Lasting Impact

Wrestling Digest, August, 2000 by Gabe Sapolsky

Lance Storm and Justin Credible combine to form a tag-team dynasty in ECW

SUCCESSFUL PROFESSIONAL wrestling tag team must function like a left and right hand. The individual members should cooperate to hide each other's weaknesses, while showcasing the strengths. Lance Storm and Justin Credible, known collectively in ECW as the Impact Players, have evolved into a unit more effective than a Muhammad Ali one-two combination

While Credible and Storm have similar wrestling backgrounds, they still bring different elements to the team. Storm, a volleyball star at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, can soar through the air before deliver a dropkick or leg lariat on his opponent. Credible brings a gritty brawling style to the team's matches as evidenced by the Singapore cane he carries to the ring. The combination of Credible's intensity and Storm's finesse has led to two ECW world tag-team championships.

Having the beautiful Dawn Marie in Storm's corner and the interfering Jason in Credible's corner has added even more to the team. Storm and Credible are able to mesh these differing styles into a cohesive unil because Storm initially trained Credible.

The Calgary connection

In the summer of 1992, Pete Polaco traveled to Calgary to pursue hos pro wrestling dream at the Hart Family Dungeon, owned by Stu Hart, father of Bret and Owen. The man who in 1997 would become Justin Credible was delighted when he realized Lance Evers--Storm's real name--would be his instructor.

Storm had graduated at the top of Hart's class two years earlier. A custom of the school was for a top graduate to become a trainer. Credible had seen Storm wrestle and knew he was someone he could emulate. Meanwhile, Storm viewed Credible as one of only two people in the class with any potential, describing him as "very smooth in everything he did." After a summer of training, the two parted ways until they met again years later in ECW.

"I was very happy he got to train me," Credible says. "He left a big impression on my career. He was a stickler for basics and taught me a lot of fundamentals.

"He didn't have a mean streak. He knew how to communicate and he was all business," Credible adds. "He gave me my first concussion, though. It was one of my first times in the wrestling ring taking bumps for a couple of hours straight. My head was already pounding. When I snapped my head back on a move, the next thing I knew I was crosseyed for a month."

Storm remembers the incident as well. "He went down and rolled out of the ring and into the washroom," Storm says. "I thought it would take him a minute to recoup, but he never came back out. I went in after him and you could tell he just didn't know where he was. My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, and I took him to the hospital. It ended up being a pretty bad concussion, and he was out for a couple of weeks."

Separate roads to ECW

From the Hart school, Storm and Credible took different paths before making an impact in ECW. Credible spent a year working for independent promotions in the New England area. Then in 1994, Credible caught what he believed was the break of a lifetime when he signed a contract with the WWF. After three years of working in preliminary bouts under a mask as Aldo Montoya--and being associated in the locker room with the clique of Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, mid Sean Waltman--Credible itched for the chance to take off his mask. In 1997, ECW gave him that opportunity.

While Credible was battling anonymity in the WWF, Storm experienced international tag-team success. In Japan he won the WAR (Wrestle And Romance) promotion's tag-team title twice with Yuji Yassarooko by defeating Gedo and Chris Jericho and then Jushin Liger and El Samurai. In Jim Cornette's Smokey Mountain Wrestling, Storm teamed with Chris Jericho before moving to ECW and winning the ECW world tag-team title with Chris Candido in December 1997.

In 1998, the two men individually feuded against Jerry Lynn, Tommy Dreamer, and Shane Douglas. During that year, ECW owner Paul Heyman realized that a Storm-Credible duo would not only help both wrestlers develop further, but would accomplish one of his long-term goals. Heyman, who is astute in recognizing his wrestlers' strengths and weaknesses, knew Storm and Credible would perfectly complement each other.

Tag-Team dynasty

"I've always been in search of a Pat Patterson and Ray Stevens combo, who were 25 years ahead of their time," Heyman says. "They were a team that acted like one. I thought where Lance lacked, Justin excelled, and vice versa. I've also created one hell of a competition between them, as they keep forcing each other to get better so one doesn't get surpassed by the other."

Credible said being in a team with Storm has made them close friends outside the ring. The two frequently travel together.

"We work so well together because we both have the same goals in a match," Storm says. "The match is more important than the individual. We don't care about who ends up pinning whom, we both work for whatever comes out best. We are the best team in the business now. As far as versatility and pure wrestling matches with intense heat and near-falls and excitement, I don't think anybody can touch us."