Tuesday, February 23, 2010

My Favorite Tag Teams

So I'm reading this post by Kenny and the wheels start rolling in my head. I vehemently disagree with his egregious omission of the Ultimate Warrior and wanted to do some sort of list of my own. But there are so many damn individual wrestlers to choose from that it would be damn near impossible. But tag teams are a different story. There aren't as many true, good tag teams over the years. So I figured, why not give you my 15 favorites.

1. Legion of Doom/Road Warriors: Hawk and Animal.



Hawk and Animal are the epitome of a tag team and without question the standard when it comes to a duo. They had it all: toughness, style, longevity and the most awesome attire. Spikes on shoulder pads? Fuck and yes. There's nothing I loved hearing more as a kid than, "WWWWWHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAATTTTTT A RUUUSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"



2. Rob Van Dam and Sabu.



If you wanted to watch the most entertaining tag team of all time, this was it. The Whole F'n Show and the craziest motherfucker alive flew through the air, put their bodies in harm's way and hated each other the entire time … and they completely dominated ECW.





3. The Gangstas. New Jack and Mustafa Saed.



New Jack is the single most insane wrestler in the history of professional wrestling, doing his damnedest to find the highest thing in the arena to jump off of. He and Mustafa Saed often entered the ring with a shopping cart or trash can full of goodies to beat the living hell out of everyone with. Truly awesome.



4. The Public Enemy: Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge.



Basically, the fat, white version of the Gangstas.



5. The Dudley Boyz: Buh-Buh Ray and D-Von.



Made a name for themselves in ECW by taking on any and all comers, including the Gangstas, Public Enemy and anyone else. Went on to the WWF/WWE and I lost interest. Bad ass back in the day though.







6. The Hart Foundation: Bret the Hitman Hart and Jim the Anvil Neidhart



The best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be perfected his figure 4 and became a superstar along Anvil and his fantastic beard. Managed by Jimmy Hart, this tag team was as good as any that ever existed, taking the mantle from the Road Warriors/Legion of Doom until Bret went solo.





7. The Bushwackers: Luke Williams and Butch Miller



The Bushwackers were goofy and silly and as a kid, I absolutely loved them.



8. Harlem Heat: Stevie Ray and Booker T



Booker T and Stevie Ray were frightening. The size and athleticism of these two were things to marvel, and made WCW bearable watch.





9. The Rockers: Marty Jennetty and Shawn Michaels.



Before Shawn Michaels was making sweet chin music all his own, he was part of one the most dynamic duos in the history of wrestling. No one perfected the top-rope acrobatics better than the Rockers.



Of course, their most famous moment was when Shawn Michaels gave Jennetty the chin music on the Barbershop, breaking up the most famous tag team at the time.



10. The British Bulldogs: Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid.



Before Davey Boy Smith went on his own and became the British Bulldog, donning ridiculous braids, he was simply a British Bulldog … a damn fine tag team. I'll never forget the Bulldogs taking on the Hart Foundation in an epic match.



11. The New Age Outlaws: Road Dogg Jesse James and Badd Ass Billy Gunn



The New Age Outlaws were quite possibly the worst actual wrestlers ever, but they easily had the best introduction of all time, and the alliance of Degeneration X with Shawn Michaels, Triple H and X-Pac (formerly the 1-2-3 Kid) was a great time.



12. Money, Inc.: Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase and I.R.S.



The Million Dollar Man was of course an icon, and when he teamed with I.R.S. to form the most hated team in the sport, it was pure genius.





13. The Nasty Boys: Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags.



Their name described them perfectly, dressing like slobs, blowing snot rockets, the whole nine yards. Iconic.



14. The Steiner Brothers: Rick and Scott Steiner.



Before Scott Steiner (allegedly) took the steroids to a whole new level and teamed with Buff Bagwell (what an awful name), he teamed with his brother as one of the most technically sound, well-respected tag teams ever. Rick Steiner was a true wrestler through and through, wearing head gear and all.







15. Ultimate Maniacs: Ultimate Warrior and Macho Man Randy Savage.



This hardly counts because when you think of Macho Man Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior, you think solo wrestlers, not tag team wrestlers. But for a brief time, these two legends united to form the Ultimate Maniacs, and believe me, had they been together for a long time, they'd be way higher on this list. It just felt wrong to rank them any higher considering they weren't really a tag team very long.





BallHype: hype it up!

5 comments:

  1. Some of my personal favorites are Demolition, The Hollywood Blondes, and the Brain Busters. There are so many to name, though. It's crazy. I can see the ECW bias all over this post, but hell, I have a WWF bias, so I aint mad at cha.

    Man...those were the good ol days.

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  2. I will still say that one of my favorite tag teams will always be the Dudleys. I also loved Edge and Christian, and the Hardy Boyz. They took Tag Team to a whole new level in the late 90s early 2000s.

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  3. I love the WWF too, but of course there's an ECW biased … it was founded and based in Philadelphia.

    Never got into the newer tag teams much, but that could be because I stopped watching wrestling around that time.

    Legion of Doom was my shit.

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  4. A decent list. But some definite omissions. First omission Ric Flair and Greg "the Hammer" Valentine. Second omission Matt and Jeff Hardy - they changed the tag team game. Third omission Rocky Macaveia and Tony Atlas. Fourth and Fifth Rock and Roll Express and the Midnight Express. They held the belts for a decade. But we could argue this till we are blue in the face. Decent list indeed.

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  5. A decent list all in all, but I don't see how you can say The New Age Outlaws are the worst workers ever. Road Dogg, maybe, but Billy is actually an amazing athlete.

    I echo the praise for the Hardy Boyz.

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