History
The Pitbulls (Anthony Durante and Gary Wolfe) were one of ECW’s most dominant tag teams. They were managed by Francine and her betrayal (as well as Gary Wolfe’s broken neck) led to a heated feud with the Franchise Shane Douglas.
This is not about them.
In January of 2006, Jamie Noble and Kid Kash had begun tag teaming. As the year went on, Noble and Kash began wearing dog chains to the ring and barking. They were given the name of the Pitbulls officially in June.
On the June 30th episode of Smackdown, the two defeated Marty Garner and Prince Malik. Their winning ways continued a week later as they defeated long-time tag specialist Scotty 2 Hotty, who was teaming with Funaki.
After these victories, the two set their sights on the Smackdown World Tag Team titles, which were currently held by Brian Kendrick and Paul London. A match was set for the upcoming Great American Bash PPV.
A week later, Noble defeated London in a singles’ match. The week after, Kash put Kendrick away (with a little help from Noble).
At the Bash, Kash and Noble were dominating Paul London until he was finally able to tag out. That marked the beginning of the end, as Noble and London soon put the Pitbulls away to retain the belts.
After that, the Pitbulls disappeared for about a month. Rumor is that Kash was suspended.
They returned on August 25th. Paul London was taking on KC James and was getting ready to put him away when Kash pushed him off the top rope while Noble attacked Brian Kendrick (which gave London the DQ win). Needless to say, after the match James and his partner, Idol Stevens, joined in the fun of attacking London and Kendrick.
In response, the Pitbulls got another title shot the next week. The match went back and forth until Kendrick was able to reverse a powerbomb for the win. Afterward, James and Stevens came in and attacked London and Kendrick again.
The feud continued the next week as Ashley, London and Kendrick defeated Michelle McCool, James and Stevens. The following episode saw Kendrick taking on Stevens and Kash in a triple threat match. Kendrick got the win after Stevens accidentally clotheslined himself on the top rope.
The next week was Smackdown’s debut on the new CW network. We got a triple threat tag match between the three teams. In the end, London got a pin on Noble.
We followed that up with a Number One Contenders’ match between James and Stevens and the Pitbulls. James won it after Michelle McCool flipped a Kid Kash small package over.
And that was the end of the Pitbulls. Less than a week later, Kid Kash was released.
This was an interesting choice. Noble and Kash had nothing in common with the original Pitbulls (other than the chains). They didn’t have the dominant look. They also weren’t power wrestlers like the originals, instead depending on their aerial attacks.
Still, the WWE (with two tag divisions, one on each brand) was usually hurting for solid teams, and here they had two wrestlers with extensive tag experience. Noble, of course, had tagged with WCW’s Jung Dragons and Evan Karagias. Kash was a former two time NWA Tag Team champion (with Dallas – Lance Hoyt), as well as he had tag experience with Ricky Morton, who’d trained him.
Overall, the Pitbulls/Kendrick & London feud had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, Kash’s departure ended any idea of this feud. Noble returned to the cruiserweight division, and Kendrick and London would go on to feud with William Regal and Dave Taylor.
Kid Kash still competes on the independent scene. At the beginning of October, however, TNA sent out a mobile alert that he’d been spotted at the TNA offices. This could mean that Kash will be returning to TNA shortly.
Jamie Noble remains on Smackdown in the cruiserweight division. He has recently been feuding with Hornswoggle.
