It was news when Shawn Hernandez, who uses his surname only in the ring, appeared on Impact last month as the newest member of the Beat Down Clan, ostensibly to replace Samoa Joe in the group, after Joe left for WWE/NXT. Unfortunately, Hernandez is also appearing in pre-taped episodes of Lucha Underground leading to and including the season finale, "Ultima Lucha", on August 5.
That created a conflict of interest, and, sooner or later, the other shoe was going to drop, and earlier this week, it did, when TNA was forced to edit any and all footage of Hernandez with the BDC out of episodes recently recorded in Orlando. Dave Meltzer is reporting that LU was planning on releasing Hernandez from his contract with them, but SuperMex jumped the gun and showed up in Orlando before any final agreements were made with his LU contract.
It seems that little detail wasn't discussed or disclosed when Hernandez and/or his agent began negotiating with TNA about a return to the company. They might've assumed that LU was going to give Hernandez his walking papers, forgetting about any possible no-compete clauses in the contract. You'd think that with two former tag team partners in Chavo Guerrero, Jr. & Konnan at LU, Hernandez would've settled in nicely. Apparently that wasn't the case.
Now comes word that MVP, the founder of the BDC, is leaving TNA, leaving Kenny King, on his 2nd tour of duty with the promotion, all alone to fend for himself on a sinking ship. Low-Ki & Homicide, the other half of BDC, are currently MIA, presumably in Japan or elsewhere. Chalk up another colossal fail for TNA, the latest in a long series of them, but the fault lies not just with them for not doing due diligence, but with Hernandez himself, because he needed the work, and didn't want to sit home doing nothing while waiting out his no-compete clause period.
It also makes LU look bad, for obvious reasons.
In truth, the BDC was nothing more than a revamped LAX with more of an African-American beat, and was doomed to fail after Bobby Lashley left the group and turned face. Should never have been a heel in the first place, in this writer's opinion. MVP's next stop is likely Japan, but because TNA owns the copyright to Beat Down Clan, even if he reunites with Homicide and/or Low-Ki, they can't use the BDC label. Maybe he should give Jeff Jarrett a call.
As for Hernandez, if Jarrett's been paying attention, I doubt he calls him in. Hernandez may have burned his last wrestling bridge in the US, and he only has himself to blame.
