On August 31 I made a plea to All Elite Wrestling: Just Tag The Outrunners.
I was pleading with AEW to just build around a tag team in hopes of rebuilding their tag division. I made the case for why AEW needs to ride the lightning here and just run with this former comedy fodder team. Who cares if they were a punchline in the past? Just go with something so the tag division might get some life.
And AEW did!
The reward for AEW going with them is already being seen with Outrunners being top three for AEW merchandise in September. With a New Retro Wave classic theme song and now a win against the Grizzled Young Vets on AEW Collision? It truly feels like AEW is going with them.
Beating Grizzled Young Vets is also interesting. That’s a team that got the All In debut confronting Young Bucks and FTR. I thought they would be pushed as a Tier 2-A tag team but now with losses to FTR and The Outrunners it doesn’t feel like they will be in the plans for anything. They may have to grit their teeth into the Tier 3 with everyone else.
One team that might actually get a shot to move up is Private Party. With a win against the Young Bucks on AEW Rampage and now booked for an AEW World Tag Team shot, it’s a chance for them to at least show what they got on pay per view. This is what the division has desperately needed. You can’t just go to the FTR versus Young Bucks well and then have those two teams constantly fighting solo wrestlers put together. You have to actually give these Tier 3 tag teams a chance to work up to Tier 2-A and maybe they can get to Tier 1 with FTR and the Young Bucks.
Back to The Outrunners.
I mean, listen to that promo! This is an energy that All Elite Wrestling has needed for some time now.
Back on September 14, FTR and The Outrunners got to have their first Predator handshake and established what is already being sold on merchandise as The FTRunners (Fuck The Runners?) and while it’s hard to say if this is a faction or not, it’s definitely a union of the super mega ultra powers. Last night we even got to see the two teams train together as The Outunners had to see if FTR had THE STUFF
HD aspect ratio aside these videos are perfect. They give you exactly what The Outrunners are about and even loosen the neck and shoulders of FTR, a team that often gets accused of being stuck in their ways. Instead of being 30 year old men pretending to be a territory tag team from the 1980s so they can look down upon current professional wrestling, they instead get to embrace the 1980s in a way everyone can appreciate.
It’s often said that The Outrunners were doing the 80s tag team gimmick the way FTR should have always done it. I think they are just portraying different tag teams from the territory days. FTR focuses more on being The Brain Busters. The Outrunners are more about The Fabulous Ones. Both teams once they move closer to having fun but staying serious in the ring they get closer to The Midnight Express, specifically the Stan and Bobby era.
It should also be noted that much of the Muscle Beach and neon aesthetic wasn’t just an 80s motif but also early 1990s, which is probably why Turbo Floyd sometimes reminds me of Sting.
Let’s get back to FTRunners. A four man stable could have people to face, but these are two tag teams. Both tag teams want to be AEW World Tag Team Champions. There can only be one. I’m sure if one team won the ROH World Tag Championship and the other AEW I guess they would be happy, but it’s clear they have eyes on the same prize. Private Party will get their shot to beat The Young Bucks, and if they don’t? It feels like both The Outrunners and FTR would be next to lay claim to a shot.
It’s because of that, and because of FTR’s stick in the mud reputation, that I don’t think this meeting of the biceps is going to be a long relationship. Dax might be frosting his mustache now but eventually they are not going to enjoy it when The Outrunners are higher than them in the standings.
It’s not hard to see FTR being jealous of the popularity of The Outrunners and the way all fans in AEW have taken to them, while they have had to deal with a split of AEW fans who love them and AEW fans loyal to The Young Bucks who consider them the enemy. Everyone loves The Outrunners. And if you can’t be loved by everyone? Be hated by everyone.
FTR will have all the ammo in the world to complain about these guys making a mockery of great tag team wrestling, of being fakes, of being charlatans, who pretend to be the Youngest Men Alive and pretend to be an old school tag team instead of like… well, like FTR. FTR could view themselves as cleaning up the characters and leaving it to the real wrestlers like them.
But if FTR turns on The Outrunners? I don’t see the fans taking their side for a long time. This is a chance to add a fresh coat of paint on FTR and maybe get both sides of the AEW aisle to embrace them, but FTR can’t sit on the sidelines for too long. Maybe FTR helps The Outrunners win AEW Tag Team Gold because they hate the Bucks more and want to stick it to The Elite. But even if it gets to that point? That’s when the levee breaks.
There’s a part in Fight Club where the main character is going to support groups for cancer when he isn’t dying of cancer or any diseases and being in those support groups is the one thing that makes him feel alive. It isn’t until another tourist shows up that it ruins the illusion for him. He thinks he’s entitled to the illusion and she’s just a fraud. She knows she’s a fraud and enjoys the experience. That’s the difference between FTR and The Outrunners. The Outrunners know who they are and embrace it. FTR has always been uncomfortable about it. FTR cannot have a lie reflecting their lie.
Getting tag team wrestling back on track, like I said, is all about giving The Outrunners a chance. And FTR I suspect will be the ones to try to ruin it.
The Outrunners Cannot Trust FTR.
“yet another shot of the old tv in chinook motel” by gothopotam is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
