wrestling / Columns

Csonka: The Survivors From WWE’s 2014 Black Thursday

June 23, 2017 | Posted by Larry Csonka
Jinder Mahal WWE

Welcome back to column time with Larry. Today I want to look back on WWE’s 2014 Black Thursday. Back in the day, mass WWE releases were a normal thing, but with so many companies out there looking to gain traction, WWE has opted to keep talent more and more. But back on June 12th, 2014, WWE released 11 employees. Here’s a look at where they landed after those releases and who did the best in their post WWE careers. Some even made it back to WWE, and climbed all the way to the top of the WWE mountain. NOTE: I am only looking at talent released on June 12th, 2014. I hope that you enjoy, and feel free to share your thoughts. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful of other’s opinions and don’t be a dick.” We all have opinions, we’re going to disagree, just be cool about it.

 photo Black Thursday_zps3ajygiww.png

* Referee Marc Harris: He made some mistakes on WWE TV doing his job; reportedly his ultimate undoing was getting into a Twitter War with former WWE official Jimmy Korderas.

* Aksana: She was a pretty young lady, obviously in shape due to her past as a Lithuanian fitness model & bodybuilder. But she was absolutely horrible in terms of being a wrestler, and wasn’t even a serviceable sidekick/manager. Her biggest claim to fame was fracturing Naomi’s orbital bone; as far as I can tell she’s now retired.

* JTG: Wrote some e-Books on his time in WWE and the backstage dirt he was witness to. He largely walked away from wrestling, working under 15-matches since he release, and doing some Cryme Tyme reunions. Money, money, yeah, yeah…

* Teddy Long: Took his tag team match making self on the road, working the GM gimmick on the indies and stayed a good boy, eventually earning a WWE Hall of fame induction in 2017.

* Curt Hawkins: Curt Hawkins hit the indies following his release, started a wrestling school, had a bad match in PWG with AJ Styles of all people, and then hitched his wagon to the GFW. That led him to a short run on TNA TV when they did the short lived and failed cross over storyline. When WWE announced the brand split, WWE went after guys like Hawkins, Carlito, & Shelton Benjamin who they knew, who were familiar with the WWE system and would hopefully take the low ball offer because they wanted back in the family. The star factory has become a fixture on WWE Main Event.

* Evan Bourne: Evan Bourne was well on his way to becoming a top post WWE standout, but he unfortunately got in his own way. Bourne was having great matches in ROH and then got in with NJPW; he had good singles matches in the 2016 BOTSJ and formed a great tag team with Ricochet (winning the junior tag titles two times & the super junior tag tournament). He was also part of a fun trios team with Ricochet & Kojima. But then he was arrested at the Kansai International Airport under suspicion of marijuana smuggling; he had 2.12 grams of liquid marijuana hidden with an electronic cigarette. Regardless of your personal feelings on marijuana use, the fact is that in Japan, this shit is a HUGE no-no. Bourne pled guilty, accepted three-years probation and his run in NJPW was done. He’s now signed with Impact wrestling, but after a hot start, has been spinning his wheels until picking up a big win last night. For me, Bourne is a perfect example of pissing away potential. I don’t care if you smoke up, chow down on some pot brownies or shove it up your ass but he had been going to Japan for how long, he knew how the culture frowned upon it and should have known better.

