Wrestling
How did Impact world tag team champions Subculture choose their name?
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With Subculture's ascent to the world tag team championship in Impact Wrestling, eyes are firmly focused on the British stable.
Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews claimed the belts at Slammiversary earlier this month, putting the veteran team back in the spotlight.
Along with Dani Luna, the stable is known for its style in and out of the ring, and the championship reign brings renewed focus on the group's origin and its name. Speaking to DAZN's Steven Muehlhausen, Webster and Andrews addressed the group's moniker and the idea behind it.
"Well, it all comes from the fact that we are three different individuals that are from different subcultures," Webster said of the 'Subculture' name that followed them through various organizations over the past few years, noting that the stable's three members all have distinct tastes in music and personal style. "And it just is about kind of looking at wrestling as a subculture as well. And seeing that everybody, in some way, shape or form has something that makes them unique, even though they are part of a group.
"And we're kind of just saying, 'Hey, doesn't matter where you're from, doesn't matter if you're into into punk, grunge, mod, indie, metal [or] if you just like wrestling on its own, that you can come and join the subculture, like we have a place for you in our group.' So it is all about those individuals that have something unique about them, but have a similarity when it comes to wrestling."
Andrews added that he's not sure whether the stable would've worked in the past, given societal changes that have happened over the past 10-15 years. While he says the aesthetic and wrestling style likely would've been popular earlier in the century, the underlying message of the stable may have been lost in that time period.
The ability to be yourself is easier in 2023, Andrews says, which allows for people from different backgrounds to find mutual ground. That's what subculture — and Subculture — means to the former NXT UK and current Impact tag team titlist.
"It's that common ground that you have with people ... wrestling is that mutual subculture for all of us," Andrews said. "That's what this is all about. And I do think that yeah, in 2023, that probably is more prominent than it would have been maybe 10 or 15 years ago, maybe when those subcultures were a bit more closely tied, a bit more linked, and people were maybe less aware of these different areas in society."
