Less than 24 hours after the stellar NXT special on the WWE Network, it was revealed at the next set of tapings that former TNA star, James Storm was signed to compete for the brand. First, it should be mentioned that it's great to see Storm land a job in the WWE after an abrupt exit from TNA and the continued uncertainty that surrounds the Nashville based promotion. Storm, one of many that was completely underutilized in TNA, has the talent to work on a main stage and it's another solid veteran signing for NXT.
A nearly two decade veteran of the business, James Storm initially gained notoriety in the early days of TNA, where he worked from the inaugural show until his departure this past July. Originally, a member of America's Most Wanted, Storm and Chris Harris had a good run as one of the top tag teams, and had memorable matches during the "Asylum era" of the company. In 2006, America's Most Wanted concluded and it was generally thought that Chris Harris would have the better run going forward, but that wasn't the case. Storm continued to evolve into a well rounded performer, while Chis Harris had a cup of coffee in the WWE as Braden Walker and faded into obscurity. Despite a lack of any real direction booking wise, Storm had a solid series of matches during the next few years and eventually joined Bobby Roode to form Beer Money. During their time as a team, Beer Money was the top team in the promotion and one of the organization's most entertaining acts.
In 2011, James Storm was introduced to the TNA World Heavyweight title picture and ironically, it was the start of TNA underutilizing him. Storm was becoming one of the promotion's top stars and his blue collar character was extremely over with the audience. There were some similarities to Stone Cold Steve Austin, who praised Storm's work, but he did enough to make the persona his own in TNA. After the Bound For Glory series, Storm defeated Kurt Angle to win the title, but dropped the belt to Bobby Roode a week later. Keep in mind, Roode won the Bound For Glory series that year to get a title shot, but was defeated by Angle. As I said at the time, if Roode was going to eventually win the title anyway, why not book him to defeat Angle in the finals? Wouldn't it have made Roode look stronger if he won the title in the finals? Instead, the booking made Storm look weak because he only had the title for a short run and it made Roode look secondary to a former WWE star when he didn't defeat Angle for the championship. Roode is a great talent and had a decent run with the belt, but if TNA was going to book Storm as the champion, they should have at least given him a decent run, especially considering how over he was with the crowd.
From there, Storm eventually returned to the tag division and while he had another run as a tag champion, it was more of a throw together team with Gunner and not nearly as popular as his previous tag team run. In 2014, Storm was booked in a cult leader angle and despite random members being added, Storm made it work with some great mic skills and even without too many major angles to work, it provided some entertaining TV. As mentioned, Storm left TNA in July after working for the company during its entire existence and there was some speculation he could sign to work for Global Force Wrestling.
Ultimately, Storm was underutilized in TNA and they missed the boat on him, but that's nothing new for the company. During his initial push, Storm could have been used to help establish the TNA brand as something other than WWE lite, but it was a missed opportunity and again, that's nothing new for TNA. Storm is a solid in ring competitor and he did the best he could with whatever he was booked to do in TNA, which is why Storm is a great signing for NXT. He's versatile enough to adapt to a new system and it seems like he will do well in the NXT environment. It's a win-win situation because Storm gets a platform to apply his trade and his veteran experience could help the younger talent. It's also great to see that he will retain his name and character for NXT because sometimes a specific formula works for a performer and it would be counter productive to spin it just to be able to put the WWE stamp on it. Samoa Joe is another example of this and he has done well so far in his NXT career. Granted, Storm already has several years of network TV exposure so some WWE fans will know who he is, but I think the reasoning behind certain talent keeping the names they used prior to their WWE career could be simpler. This is just a guess, but the WWE is the top promotion in the United States and if a particular talent would go elsewhere using the same name they used while wrestling in NXT, would it really be any threat to WWE? The point being, James Storm is a solid signing for the WWE and he provides some substance to go along with the sizzle of the NXT brand. The debut of Storm allows NXT to remain strong even if certain competitors get transferred to the main roster and assuming he has a decent contact, Storm could make a WWE career out of his work at NXT, which would further establish it as another WWE brand instead of just a developmental system. The bottom line is, James Storm deserves the opportunity and he will probably have a solid run in NXT.
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