The MidCard Mafia was a WWE tag team that consisted of Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks. It has also been called Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks. Tyler Reks & Curt Hawkins[1] or simply Hawkins & Reks[2] or Reks & Hawkins. The title Rekking Crew could also refer to them.
The team first started wrestling together on episodes of WWE Superstars, one of WWE's primary programs, in early 2011 albeit sporadically. In September 2011 however, following months of televised inactivity for both individuals, Hawkins and Reks returned in a backstage segment on Raw. Since then, the team have been competing together regularly on WWE NXT.
Etymology
The team is named after their YouTube webshow called MidCard Mafia. For further background see MidCard Mafia/skinny.
History
Early storylines (2011)
Hawkins and Reks both first teamed together on the February 3, 2011 episode of WWE Superstars in a tag team match against JTG and Trent Barreta. In the months before, Hawkins had been feuding with Barreta, while Reks had beaten both JTG and Barreta in singles matches. Hawkins and Reks won but as Hawkins was celebrating after the match, Reks hit him with his finisher, the Burning Hammer, leaving him the only person standing tall after the match. This act contributed even more to Reks' character of a mysterious monster. The following week on Superstars, Reks and Hawkins were put into a match against each other in which Reks picked up the win.
NXT (2011-2012)
After a period of absence from WWE programming, Reks and Hawkins reappeared on the September 5 episode of WWE Raw, apparently having patched up their relationship, discussing with Wade Barrett on how the duo were "starting something". They both made their in-ring return in a match against Percy Watson and Titus O'Neil in a winning effort on the September 8 episode of Superstars.
On the September 27 episode of WWE NXT, after the Usos beat JTG and Darren Young, Reks and Hawkins attacked them from behind. Over the next two weeks on NXT, Reks and Hawkins faced the Usos in tag team matches, with Reks and Hawkins winning the first match and the Usos winning the second match. Reks and Hawkins were in a 41-man battle royal on the October 14th episode of WWE SmackDown, but both were eliminated by Mason Ryan. They would then lose non-title matches to the tag team champions Air Boom (Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston) on the December 22 and 29 episodes of Superstars. Meanwhile, on NXT, Hawkins and Reks would feud with the duo of Trent Barreta and Yoshi Tatsu from December 2011. Both teams would play pranks on each other, with Tatsu being locked in a closet and Reks' hands being superglued onto an Xbox controller.
On January 18 Hawkins and Reks debuted matching red and black attire and beat Barreta and Tatsu. Reks and Hawkins appeared on the January 20th episode on Smackdown as two of the lumberjacks. On the 27th January Reks and Hawkins and other Superstars came out from the back to restrain Randy Orton from attacking Wade Barrett, once Barrett escaped from Orton he gave Reks an RKO, followed up by Hawkins arguing with Orton and receiving an RKO himself, Orton woud go on the RKO the other Superstars that had restrained him.
Reks and Hawkins would lose to The Usos and other tag teams on NXT and even appeared in backstage segments with Matt Striker complaining about not main eventing NXT, therefore on February 8, 2012 Reks and Hawkins took on The Usos once again in a main event match and won.
After many weeks of voicing their disgust with NXT general manager Matt Striker, Reks and Hawkins laid him out after a controversial win. After that incident Reks and Hawkins had been promoting "change" like Barack Obama presidential campaign.
On February 2, Reks and Hawkins interrupted Matt Striker's announcement by proclaiming change had come and brought chairs, popcorn and other items to watch his announcement and also poke fun of him because of his lacklustre career. After William Regal was announced as the match maker of NXT the pair were visibly angry.
Mar 14: defeated Alex & Percy.
Regal was disappointed with their complaining and had them work as janitors for a while. They were also involved in helping Johnny Curtis and Maxine chloroform and kidnap Matt Striker, who pursued revenge after he nearly missed Wrestlemania 2012 as a result.
Regal eventually offered them an ultimatum, where they had to fight one another and the loser would be fired, in an attempt to split up the duo and make them step up their game. Initially hesitant to do so, Hawkins struck first by surprise, though Reks ended up winning the match. Regal ended up also firing Reks too though, quickly reuniting the pair in their antipathy towards him, and encouraging them to seek out new allies.
Raw and Smackdown (2012)
The pair caught the attention of John Laurinaitis who promoted them to security guards for NXT, and also brought them to work on raw, where they teamed up with the Prime Time Players to attack John Cena.
