Last night, former ROH Tag champions Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards worked against NXT Tag Team champions The Ascension in a losing effort for an NXT television taping at Full Sail University. The two, known in the independent scene as the American Wolves, worked instead as The American Bulldogs.
As of writing, the two haven’t signed WWE contracts yet and once had a tryout a couple months earlier before being turned away. This time, William Regal and Joey Matthews pushed hard for them to get a second chance and this time it might stick. On Twitter, Davey Richards (@RichardsWesley) stated:
Tweet:
@ringofhonor our time may possibly be coming to end. In my heart I will always and proudly be an “ROH GUY”. I’m forever in debt to you.
— Davey Richards (@RichardsWesley) November 22, 2013
The likelihood of the two sticking this time is very high. Rob Feinstein, former ROH owner, stated on Facebook that even though they haven’t been signed yet he knows their eventual career path in the WWE. It’s best to take Rob with a grain of salt but his viewpoint is interesting. He believes they will work a little bit in NXT just to show they can conform to the WWE standard before going to Smackdown (it’s that line that makes me question Feinstein since the WWE really doesn’t have a brand split anymore. Maybe he meant the Smackdown touring group but it sounds more like he’s out of touch with how the WWE runs their rosters). Feinstein also said that Vince McMahon was originally uninterested in more independent wrestlers due to them being hard to transform and he already has enough of them. It has also been recently reported that WWE was going to shy away from independent names to look for more “larger than life” wrestlers.
Either way, all I can say is it is time. Davey and Eddie had pretty much exhausted themselves in ROH, among plenty of other talent. They are not the only guys who need to move onto WWE, TNA or Japan. The Briscoes and Roderick Strong should take a cue as well. Of course it’s up to these companies to sign them. Richards and Edwards are interesting though. Both of them, while former ROH world champions with 1983 birthdates have different potential when it comes to the WWE. Richards is in the type of shape WWE loves but he’s extremely lacking in height. Richards likes to advertise himself as 5’8” but he’s much closer to five feet than he is six feet. Walking by him at an ROH show, he looked the same height as my mother (5’1”) while Edwards definitely looked closer to his billing of 6”. Richards is an excellent wrestler who has had phenomenal matches but he isn’t much on the microphone. Daniel Bryan might use a move similar to the Crippler Crossface but Davey Richards is probably the wrestler most similar to Chris Benoit in the business today. For Richards to succeed he’ll have to hope for a similar career (with a different ending, of course).
Edwards is more interesting to me. Edwards doesn’t show the same intensity that Richards can but in many ways, Edwards is a smarter wrestler than Richards with a much more bankable look. He might not be ripped but he really presents himself as a no nonsense wrestler and I think he’d be much easier to get over as a singles competitor and with the road agents with WWE. If Edwards can get better on the microphone he could have main event potential without banking on a one in a million longshot like Richards. He’s also less vocal than Richards and wouldn’t be expected to ruffle feathers. Of course, he could also fall into a similar category as DB Smith. Smith was a fantastic wrestler with a lot of size but always seemed too shy to really show a personality.
I have always been a big Edwards fan and have pushed for him harder than Richards, but since both men are being brought in as a tag team, they need to get over as a tag team before anything else can be considered. It’s no surprise they re-named them the American Bulldogs. It’s the sort of tweak WWE loves to do to see how independent wrestlers react. Richards and Edwards work fine as Bulldogs and Richards will remind old school fans of Dynamite Kid. Vince McMahon was a huge fan of Dynamite Kid, so it’d be a good image to have in his head so he gives the boys a chance. That would make Edwards the Davey Boy Smith of the group, which makes sense with my comparison since I think he has the stronger singles potential. The more I think about it, the more “American Bulldogs” makes perfect sense. The better question is if the WWE truly gives a tag team the chance. Tag teams are in my opinion the most under-utilized style of wrestling in the business and it seems as though the WWE forgets that their hottest eras coincided with a strong tag division.
Back to the headline. Can they make it? Absolutely. There are elements working for them and against them. In a reasonable world, they would have been signed years ago. Edwards and Richards on the WWE roster immediately become Top 10 in wrestling skill and the biggest wrestling company in the world should be employing the best wrestlers in the world. However, this isn’t a reasonable world. The most we can hope is that they receive a reasonable chance. Getting signed would be a reasonable start.
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photo credit: Anton Jackson via photopin cc
Fun Anecdote: Davey Richards blocked me on his original Twitter account.
