“History is now strictly organized, powerfully disciplined, but it possesses only a modest educational value and even less conscious social purpose.†– J. H. Plumb
The Opening Chapter
This week I have nice case of writer’s block. I also had no pre-planned article lined up; I was really banking on something coming down the newswire that would trigger a column but to no avail. So what do you do with a case of writers block? Pull out everyone’s favorite stand-by: the top 10 list. And since I have the resident “WWE homer†article around here at Pulse Wrestling (and not that I’m complaining about that) I figured I’d start another recurring theme for this column that highlights the best champions in WWWF/WWF/WWE, all in an easily digestible top 10 style list. Everyone loves lists right? They are easy to read, easy to debate and fairly easy to write-up.
Just to warn you, the list is a little fanboy-ish and centered to anything relevant from the ‘80s on. And keep in mind, this is just WWE champions, so unfortunately no Andersons or Anderson/Blanchard or Midnights or Rock & Rolls or
#10 – The Wild Samoans
Afa and Sika, the pioneers of now-legendary Anoi’a Samoan wrestling family, were the blueprint for hardcore. They were taking hardwood balsa chairs over the head long before Jeff Hardy was even old enough to Swanton off his couch. Legitimately tough men, they took the stereotypical Samoan savage gimmick and used to actually scare crowds through the ‘70s and early ‘80s. They were also the first pair to win three WWF Tag Titles together, a feat later attributed to Demolition in the early ‘90s. Their legacy expands far beyond their Championship reigns, thanks to their offspring and relatives like The Rock, Rikishi, Rosey and Umaga.
#9 – Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley
The Dudley Boyz, like many other teams on this list, would be ranked high on all-time tag team list due to their legitimate reigns in ECW, WWF, TNA and reigns for WCW and NWA Tag gold thanks to the promotions they worked for. I think there’s an All-Japan Tag League win in there somewhere too. While they did their time in WWE for almost six years, Bubba Ray and D-Von captured a record eight WWF/WWE/World Tag Team Championships plus a reign as the SmackDown! exclusive WWE Tag Champions. But it’s their time in 2000 and 2001 reinventing and reinvigorating the American tag team scene that really earn their place on this list. The Dudleyz didn’t create the tag team tables gimmick, but they did perfect it and make a household idea.
#8 – Rick & Scott Steiner
The Steiner Brothers were the epitome of tag team wrestling in the 1990s. They became the go-to guys for NWA/WCW tag wrestling after the Rock & Roll Express started to fade. But their brief year and a half stint in the WWF put them on this list so low. They walked in the WWF as legitimate main event-caliber talents and seemed destined to win Tag gold, which they did twice in 1993. Their reigns weren’t long or especially noteworthy, but they did put on solid matches and feuds with Money, Inc., The Heavenly Bodies and The Quebecers. And having like a legendary team like The Steiner Brothers in their prime hold any company’s tag gold instantly raises their credibility.
#7 – The Legion of Doom
The first (and perhaps only) team to legitimately win four different tag championships under four different promotional banners and booking teams, the Road Warriors or Legion of Doom made the WWF’s tag belts go up in stock once they got a hold of them. Hawk and Animal are also probably the only duo to be able to legitimately be called two different team names interchangeably (and no, Team 3-D and VKM don’t count). Their original five-and-a-half month WWF Title reign affirmed to young WWF viewers what other wrestling fans already knew; these guys are the standard bearers for tag team wrestling.
#6 – Matt & Jeff Hardy
Team Extreme. The New Brood. The Hardy Boyz. The Hardys. Whatever nickname Matt and Jeff were called they brought the talent and excitement to the WWF. With The Hardy Boyz, Vince McMahon finally found his answer to the Rock & Roll Express where The Rockers had failed years before. This pair is a true WWE creation. They began working for the company since the mid ‘90s, evolving from job boys to low card pretty boys to mid-card sensations to upper card singles stars. Along the way the pair has picked up six WWF World Tag Championships and a WWF-booked WCW Tag Championship. From 1999 until 2002 the pair ruled the WWF tag division. They redefined how to use a ladder in a match and made tag team wrestling relevant again at the beginning of this decade. There have been teams of the ‘80s and teams of the ‘90s, but these two guys have a strong claim to be the true team of the millennium.