While the two teams had briefly butted heads on NXT, they now appear to be unified in their appreciation for what Johnny Ace has done for them. The teams even sport matching pairs of neon green tights.
They also feuded with Ryback at one point.
On the August 17 Smackdown, Hawkins and Reks debuted a new stripper-dancing gimmick. They were then present at Summer Slam 2012 Axxess where they signed autographs from 4-6PM the day before, and had a modeling photo session for their new looks from 1-3PM before the PPV.[3]
After this, Reks asked for a release to spend time with family, and got it August 21, disbanding the team by his absence.
In October, Hawkins tweeted that he had gotten shoulder surgery.
YouTube
MCM
Reks and Hawkins created an animated YouTube series called The MidCard Mafia:
It was hosted on Reks' YouTube channel "TheRekkingCrew".
The show is of comical dialect and has received over 50,000 hits in just 3 days. The show has featured other lower card wrestlers including Tyson Kidd and Drew McIntyre.
The show has since been cancelled and previous episodes deleted from YouTube; it is believed that the pair had received much scorn backstage from WWE officials, especially in light of less-than-flattering commentary on NXT in regards to the show at times.
This has a section on TheRekkingCrew's blog.
This web series was referenced in the Dec 14 NXT by Trent Baretta. His insulting the success of the show led to he and his tag partner Yoshi Tatsu being assaulted by Reks and Hawkins.
After Reks left the WWE in late August 2012, Reks uploaded 2 teasier videos to his YouTube channel regarding the group. September 3 he added the 32 second BringBackMCM Trailer 1 where he tried to get #BringBackMCM trending. He said this was made after the show was cancelled in case they ever brought it back, but claimed they never did and never would.[4]
Two days later on September 5, Reks added the 1 minute 21 second video Midcard Mafia Trailer 2. He claimed in the summary that Hawkins (still with the WWE) had no idea he created these trailers.[5]
Inbox
The pair also starred in a WWE YouTube series called WWE Inbox, where Superstars and Divas from WWE answer questions submitted by fans on Twitter.
In wrestling
- Double-team finishing moves
- Powerslam (Reks) / Neckbreaker (Hawkins) combination
- Double-team signature moves
- Reks body slams an opponent onto Hawkins' raised knees
- Curt Hawkins' finishing moves
- Heat-Seeking Elbow
- Taste of Pain
- Tyler Reks' finishing moves
- Burning Hammer (Argentine backbreaker rack dropped into a DDT)
- Entrance themes
- "In the Middle of it Now" by Disciple (also Hawkins' theme in singles competition)
- "Tyrannosaurus" by Jim Johnston (also Reks' theme in singles competition)
Events
2011
- February 10, 2011 Superstars results: Reks defeats Hawkins
- Oct 4: defeated Usos
- Oct 11: lost to Usos
- Nov 22: with help of Darren Young defeated team of Percy & Titus
- Dec 7: lost to Usos
- Dec 15: lost to Trent & Yoshi.
- Dec 21: Tyler was unable to stop Trent from beating Curt.
2012
- Jan 18: defeated Trent & Yoshi (Trent Barretta and Yoshi Tatsu
- Jan 25: defeated by Usos.
- Feb 8: defeated the Usos.
- March 8: Working as Janitors for William Regal and earn alternative name "the Housekeepers" from Percy Watson.
See also
- Agents of Change (similar to the 'change' slogan of Hawkins)
- Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder
- The Gatecrashers
- Main Event Mafia
External links
References
- ↑ wwenxt/2012-06-13/results
- ↑ WWE NXT results: Hawkins & Reks fired!
- ↑ August 16, 2012: Summer Slam Axxess Schedule
- ↑ "Tyler Reks' Mid Card Mafia trailer. After the show was cancelled, I created this in case we ever decided to bring back the show. We never did, and we never will. So consider this one of the DVD extras."
- ↑ "This was the second and final #BringBackMCM trailer I developed when I was debating on bringing the show back. Rekz and Big Glenn always had heat with each other, so it only seemed fitting to pit them against each other in this bitter rivalry that is the theme of this trailer.
Hawkins had no idea I was creating these so the heat's on me here.
Enjoy the second "DVD Extra".
Again, the show is NOT coming back... (or is it?)