Image via Complex Original
11.
Life is better with a friend. If you’ve ever faced a bully on the playground, you already know this. In that situation you’d be better off with some built-in backup to take a punch in your place. That same principle is why tag teams are so near and dear to our hearts.
We grew up dreaming of being WWE superstars and what better accomplishment than to clutch the Tag Team belt with a companion? That was the dream of many kids in the ‘90s and we haven’t forgotten it. That’s why today we bring you The 10 Most Badass Tag Teams in WWE History. These men achieved glory in pairs, and we want to pay tribute to that.
Note: For the sake of convenience we refer to all wrestlers as WWE, instead of alternating between WWE and WWF based on what era they suited up in.
10.The British Bulldogs
After five seconds of thinking about it, we’ve come to the conclusion that few great things have made it to our shores from Britain. If we had to put something together we’d say: the lawnmower, TV, and wind up radios (oh, and all of these). That’s until Vince McMahon bought out Canada’s Stampede Wrestling and brought cousins Davey Boy Smith and Tom Billington (Dynamite Kid) to the WWE. With that, the league had some major representation from the UK.
At the same time another tag team dynamo, The Hart Foundation, crossed over from the Canadian buyout. The fact that both were making the leap at the same time made them natural rivals. Less than two years into their WWE careers, the Brits ascended to the throne as World Tag Team Champs. They held this designation for nearly 300 days.
Unfortunately, Dynamite Kid’s back couldn’t hold up, which is the risk you take when you repeatedly get slammed on to some plywood for three-quarters of the year. The Hart Foundation finally knocked them off thanks to a barely participating Dynamite Kid (who had to be helped to the ring by Smith) and a ref who made the crew that officiated the 2002 Lakers-Kings Game 6 seem honest. After their one and only run at the top, Jacques Rougeau knocked Dynamite’s teeth out backstage. Fortunately as a British person, nobody could really tell.
9.The Hardy Boyz
Jeff and Matt Hardy started their WWE careers in their teens as “jobbers,” meaning they consistently got their asses kicked by league mainstays. After five years of paying their dues they jumped into the ring, risking life and limb with ridiculous antics worthy of Hollywood stuntmen. Anybody who has the cojones to be as callously reckless as the Hardys has our respect and is absolutely deserving of a spot on a list highlighting badasses—even if they did spell “Boyz” with that unbearable “z” at the end.
8.The Wild Samoans
Afa and Sika ate raw fish. They picked their noses. Their grunts were translated by their manager. That’s pretty much as wild as you could get on TV in the ‘70s, and that gimmick was enough to be our oldest throwback on this list (sorry to Mr. Fuji, Professor Tanaka, and The Valiant Brothers). Unfortunately their reign as tag team champs permanently ended when their manager Lou Albano inadvertently knocked out Afa, causing him to be pinned by Tony Atlas. Finally, the Wild Samoans were tamed and put out to pasture. However it ended with happy news (and by “happy news” we mean not dead in their 40s or bankrupt due to painkiller addiction). That’s because Afa opened up a “Wild Samoans Training Center” that paved the way for guys like Paul Orndorff, Yokozuna, Bam Bam Bigelow, Rikishi, and tons of others.
7.Edge and Christian
No one man has held a tag team title belt more than Edge, who tops the list with a dozen. The man he can thank for a majority of those is Christian, as the two joined up to be the top tag team an astounding seven times. Their first title belt was won at WrestleMania 2000 in a triangle ladder match against both the Dudleys and Hardy Boyz. That match led to Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches as each represented the weapon of choice for the three teams involved (with Edge and Christian’s, of course, being chairs).
Whether you admit to it or not, a lot of us prefer a heel. It’s why we play Grand Theft Auto and watched Breaking Bad, and when Edge and Christian did their trademark “five-second poses” to mock Elvis in Memphis, Bill Buckner in Boston and many others in many other cities, we consistently cheered them on while simultaneously saying under our breath: “Wow, what a couple of dicks.”
6.The New Age Outlaws
In 1997, both “Badd Ass” Billy Gunn and “Road Dogg” Jesse James were struggling to rebrand themselves in the WWE. Both were fighting mid-cards, and struggling to find a gimmick. Like the movie Step Brothers, they eventually found each other and took off.
After The Rock and Stone Cold, this tandem was the biggest moneymaker when it comes to WWE merchandise sales. When you’re that popular you’re going to don the tag team belt at least once. That happened for The New Age Outlaws on November 24, 1997, when they took the belt from the Legion of Doom. They held it for the majority of 1998, in the midst of the Attitude Era, the period of wrestling for which we are most nostalgic. The crowd embraced them as heels who didn’t come out to entrance music and often won by cheating—which also makes us nostalgic for ‘90s baseball for some reason.
