The Naturals

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The Naturals


Statistics
Ring name(s)	The Alternative Express Natural Heat The Naturals
Billed height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm) - Douglas 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) - Stevens
Billed weight	440 lb (202 kg) - combined
Resides	Nashville, Tennessee
Debut	2003

The Naturals are a professional wrestling tag team made up of Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens.

[edit] History

While working for USA Championship Wrestling, Douglas and Stevens were paired together by booker Bob Ryder. They were briefly known as Natural Heat before shortening their name to The Naturals. In USA CW, The Naturals were old-school Southern style heels.

Douglas and Stevens began working for Jerry Lawler's Memphis Wrestling promotion in 2003, where they were renamed The Alternative Express. The Alternative Express—a gothic pair of rock fans who wore black clothing and recolored their hair and fingernails—were managed by The Goddess Athena. Athena later left The Naturals after a falling out, and they gained a new manager, April Pennington.

Douglas and Stevens were brought into TNA in late 2003 as The Naturals, immediately beginning a lengthy feud with America's Most Wanted. In the course of the feud, they defeated America's Most Wanted for the NWA World Tag Team Championships on July 7, 2004 in a twelve-second long match after hitting James Storm with one of the title belts. The Naturals successfully defended their titles against Triple X, but were eventually beaten by Chris Harris and Elix Skipper (one member of each team) on September 8, 2004.

In 2005, the Naturals formed a stable with Chris Candido, who also became their manager. They became peripheral members of Planet Jarrett in early 2005. On April 26 they defeated America's Most Wanted to become NWA World Tag Team Champions for a second time. The sudden death of Candido two days later led to a surge in popularity for the Naturals, eventually turning them face. They stated later in May that they were being advisor through the ordeal by a "legendary figure" in professional wrestling, though they declined to say who at the time.

The Naturals with Jimmy Hart in mid-2005.

On June 19, 2005 at Slammiversary the Naturals were assisted in a title defense against Team Canada by Jimmy Hart, who was revealed to be their secret advisor. Hart acted as their manager throughout the summer of 2005 before he left his voluntary on-screen capacities with TNA in September. In their feud with Team Canada, they briefly formed an alliance with AMW. Their animosity, however, won out as infighting cost them an eight-man tag team match with Team Canada at Sacrifice on August 14.

The Naturals survived an Elimination Match involving Team Canada, AMW, and Alex Shelley (who was supposed to team with Sean Waltman, who no-showed, and instead was assisted by Johnny Candido) to retain the titles at Unbreakable on September 11. Their reign finally ended on the October 22 episode of iMPACT! when they lost to AMW following interference from Jeff Jarrett and Gail Kim. They were defeated by AMW in their rematch at Bound For Glory on October 23, again following interference from Kim.

On October 25, Stevens injured his neck when he landed bad on his head during a tag-team match being taped for the October 29 episode of iMPACT! The injury was minor, and not expected to require surgery. The match, however, was omitted, and a replacement match was taped the next day. He returned on November 13 at Genesis.

The Naturals with new manager, Shane Douglas.

The Naturals went to the background in the early months of 2006. After Scott Steiner brutalized Andy Douglas in March, Chase Stevens spent about two months in singles action in the X Division with limited success. When Andy returned and they tagged again, their careers were seemingly in a downward spiral. Soon "The Franchise" Shane Douglas (no relation to Andy), a former NWA World Heavyweight Champion and TNA official, took an interest in them. After they lost to The Diamonds in the Rough on June 15, Shane confronted them, telling them they were squandering their talent. Invoking his friend and their former manager Chris Candido, he offered to be their new manager. With much audience approval, they accepted Shane's offer, and, after a month of intense training overseen by The Franchise, faced and defeated The Diamonds in the Rough in a rematch at Victory Road. The Naturals then entered a feud with Team 3D, even handing Team 3D their first loss in a Tables Match in TNA, but after a loss to Team 3D in a Tables Match one month later, Shane Douglas abandoned them, saying "This experiment is over."