Hindsight Edition: Monty Brown

 

In the land of TNA during the mid-2000's there was a man who was probably TNA's fastest rising star within the company, quickly rising to being the top dog. He was 6'2, billed at 245 lbs. and was from the Serengeti. He was the "Alpha Male" Monty Brown.

A former NFL football player Monty Brown had all the attributes to be a superstar. The 2004 PWI Rookie of The Year winner. He was charismatic and had an air about him that made people take notice. He commanded attention on the microphone. His mannerisms at times were a bit over the top, but you either laughed at them or didn't realize because you were listening to him talk.

His in-ring skills were solid but not great, however he showed tenacity and ferocious in the ring. His finisher move the pounce especially coming off the six-sided ring could compete against any other spear in professional wrestling.

Monty frequently danced around the main event scene in TNA. But for all the attributes he possessed he never won a championship in the company. 

He then took the payday and opportunity in 2006 and moved to WWE. Debuting under the revamped ECW brand as Marcus Cor Von. He basically  was the exact same character as he was in TNA. Which I like to believe was a testament to how good he was, WWE didn't want to tinker with it.

He did the singles scene for a while before joining The New Breed, alongside Elijiah Burke, Matt Striker, Kevin Thorn and Ariel and later CM Punk. The group were supposed to represent the new era of ECW and battle against ECW originals (Tommy Dreamer, RVD, Sabu, Sandman). The groups biggest claim to fame was a tag match against the originals at Wrestlemania 23 which they lost. The group quietly disbanded a few months after that.

Sadly a year later he stepped away from pro wrestling to tend to his family after a tragedy. We as fans are left pondering with a bunch of what ifs about the alpha male.

Where does he rank amongst talents that had so much untapped potential? Was it a bad move to go to WWE? Should he have stayed in TNA?

 In the WWE universe I think he would have been world champion of the ECW brand. Raw or Smackdown during that time period he may not have been able to pass the IC/US title level, but he would have been a solid upper mid card player.

Had he stayed in TNA he would have easily been a multi time TNA world cchampion.A consistent member of the main event scene. He would have had some solid matches with Kurt Angle as they just missed one another when Kurt came to TNA. Along with matches against Desmond Wolfe (Nigel McGuiness), Low Ki, either American Wolves member Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards to name a few.

Dare I say he would have been in the conversation to be put on the TNA mount rushmore. Depending on if he stayed with the company well into the 2010's, his legacy would have been synonymous with TNA.

It's a shame he is one of the biggest what ifs in professional wrestling. His star was shining bright and it's a shame we as fans missed out on how far it would go.