 photo yoshitatsu_zpswpzyfvck.png

Yoshitatsu: I will not lie, for the most part, Yoshitatsu is the drizzling shits as an in ring performer. At one point, he looked to be one of the future players for NJPW, but he wanted to come to America and work for WWE. He spent 7-years in the WWE system, never doing much of note, and fooling us into thinking he may be worth something because he had a good match with Christian; Christian had good matches with everyone though so it turned out to be no big thing. So he returned to NJPW and was put back in the main mix as an ally of Tanahashi, and got to wrestle AJ Styles; Yoshitatsu was the “Bullet Club Hunter” and was looking to rid NJPW of the faction, but that goal was cut short when he took a Styles Clash wrong, breaking two-bones in his neck. Now some will say people are harsh on Yoshitatsu, noting that he isn’t as good anymore due to the neck injury, but he wasn’t good before it. To his credit he worked hard and made it back into wrestling, but his “Hunter Club” was a failed venture as Elgin & Tanahashi refused to join him, allowing Yoshitatsu and Captain New Japan to fight Bullet Club. From there, one of the worst feuds in years took place when Captain New Japan turned heel, joined Bullet Club, and became Bone Soldier. Yoshitatsu & Bone Soldier engaged in a series of singles & tag matches that received the most DUD ratings given out to NJPW matches than at any other time in the company’s history. Yoshitatsu may be the shits in the ring, but he’s carved himself out a solid little post WWE career in NJPW. He hasn’t broken the law, hasn’t pissed away real potential and has no baggage so NJPW keeps him around.

Brodus Clay: Brodus Clay’s time in WWE didn’t quite work out the way he hoped, as he ended up a dancing dinosaur (but at least he had hot backup dancers and the gimmick was fun). I was shocked when he got the main roster call up, because I had watched a lot of his WWE developmental work, and while he was a big dude, he wasn’t a good wrestler in any way. Following his WWE release, he made his way to TNA and is still with Impact Wrestling. He’s mostly been used as muscle for EC3, Matt Hardy, Eli Drake and recently Bruce Prichard. In the background/muscle role, Tyrus is quite good and has even delivered in some fun promo segments. It’s just when they try to have him wrestle that the issues occur. Tyrus is best in short outings or tag matches, but all too often that is forgotten when booking his matches, which tend not to be very good in my opinion. But the good news for him is that he does have a role in the business, if someone would realize that it’s MAINLY outside of the ring. At age 44, Tyrus is still a big and intimidating guy who can play a role. The good news for him is that he has also started to regularly appear as a political commentator on The Greg Gutfeld Show, as he looks to set himself up for life after wrestling. Gutfeld and the people at Fox News seem to really like Tyrus, and he comes off well on the shows. Tyrus is not a world champion, he likely will never make it back to WWE at his age, but he’s done well for himself. I hope that the Fox News stuff works out for him, he seems to really enjoy it and it would be nice to see more wrestlers move on into other things and be happy once their careers are done.

 photo Guerillas-of-destiny_zpspuc1p7td.jpg

Camacho: For the longest time, I thought that Tevita Fifita (Camacho/Micah) was going to be a complete wash out in wrestling. The son of Haku’s WWE run was largely forgettable, outside of riding to the ring with Hunico on a bike. He had a short NXT feud with Adam Rose before his dismissal from WWE. In early 2015 he got picked by TNA, and re-named Micah as part of the failed Rising Stable. Micah never connected with the crowd, and seemingly regressed in the ring while there; he had struck out on his second chance. I personally didn’t see any hope for him, but thankfully his brother was able to get him into Bullet Club and into NJPW. Tama Tonga had challenged Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma to a match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship at Invasion Attack 2016, promising a new member of Bullet Cub to be his tag team partner, and that’s when Tevita Fifita got his third chance. Now to be completely honest, he didn’t exactly hit the ground running. Now going by the name Tanga Roa, and teaming with his brother, The Guerrillas of Destiny were born and won the tag titles. It was a slow start, as the first six-months were really rough for the team. Their teamwork was solid, but their matches were basic and boring, lacking energy. But as 2016 started to work to its close, it finally happened for them. They had a great match with Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI at Power Struggle and then finally had that REALLY GREAT match with Honma & Makabe at the WTL finals; it was all coming together for the brothers. They finally had the team work dialed in, were showing the sort of aggression and fire I had been begging them to show forever, and they came off as the bad asses they were intended to be. Fifita started with WWE in 2009, went to TNA in 2015 but it took his brother calling in a favor and a trip to Japan for him to finally find his groove in wrestling, and at the age of 34, he’s found his place in wrestling and is thriving.

