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TBR: #31: Rob Van Damnit TSI: #17 with Big Vito Lograsso TBR: #30: Oh, Canada RRC: 07/22/02 AMV: #104: The brief, sad history of nWo v2.0
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Just My Opinion: 19: Wrestling's Temporary Tag Teams Pt. 2
by: Corey on: 7/26/2002 10:08 am est Our topic today, ladies and gentlemen, is part 2 of my column on Wretling’s greatest Temporary Tag Teams and the various concepts and storylines behind them. As I said in part 1, I’m a HUGE tag team mark, and I’ve written several Tag team columns (and I’ll be re-printing them as time goes on). But those columns have all been about wrestling’s ”TRADITIONAL” tag teams. This column deals with wrestling’s ”TEMPORARY” tag teams. What I’ve found out, is that there are distinct differences between the two, not just in the wrestlers making up the team, but in the overall angles and storylines that involve them. Now before I get into the meat of the column, let’s go over the difference between the “TRADITIONAL” tag team, and the make-shift or “TEMPORARY” tag team. THE TRADITIONAL TAG TEAM. The “traditioinal” tag team were those teams that as said earlier, are made up with 2 wrestlers why basically don’t wrestle outside of a tag team. They rarely if ever wrestle in singles matches. The two together dress in similar fashion as well, to give the visual “team” aspect (much like sports teams all wear the same colors and uniforms). Teams like the Hart Foundation, British Bulldogs, Road Warriors, Midnight & Rock & Roll Express fit this category perfectly. You rarely saw these guys in singles matches. They existed as a team, and wrestled mainly as a team. THE TEMPORARY TAG TEAM The “Temporary” tag team were those teams that were made up of singles wrestlers, usually the top 2 baby faces in the company who join forces against at least 2 common enemies (sometimes more), and operate as a tag team for a short period of time. The purpose for pairing such teams up varies from promotion to promotion. In part 1, we took a look at the Temporary Tag Teams of the NWA/WCW. The vast majority of NWA/WCW’s Temporary Teams were babyface teams, and we saw that the main underlying reason in most cases for these teams to exist, was to help put over the heels of the promotion. If you haven’t yet read part one, you can go check it out by clicking HERE. Today’s topic will go over the WWF’s Temporary Tag teams and the underlying themes behind them over the years. Bur FIRST of all, I need to include a temporary tag team that I failed to include in the part one: THE OUTSIDERS Scott Hall & Kevin Nash stormed into WCW and knocked the place on it’s collective ear. They soon began teaming together, and quickly won the WCW Tag Team titles, and refused to give them up. Now, I’ve been on countless messageboards where people claim the Outsiders to be the greatest Tag Team of all time because they dominated the Tag Team scene in WCW. So why do I count a team that logged in the longest WCW tag title reign (nearly an entire year) in the company’s history as a TEMPORARY and not a TRADITIONAL TEAM? I’m glad you asked. Here are my reasons: 1. First of all, Title reigns aren’t indicative of a wrestler’s talent. (David Arquette anyone?) Titles are determined by the bookers. Some of the greatest wrestlers had little or no championship experience, while some not-so-greats held prestigious titles for long periods of time. Ricky Steamboat’s IC title reign lasted 3 months, while the Honkytonk man’s reign lasted nearly 15 months. The New Age Outlaws were Tag champs 5 times, yet the clearly more superior team in The Rockers never enjoyed a tag title reign at all. So right away, the theory that the Outsiders held the tag titles for a year doesn’t wash. In addition to that, I’d be remiss if I didn’t add that the Outsiders were supposed to have lost the Tag titles on several occasions. but those plans were usually blocked by Kevin Nash, who quite simply had no intention of ever putting anyone else over, during his stay in WCW. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Nash was ever pinned during the first 2 years that he was even in WCW. So sorry, backstage manipulating doesn’t qualify you and your partner as a solid tag team. 2. Despite the fact that Hall & Nash wrestled together, they didn’t constitute what I personally considered to be a TEAM. They were 2 singles wrestlers who wrestled together. There was little in the way of team work that the Outsiders did. In fact the one common thing I saw in all of the people who swore by the Outsiders on those message boards that I mentioned, is that not a single person indicated WRESTLING as a reason for why the Outsiders were a great tag team. Hall himself was always a decent worker. Nash on the other hand was a different story altogether. As far as I’m concerned, he’s right up there with ZEUS as far as in-ring ability goes. There’s no doubt that the Oustiders were over. There’s no doubt that they were entertaining on the microphone. Even their worst critics should acknowledge that. But aside from those points, the Outsiders (to me at least) were two popular singles wrestlers who paired themselves together, and were fortunate enough to have enough control over the head booker to keep themselves on top of everyone else in the company. Now that we’ve got that taken care of (and feel free to email me to voice your own opinion whether agreeing or disagreeing with me), we’ll go on to the topic of Part II 
