Revival of the X-Division: Tale of the Tape
Outside Impact Wrestling. A long time "Jerichoholic", Mick Foley, Kurt Angle & Hardys fan, pop open a little bit of the Bubbly, read what's being written by me with an open perspective & enjoy.
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- Revival of the X-Division: Tale of the Tape - June 20, 2021
Rich Swann (Jan 6th – Jul 19th 2019)
Currently holding the 3rd longest run as X-Division champion with an impressive 194 days as X-Division champion. Swann’s reign was only 5 days behind Tigre Uno’s 199 days & 107 days behind Austin Aries’ seemingly untouchable record of 301 days representing the X-Division. Rich Swann’s run as champion would continue to showcase his skills as an extremely skilled high flying wrestler who could take a lot of punishment throughout his matches.
Facing off against big names such as Willie Mack & Rey Fenix, Rich Swann’s first big rivalry would come from Sami Callihan who was determined to get Rich Swann to join OVE (Ohio Versus Everything). Leading to some very brutal matches & promos between Swann & the trio of Sami Callihan, Dave Crist & Jake Crist. Ending with a Street Fight between Swann & Callihan for the X-Division title.
After dispatching Sami Callihan, Johnny Impact, who after losing the World Title to Brian Cage, was hoping to get the X-Division championship to cash in Option C as quickly as possible would be next & after beating Impact at an absolute masterclass of wrestling entertainment between the two at Slammiversary, Rich Swann would then lose the belt to Jake Crist the following week.
Rich Swann brought back the expected frequent use of high flying offensive moves of previous X-Division champions or contenders such (before Brian Cage started to flatten the curve) but all of Rich Swann’s matches challenging for the X-Division title, defending it & the direction his career has gone since has been packed with highly skill based offensive strategy, endurance & nonstop entertainment.
Jake Crist (Jul 19th – Oct 20th 2019)
Someone who deserved the X-Division title for a very long time, a regular face in the returning Ultimate X matches & various multi-man X-Division championship matches. But Jake Crist is someone who’d finally won it, at the worst possible time (from a personal perspective & an opinion shared by many).
Frustratingly most of what Jake Crist added to the rebuilding of the X-Division came from all the matches he’d taken part in as a challenger, taking part in every Ultimate X match since it’s return, delivering an immense mixed offence, highly enjoyable matches & despite being booked as “the most underestimated man on the roster” since running solo, due to a back injury keeping his brother from wrestling on a regular basis & Sami Callihan taking the spotlight as OVE’s leader, when Jake Crist had beaten Rich Swann the stable balance they had carried forward, mixing of styles in the X-Division, popularity not needing to be the key factor (as we would see again when Rohit Raju would become champion) his run as X-Division champion would boost his promo skills & left fans hoping for a split from Sami Callihan as his title reign continued. He was a worthy champion that lacked direction.
After beating Rich Swann the majority of Jake’s run as X-Division champion was interlined between the ongoing rivalry between Sami Callihan & Tessa Blanchard, taking all the attention & a lot of booking opportunities away from Crist as alongside Sami, he had pretty much every match against or involving Tessa throughout his run as X-Division champion.
Jake Crist would defend the title rarely due to the experimentation with inter-gender wrestling, but any match he was in (title or non title) wasn’t a poor match. Holding the X-Division title added an extra boost to his popularity, it added higher stakes in his matches & things would get so chaotic between anyone after the X-Division title, it would have to be settled in a 5 way Ladder match at Bound For Glory.
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