#5 – The New Age Outlaws
Take two mid-card talents who had fallen to job boy status and could’ve been released at any day, put them together on a whim and watch magic unexpectedly happen. That’s what happened when the former “Roadie†and “Real Double J†combined with “The Smoking Gunn†and “Rockabilly†to form one of the top five or six acts of the attitude/nWo era. “The Road Dog†Jesse James and “Bad Ass†Billy Gunn were originally thrown together on a c-level show to fill space. Within weeks they were winning the WWF Tag Championship from the Legion of Doom. Shortly after that, the newly dubbed New Age Outlaws were hanging out in the main events with WWF Champion Shawn Michaels. The pair ruled the world during 1998 and 1999, racking up five Tag Titles reigns, which at that time was a record until the number four entry came along and broke their record. For their time there was no team better. They almost reached super team status for a while and were the reason for the “New Age Outlaw†rule in multi-team matches, where one team member cannot pin the other team member to win the match.
#4 – Edge & Christian
In the NWA, there was The Rock & Roll Express versus The Midnight Express. In the WWF it was The Hardy Boyz versus Edge and Christian. The evil side of that particular ying/yang, Edge and Christian won tag gold together seven times and a numerous other times with other partners. In fact, Edge has won the most WWE Tag Titles of any competitor, with a record 12 reigns with five different partners. The third part of the early 2000 tag team triumvirate, Edge and Christian showed us new ways how to use a steel chair much the same way The Dudleyz did with tables and The Hardyz got credit for with ladders. What puts this “brother†duo ahead of their adversaries is the fact that Edge and Christian won the feud. When the smoke cleared after the trio’s run together was done at WrestleMania X-7, E & C stood tall, having won all three of their triple threat ladder Tag Championship matches.
#3 – The British Bulldogs
When you talk about talent and a combination of power and speed and athleticism ahead of their time, you must be talking about the Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith, the British Bulldogs. A by-product of Stu Hart’s famed wrestling dungeon out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, these two men showed what it was to be a real professional wrestler. The Dynamite Kid could and would pull out moves that were absolutely mind blowing for the 1980s. And Davey Boy Smith showed what kind of power a man less than six feet tall could display. They spent nearly ten months reigning as Tag Champions and made their tag title matches the real main event of any show they were on. It’s scary what the pair could have done through the rest of the ‘80s and into the ‘90s if Dynamite’s health wasn’t shot. Thank god they had the guys ahead of them to pass the torch to
#2 – The Hart Foundation
Take all that stuff I just said above about talent, a combination of speed, power, athleticism and being ahead of their time and then combine that with what I also said about being products of the Calgary dungeon and you get something a little less British, but a lot more pink. A nine-month reign followed up a seven-month reign three years later puts Bret “Hit Man†Hart and Jim “The Anvil†Neidhart just ahead of their famous rivals. Bret’s wrestling ability, selling and pretty boy looks combined with Anvil’s power and strength, charisma and tough guy looks made these two perfect compliments to each other. Everybody could see that Bret was the star of the team but without Anvil to do the heavy lifting and to carry them through the promos, this team wouldn’t be what it was.
#1 – Demolition
Not the greatest tag team ever, just the greatest tag team to reign as WWF World Tag Team Champions. When Vince McMahon couldn’t get what he wanted with The Road Warriors, he did the next best thing; he made his own. Originally created as doppelgangers for Hawk and Animal, Demolition Ax and Smash created their own legend and carved their own niche that puts out there as more than Road Warrior wannabes.
A record-setting fourteen-month inaugural reign instantly puts these two in the history books. And they did half the reign as heels! These guys were an early incarnation of cool heels, in the fact that they looked so awesome and kicked so much ass that they couldn’t help but turn face. A quick second reign led to a rivalry with two of the most legit tough people on the planet – Andre the Giant and Haku. And at that time in 1990, the crowd actually bought Demolition as legitimate threats to Andre. Three title reigns in all, great runs against Strike Force, the Hart Foundation, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard, Legion of Doom and the aforementioned Andre & Haku, plus kick-ass theme music puts these two at the top of this list.
The Perspective
Tag team wrestling is lost and dying art on the national scene, especially in WWE. Over three brands, WWE currently has seven identifiable matching, honest-to-goodness tag teams. And only three of them use team names. It was nice to look at the a time when teams and the tag championships mattered to the overall scheme of the programming. Since the brand expansion I can count on one hand how legitimate branded teams that WWE invested some time into. At least TNA and ROH still remember that tag team wrestling can still draw a house. Then again, with Jim Cornette being recently involved in both TNA and ROH he would have handed out boots to the ass like they were candy if either company booked their teams like the boys in Stamford do.