As I said earlier, Part 1 dealt with the temporary tag teams of NWA/WCW. Today we’re going to deal with the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment The first glaring difference between the WWF/E’s temporary tag teams, is that unlike WCW’s teams which were predominantly babyfaces, but designed to put over the heels, the WWF’s teams were likewise usually babyfaces, but designed to get over the babyface. Usually through one team member turning on the other. In fact this was the case with almost EVERY major temp team in the WWF up through the mid 1990s. In the WWF, the temporary tag teams usually involved the top babyface (almost always the WWF Champion) teaming up with the next popular face for a short period of time and then for one reason or another, one member of the team would turn heel on the other member, leading to a match between the two, with the babyface almost always winning the match and the feud. Some of these teams lasted longer than others, and some were more successful than others. But in every case, each team was immensely popular, and we wound up seeing some great matches as a result. Let’s look at some examples. BOB BACKLUND & PEDRO MORALES In 1980 at Shea Stadium the World Champ Bob Backlund, and IC Champ Pedro Morales tagged together to defeat Afa & Sika, the Wild Samoans for the WWF Tag Titles. This wasn’t a long running team by any means, but it was one of the first of the WWF’s make-shift Temporary teams ever, so they deserve some recognition. HULK HOGAN & PAUL ORNDORFF Hulk Hogan would be one half of virtually every major temporary tag team in the WWF from his return in 1984 through his departure in 1993. Hogan and Orndorff began teaming in 1986 shortly after Orndorff fired his manager Bobby Heenan, and together, the two of them feuded with various members of Heenan’s family. The crowd quickly took to the babyface Orndorff, and were clearly behind Orndorff and Hogan teaming up together. But it didn’t last long, as jealously would set in, and Orndorff would turn on Hogan. This would lead to a great series of matches between the two, including a cage match on Saturday Night’s Main Event, as well as a very good match in the main event of THE BIG EVENT. A loaded wrestling show in Canada in 1986. THE MEGA POWERS [HULK HOGAN & RANDY “MACHO MAN” SAVAGE] This one has to be my all time favorite temporary team. It’s 1987 now, and Randy Savage has returned to the WWF as a babyface and is wrestling the Honkytonk Man for the Intercontinental Title. Savage nearly wins the match, but the Hart Foundation runs in, and together with HTM, are destroying Savage. Elizabeth runs to the back and returns with HULK HOGAN and together Hogan and Savage run the heels off. This cements Savage’s position as a new babyface, and combines the WWF’s 2 most popular stars as a pretty much unbeatable tag team, now referred to as The Megapowers. This pairing of Savage & Hogan would last from October of 1987 through February of 1989, and would see Hogan watching Savage’s back as he won the WWF Title at Wrestlemania 4, and teaming up with him against a heel temp team in The MegaBUCKS in “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and Andre the Giant. As with Orndorff though, jealously would set in at the 1988 Survivor Series, as Savage began eyeing Hogan suspiciously. On the February 1989 MAIN EVENT special, it would come to a head, as Savage turned on his partner and attack him, thus becoming the first WWF champion to turn heel while still holding the title. The big payoff came at Wrestlemania 5, where Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage met in a title match that saw Hogan defeat Savage for the title. As with the previous team of Hogan & Orndorff, this team was designed with the ultimate purpose of eventually putting over Hulk Hogan. HULK HOGAN & BRUTUS BEEFCAKE In the WWF at least, Brutus Beefcake would be virtually the only partner Hulk Hogan had that didn’t turn heel on him. (Brutus would indeed turn heel in WCW and become known as The Butcher). Brutus would come to Hogan’s aid in his war with Randy Savage and Savage’s new tag team partner Tiny ‘Zeus” Lister. (Zeus would join the WWF as an attempt by Vince McMahon to capitalize on