Posted by Alternative 2.0 on July 2, 2004, 2:01 am

Alternative 2.0 won the CAL Tag Titles well even though they’ve only defended once, it was a long time ago. All the way back in March, in fact. They beat Wild “Excessive E’s” Tank and The PLODigy Brothers so called the Plods because their matches are plodding roffle I’m the best narrator ever. Anyway for the sake of Alternative 2.0, here’s what happened. From the beginning, because that’s the way we do things in the hood. 2001: Brad Andrews debuts as “Redbone” in BBW. He eventually reverts to Brad Andrews. Feuds with Kid Xtreme and Gemma “MaCe” Lockhart, including a very infamous incident in which, while attempting to help her win a match, he ripped her top off. Trivia notes that at the next BBW PPV, Brad debuted the Yield Sign, hitting Gemma with it and kicking off a feud that would last, off and on, to this very day. March 2002: BBW has closed down months earlier. Brad Andrews debuts in IWA as one of the IWA Untouchables. His debut match in IWA is a “fight out your problems” match against MaCe. He loses. He continues this trend as he fails to win a single match as an Untouchable, crowning it with a loss to Dittohead. About the same time, Miah DeVan shows up in IWA’s training camp. He’s only just graduated high school. May 2002: Brad makes his return to IWA by attacking MaCe. With the Yield Sign. Infamous Rant Writer Dan Wilberfource dubbed the sign sarcastically “The Yield Sign of DOOM” and it stuck, minus the all-caps in the word doom. Brad brings Miah DeVan up to IWA as a tag team partner. June 2002: Brad Andrews and Miah DeVan defeat Cult Of Suzanne, The Regulators and Ronnie Long/Brian Simon in their first tag match in IWA. They move on to defeat State Of Emergency to win the IWA Key West Tag Titles, thanks to interference from Steven Styles. Styles would not only go on to manage Alt 2.0, but win the phony title that Galahad and Toby passed around. July 2002: The reign of Alternative 2.0 atop the IWA Tag Division is cut short by The Commonwealth Hoodlums. Alternative 2.0 will never again find tag success in IWA. December 2002: Brad Andrews begins his descent into insanity. He becomes obsessed with Gemma Lockhart for the first time. In a tag title match – Alt 2.0’s first since they lost the titles – Brad hits Miah with the yield sign. Miah leaves wrestling. Brad goes onto a singles career. February 2003: Brad Andrews piledrives former IWA Heavyweight Champion Adam Delicious from the ring apron to the concrete floor. Adam is out of wrestling for a year and a half. Riding the waves this action caused, Brad manages to win himself a shot at the IWA South Atlantic Title, but fails to win it. May 2003: Brad Andrews wins the Florida Nightlife Title from Tracy Richter, but only because Richter was leaving IWA. A week later, he is placed in an asylum, vacating the title and handing it to Cole Christenson. October 2003: Alternative 2.0 reunites behind the scenes and arrives in BWWa. They win their debut match, against The Unholy Alliance. March 2004: Having gone undefeated in tag team action and capturing the BWWa Tag Team Titles, Alternative 2.0 defeat IWA’s Prodigy Bros and CAL World Tag Team Champion Wilde Tanke, to win the CAL World Tag Titles. June 2004: Alternative 2.0 defeat The Axis – Jeff Wheeldon and Jonathan Laslow – to unite the CAL World Tag Titles and the NPW Tag Titles. Sweet-ass. ***** Miah DeVan has been doing some thinking since the last time Alternative 2.0 defended the CAL World Tag Titles. Maybe he was in thought too deep to be bothered with showing for BWWa, but hey, it was only Shinobi Kamikaze. But this isn’t really about that. Miah has thought about what Brad Andrews has said about tag teams, and about his role in a tag team. To recap. Brad says that a tag team is a system. Brad says that Alternative 2.0’s system heavily relies on Miah not being taken seriously by anyone – including Brad himself. And Brad wastes no chance to tell Miah that he is inferior, and that he is just a lackey, but that being a lackey is a good thing and it makes him better than everyone else except Brad. It’s hard for Miah to tell what is the truth and what is bullshit when Brad is saying it. Brad did correctly diagnose a problem with being a tag team wrestler – that no matter how good you are, tag wrestlers are considered to be half of a wrestler. Incapable of sustaining themselves in the singles divisions, where the “real competition” is. This attitude came about the first time two main eventers – just to toss out random names, Flare and Freddy Phoenix – decided to team up and win a couple tag titles so they could list that on their resume. This attitude was reinforced with the arrival of the Untouchables. This truly great tag team was truly great, because they were more than a tag team – they were also wrestlers who had succeeded on a singles level. The stable was the key thing for them. But allowing them to treat tag team wrestling with such disregard as to swap tag team partners whenever they wanted to, and allow them to declare 3 men as champions? That doesn’t sit well with Miah. That’s why Brad Andrews brought Jonny Bravo in, but we’ll touch on that later. In short – the opinion is that tag team wrestling is the wrestling form of the inferior. With the exception of Old School Underground and The Prodigy Brothers – who’ve been discussed so often it’s not worth mentioning again – there are no pure tag teams in the CAL. Flare and Wilde Tanke? One singles wrestler, Flare. One guy who’s made a career out of teaming with various singles wrestlers, Tanke. Take it over to IWA and you’ve got Jeffy Andrews and Kai Scott. Two former Heavyweight Champs who’re entering the tag division, so say the execs, just to prove that they can. Either that or to prevent Heidi from humiliating them. Even if you look at CW Jack Cassidy, half of Rip Righteous, turns his back on tag wrestling to win a singles title. Yeah. If tag wrestling is such a lost cause, Miah wonders, why doesn’t he just give up on it?