For this week the vault is closed
Linked to the Pulse
David B. gives a wonderful synopsis of how lucha libre works.
MM steps in for Blatt in his battle against ECW.
Go back to Monday night and see what all the Rabble is about.
Recent History
This is a new section I have devised where I can ramble through my thoughts on this past week in wrestling, whether it be the television shows, pay per views, or any news that came out. Kinda like Vh1’s “Best Week Ever,†but this should be less annoying hopefully.
I liked Impact again last week but after reading the next two weeks of spoilers makes me think their good show count will stop at two.
SmackDown! was just full of mid-card goodness last week. Jamie Noble in action, Major Brothers and Dave Taylor sightings and Jimmy Yang Wang against Deuce. I felt like I was watching Wrestling Challenge from 1987, not that is bad thing. They Rey-Finlay main event was much better than I was anticipating as well. Good show all around.
Apparently Bound for Glory was pretty decent. With their talent roster it should’ve been decent; hell, all their shows should be pretty decent with that roster.
Did you realize RAW had eight matches this past week (and that’s including all the Umaga stuff as one match)? How long has it been since there’s been that many matches in one show?
Wasn’t Elijah Burke the number one heel in ECW like a month ago? Now he’s tagging with Little Guido? And CM Punk’s comment about even his vote counts for Cyber Sunday made me have a vision of Funaki sitting backstage at a SmackDown! taping with a laptop just voting all day for whomever creative wants to win. Also, did anyone have Tony Atlas in the CM Punk mystery partner pool?
I’m kind of intrigued to see how this SD-ECW talent trade will go. It’s got me interested for now.
Daivari, we hardly knew ya but I’m sure we see Booker T sometime again in the future. And speaking of releases, how the hell did Robert Gibson get an agent/trainer job and not Ricky Morton? Did McMahon send Johnny Ace out to get that “Rock & Roll†guy and he came back with the wrong one like he did with the “one-legged†guy?
This Day in History
I figured if we are talking history around here we should pay homage to what has happened on this very day in the years gone by. It will either make you long for the old days or be happy for what we have now.
1994 – The Phantoms defeated PG-13 for the USWA Tag Team title
1997 – Little Guido & Tracy Smothers defeated John Kronus & New Jack for the ECW Tag Team title
1997 – The Legends defeated Death & Destruction for the SSW Tag Team title
1998 – WWF IYH: Judgment Day was held at the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, IL
1998 – Christian Cage defeated Taka Michinoku for the WWF Light Heavyweight title
1999 – Bob & Crash Holly defeated Mankind & the Rock for the WWF Tag Team title
1999 – Konnan & Rey Mysterio, Jr. defeated Harlem Heat for the WCW Tag Team title
1958 – The Barbarian was born
The Assignment
It’s important to know your history to know where you have come from and where you are going. Back when Nova was in charge of the WWE developmental system he implemented mandatory history assignments for the students of the developmental territories so they would know pro wrestling’s history and they would learn just how many moves Nova created and apparently the best ways to get on-line prescriptions. I feel Nova had a great idea there and every week I will assign a book or DVD for you to check out and learn from. They are not only educational but very entertaining.
Shawn Michaels’ new 3-disc DVD is coming out soon and judging by the match list it looks like an easy pick-up. It was only a couple years ago when Michaels’ autobiography called Heartbreak & Triumph hit the shelves. And it is definitely worth the pick-up. Michaels doesn’t really hold back on his past problems, including behavior and drug problems. The story of Michaels, a young Triple H, Vince McMahon and Gerry Brisco planning the Montreal Screwjob was quite fascinating. It’s also interesting to hear about his and Marty’s early runs in the WWF, including their just weeks long first run. I also didn’t really know how bad Michaels’ drug problems were until he goes into the gory details. As the book ends he only briefly touches upon his time with the Texas Wrestling Academy, which is something I really wished he would’ve spent some time on, if only to hear his thoughts on current fanboy favorites like Paul London, Spanky and American Dragon. Overall I found the book quite interesting as I finished it in just a few hours over a couple of days during Christmas break 2005. It’s one I really should go back and read again sometime when I have absolutely nothing else to do.
