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The British Invasion was a heel professional wrestling stable in the American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). The group consisted of English wrestlers Brutus Magnus and Doug Williams, as well as their Welsh enforcer Rob Terry.

History[]

Formation[]

In late April 2009 on Impact!, Doug Williams, the recently debuted Brutus Magnus and the newly signed Rob Terry attacked Latin American Xchange (LAX) members Hernandez and Homicide, ahead of a scheduled tag team match; the team also stole their Feast or Fired briefcases which guaranteed them TNA World Heavyweight Championship and TNA X Division Championship matches, respectively. Despite Hernandez being unable to compete, Homicide was forced to wrestle in what became a handicap match against Magnus and Williams. Terry acted, as he would for the next few months, as an enforcer who stood at ringside. By winning the match, they progressed to the second round of the Team 3D Invitational Tag Team Tournament. Two weeks later on Impact!, the team attacked Team 3D during an interview, much to the pleasure of Sheik Abdul Bashir and Kiyoshi, who were looking on. Later that evening, they faced the team of Suicide and Amazing Red in the semi-finals and won the match after an interference from The Motor City Machineguns. The finals took place at the Sacrifice pay-per-view (PPV) on May 24, with the winners receiving a shot at the TNA World Tag Team Championship against Team 3D the following month. However, the British Invasion were defeated by Beer Money, Inc. (Robert Roode and James Storm), despite Terry preventing the referee's count at one point, when Roode hit Williams with Hernandez's briefcase.

Despite having stolen the briefcases, Williams was insulted when interviewer Jeremy Borash questioned him about them, claiming to possess the briefcase fairly and offering to defend it to legitimise his claims. On May 28, on Impact!, Williams faced Cody Deaner with the X Division briefcase on the line in a Ladder match and won. Afterwards he celebrated with Bashir and Kiyoshi. However, a month later on July 10's Impact!, Williams lost the briefcase back to Homicide in another Ladder match. The group kept possession of the TNA World Heavyweight contendership briefcase until Hard Justice in mid August when Terry lost it to Hernandez in a nine-second squash match.

World Elite[]

After losing the Team 3D Invitational tournament, the British Invasion tried to interfere in Beer Money, Inc.'s match on May 6's Impact! but were prevented from doing so by Team 3D, who had gained respect for Beer Money, Inc. The following week, Team 3D revealed in an interview that they had invited the British Invasion to TNA and felt betrayed by their villainous attitude. Williams responded by hitting Devon with a briefcase to cost them their match that week. At Slammiversary, the British Invasion interfered in the TNA World Tag Team Championship match, causing Team 3D to lose their titles to Beer Money, Inc. Earlier in the evening, the British invasion were scheduled to face Rhino and Eric Young in a match, but Young walked out on his partner to be replaced by Rhino's prodigée Jesse Neal, but the British Invasion won regardless. Because Mick Foley wanted a rematch of his own, he persuaded The Main Event Mafia to give him it by promising their tag team, Booker T and Scott Steiner, a World Tag Team Championship match. This angered Team 3D who goaded the Main Event Mafia into a match for the contendership, but once again British Invasion interfered and used the briefcase to cause Team 3D to lose the match and with it, their chances of regaining the TNA World Tag Team Championship. Team 3D countered by costing Williams his Ladder match for the X Division Championship briefcase, but afterwards the British Invasion, helped by Bashir and Kiyoshi, assaulted Team 3D. That Sunday, at the Victory Road PPV, the British Invasion faced Team 3D for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, a championship sanctioned by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) which had a working agreement with TNA at the time. The British Invasion lost their match and afterwards Team 3D drove Bashir through a table.

On the July 23 edition of Impact! the British Invasion, Bashir and Kiyoshi faced the TNA Originals in a ten-man tag team match, but during the match Eric Young attacked his teammates and afterwards revealed himself to be the leader of the group which would later name themselves as The World Elite. The following week, on the 200th episode of Impact!, the British Invasion received a rematch for Team 3D's IWGP Tag Team Titles, but this time in a Tables match. After the referee was knocked out, chaos ensued with Terry and other members of the World Elite becoming involved. Devon put Williams through a table, but then Eric Young hit Devon with the IWGP title belt, laid Devon over the table and rewoke the referee making him think that Devon had been put through the table. Initially NJPW refused to recognise the title change, but they later acquiesced making the British Invasion officially the IWGP Tag Team Champions.

After helping them win the IWGP Tag Team Championship, Eric Young revealed the World Elite had allied with The Main Event Mafia. Williams and Terry cemented this by teaming with Mafia members Booker T and Steiner against Team 3D and Beer Money, Inc. Their tag match ended when Terry pinned Roode but even before it had ended a mass riot broke out in the Impact! Zone as increasing amounts of members from the Mafia, the Elite and the TNA Originals continued to run into the arena before the fighting spilled out into locker rooms and Universal Studios until actors portraying the police came to break up the action. Also in that evening, Magnus faced Sting in a losing effort. The four tag teams continued to feud, as they met each other in respective tag team matches at Hard Justice, with British Invasion successfully defending their IWGP Tag Team Championship against Beer Money, Inc. In early September, Team 3D, Beer Money, Inc. and The Main Event Mafia faced British Invasion in a four-way tag team match, which Magnus won. This caused Main Event Mafia leader, Kurt Angle, to reprimand the British Invasion who were supposed to aid the Mafia in winning, but Young calmed Angle. The two teams continued to show their allegiance by teaming at No Surrender in a Lethal Lockdown match, a cage match with staggered entry where a roof with weapons is lowered once all competitors are entered. However, Terry attacked Brother Ray before he entered, giving the team a temporary advantage until Beer Money pinned Williams. At Bound for Glory the British Invasion lost the IWGP Tag Team Titles back to Team 3D, but managed to win the TNA World Tag Team Titles in a four way Full Metal Mayhem Tag Team match against Booker T and Scott Steiner, Team 3D and Beer Money.

The British Invasion gave Beer Money, Inc. a rematch on the next episode of Impact! in a Six Sides of Steel match but successfully cheated their way out of the match by disqualifying themselves, meaning they lost the match but retained the titles. In a scripted speech the following week they revealed they were suspended without pay because of this but at Turning Point Magnus and Williams successfully defended the titles in a three-way match against Beer Money and The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin). The Machine Guns were given another chance at the titles the following month and in the buildup to this all three members of The British Invasion faced Sabin in a handicap match, which Sabin won against the odds when Williams and Magnus accidentally clotheslined Terry, who was then pinned. Despite this, at Final Resolution they were once again able to retain their titles. Also at the event was the annual Feast or Fired match, which saw five members of World Elite enter under the orders of Eric Young to prevent Beer Money winning a chance at the Tag Team Championship; despite his orders not to retrieve any of the four briefcases Rob Terry earned contention for the TNA X Division Championship.

In wrestling[]

  • Double-team finishing moves
    • Bearhug hold (Magnus) / diving European uppercut (Williams) combination
  • Doug Williams' finishing moves
    • Bombs Away (Diving knee drop)
    • Chaos Theory (Williams pushes the opponent against the turnbuckles, grabs hold of their waist, rolls backwards with them and follows up with a bridging German suplex)

Championships and accomplishments[]

External links[]

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