He subsequently joined the Angle Alliance on the nextImpact!, his reasoning being simply because there was strength in numbers and he was tired of years of yet-incompletely-fulfilled promises of stardom under Christian Cage.
AtDestination X, the Angle Alliance faced the makeshift "Unlikely Alliance" consisting of the vengeful Christian,Samoa Joe, andKevin Nash. The Angle Alliance fell as Tomko tapped out to Joe that night.[16] The next Thursday onImpact!, Tomko was announced the captain of the villainousLethal Lockdown team. Tomko and his pre-recruited teammate Styles would enlistTeam 3D andJames Storm in the coming weeks,[17] only to lose to Christian's team of Nash,Rhino, Sting, andMatt Morgan.[18]
On the April 17, episode ofImpact! Styles and Tomko finally lost the TNA World Tag Team Championship toSuper Eric andKaz. Afterwards they complained to Jim Cornette about the match, and in the end Super Eric and Kaz were stripped of the championships due to Super Eric being unable to realize he and Eric Young (who was slated as Kaz's partner) were one and the same.[19] TheDeuces Wild tournament was organized, but Tomko had been suspended by TNA (due to no-showing a TNA Fanfest Event - his absence was explained in the storyline as having been injured in a shoot fight). Therefore, Styles competed in the tournament alongside Super Eric.
On the May 22, 2008 episode ofImpact!, after Tomko interrupted an interview to interrogate Styles about teaming with Super Eric, Styles quit the Angle Alliance, including his team with Tomko, in a fit induced by Styles having faced many pointed fingers in recent weeks mainly pertaining to his relationship with Karen.[20] From there, Tomko would align with Kurt Angle and characters such asBooker T, Team 3D, andThe Beautiful People in a loose collective self-identified as "the Bad Guys". That same night, and the following week, Angle, Booker, Team 3D and Tomko ended the show by viciously attacking Styles (and Cage in the second week), marking the official disbandment of Styles and Tomko as a tag team. Tomko departed TNA in July 2008, appearing once against Samoa Joe on the way out, while A.J.'s rivalry with Kurt Angle would continue for over a year, most notably through his constant role inresistance efforts againstthe Main Event Mafia.
On the December 17, 2009 edition ofImpact!, the newly-reigningWorld Heavyweight Champion Styles and Tomko teamed with Angle,Bobby Lashley, and Abyss, and came out victorious in a 10-man tag team match - Tomko's official return match with TNA after over a year away - when Styles pinnedBrutus Magnus ofthe British Invasion. This loose alliance wouldn't last, however, as Tomko later revealed himself to have been the masked man in black assaulting A.J. for months afterBound for Glory, successfully goading his former partner's attention and a title opportunity. Styles defeated Tomko to retain his title and end the feud on January 4, 2010.