Hogan and Zeus’ recently released movie “No Holds Barred”.) Although Brutus never turned on Hogan, they didn’t stay together as a team nearly as long as Hogan and Savage did. This team lasted during the spring of 1989 and culminated with Hogan & Beefcake defeating Zeus and Savage at Summerslam 1989. HULK HOGAN & THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR With Hulk Hogan set to do another movie, the WWF realized that they would be losing their biggest star. They needed a way to groom their heir apparent in the Ultimate Warrior to take the top spot in the company. Warrior would defeat Hogan at Wrestlemania 6, but the problem was how to get Warrior and Hogan in the ring without turning him into a heel. The answer was to fall back on the old tag team formula. Have them team together for a short time, but then have a convenient disagreement that would wind up causing them to meet in the ring. In this case, The Warrior didn’t turn on Hogan as much as they both basically turned on each other. All the while, the WWF made sure not to portray either wrestler as being any more heelish than the other. That way, you wouldn’t have the crowd siding with any one guy more than the other. An extremely short tag team run, and several in-ring collisions later, Hogan & the Warrior’s run as a tag team was over, and one of the best Wrestlemania main events was under way. Again, the WWF’s purpose here was to put over the babyface in the end. Unlike the previous teams though, there was never a real heel in the equation. HULK HOGAN & SID JUSTICE Basically, you can replace Paul Orndorff’s name with Sid, and you get the same story. Sid Justice (formerly Sid VICIOUS) joins the WWF as a babyface, and after a while, begins teaming with Hogan. Sid eventually decides that half the spotlight isn’t good enough for him, and turns on Hogan during a tag match. Eventually, it leads to Hogan v. Sid at Wrestlemania 8. On an aside note, Sid was supposed to lose by Disqualification due to a Papa Shango run-in when Hogan attempts to legdrop and pin Sid. But for some odd reason, Shango didn’t make it to the ring in time, and Sid had to kick out of the legdrop himself. Shango then runs in, and attacks Hogan, leading to a surprise save by the returning Ultimate Warrior HULK HOGAN & TUGBOAT These two teamed up for a short time in late 1990/early 1991. Fortunately, Tugboat never turned on Hogan, as there was no way that a Hogan v. Tugboat match would sell. Now that the WWF got out of the Hulk Hogan era, we began to see some new teams out there. And as far as Temporary Tag Teams went, these new teams broke new ground. SHAWN MICHAELS & DIESEL “The Heartbreak Kid” and “Big Daddy Cool” were the first Temporary Tag Team to not only operate as both heels AND babyfaces, but to also win the WWF Tag Titles during each run. Diesel started out as Michael’s bodyguard, but began tagging with him shortly thereafter. As heels, Diesel & HBK won the tag titles from the Headshrinkers in August of 1994. They would hold onto the belts until November of 1994 when (you guessed it) jealousy set in, and HBK turned on Diesel, turning “Big Daddy Cool” into a big babyface. Diesel would win the WWF Title from Bob Backlund on 11/26/94, and defeat Michaels at Wrestlemania 11. Diesel would save Shawn Michaels from an attack by Sid the following night, and before too long, they were back together, but this time as good guys. They would even go on to hold the WWF Tag Titles again (for only 24 hours though), but by this time, both were working as singles wrestlers with HBK as the IC champ, and Diesel still reigning as the WWF Champion. We shift forward a couple of years to 1997, as we’ve officially entered into the WWF’s ATTITUDE ERA. And again, we see another variation on the Temporary Tag Team theme. STEVE AUSTIN & SHAWN MICHAELS Both Austin & HBK are feuding with various members of the evil Hart Foundation stable, and Michaels proposes that they join forces against them. Austin (in the storyline) is as much against this as possible, and the two spend as much time fighting with each other as they do fighting the Hart Foundation. But in the end, they do indeed team up and defeat Owen Hart & Daveyboy Smith for the Tag Titles. Thus, we wind up with the first tag team in WWF History where both partners enter into the agreement completely hating each other’s guts. They both cooperated with each other, but would frequently take shots at each other in addition to their opponents. It made for several unique matches, before they finally broke up. STEVE AUSTIN & DUDE LOVE With Austin & Michaels simply not being able to work as a team (remember, I’m talking within the storylines here. In real life, Austin and Michaels got along just fine.), they have to vacate the tag titles. Austin is guaranteed a title shot with a partner of his choice against the winners of a tournament