Drew McIntyre: Back in 2006, at the age of 21, WWE signed a young Drew McIntyre. When his main roster debut came in 2009, I felt he was in trouble right off the bat simply for the fact that they tagged him with “The Chosen One” gimmick. These style of gimmicks tend to not work, either because of backlash or simply because the performer doesn’t live up to the billing. At that time, McIntyre wasn’t ready and the writing for him wasn’t very good. He had times where he looked good, but it fully never clicked. He largely got lost in the shuffle, got placed into 3MB and was released in 2014. Re-branding himself as Drew Galloway, he wasn’t discouraged and hit the ground running back in ICW and with WWNLive. In his first post WWE match he defeated Chris Hero to become the Evolve champion, and over the course of his run became one of the main faces for the company. Galloway was on a mission, not only to make the title he won important, but also to prove that he had what it takes to be a star in the wrestling business. Galloway’s hard work also landed him in TNA, where he also found success at the top of the card, winning their world title. His work has been great, and now looks like someone that WWE really missed the boat on. At age 31, after a hell of a run on the indies, Galloway feels like he’s really hit his stride and was a great addition to any card he’s on He proved that being released by WWE isn’t the end of a career as long as you’re willing to work your ass off to prove people wrong; he did that and made himself a hot commodity. Galloway decided not to re-sign with TNA Impact Wrestling, and is officially back in the WWE fold and is about to be a main player for the NXT brand. Make no mistake, this is not only due to his hard work, but was also because he made himself such a big star outside of WWE that the promotion took notice and snatched him up before World of Sport & ITV could grab him. McIntyre is back home and proof that you can work your way back to the top, and that second chances are possible if you refuse to accept defeat and work your ass off. He’s been a ton of fun in NXT so far, but needs a solid direction. I just hope that he gets a shot on the main roster.

Jinder Mahal: Without a doubt, The Modern Day Maharajah has to take the top of the list. In the spirit of full disclosure, I want to say that I am not part of this new “pro-Jinder Mahal” movement on Twitter that think just because he got jacked up, that it means that Mahal has become some super in ring worker or is suddenly the most improved performer of 2017. While he has worked his ass off to get into amazing shape, I find him to be a generally flat wrestler; I have watched more Jinder Mahal in 2017 than anyone should but WWE has decided to give him a chance, and I have no issue with him getting a chance, it’s the timing of the chance I had an issue with. It felt so rushed and poorly planned, he had no momentum and even lost the week prior to the #1 contender’s match. I do like that they gave him some minions (which could be a huge chance for the Singhs), and to be honest I really enjoyed his performance at MITB. It was easily his best in ring effort that I have ever seen from him, he worked with poise, intensity and until the repeat shit finish, I greatly enjoyed the match. Mahal went from a guy that drank too much, fell badly out of shape, had trouble getting booked even locally, and his independent appearances were just not good at all. He was released, he was to be perfectly honest, the shits and looked to be down and out. He got another chance because WWE needed warm bodies. And to his credit he got himself into amazing shape, he’s worked hard and because WWE decided that they wanted to target the India market, Mahal got his shot. We always ask for fresh challengers, we want new stars and to be honest with you Orton hasn’t had a good year so it’s not like they ruined someone to give Mahal a chance. WWE was looking to exploit the market in India, and Vince saw the newly jacked up Mahal working hard, and the dude made the very best out of his second chance. I just wish that people would drop the “they gave him the title for this reason” narrative; it’s pro wrestling, everyone is given a title and there are reasons and motivations behind every title change. I’m not a big fan of Mahal, but I can appreciate his comeback story.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

 photo fe36ffd0-0da4-4e3b-a2d3-b026b341dd87_zps41ef5d61.jpg
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”