In early 2014, just months before indie superstar Kevin Steen would sign with the WWE and become WWE Superstar Kevin Owens, and one year before Johnny Gargano would make his own WWE debut in NXT, there was huge anticipation about a tag team that was seemingly about to emerge on the independent circuit featuring both wrestlers – a new unit entitled Panda Express. Born out of a new friendship born on a European excursion in late 2013 and nurtured in Gargano’s backyard of Ohio’s Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW) in early 2014, it was the talk of the indie world. Until it ultimately never materialized. Here’s a quick look at the tag team that almost was, what we missed out on, and hopes that perhaps one day the Express will manifest in the WWE.

Panda Express: The Greatest Tag Team That Never Was

Both Steen and Gargano were two of the indie scene’s biggest stars of the 2000s. Steen began in his home province of Quebec, Canada in 2000, while Gargano began in his home state of Ohio in 2005. In his fourteen year run on the independent circuit, Steen amassed all kinds of hardware – 3x PWG World Champion, ROH World Champion, CZW Iron Man Champion, 3x PWG World Tag Team Champion, ROH World Tag Team Champion, the list goes on. In Gargano’s six years on the indies, he was AIW Absolute Champion, Smash Champion, 2x AIW Intense Champion, 2x Dragon Gate Open The Gate Champion, 2x CHIKARA Campeonatos de Parajes (Tag Team) Champion, and EVOLVE Tag Team Champion. Both men had their pedigrees. They two first bumped heads, oddly enough, in Canada at Smash Wrestling, when Kevin Steen and Tyson Dux paired up to face Smash Champion Johnny Gargano and Scotty “Hacker” O’Shea, in January of 2013. But it was several months later, when the two went to Europe and worked together in England’s Preston City Wrestling (PCW) and more importantly, Germany’s wXw, that the two became friends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBxszNbbIBw

In a match that seems like a dream match in today’s world, on April 27, 2013, Steen and Gargano were paired together in a tag match with wXw at the Hasta La Victoria Siempre Tour Finale, facing off against an upstart UK team called Leaders of the New School (which featured Zack Sabre Jr. and Marty Scurll). Though Steen and Gargano lost that night, a friendship was born. That August, Steen and Gargano would meet up again, this time in Steen’s home turf of PWG, when Gargano upset Steen in the Quarter Finals of PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles Tournament. They’d face each other twice more that year – Steen and his tag partners in Mt. Rushmore 2.0, The Young Bucks, defeated Gargano and The Irish Airborne (OvE’s Dave & Jake Crist) at 2CW in New York, and then Gargano defeated Steen once more, this time in AIW, late in the year at November’s Hell on Earth 9. But it was at the following AIW event, December’s Dead Presidents, that the wheels for Panda Express were set in motion. That night, Johnny Gargano lost his AIW Absolute Championship to “All Ego” Ethan Page and Kevin Steen was defeated by AIW Intense Champion Louis Lyndon. Both mens defeats filled both Gargano and Steen with a sense of rage that was only unified by them deciding to take on both men together.

The two, now called Panda Express, were slated to face Page and Lyndon at AIW’s Nuthin’ But A G Thang on April 25, 2014 to settle their differences in the ring, and make Panda Express’ official debut. The announced T-Shirts (that were briefly available through Pro Wrestling Tees) and began training for the hotly anticipated tag match.

Sadly, just prior to the match, Steen was forced to pull out, and in the tag match, he was replaced by current AAW Champion ACH. Steen returned to AIW, facing Chris Sabin in June, but by then the writing was on the wall. Steen was heading to the WWE. He would make his final indie appearance in August at Northeast Wrestling (NEW)‘s Wrestling Under The Stars 3, losing to Jerry “The King” Lawler in a Piledriver Match. For a few short months in 2014, the indie world was excited about the Panda Express, but alas, lady luck was not on their side (several unconfirmed internet rumours state that they were scheduled to face Motor City Machine Guns later as well).

There’s always the WWE right?