Jake Ziegler:
I was hanging out with some friends who like wrestling this past weekend that I hadn’t seen in a while, and Bob Miner asked me if I could name the five tag teams in WWE history that first won Tag Team gold before both went on to win either the WWE or the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. I actually had a hard time coming up with all five, and Brad Garoon. This discussion came up as a direct result of John Morrison challenging his former Tag Team Championship partner The Miz for the WWE Championship.
Before I get into the five teams that accomplished this, take a minute for yourself and see if you can think of them. Tough isn’t it? Before we get started the team of Booker T and Rob Van Dam were not counted because Booker had already been a World Champion in WCW. I thought they should still count, but Bob said no, and it was his trivia question so whatever.
The first team to pull this off was Shawn Michaels and Diesel, who won the World Tag Team Championship from the Headshrinkers on August 28, 1994. Diesel was the first to win the WWE Championship, on November 26, 1994, and Michaels followed on March 31, 1996. There is no question that Michaels was the more successful flag bearer for the company, as Diesel’s one and only reign was a commercial and critical disaster, while Michaels had three more reigns and some of the company’s best matches ever. Incidentally, one great match was with Diesel himself at “In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies.â€
Next on the list is the all-star tandem of Stone Cold Steve Austin and Dude Love, who beat Owen Hart & British Bulldog to win the vacant World Tag Team Titles on July 14, 1997. Austin was the first to win the WWE title, doing so on March 29, 1998, while Mankind followed suit (with Austin’s help, of course) on January 4, 1999. The two did little with the tag team titles together, but had several memorable battles for the WWE Title during Austin’s first reign.
Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho pulled it off next, beating Stone Cold and Triple H in a memorable main event on May 21, 2001. Jericho won the WCW Title later that year on October 21 and December 9, and capped it off by also winning the WWE Title on December 9. Benoit wouldn’t become the World Heavyweight Champion until March 14, 2004. Due to injuries and various other factors, these two never really crossed paths while the other was World Champion, which is really a shame.
The next two teams share one member – Rey Mysterio. Along with Edge, Mysterio captured the WWE Tag Team Titles on October 20, 2002. Edge won his first WWE Title on January 8, 2006, while Mysterio followed by winning the World Heavyweight Title on April 2, 2006. Before that tough, Mysterio captured the WWE Tag Team Titles with Rob Van Dam on December 9, 2004. RVD would also win the WWE Title in 2006, defeating John Cena on June 11.
As you can see, if Morrison is able to take the title from Miz, or perhaps from someone else further down the line, the two of them will join a pretty elite company in the annals of WWE history. Do you think Morrison can do it, or will Miz retain? Let us know!