to crown new tag champs. Mankind wastes no time lobbying Austin to be his partner, but Austin will have no part of it. Eventually, Austin finds himself fighting alone against Owen Hart and Daveyboy Smith (who won the tournament). But not for long, as Austin is soon joined by not Mankind, but DUDE LOVE. Together, they defeat Hart & Smith for the titles, and Austin reluctantly acknowledges his new partner. Austin & Dude Love would forfeit the tag titles after Austin is severely injured at Summerslam 1997. STEVE AUSTIN & THE UNDERTAKER Well, they got along better than Austin & Michaels, but in this case, there was the underlying suspicion that the Undertaker was more interested in looking out for his brother Kane, than for his tag team partner. They defeated Kane & Mankind for the tag titles in July of 1998, but after a month long reign, The Undertaker showed his true colors and turned on his partner. THE ROCK & SOCK CONNECTION [THE ROCK & MANKIND] Next to the Megapowers, this is my favorite temporary tag team. In the fall of 1999, 2 of the best performers in the WWF, the Rock & Mick Foley as the now lovable Mankind, began an unlikely team, where Mankind followed the Rock around like a puppy trying to be his friend and tag partner, while the Rock wanted nothing to do with Mankind, and teamed with him most reluctantly. Together, Rock & Mankind managed to win the WWF Tag Team titles on 3 different occasions While the matches were decent enough, the REAL fun in watching the Rock & Sock Connection is in their promos. The Rock was at his best here, and Mankind was just as funny. STEVE AUSTIN & HHH Following Wrestlemania 17, where we saw Austin turn heel and join Vince McMahon, he soon after began teaming with McMahon’s son-in-law HHH. Together, the 2 of them won the WWF Tag Titles, and held them for about a month. And finally, HULK HOGAN & EDGE We end as we began, with Hulk Hogan. But in an entirely new slant, not only does Hogan team up with a partner that DOESN’T turn on him, He actually wins the WWF Tag Titles as well. Hogan had just come off of a pretty long losing streak as of late, and began teaming up with the young Edge, who had been a Hulkamaniac all his life. This was a refreshing change of pace, as Hogan no longer appeared to be the egomania who refused to put other wrestlers over or make them look good in the ring with him, and Edge was living a lifelong dream in wrestling alongside his childhood hero. Together they defeated Billy & Chuck for the Tag Titles and held them for a short period before recently dropping them to Lance Storm & Christian. Well, there you have it! I’m sure that I’ve missed a few combinations in this write-up. If I skipped over any of your favorites, I apologize. Feel free as always, to email me at cmorgan291@hotmail.com, or stop by the Oratory’s message board with any comments, criticism, or memories of your favorite WCW temporary tag teams. As always, thanks for reading. -Corey REQUIRED VIEWING Quite a few tapes to recommend if you’re interested in seeing some of the matches that were outlined in today’s column. Here we go: HISTORY OF THE MEGAPOWERS In 1987, Hulk Hogan and Randy "Macho Man" Savage united and set the WWF on its ear. The meeting of "The Madness" and "The Mania" became the cornerstone of the WWF from their union, through their break-up and eventual title match at Wrestlemania 5. Here's a look at what was in my opinion, one of the last good angles of the Hulk Hogan era. Every TV and PPV match and interview from this angle is included. THE BEST OF SHAWN MICHAELS This is a 10 volume series that covers EVERYTHING in Shawn Michaels singles career from his early days in Texas, through his days in the AWA and the WWF as one half of The Rockers and most importantly, through HBK’s ENTIRE singles career in the WWF. Every single TV, and PPV match and interview is here, including all of the aforementioned tag matches that involve HBK. HISTORY OF “STONE COLD” STEVE AUSTIN Much like the aforementioned Shawn Michaels Tapes, the Austin series is also 10 volumes long, and covers all of Austin’s career from the day he set foot in the WWF in 1996 until the angle where he was hit by a car in late 1999. THE BEST OF THE ROCK & SOCK CONNECTION Probably the most UNLIKELY tag team champs of 1999. The WWF took 2 of its three most popular wrestlers and combined them into a hilarious team. You had lovable Mankind, who wanted nothing more than to be liked and to work with his friend the Rock, and The Rock, who for most of the time, wanted nothing to do with Mankind what-so-ever. With decent matches, and HILARIOUS interviews, we look at the connection as they go from a one time team-up, to reluctant (at least as far as the Rock's concerned) champions, to their breakup, and to their re-union with the return of CACTUS JACK! |
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