10 Forgotten TNA Appearances By Ex-WWE Stars

4. Spike Dudley

AJ Lee TNA
TNA

As "Brother Runt" in Team 3D (linking up with "Brother Ray" and "Brother Devon" in TNA's reasonable repurposing of The Dudley Boyz) the artist formerly known as Spike Dudley had several short runs in a version of TNA that was still trying to find itself between 2004-2007. Although perhaps based on the company's bizarre and unique history that's not clear enough.

As some major Attitude Era names reached various expiration points in WWE, TNA found its way onto television. The spots weren't always favourable, but Impact's TV debut in 2004 played a part in allowing the company to move away from the weekly pay-per-view model that had never really worked anyway. In order to keep, nurture and improve upon things, the company needed a healthy mix fresh faces and established hands, but the scales tipped so far in one direction that "[Malapropism Name] Is In The Impact Zone" became a meme before social media existed to share them.

Runt fell somewhere in the middle, and it's the reason why his tenures aren't really remembered.

Lockdown and Victory Road 2006 saw him link up with his storyline siblings, and the company booked a natural big man/little man bout with homegrown star Abyss at Turning Point, Abyss and Raven at No Surrender and Abyss, Raven and Samoa Joe and Bound For Glory later that year. After one last tag effort with Ray and Devon in 2007, that was sadly that, with little to show for a series of matches that should have embedded him far deeper into company stories than they ever did.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett