10 Confusing Wrestling Moments That Nobody Understands
2. Will The Real Leader Of Aces & Eights Please Stand Up?
Another attempt at replicating the financial success and impact of the NWO, this long, elaborate storyline across the whole of TNA's programming lasted from June 2012 to November 2013. A criminal motorcycle gang called Aces & Eights (after the poker hand known as the 'dead man's hand'), wearing biker gear and masks, would descend upon TNA performers to ruin matches and administer beatdowns.
The masks were the USP of this gimmick, the idea being that no one knew who was in the stable unless they could be unmasked. Gradually the babyfaces would unmask their sinister opponents to find out who was behind the gang's activities.
Unfortunately, the angle snowballed, much as the original NWO angle had, becoming unwieldy and confusing. TNA's tendency to overbook on the fly came into play, with stories fluctuating week by week, and it was obvious that there was no forward planning involved.
The angle became so cumbersome and clumsy that after nine months, when the big reveal of the secret leader of Aces & Eights was finally revealed at the Lockdown pay-per-view to be top babyface Bully Ray, it literally made no sense whatsoever.
There was no cunning plan at work. The swerve was just that - a Vince Russo style swerve without any logical consistency behind it, and requiring retconning the angle in order to make any kind of sense.
The twist made so little sense, in fact, that TNA felt it was necessary to release a video package explaining Bully Ray's evil scheme, and how he'd pulled the wool over everyone's eyes. The package was split into five separate videos totalling nineteen minutes, Bully Ray talking heelishly to camera as he carefully rewrote history and airbrushed inconvenient events to fit the new narrative.
It clearly hadn't been planned to end up that way, and if the angle had been hard to follow before, it was impossible now. Still, it limped on for another eight months, because, you know, TNA.