Top Five Tag Teams from wrestling history

Jamie Lithgow & Craig Wilson

That’s Marty, he’s Shawn (image courtesy of tumblr.com)

Tag team wrestling has had somewhat of a resurgence in the WWE this year. Kane and Daniel Bryan have added a great deal of legitimacy to a division that had been flailing whilst the current champions, The Shield, have been booked in the upper echelons of the card since debuting in the promotion.

Regular readers will know just how a big deal good tag team wrestling is to the various contributors of this blog and in this week’s ‘Top Five’ we look at the top five tag teams in wrestling history.

Jamie Lithgow

Honourable mentions:

The British Bulldogs – A little before my time
The Hardyz – Certainly in my top 10, not quite top 5 though
The Dudleyz – Ditto
Road Warriors – As a kid I only knew them as WWF guys, and I was never really that into them
The New Age Outlaws – Good, but never had any real competition to push them once they had conquered LOD

5. The Shield

Controversial choice perhaps, but hey, it’s my top 5, not yours! These guys have been booked almost perfectly since their debut last year, and considering the way other newcomers have been booked over the last few years this truly is a breath of fresh air. My only slight qualm is that I would love to see them implement ‘Freebird rules’ when defending the Tag Titles. However, even without Ambrose in the rotation these days, Rollins and Reigns have been the best and most impactful tag team to come along in years. Team Hell No had their moments, but they had little to no competition until The Shield came along. Plus Daniel Bryan and Kane are clearly two singles stars put together for the time being, not a true team in my eyes.

4. The Hart Foundation

The original Hart Foundation complete with Jimmy Hart(image courtesy of http://www.cheapassgamer.com)

My favourite wrestler as a kid, and his mentalist brother in law, The Hart Foundation created the blueprint for countless other teams, including the aforementioned Shield and Team Hell No. Granted their long term rivals, The British Bulldogs, also had a power guy/technical high flyer dynamic, but I always preferred the Harts. It’s this difference in techniques, as well as personalities, that drew me to them. The Hitman was just that, quiet, calculating and efficient, he just went about his business by out-wrestling his opponent. Then we had The Anvil, the loud eccentric guy with all the hard hitting power moves. At the time they stood out because they were chalk and cheese. The Road Warriors, Demolition etc. were two power guys, while The Rockers, Rock n’ Roll Express and alike were high flyers. The Hart Foundation could mix it with either; they had the tools to compete with any team.

3. The Rockers

Probably the best tag team never to win the titles, officially that is. They did defeat The Hart Foundation for the titles at a television taping in October 1990. The problem was that the top rope broke during the match, making it a rather messy and improvised affair that WWE didn’t particularly want to air on television. Why they didn’t just book the title change at the next tapings raises a few questions though. With that said I am kind of glad that they never officially won the belts, because eventually they would have had to lose them and that would have severely hurt them. The Rockers were the quintessential underdogs, getting seemingly battered in every match. Typically one man would get isolated and take a hammering, until finally making the hot tag so the other Rocker could throw some drop kicks and do some high flying. From here they would either pull a victory from the jaws of defeat, or get beat after a valiant comeback. This is why I loved The Rockers, like so many people I love an underdog. Had they won the titles then that would have been cool, the underdogs won, but then what? In the movies that is where the story usually ends, but The Rockers would have had to keep going. As it turns out the way things panned out for them was way more interesting. Instead of reaching the top before fizzling out, like so many teams do, The Rockers ended with a bang, or rather a smash, before they ever got there. Has there ever been a better split and subsequent heel turn than when Shawn Michaels ditched Marty Jannetty by throwing him through the Barber Shop window?

2. Demolition

Why? Because they looked cool! I was really young when Demolition where in their prime, but I do recall them as a trio. Like with a lot of wrestling experiences back in the day I built up my understanding and love for WWE through watching loads of VHS tapes, and that’s how I grew to love this team. Believe it or not I was introduced to Demolition before I had ever seen The Road Warriors, so at the time I wasn’t aware that they were essentially a bit of a rip off. Looking back they do look rather, erm, odd. But, when I was a kid, face paint, bondage gear and gimp masks equalled awesome tag team! I guess this team shows what WWE can achieve when it really tries. They took two reasonably ok workers with unspectacular physics and turned them into the most dominant tag team of that era. They also had a cool theme tune.

