SoCal Uncensored

Author’s Note: In an attempt to break things up in this series of All Elite Wrestling talent previews, this week’s piece will focus on not one wrestler or even a tag team but an entire faction that came together until 2021 with SoCal Uncensored.

With that said, you can expect to see singles profiles for Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky in due time.

Rest assured that their singular careers and accomplishments won’t be ignored. With that said here is our AEW Talent Preview of SoCal Uncensored.

In the world of professional wrestling, it’s amazing what can be produced when certain personalities are brought together. With the right collection of individuals, greatness can be seen.

This has been proven over the years with the formation, and success, of a litany of stables. Names such as The Fabulous Freebirds, The Four Horsemen, The nWo, and D-Generation-X, just to name a few, are names that fans fondly remember.

All Elite Wrestling is no stranger to these entities as well. These go far beyond standard tag teams such as The Young Bucks and The Lucha Brothers, too.

In this week’s AEW talent preview, we will take a deep look at the collective endeavors of Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky. Together, they were SoCal Uncensored.

To understand how SoCal Uncensored became what it is today, it’s vital to go back all the way to the year 2010.

In TNA Wrestling, X-Division star Kazarian, along with AJ Styles, helped to form the stable known as Fortune. Daniels would join the group not long after.

Inspired by the aforementioned Horsemen, Fortune was also comprised of members such as AJ Styles, James Storms, Robert Roode, and original Horseman himself, Ric Flair.

During 2011, Daniels and Kazarian were less of a tag team and more so singles stars within the same faction. They pursued other goals. They would join forces from time to time, it took time for these two X-Division talents to truly unite.

In 2012, following the disbanding of Fortune, Daniels and Kazarian began to work in tandem.

In April, not only did they begin to pursue the TNA World Tag Team Championship, but they started to interfere in the personal life of Styles.

On the May 10th episode of IMPACT Wrestling, they claimed that Styles was having an affair with Dixie Carter, the president of TNA Wrestling.

Daniels and Kazarian went as far as to use photo and audio “evidence” to further paint Styles and Carter in a negative light.

Daniels and Kazarian would later win the TNA World Tag Team Championship at Sacrifice in May. They would lose the championship the following month at Slammiversary.

Daniels and Kazarian

The aforementioned Styles/Carter storyline received another wrinkle in June. It was revealed that they were not having an affair, but instead helping a pregnant woman named Claire Lynch, who was battling addiction.

Later that night, following a second TNA World Tag Team Championship victory, Daniels and Kazarian revealed that the father of Lynch’s unborn baby was none other than Styles.

This led to Destination X, in July, where Styles defeated Daniels in a Last Man Standing match.

The Lynch storyline ultimately ended when it was revealed that she was not actually pregnant, but instead faked it to blackmail Styles. This was orchestrated by Daniels and Kazarian.

This storyline was heavily criticized in the wrestling community for many reasons, including the widely shared opinion that it was a poor use of Styles, Daniels, and Kazarian.

Nonetheless, the angle allowed the latter two to showcase their charisma, which would help them as a tag team moving forward.

With the Lynch storyline in the rearview, Daniels and Kazarian firmly remained in TNA’s tag team scene. At Bound for Glory, in October, they lost the TNA World Tag Team Championship in a three-way match.

They attempted to regain the championship in November, at Turning Point, against Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Hernandez but were unsuccessful.

Bad Influence continued…

As the tandem known as Bad Influence, Daniels and Kazarian continued their tag team endeavors in 2013. Unfortunately, they found themselves on the receiving end of losses more often than not.

Whether it was against Guerrero Jr. and Hernandez in February, or Gunner and James Storm on the house show circuit, Bad Influence struggled. Their next angle came when, at Bound for Glory, they attacked Joseph Park.

Later in the night, Abyss emerged and attacked the tag team. This resulted in Bad Influence attempting to reveal Abyss’ identity, which ultimately led to a Monster’s Ball at the end of the year. Bad Influence would lose the encounter.

In April of 2014, Daniels left TNA, with Kazarian doing the same the following May. In June, Daniels and Kazarian debuted for Ring of Honor.

At Best in the World, they unsuccessfully challenged ROH World Tag Team Champions reDRagon, comprised of Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish.

In ROH, they would work with other established tag teams, including The Briscoes, War Machine, and The Young Bucks. They also started being billed under the tag team name known as The Addiction.

The year 2015 marked The Addiction’s first taste of tag team gold in ROH, as they defeated reDRagon for the ROH World Tag Team Championship in April.

The successfully defended the championship until September, when they lost it in a three-way to The Kingdom at All-Star Extravaganza VII.

The Addiction would make their way to NJPW, in November, to compete in the World Tag League 2015 tournament. In Block A, they finished with three wins and three losses, which prevented them from advancing.

The Addiction

The Addiction started 2016 with a feud against The Motor City Machine Guns. At ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds, in May, The Addiction became two-time ROH World Tag Team Champions by defeating War Machine.

For the next few months, The Addiction successfully defended the championship against teams such as Roppongi Vice and Silas Young and The Beer City Bruiser.

In September, at All-Star Extravaganza VIII, The Addiction lost the championship in a Ladder War, which also included The Motor City Machine Guns, to The Young Bucks.

By 2017, with the growing threat of Bullet Club, The Addiction turned babyface. In February, Kazarian seemingly turned on Daniels, joining forces with the aforementioned faction in the process.

Nonetheless, Daniels headed to ROH’s 15th Anniversary Show, in March, to challenge ROH World Champion Adam Cole.

During the match, Kazarian turned on Cole, helping Daniels win the aforementioned championship for the first time in his career. In June, at Best in the World, Daniels would lose the championship to Cody.

By the end of the year, however, Daniels and Kazarian gained a new ally, who made his return to ROH: Scorpio Sky. Daniels, Kazarian, and Sky would go on to form the group known as SoCal Uncensored.

SCU

SoCal Uncensored kicked off 2018 with a bang. In March, at the ROH 16th Anniversary Show, they defeated Bullet Club members Hangman Page and The Young Bucks for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship.

They would drop the titles later that May to The Kingdom, comprised of Vinny Marseglia, TK O’Ryan, and Matt Taven, at ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds 2018. In October, Kazarian and Sky teamed up to defeat The Briscoes for the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

At Final Battle, in December, The Briscoes would regain the championship in a Ladder War. By the end of the year, SoCal Uncensored was gone from Ring of Honor.

What should be noted, as All Elite Wrestling was still in development, SoCal Uncensored took part in “The Biggest Independent Wrestling Show Ever” known as All In. Kazarian and Sky teamed up to defeat The Briscoes in the preshow.

In the second match on the main card, Daniels successfully challenged Stephen Amell. Amell previously had worked for not only ROH in 2017 but World Wrestling Entertainment in 2015.

2019 started strong for SoCal Uncensored as well, albeit in a different way. At All Elite Wrestling’s rally in January, with SoCal Uncensored present, it was announced that the stable in question.

Would they be joining AEW’s roster? Following a small bout of t-shirt shilling, Daniels proclaimed that they wanted to be part of the name “on the lips of the professional wrestling world.”

SoCal Uncensored would appear at the Double or Nothing ticket announcement party the following month, where they hyped their Double or Nothing afterparty, SCU All Night. It was later announced that at Double or Nothing, to take place in May.

SoCal Uncensored would square off in six-man tag team action against OWE’s CIMA and two partners that would be decided in a tag team tournament in the Shanghai-based organization.