A.J. Styles and Tomko - History - Tag Team Champions

Tag Team Champions

At No Surrender, thanks in part to some unsung help at early points from Styles' former tag team partner Christopher Daniels, Styles and Tomko won a ten-team Gauntlet Match to become the number one contenders for the TNA World Tag Team Championship at Bound for Glory against the team of Adam "Pacman" Jones and Ron Killings. At Bound For Glory, Styles and Tomko defeated Killings and Rasheed Lucius "Consequences" Creed, Pacman's surprise substitute, for the TNA Tag Team Titles. At this point they were still solidly Christian's enforcers in his feud with Samoa Joe and later his Fight 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 against the Steiner Brothers at Genesis, Styles and Tomko came out during Christian's number one contendership ladder match with Kaz right as Cage was about to win, despite his specific instructions not to. This distracted Cage, costing him the match. Immediately afterwards, they assisted Kurt Angle in retaining his TNA World Heavyweight Championship, officially joining Kurt and his wife Karen in the 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, 2007 Impact!, when Cage's leadership-conditioned attempt to follow Robert 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. 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 of Impact! Cage was again attacked by Angle and Roode but this time an upset looking Styles just watched from the ring apron.

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 of Impact!. Styles later succumbed to Karen's seductions once again and chose to join Angle at the Final Resolution pay-per-view by helping Angle retain the TNA World Championship against Cage. 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. At Against 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. He subsequently joined the Angle Alliance on the next Impact!, 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.

At Destination X, the Angle Alliance faced the makeshift "Unlikely Alliance" consisting of the vengeful Christian, Samoa Joe, and Kevin Nash. The Angle Alliance fell as Tomko tapped out to Joe that night. The next Thursday on Impact!, Tomko was announced the captain of the villainous Lethal Lockdown team. Tomko and his pre-recruited teammate Styles would enlist Team 3D and James Storm in the coming weeks, only to lose to Christian's team of Nash, Rhino, Sting, and Matt Morgan.

On the April 17, episode of Impact! Styles and Tomko finally lost the TNA Tag Team Championship to Super Eric and Kaz. 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. The Deuces 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 storyine as having been injured in a shoot fight). Therefore, Styles competed in the tournament alongside Super Eric.

Read more about this topic:  A.J. Styles And Tomko, History

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