1. Edge & Christian

Seven time WWF/E Tag Champions Edge and Christian (image courtesy of http://www.netbrawl.com)

My favourite team by a country mile! I loved The Rockers and Demolition, but they aren’t a patch on these two. I liked them in The Brood, I even liked them as non-descript good guys but then I loved them as, well, the heel douchebags they eventually became. These guys were, and still are in Christian’s case, outstanding workers. The quality of the matches they were involved in from 1999 to 2001 was scary. Their feud with The Hardys and Dudleys is surely the premier tag team feud in WWE history. Couple this with the fact that they were a riot during promos and you have, in my opinion, the best tag team WWE has ever seen.

Craig Wilson

Honorary mention:

Owen Hart & The British Bulldog – an entertaining duo, particularly with Owen Hart’s antics but narrowly missed out.
The Dudley Boyz – I can’t dismiss their success but have never been a fan of hardcore wrestling so they miss out.
The Hardys – innovative to the max, no doubt, but it came down to them or The Rockers for me.

5. New Age Outlaws

Perhaps the best example of a great tag team being formed by putting together two solo superstars that were going nowhere in their careers. Jesse James were on the rebound after being cast aside by Jeff Jarrett whilst Billy Gunn was floundering as Rockabilly. Few expected the duo to amount to all that much but in the end they became one of the most popular teams from the Attitude Era. Their inclusion in the list really owes more to charisma, longevity and popularity rather than in-ring talent per say. Few can dismiss their success in the tag team ranks though.

4. The Rockers

The 80s/early 90s was land of the giant stuff in the WWF but it was the Rockers, a much smaller duo, that stood out for me. Mixing a high flying style with the youthful experience made them obvious fan favourites. But boy could they wrestle as well. Their matches against The Orient Express were top notch as were their bouts against some of the bigger duos including Akeem and The Big Bossman. Their in-ring style stood out a lot at the time, especially when you consider virtually every other team was a power combo like Powers of Pain or Demolition.

3. Demolition

Ax and Smash, Demolition (image courtesy of onlineworldofwrestling.com)

Growing up solely watching the WWF, I didn’t know who the Legion of Doom were until they joined in 1991. Demolition were my tag team growing up. One of my favourite moments in wrestling, and I’ve no doubt mentioned this elsewhere, was when they threepeated by winning the belts for the third time at Wrestlemania 6 against Andre the Giant and Haku. Naturally, I’d rather not talk too much about the later days when Crush joined and after a brief period wrestling as a trio, Bill ‘Ax’ Eadie was moved on from the group and they soon disbanded with Barry ‘Smash’ Darsow going on to be The Repo Man and Brian Adams wrestling as Crush in the WWF and under his own name as a member of Kronik in the WCW until his death.

2. The Hart Foundation

The Hart Foundation: Bret Hart is without question my favourite wrestling performer of all time and it’s really of no surprise that his team with Jim Neidhart would feature highly on this list. Bret would of course be the one that would go on to bigger and better things but his teaming with Neidhart helped him a lot. Another example of two guys that the WWE had nothing for them to do – heck, Bret was meant to be getting a cowboy gimmick – yet ended up being a very very good tag team. In the same way as I like a football team to play a powerful striker alongside one that does all the running, I like that combination from a tag team too. Neidhart did the power stuff and Hart did the flashy and technical stuff. Also helped disguise Bret’s difficulty on the mic.

1. The Legion of Doom

The Road Warriors – perhaps the most dominant tag team in wrestling history (image courtesy of onlineworldofwrestling.com)

Could my number 1 prediction be any more obvious? The Legion of Doom or Road Warriors epitomise tag team wrestling. Ignoring the LOD 2000 and virtually everything after that, the LOD were one of the most successful tag teams in wrestling history. After running rampage throughout various territories as heels that were so over the fans cheered for them, Hawk and Animal made their way to the WWF in the early 90s and despite some well documented personal problems would dominate the tag division for many years. Growing up watching wrestling when I did, these guys were an exciting team and a big part of my early memories of watching wrestling. Sure, they don’t have the in-ring skills of your Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson but they get the nod for number one in this listing.

The previous Top Five, on facepainted wrestlers, can be found here.