MNM - The new Tully and Arn?

[Guest savagerulz]

And MNM are the hot tag team to enter main events we've all been looking for. They're the modern day Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard.

 

MNM are the modern-day Arn and Tully, doing the tag formula better than anyone has done it in years. The nuances that have been forgotten over time have been brought back in a major way -- wrestling on their half of the ring, singling out a body part and destroying it, repeatedly cutting off hot tags, spending the first five minutes of the match doing great comedy and bailing outside. MNM have managed to get me excited about tag wrestling again, because it proves that it's not forgotten, and there's still hope. Both have Rey as FIP, and I can't really think of anyone you could ask for in wrestling today who would be better at that role. Batista takes no offense for MNM whatsoever, but he's also the world champion and I like that approach because each team member has a role instead of them being two equals. I much prefer this to the standard Shawn Michaels RAW tags we've seen for the past year or two with two FIP segments that are the exact same with restholds on the babyfaces and no attempts to cutoff the hot tag at all, with the babyfaces getting it on the first try. MNM have brought back ref distractions, doubleteam offense, they look like a tag team, and they have probably the best second in wrestling today in Melina.

I found the above quotes by Loss very interesting so I thought I'd comment.

 

Let me say why I disagree with this. He's talking about a few in-ring things. Tully and Arn made guys. They taught them how to work and led to them being superstars. They worked in a time when the tag team scene was red hot. They were part of one of the most succesful gimmicks in the history of the business, and plied their trade in both major federations to great success.

 

MNM cannot be called "the new Tully and Arn" because they haven't done much. Two good matches? Big damn deal. They use a lot of the same match gimmicks that Tully and Arn used? Infused a little psychology? Big deal. Every team worth their salt from the Tully and Arm era did that...and there were a ton. They wrestled in an era where teams were a big deal.

 

You want to say "MNM are a team that harkens back to a better time in tag team wrestling" or "MNM use a lot more psychology and heel tag techniques than most teams do nowadays" fine.

 

Calling them the new Tully and Arn is just plain wrong. I dislike anyone saying someone is flat out "wrong" ...these are opinions, after all, and anyone can say just about anything they want. Fine. But this need to take something new and give your praise supposed credibility by attaching it to something that EARNED it's name through hard work, decades of effort, and proved it's worth time and time again has the opposite effect. When you say "MNM is the new Tully and Arn" I know that no matter how you tapdance in words, it isn't going to work because it simply cannot be the case. How could it? They've been in the public spotlight a hiccup of time. They've made nobody. Hell, they've barely kept THEMSELVES above water, and it's questionable if they would even be around if it weren't for their valet.

 

I'm very vocal about my opinions, and write them out at length. I'm willing to grant most and conspiracy theory, or entertain most any notion. But MNM bear, at best, a passing superficial resemblance to Tully and Arn. They aren't Tully and Arn. Not even close. Could they be someday? Who knows. Let me know ten years from now if they:

 

1. Took some of the shittiest workers in the business and taught them enough about how to work that THOSE guys could later become the biggest stars in the business.

2. Not only worked a believable in-ring style, but were able to work with ANYONE credibly, from the biggest wrestlers to the smallest...from the fastest to the slowest, and pull great matches out of all of them for months at a time.

3. Got themselves over on the strength of their in ring abilities to the point where they could be matched up with anyone as singles, tag, or in the biggest gimmick matches in the business and pull them off with equal credibility.

4. Had the ability to work a high energy scientific match, or just beat the shit out of people. Tully and Arn could make you believe that they could hang with the Road Warriors by isolating one of them and working on a body part, then they could turn around the next night and beat the shit out of Ricky Morton to the point where people would lose their minds when Ricky would make the hot tag.

5. Tully and Arn could play the buffoon, lining up for Dusty's elbows and punches. They could play the badasses, jumping someone in the ring and "breaking their nose." They led to innovations in how tag team wrestling was done, and how people could work in a ring...Arn in particular.

 

There's more to wrestling than just what you do. Is it great if one of the tag teams nowadays uses some technique and psychology in their matches? Of course. Does that make them Tully and Arn? Ask me in ten or even five years...hell, ask me in a YEAR. Chances are MNM won't even be around in the current form by then.

[sek69]

Condsidering the state of tag team wrestling these days, MNM might just be the closest thing we get to Tully and Arn for a long time.

[Guest Dangerous A]

I kind of have to sort of go with savagerulz a little on this one, although I see where Loss is coming from. I just think maybe it's a little early in MNM's careers to be tossing such an acclaim like "the next Tully and Arn" tag around.

 

MNM are on their way to being a respectable tag team and if WWE actually emphasized tag work just a little more this year, there isn't a reason for MNM can't become a great team.

 

One thing for sure, Nitro has to keep getting better. Hell, he's even better from when MNM first debuted on SD which shows that he's picking up on how to work well. I think once Nitro is up to speed, the sky could be the limit.

 

However, I revere Tully and Arn's work (been watching NWA/WCW on saturdays from 1985 until it died) so perhaps it's a little premature heap such an accolade on MNM.

[Guest DylanWaco]

I will say this about MNM. They more closely resemble Arn and Tully than they do the Midnights or RandR's even though I think they are more likely to get compared to the former because of their "look".

[Loss]

I was making a comparison, not putting them on a level-playing field. How you got that I was arguing that they were every bit as good and memorable at this point from what I said is puzzling. They lay out their tag matches in the exact same way, more so than any team has in WWE in probably 10 years or more. And the things you mentioned are a big deal, simply because MNM are already outworking every tag team WWE has had in the past few years (Hardyz, Dudleyz, E & C), and some of those teams had a chance to do top-level matches like MNM has and they looked out of place. MNM hasn't at all. Yes, they're dampered by not having a great group of teams to work with, but that's hardly their fault, and they've done far more with far less than many teams have done with the same opportunities. Joey Mercury got decent matches out of HEIDENREICH, for Chrissakes. This team is for real.

[Guest savagerulz]

And the things you mentioned are a big deal, simply because MNM are already outworking every tag team WWE has had in the past few years (Hardyz, Dudleyz, E & C), and some of those teams had a chance to do top-level matches like MNM has and they looked out of place.

Yeah that's true. The TLC matches and cage and ladder matches between these teams are some of the least praised matches in the history of the company, performed at such unimportant events like Wrestlemania.

[Loss]

READ MY POSTS. Thank you.

 

I meant tag teams working with main event singles wrestlers, which should have been obvious, since a TLC match never headlined a Wrestlemania. All of those tag teams had chances to work with guys like Austin, Rock, HHH and Taker and they couldn't pull it off. MNM has been working with Eddy, Rey, Batista and Benoit and have pulled it off quite well.

 

I don't even know what you're arguing.

[The Thread Killer]

That makes both of you.