Revisiting The Decay

This week, we will start off with a great question from one of our loyal readers, Shawn K. in Far Rockaway asked, "Which wrestling faction do you think was the most underrated?" This is an awesome question, Shawn. I have spoken about this group with many fans and their name was Decay. The members were Rosemary, The Monster Abyss and Crazy Steve. If I were to describe Decay, it would be as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre family of pro wrestling. They were dark, gory, unpredictable and violent. At the time, there wasn't anything like them out there in the pro wrestling world. They came out to the song

"The Nobodies" by Marilyn Manson, which suited them perfectly. They were what society would call outcast misfits. With their faces painted, looking gothic and crazy, they were definitely in a league of their own. They made their debut for TNA IMPACT on January 18, 2016. During a promo, they attacked the TNA World Tag Team champions, The Wolves. Many fans didn't know how to take them, they looked very weird but intriguing. But they would become a dominant force in TNA IMPACT, wrestling, in many hardcore matches, where they showed their violent side and were not afraid to shed blood.

In April 2016, they would become the TNA World Tag Team champions by defeating the team of Beer Money (James Storm/Bobby Roode). They would go on to have many successful title defenses. Around this time, Rosemary would start a relationship with TNA Superstar Bram and attempted to get him to join Decay. There were many great vignettes of them showing Rosemary falling in love with Bram, enticing him to join Decay. But unfortunately for Bram, they ended up attacking and abducting him when he attempted to walk out on Rosemary, when she told him she poisoned the first man she ever loved.

But the greatest performance from Decay was when they started a feud with "Broken" Matt Hardy and his real-life brother, "Brother Nero," which would lead to the cinematic match "Delete or Decay." There was such great buildup to their feud, with many vignettes being filmed. One especially was when Rosemary went to the home of the Hardy’s in Cameron, North Carolina and abducted Matt Hardy's son, "King Maxwell." The Delete or Decay match would take place in the Hardy compound and if you never saw this match, I highly recommend that you do. Decay would end up losing to the Hardys and eventually lost a whole host of matches until their breakup on April 20, 2017. The group did make a comeback on January 21, 2021, as Rosemary and Crazy Steve added new members Black Taurus and Havok. They had a pretty decent run, but to be honest, it wasn't the same Decay I loved watching.

In my opinion, TNA Creative totally dropped the ball with the original Decay. Right after the Delete or Decay cinematic match, they should have had Decay take a brief hiatus, then brought them back stronger by attacking whoever. They would have been champions at the time in TNA IMPACT. In my book, they had a huge following and were still extremely popular but had their storyline ended very prematurely. I still enjoy watching their old vignettes and matches. Again, I highly recommend you watch them.

Please send all questions and comments to eavil183@yahoo.com, and have a great weekend!