Improving Aces and Eights: Give them assigned roles!

[HMARK Center]

I was thinking about this while watching the latest Impact, and what dawned on me was that the biggest complaint a lot of folks have is that Aces and Eights feels like it's dragging on at this point, and needs to be freshened up. I think that's a fair criticism.

I think the biggest problem facing the group is that while they have the various titles ("President", "VP", "Sergeant-at-Arms", etc.), the fact remains that we have a stable here where too many guys feel undefined and give off too much an aura of being "just there".

If you're going to make them an army out to destroy TNA, then more of them need to be able to get into feuds, and they need to have designated roles to mesh into the roster well. It can't just be "Bully cuts a promo, the other guys stand around him" every time, it gets stale.

So what roles would you like to see some of them fit into? Here's some of my ideas:

Bully - still the leader, but only really appears in front of the crowd either for a title match or because something REALLY bad or major is about to happen. I almost imagine like Shane Douglas during the height of his Franchise title run in ECW.

Anderson - basically make him "The Mouth of Sauron". They've teased having him be this for a little bit, but I say commit fully. He's at his best when he's a loud, obnoxious jerk, so make him the public speaking voice of the group, the chief recruiter, the guy who basically makes Bully's proclamations for him. He doubles as a guy who at least has enough booking cred that he can be in upper midcard matches or TV main events.

Doc and Knux - two muscle guys, but we don't see them acting on it at all lately. Why not make them a tag team, or get them into a feud with a couple of X-Division guys to play off the speed vs. size aspect? They need to be firmly established either as midcarders or higher, but their spots are way too nebulous right now.

Any others?

[Deleted]

Step 1: Change their name to "the Hell's Satans"

Bully is still the leader
D-Von is the preacher that provides a cover for their illicit activities and his church is a tax shelter.
DOC and Knucks are two big goons that like to hurt people for their own amusement
Anderson provides them with their "merchandise"
Garret and Brisco are prospects that mainly take ass kickings at the moment.
D-Lo is not in this version.

I put like 5 minutes of thought into that and it's already better than what they are currently.

[HMARK Center]

May 30, 2013 14:52:28 GMT -5 @akeem said:

Step 1: Change their name to "the Hell's Satans"

Bully is still the leader
D-Von is the preacher that provides a cover for their illicit activities and his church is a tax shelter.
DOC and Knucks are two big goons that like to hurt people for their own amusement
Anderson provides them with their "merchandise"
Garret and Brisco are prospects that mainly take ass kickings at the moment.
D-Lo is not in this version.

I put like 5 minutes of thought into that and it's already better than what they are currently.

I'd buy that for a dollar. Garrett and Wes as the job squad, Doc and Knux as the Brute Squad, Anderson as a sleaze-bomb, etc.

[Deleted]

I think this would help. Assigning them roles would help give them some semblance of personality.

The other thing is they need to cut some dudes out. Having a gang of dudes worked for a bit, but now its too predictable. They'll always have the numbers game.

Maybe cull it down to 3 or 4 dudes. It will also help keep them out of EVERY damn segment in the show.

The group is definitely salvageable, but not as yet another faction who wants to take down the company - that shit is so played out.

If they really want to emulate SoA they should be trying to make money by exploiting impact wrestling instead of just blandly blindly trying to tear it down. Having a better end game would really help them out.

[ThereIsNoAbsurdistOnlyZuul]

May 31, 2013 13:07:06 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

May 30, 2013 14:52:28 GMT -5 @akeem said:

Step 1: Change their name to "the Hell's Satans"

Bully is still the leader
D-Von is the preacher that provides a cover for their illicit activities and his church is a tax shelter.
DOC and Knucks are two big goons that like to hurt people for their own amusement
Anderson provides them with their "merchandise"
Garret and Brisco are prospects that mainly take ass kickings at the moment.
D-Lo is not in this version.

I put like 5 minutes of thought into that and it's already better than what they are currently.

I'd buy that for a dollar. Garrett and Wes as the job squad, Doc and Knux as the Brute Squad, Anderson as a sleaze-bomb, etc.

I would have Garrett and Wes as the tag team/semi-job squad. Basically even have them used as meatshields by the leadership/Anderson, whereas DOC and Knux get to actively ruin people.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

With Doc and Knux in mind, LET THEM WIN CLEANLY.

Honest to god, if you have people with the size and skills of Mike Knox and Doc, let them dominate a few people and get good, clean wins where they look like the powerhouses we're expected to see them as. I don't want them to be fed the entire X-division like guys like Joe, Angle and to a lesser extent Austin Aries were, just put them in there with established midcarders, or name people on short term deals and let them win cleanly without cheating or outside interference. It'd go a long way to establishing them as a threat rather than generic goons.

[Deleted]

Jun 2, 2013 12:06:37 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

With Doc and Knux in mind, LET THEM WIN CLEANLY.

Honest to god, if you have people with the size and skills of Mike Knox and Doc, let them dominate a few people and get good, clean wins where they look like the powerhouses we're expected to see them as. I don't want them to be fed the entire X-division like guys like Joe, Angle and to a lesser extent Austin Aries were, just put them in there with established midcarders, or name people on short term deals and let them win cleanly without cheating or outside interference. It'd go a long way to establishing them as a threat rather than generic goons.

They barely have any established midcarders. I can't even think of who you'd give them a win over that fits the description. It's either you're a player, you're in the x-division, or you're a Robbie.

[HMARK Center]

Jun 2, 2013 15:50:06 GMT -5 @lovehater said:

Jun 2, 2013 12:06:37 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

With Doc and Knux in mind, LET THEM WIN CLEANLY.

Honest to god, if you have people with the size and skills of Mike Knox and Doc, let them dominate a few people and get good, clean wins where they look like the powerhouses we're expected to see them as. I don't want them to be fed the entire X-division like guys like Joe, Angle and to a lesser extent Austin Aries were, just put them in there with established midcarders, or name people on short term deals and let them win cleanly without cheating or outside interference. It'd go a long way to establishing them as a threat rather than generic goons.

They barely have any established midcarders. I can't even think of who you'd give them a win over that fits the description. It's either you're a player, you're in the x-division, or you're a Robbie.

Agreed, though it still could be done, if only because it wouldn't take too much to do. Have them run over guys like Mr. Pectacular or even bring in a couple of decent jobbers, and then let them win a higher profile match against some of the big guns. You wouldn't necessarily need to overdo it, but once or twice, with both guys getting their finishers and strength over, could do the trick.

With a group like Aces and Eights I don't really buy that they need to win cleanly that often (they're meant to be loathsome cheaters, after all), but DOC and Knux could use it because they're meant to be legitimate physical threats.

[Bram wants to 'urt you]

I agree that the group should be a bit leaner, so here's an idea -

Hogan announces there will be a tag tourney for the number one contendership to the titles. Knux/Doc and Garett/Wes team up and enter. This could be explained by Bully noting that he is the WHC, Anderson a former WHC and Devon TV champ - so the rest of the club needs to get into the chase for the gold, else they may be retired from the club.

At some point have K/D and G/W face each other. The winning team doesn't have to actually win the belts -

Bully is so a) impressed with the ruthlessness of the winners that he lets them stay in the club and retires the losers or b) sickened that the winners stabbed their brothers in the back, so retires them and keeps the losing team onboard.

Just a thought

[lildude8218]

add "The" to all of their names