Christian's Coalition
| Christian's Coalition | |
|---|---|
 Cristian Cage and Tomko (AJ Styles is not pictured) | |
| Stable | |
| Members | Christian Cage Tomko A.J. Styles |
| Name(s) | Christian's Coalition Christian Coalition Team Cage |
| Former member(s) | Abyss James Mitchell Scott Steiner Robert Roode |
| Debut | February 8, 2007 |
Christian's Coalition (also briefly known as Team Cage) is a heel professional wrestling stable in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) led by Christian Cage.
History
Christian Cage originally (kayfabe) brought Tomko in to TNA as a personal enforcer in late-2006 to help him regain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. It proved a smart move on his part when Tomko helped him defeat reigning champion Abyss and Sting in a Triple Threat Elimination match at the January 2007 Final Resolution pay-per-view event.
During the same event, Kurt Angle became the #1 contender to the NWA World Heavyweight title and moved into a feud with Cage. To prepare for his match with Angle, Cage brought Scott Steiner in as a "trainer", citing the history Steiner and Angle shared. This also proved to be good strategy when the Christian Coalition, as the three men now referred to themselves, helped Cage retain his title at February's Against All Odds.
Although all three men were working together on Cage's behalf, from the start there was dissension evident. Tomko frequently commented on his distrust and dislike of Steiner, and after he won a match over new #1 contender Samoa Joe on an episode of iMPACT!, Tomko began demanding a shot at Cage's title. Later he took a (kayfabe) sudden trip to Japan (which had actually been set up well in advance, to compete for the IWGP World Tag Team Championship along with Giant Bernard) that coincided with the Destination X pay-per-view. During the event Steiner also abandoned Cage prior to his main event match, forcing him to seek out a replacement enforcer for the event.
Immediately following Destination X, Cage and Kurt Angle were informed by TNA management director Jim Cornette that they would each be captaining five-man teams to compete in a Lethal Lockdown cage match at the upcoming PPV Lockdown. In the upcoming weeks, the Coalition got back together as part of a bigger coalition under the name Team Cage (also including Abyss and A.J. Styles), while Team Angle went on to comprise of four recent rivals of the Team Cage members (Angle included) and Jeff Jarrett. At the match itself, Team Angle won when Jarrett hit Abyss with a thumbtack-loaded guitar and let Sting make the pin to become #1 contender to Cage's title.
The following iMPACT!, after Cage and Abyss failed to take the NWA World Tag Team Championship from Team 3D, Abyss was kicked off the team with a brutal beating involving steel chairs and a barbed wire baseball bat. Soon after Tomko and Steiner began chasing the NWA World Tag Team Championship culminating in a 3 Way tag team match at TNA Sacrifice with LAX which they lost shortly after Tomko and Steiner had communication problems causing Rick Steiner to help his brother attack Tomko. Claiming trust issues prior to the event, Scott Steiner turned to family and has left Team Cage, following which they began to be referred to once again as Christian's Coalition. On May 31, 2007 A.J. Styles defeated Tomko in a King of the Mountain qualifying match thanks to a distraction from Christian Cage.
On June 14, Cage's qualifying opponent was Abyss, who had laid out Tomko and stopped him from coming out for an earlier match on which Styles would be on the opposite side. With Styles and Tomko's help, Cage won by disqualification after Abyss hit him with a steel chair and managed to escape the monster. At Slammiversary, Tomko lost to Abyss in a no DQ match after taking a Black Hole Slam through broken glass, and both Styles and Christian lost the King of the Mountain match. Christian would then enter into a feud with "the Wildcat" Chris Harris, while the Coalition continued feuding with Sting and Abyss. At Victory Road, Cage defeated Harris, but Styles and Tomko lost to Sting and Abyss.
Robert Roode had a match with Christian's Coalition on the last Impact! before Victory Road, and was seen trying to help them on the first Impact after. On July 26, Mike Tenay cited Roode as a member of Christian's Coalition. Acting as such in helping them lay out Sting and Abyss, Roode seemed to be competing with A.J. Styles for Christian's right hand status. However, he appeared apart from the group in all the immediate weeks after, with no mention of Roode and manager Ms. Brooks being in the Coalition. This suggests they were more of allies than members of the Coalition.
In addition, Sting and Abyss secured a contract for an Abyss vs. Christian match at Hard Justice 2007 with the help of the TNA debut of "The Punisher" Andrew Martin to counteract Tomko's role in the Coalition as an enforcer. At the iMPACT! prior to Hard Justice, Jim Cornette announced that Christian's Coalition would take on Abyss, Sting & Andrew Martin in a Doomsday Chamber of Blood match at Hard Justice in which the wrestler who scores the pinfall for his team in the match would receive the next title shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. This was a barbed wire six sides of steel cage match that could only be won by pinning an opponent after they've been busted open. At Hard Justice, Christian's Coalition was defeated, as Abyss pinned A.J. Styles for the win. After this, Christian and his Coalition would move into a feud with Samoa Joe over who the "real World Heavyweight Champion" is.
Championships and accomplishments
- New Japan Pro Wrestling
- IWGP World Tag Team Championship - (Tomko along with Giant Bernard) (current)
External links
- TNA Profiles for Christian Cage,Tomko, & A.J. Styles