Courtesy of ROHwrestling.com.
Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly, collectively known as Future Shock, have been a tag team for over a year with many fans & wrestling pundits labeling them as surefire future tag team champions. Fast on their feet, technically sound, hard hitting, and risk taking…both men have all of the tools to make those predictions reality and stand out as the future of the ROH tag division. However at least one thing has kept Future Shock from climbing to the top rung of that ladder: they have never picked up that one big win. It hasn’t been for lack of opportunity, facing the likes of The Briscoes, WGTT, The KoW, and The Wolves for example, but they just have not secured that victory that puts them over the top.
As time went on though, especially as Davey Richards began his preparation for his “Final Battle 2011” rematch with Eddie Edwards, people began to speculate that their were other issues holding back Future Shock from ultimate success. Kyle O’Reilly, along with Tony Kozina, were, and still are, a big part of Richards’ training routine, be it in pro wrestling, jiu jitsu, boxing, or any of the other various disciplines in which Team Richards trains. As a result, Kyle spends a vast amount of time training with the ROH World Champion leading many speculators to say that this has hurt the full potential of what Future Shock could be. O’Reilly is ALWAYS training with Team Richards forcing Adam Cole to train on his own without the option of working out all of the kinks of the team by training with O’Reilly.
“I can’t and won’t deny my training with Team Richards.” Said Kyle, “But come on, anyone would want to train with the world champion of their sport if they had opportunity. I’ve just been fortunate enough to have chance to work with Davey as a trainer and mentor.”
That continuous training regiment has actually paid off for Kyle & Davey recently as they recently earned a ROH World Tag Team Title match when they defeated Roderick Strong & Michael Elgin in Norfolk, VA on January 21st. That title match versus The Briscoes goes down this Friday night when ROH makes its debut in Cincinnati.
The partnership between Kyle & Davey hasn’t sat well with Richards’ American Wolf brother Eddie Edwards either, especially as the tension between The Wolves rose with their battles over the ROH World Title at “Best in the World 2011” and “Final Battle 2011”. That tension was largely over the ROH World Title but the animosity between Edwards and O’Reilly has also been growing since Edwards was named the challenger to Davey at “Final Battle 2011”.
“Edwards has shown a total lack of respect and loyalty towards Davey.” Kyle added, “It was Davey that took him under his wing, molded him into a Wolf, made him a champion, but after everything with Severn, I’d say Eddie was only Davey’s friend and partner when it suited him, when he could get something out of it.”
“I can say that Kyle and I were never buds.” Edwards offered, “I can also safely say that his attitude towards me turned as soon as I won the World Title before Davey. I started to look at that kid as a jealous punk who wanted to drive a wedge between The American Wolves because he wanted to be a Wolf more then anything. I guess Future Shock was just something to do to kill time until he could get in the middle huh?”
Those thoughts explain why Edwards has recently reached out to Adam Cole on several occasions. The first came after Cole unsuccessfully wrestled a Proving Ground match with World TV Champion Jay Lethal in Greensboro. Following the loss Edwards approached Adam in the locker room, telling him that he may not have won the Proving Ground, but Cole proved something to Edwards. Another moment came after Cole stepped up in Edwards’ stead at “The Homecoming 2012” against Roderick Strong in a No Holds Barred match. During the course of the bout Michael Elgin attempted to interfere which brought out Edwards to fend him off. Then, the following night in Norfolk after Cole lost to Kevin Steen, “Wrestling’s Worst Nightmare” attempted to deliver the banned Package Piledriver to his vanquished opponent, again bringing out Edwards to prevent an unwarranted attack.
The latest edition of “Ring of Honor Wrestling” on TV (now available here for Ringside Members) saw things come to a head when Eddie and O’Reilly went one-on-one, and surprisingly, Adam Cole came out to ringside in support of “Die Hard”!
Although there doesn’t seem to be any issue between Cole & O’Reilly at this point, Adam as been very supportive of Kyle as a matter of fact, the tensions between Davey, Eddie, and Kyle are driving this car. Cole is looking for someone to mentor him a la Davey & Kyle, and who better than the only Triple Crown Winner in ROH history, and what better situation than to truly kick off that partnership than at the “10th Anniversary Event” on March 4th in NYC!
That night it will be ROH World Champion Davey Richards & Kyle O’Reilly vs. ROH’s only Triple Crown Champion “Die Hard” Eddie Edwards & Adam Cole! It’s the perfect opportunity for Kyle to prove to Eddie he’s a better tag team partner, for Eddie to shut Kyle up, for Davey to straighten out his issues with Eddie, and for Cole to step up into the main event scene. Which team will prove victorious at ROH’s birthday? And a better question may be will any friendships survive this tag team collision?