In the grand circus of professional wrestling, every so often two guys get shoved together by a booker and told, “You’re a tag team now.” Most of those pairs vanish before anyone remembers their names. But in the early 2000s, Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens beat the odds long enough to leave skid marks on the industry. They were The Naturals—a team that rose, peaked, and fell faster than a ladder match bump.
Natural Heat, Synthetic Identity
It started in USA Championship Wrestling, when Douglas and Stevens were paired together by booker Bob Ryder. They were dubbed Natural Heat, because apparently all the good names were taken. Eventually they shortened it to The Naturals—a label that implied effortless skill, though in truth, they were more “mid-shelf vodka” than “natural-born killers.”
In Memphis Wrestling, they became The Alternative Express, black-haired and black-nailed goth kids managed by The Goddess Athena. They looked like Hot Topic clerks trying out for a vampire rock band. It didn’t last. Athena left, April Pennington arrived, and the gimmick evaporated. But TNA was desperate for tag teams, and in late 2003, the company scooped them up.
TNA: Enter the Naturals
TNA was the land of misfit toys, and The Naturals fit right in. They debuted as old-school Southern heels and immediately got tossed into a feud with America’s Most Wanted, the top tag team of the time. On July 7, 2004, they shocked the world by beating AMW for the NWA Tag Team Titles—in just twelve seconds, after clocking James Storm with a belt. It was a smash-and-grab, a crime scene disguised as wrestling.
For a while, things looked good. They defended against Triple X, feuded with AMW, even had moments of legitimacy. But nobody bought them as long-term kings. They were opportunists, placeholders—good enough to steal a match, not good enough to headline a pay-per-view without help.
Candido’s Ghost
In 2005, Chris Candido became their manager. Candido was a veteran, a man who knew how to make a team matter. With him in their corner, The Naturals got another push, winning the NWA Tag Titles for a second time. Then tragedy struck: Candido died suddenly two days later.
Fans, out of sympathy, turned The Naturals into babyfaces. They weren’t beloved—they were pitied. Still, they ran with it, even bringing in a “mystery advisor” to guide them. That advisor turned out to be Jimmy Hart, megaphone and all. For one surreal summer, The Naturals had credibility, Candido’s memory, and Jimmy Hart’s neon jacket all behind them. They defended against Team Canada, briefly allied with AMW, and held the belts for months. At Unbreakable in 2005, they survived a three-way elimination match to retain. For a moment, they weren’t just surviving—they were thriving.
But wrestling doesn’t do happy endings. In October, Jeff Jarrett and Gail Kim stuck their noses in, costing The Naturals the belts back to AMW. At Bound For Glory, they lost the rematch, again thanks to interference. Just like that, the magic faded.
The Downslide
In 2006, TNA gave them one more chance. After Scott Steiner brutalized Andy Douglas, Chase Stevens went solo for a bit. Then came Shane Douglas—the original Franchise—who showed up to “mentor” them. He berated them on live TV, invoked Chris Candido’s name, and whipped them into storyline shape. With Shane in their corner, The Naturals upset Team 3D in a tables match—the first loss Team 3D ever suffered in TNA.
It was the biggest win of their careers. And it was their last.
A month later, Team 3D beat them back. Shane Douglas declared “the experiment is over” and dumped them. That wasn’t just storyline. TNA management had grown tired of The Naturals, deciding they had been given every chance to show charisma and failed. The fans didn’t buy them as stars. The company pulled the plug.
The Long Goodbye
In 2007, The Naturals floated in limbo. They returned for some house shows, popped up on Xplosion, and were officially released by TNA in May. TNA Mobile announced they might show up occasionally without contracts, but the writing was on the wall. They were done as a force.
They grabbed the IWA Tag Titles in Puerto Rico later that year, but vacated them when they left. They worked some indies, but the big stage had already shut its lights on them.
WWE: The Last Shot
In 2008, The Naturals tried their luck in WWE. They teamed with Luke Hawx on SmackDown, only to get squashed by The Big Show. Stevens worked ECW matches against Jack Swagger and Mike Knox, losing them all. WWE wasn’t interested. The Naturals were relics of TNA’s mid-2000s chaos, and WWE had no use for that kind of baggage.
Legacy of Almost
So what do we make of The Naturals? They’re not AMW, not The Dudleys, not The Briscoes. They’re not in anyone’s tag team Mount Rushmore. But for a brief stretch, they mattered. They were three-time NWA Tag Team Champions. They got the rub from Chris Candido and Jimmy Hart. They beat Team 3D once. They had the kind of careers that made fans say, “Oh yeah, I remember those guys.”
And maybe that’s enough. Wrestling history isn’t just main events and Hall of Famers. It’s filled with teams like The Naturals: guys who weren’t great, but weren’t terrible, who existed in the space between. They weren’t naturals, not really. They were survivors, grifters, opportunists.
They were a team that climbed the ladder, grabbed the belts, and fell right back down again. And in the carny world of wrestling, that’s still a hell of a run.
Epilogue: Candido’s Curse
The ghost of Chris Candido haunts their story. His death gave them their biggest push, but once his spirit faded from the act, so did their momentum. Without him, they were exposed: two decent workers with no charisma, pushed into the spotlight by tragedy and carried there briefly by nostalgia.
Fans moved on. TNA moved on. The Naturals didn’t. But for a while, they stood in the glow, champions, faces on posters, the team to beat.
Now they live in that strange middle space of wrestling memory: not icons, not embarrassments, just there. The Naturals. Three-time tag champs. Briefly important. Quickly forgotten.
Final Word
Andy Douglas and Chase Stevens were billed as “The Naturals,” but nothing about their story was natural. Their rise came through gimmicks, managers, tragedy, and borrowed credibility. Their fall was inevitable. But in wrestling, sometimes the greatest compliment isn’t that fans loved you or hated you—it’s that they remembered you at all.
And for better or worse, fans still remember The Naturals.