In a case of art imitating art in the world of professional wrestling, the fine folks over at TNA Impact Wrestling decided to take WWE champion Daniel Bryan's months-long journey to WrestleMania 30 and rip off the storyline in just one night two weeks ago on Impact.
TNA used their own bearded underdog Eric Young and had him run a 10-man gauntlet to get a shot at the title, and then Young became TNA champion for the first time after ten long years with the company when he beat Magnus that same night.
WWE's backstage reaction to the Eric Young storyline was that they were "incredibly amused" by the whole thing and rumors circulated to The Wrestling Observer that while no one in WWE has a problem with Eric Young at all, TNA's booking was labeled "ridiculous" for ripping off the Daniel Bryan saga.
Let's see how it all went down, first with Eric Young's speech to MVP after running the gauntlet:
Then, at the end of the night, Young became TNA Champion for the first time in 10 years with the company by defeating Magnus via Piledriver:
WWE SmackDown results, Monday Night Raw preview 04.21.2014
And, to make things even more ridiculous over in TNA, Dixie Carter then went as far as to say that the beard was her intellectual property and that she was having people wear beards long before anyone else:
This is the type of booking that makes TNA look like a second-rate organization in every sense of the word. I have no problem with Eric Young whatsoever, and like those in WWE, I think he deserves any success he gets in TNA. However, it was a real disservice to EY to be booked into a TNA Championship victory with the underlying implications that he was given this chance mainly to counter Daniel Bryan's WrestleMania 30 win than for any other reason.
AJ Styles shoots on TNA Impact Wrestling
Also, TNA could have spent a little bit more time rebuilding Eric Young's character after being a gimmick wrestler and comedy act for the better part of 10 years, and then when he did win the TNA title after the legwork was done, the moment could have been just that much sweeter for all involved.
After all, it's pretty hard to compete with something as well-earned and well-crafted as this:
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