When they locked Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie in a dumpster before throwing them on a concrete floor, they cemented their place on a list of badasses. But as every buzzkill ever has told you, “Nothing good lasts forever.” That’s certainly true with the WWE. The two eventually went their separate ways, with Billy Gunn needing rotator cuff surgery and Road Dogg getting kicked out of the promotion.
5.The Dudley Boyz
All Buh Buh Ray and D-Von Dudley wanted was $1 above their WWE contract offer to remain with ECW, but Paul Heyman was siphoning talent to the WWE and ECW’s loss was Vince McMahon’s gain. That’s because no team ever had a more individual reign than the Dudleys’ eight, as they won their first one at No Way Out in 2000 and their last in 2003 at Unforgiven (though they also won an additional one on Smackdown! in 2004). Along the way they pulled off their tandem finisher, the “3D,” dozens of times, which was the worst nightmare for the notoriously uptight table industry.
4.The Steiner Brothers
Rick and Scott Steiner held the title twice in 1993, but unfortunately their inability to adapt to Canadian rules was their downfall. In a match against The Quebecers in New York—which was in America last time we checked—the WWE used “Province-of-Quebec rules,” meaning that titles could be acquired even if a foe was disqualified. True to form, that’s exactly what happened. The Steiners attempted to give Canada a taste of its own medicine via a hockey stick, and with that act the match abruptly ended—all that fame, all that work, and all that grind only to be defeated by Canadians. No doubt every day since then has been a struggle.
3.Demolition
In the late ‘80s, Ax and Smash came on and continuously wrecked havoc as the dominant tag team of the era. They made their debut in 1987 as a heel team who came out looking like KISS and (allegedly) made up the WWE’s version of WCW’s Road Warriors. A few weeks into that, the team was refined and (original member) Randy Colley was dropped to make way for Barry Darsow (Smash), who was chosen because Bill Eadie (Ax) felt that fans wouldn’t recognize him. With that move, the soon-to-be most accomplished tag team in WWE history was assembled.
Their first title reign came during WrestleMania IV, when the two defeated Strike Force and began a record of 478 consecutive days as kings of the tag team ranks. The Brain Busters bested Demolition in a two-out-of-three falls match and held the title for two-and-a-half months before Demolition recuperated and reclaimed the belt. After a second time losing it, they beat The Colossal Connection at WrestleMania VI to jump back on top.
Nothing seemed to be able to knock them out permanently until Eadie developed an allergy to shellfish due to “frequent trips to Japan.” Ax was given the ax as his wavering health meant Vince McMahon had to find a third member to sub in and out, and Crush was added as a backup. You never want to tinker with a good thing, and that was probably Demolition’s demise. Well, that and the fact that the Legion of Doom jumped into the WWE and took away their audience.
2.The Hart Foundation
The Hart Foundation formed after Bret Hart failed to “hit it off” with a bust of a “cowboy” gimmick, and, instead, wanted to join up with Jim Neidhart to form a heel tag team (the two were carried over from Vince McMahon’s Stampede Wrestling buyout). The WWE initially balked at the idea, but when Hart was about to leave the company they capitulated. With that, The Hart Foundation was formed and the two men (managed by the unrelated Jimmy Hart) climbed their way up the ladder from mid-card to headliners.
Their title shot came on a February 1987 edition of Superstars, where they defeated The British Bulldogs, who had held the title of Tag Team World Champs for almost a year. As we mentioned before, the match was given to The Hart Foundation after referee Danny Davis favored the duo and hit Davey Boy Smith on the head with a megaphone, giving the Brits their worst defeat in over 200 years.
1.Legion of Doom
There’s a better-than-average chance that you know Michael “Hawk” Hegstrand and Joseph “Animal” Laurinaitis as the Road Warriors of WCW fame, but in the early ‘90s they jumped to the WWE and although their name changed (to a title that seemingly dared DC Comics to sue them), their gimmick stayed the same. The two men became the Hall & Oates of pro wrestling, with many fans seemingly unable to picture them apart. They feuded with Demolition—who were allegedly created in their likeness—very quickly into their WWF careers, and shortly thereafter Demolition’s popularity eroded. When LOD claimed the World Tag Team Championship after defeating The Nasty Boys at SummerSlam 1991, they became the only team to win the title in the top three wrestling promotions. Their reign lasted almost half a year before Money Inc. topped them at a House Show in Denver.
After that they went downhill for a while, as all great duos from Thelma and Louise to Keenan and Kel do. However, unlike Keenan and Kel, they reunited and returned to the WWF in 1997. That year, during a taping of Raw, the two dethroned the Godwinns to reclaim the title. That lasted a whole month-and-a-half before they lost in a stunning upset to The New Age Outlaws. After several unsuccessful challenges for the Outlaws’ belt, the two gave up and faced off in a February 23, 1998 match that signaled that the end was here—at least as it related to the WWE. After all, if Oates hit Hall with a spear that led into a Hangman’s neckbreaker, it’s hard to believe that even their relationship would’ve been able to overcome that.