When fans reflect on the greatest tag teams of all time, a large segment of them turn to WWE’s Attitude Era. This was a period when teams as talented and memorable as The APA, Too Cool, and The Holly Cousins couldn’t quite break through to the upper echelons of their division on account of just how stacked the tag scene was. Yes, it was The Hardy Boyz, The Dudley Boyz, and Edge and Christian who ultimately ran away with things on the backs of their sublime TLC efforts (not to mention star teams like The Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection and The Brothers of Destruction snagging the spotlight). At the front end of Attitude, though it was The New Age Outlaws who stole the show.
Related: New Age Outlaws: 5 Reasons Why Road Dogg Was The Team’s Star (& 5 Why It Was Billy Gunn)Their ethos wasn't so much about brilliant tandem offense or ring psychology as an iconic shtick on the mic that connected them with crowds like few teams before or since. The combination of The Road Dogg and Billy Gunn didn’t always thrive, though, including their time in TNA when BG and Kip James were billed as The Voodoo Kin Mafia (or VKM for short).
The New Age Outlaws Shtick Needed A Rest
The New Age Outlaws were infinitely quotable on their ring entrance with BG James running the show before handing the mic to Kip for his iconic call and response that “If you’re not down with that, we’ve got to words for you!” However, the uncomfortable reality was that for all BG’s charisma and Kip’s sensational look, once the bell rang, they were relatively average as a tag team. Yes, they had some fun spots, like necessitating the creation of “The Outlaw Rule” so one man couldn’t pin the other to steal a victory in three- or four-way matches. In the end, though, they were an iconic entrance, paired with a team that probably would’ve been lost in the Attitude Era shuffle without it.
By the mid-2000s, the act had run its course. While it’s true that they would have a fun nostalgia run, reunited in WWE from 2013 to 2014, for the decade-plus in between the act really could have used a rest, because fans just weren’t as into it as they’d been at the team’s peak popularity. So, when TNA put them together as The James Gang, and then rebranded them to the edgier Voodoo Kin Mafia, it felt like a pale imitation of an act that had once been over, not to mention that none of their best matches as a team happened in this era.
Voodoo Kin Mafia Personified TNA’s Unhealthy Obsession With Competing Against WWE
Jeff Jarrett has discussed time and again on his My World podcast that his vision for TNA was never to truly compete with WWE, but rather to pose an alternative and hold onto a healthy market share by virtue of being different, and offering a home for wrestling fans who weren’t as interested in what WWE was serving up. Jarrett wasn’t the only one to exert influence over the product, though, especially as the years went on, and Dixie Carter was among those who led the charge to brand TNA as a competitor to WWE--a part of why so many fans resent her time steering the promotion.
At its worst, this competitive framing entailed leaning into what had worked for WWE in the past, or emulating storylines the company promoted in that moment. The Voodoo Kin Mafia underscored a lot of what was wrong about that mindset. In promos, they vocally took credit for the popularity of DX and online they staged stunts like trying to accept an open challenge The Hardy Boyz had laid down across company lines. Perhaps worst of all, the name Voodoo Kin Mafia itself was, by all indications, explicitly contrived so that, in acronym form, it would match Vincent Kennedy McMahon’s VKM initials. While it seemed clear the objective was to be edgy and call out WWE, the results felt forced, desperate for attention from a much larger wrestling company that justifiably felt no need to acknowledge them.
The Voodoo Kin Mafia’s Storyline With Christy Hemme Dragged
One of the fundamental flaws with the concept of the Voodoo Kin Mafia was that a group focusing so much attention outside their own wrestling promotion didn’t really lend itself to any organic stories amidst their own roster. Moreover, particularly by that stage of their careers, BG and Kip James were pretty squarely either tag team or mid-card wrestlers, so what might have in theory been one of TNA’s most featured acts found itself working much lower profile matches and angles when they got down to business.The most memorable VKM angle was probably their ongoing conflict with Christy Hemme.
Related: 10 Things Fans Forget About Christy Hemme's Wrestling CareerThis angle wasn’t all that well received at the moment, but has aged even worse for Hemme campaigning for more opportunities for women to wrestle and VKM dismissing her as shrill or a “slut.” A heel Hemme backed The Heartbreakers as well as the tag team formerly known as The Basham Brothers in the months to follow, while Kip and BG enlisted the help of Roxxi Laveaux to counteract her interference. The action and storylines ranged from forgettable to downright bad.In the end,
The Voodoo Kin Mafia was TNA at its worst—fighting outside its weight class when it took swings at WWE, failing to focus on their own company or their homegrown talent, and ultimately arriving at poor stories and matches. The men who portrayed VKM are legends in the business and have gone on to much better things in WWE and AEW (and arguably even in other efforts under the TNA umbrella) but this was far from their finest hour.
