Tag Teams- Are they still important?

[DrayvensCrow]

After having cooled down from the debacle perpetrated by Vinnie Mac, I took a look again at some of the talent he just let go or fired and had to ask myself: If the cruiserweights and the Women's division are going to hell, are the tag teams as well?

You honestly have to wonder after looking at the list. The Dudleys were the longest tenured team in WWE before they were let go and now that title belongs to....The Heartbreakers??? OK, so they're doing a good job at what Vince loves best--resurrecting a tired gimmick. But are they worthy challengers for they tag titles? Same goes for MNM as far as the tired gimmick. But who do they have as competition? Before the cuts and trades, they were having a good running feud with Charlie Haas and Bob Holly as well as Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero before their feud kicked into high gear.

It almost looks like WWE is trying to restock the TT division with almost all-new talent, more than likely with up and comers from OVW. That's going to take time to do and with the loss of Heat and Velocity coming soon with the move to USA, it's gonna have to be crammed in to Raw and SD without much build up. And with the way WWECreative is going right now, that's not....a good thing.

On a related note, with the release of the newest Raw magazine and the Road Warriors DVD set, you'd think that tag teams would be a key piece of the resurgence that Vince needs for ratings. Along that line, let's talk about some of the best tag teams form days gone by and a few working today:

Before there was a BrainBusters or The Four Horsemen, Tully Blanchard was causing havoc in the Southwest with Gino Hernandez. For 5 years Blanchard and Hernandez took on the best the SW had to offer as well as some that AWA and NWA could throw at them. Their battles with Kerry and Kevin Von Erich were legendary as well as a few they had with an up and coming Shawn Michaels.

The Blackjacks ushered in the Monster tag team era back in the 60's and early 70's, towering over their opponents by a head. Blackjack Mulligan even helped by siring and training some of the 80's biggest tag wrestlers like Barry Windham, Sid Vicious, Mark Callous(aka The Undertaker), Danny Spivey and John Leyfield.

What you saw was what you got with Animal and Hawk: two big, bad men who kicked ass and took names, not caring who they ticked off along the way. Some of the things they did in the 70's and 80's opened the door for teams like the Dudleys later on, not to mention the fact that despite Demolition's 15 month reign as champs in WWF, Hawk and Animal are still the only team to hold ALL of the major tag team championships(WWE, NWA and AWA). Given time, they might have gotten to winning the ECW titles as well.

Though Arn Anderson made a big splash as part of the BrainBusters, he made his name with Ole Anderson as part of the Four Horseman. After Ole's injury put him on the shelf, Arn would slide into successful partnerships with Ric Flair and Steve McMichaels before his own injury would force him to leave the ring.

There is little doubt that Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper's matches with America's Most Wanted this year were the reason why NWA-TNA enjoyed great success on their PPV's before losing the contract with Fox Sports. But now TNA seems to be struggling with who the top TT should be; is it The Naturals? Or is it AMW? Jeff Hardy with dream partner A.J. Styles? Maybe it's Apolo and Sunny Sioki? The power struggle going on backstage could just kill the biggest threat to WWE's stranglehold in years.

But then again, that's just my opinion!

[jpmessiah]

I want to discuss this extensively later, but I must point out one thing. Yes, the Legion of Doom is the only team to hold all the major tag-team championships from the days of the AWA, NWA and WWF, but the Dudley Boys are the new age LOD, because they did the same thing with the WWE, WCW and ECW tag-team titles. You have to consider ECW a big time federation for the impact they made on the wrestling scene. Without them, Attitude would neverhave existed. And while the WCW titles were in the WWE at the time when the Dudleys won them, it still existed and therefore enjoyed the lineage WCW had all the way back to the days of the Steiners. As a singles star, Mick Foley is probably the only wrestler to hold all the major tag-team titles with so many different stars. He won the ECW tag-team titles (not sure of with who). He won the WCW titles with Kevin Sullivan and he was a WWE tag-team title holder with The Rock, Steve Austin, Kane and Al Snow. I will get back at you later with my tag-team memories.

[DrayvensCrow]

Yes, that is true about the Dudleys and ECW, I give you that. I'll have to check to see if WCW's titles were still given World Title status during that period. I think Foley and Sting have that honor....As far as calling the Dudleys the new LOD, I'm gonna have to think on that one for a while.

[jpmessiah]

Think about this. One could say the Dudley Boys were better than the Legion of Doom. Check this out. The oldies tag-team scene was getting tired and here comes this revolutionary team that changed the mold. People went crazy for the LOD just because of their size and look, which was so different at the time. True, some purists might not have liked them, but LOD had that new fresh factor going for them. If people notice, the LOD did get stale for some time, which was why they never could go over the New Age Outlaws. Why would anyone allow that when NAO was the hot team changing the landscape of the division at the time? Now, look at the Dudley Boys. They had everything against them when they came out. They were basically the Hillbillies on crack. That kind of gimmick, such as the Godwins, doesn't really last long. The Dudley Boys made it work and turned it around, making themselves even more violent than the LOD. They used tables, flaming tables and they had even better mic skills, because they could incite riots at ECW crowds. Not only that, but LOD faultered in one area. They could not take on teams like the Rock and Roll Express with any believability. However, the Dudley Boys had their best matches with the Hardies and Edge and Christian. They had great matches with RVD and Sabu. They had more of a move set than the LOD, yet they could brawl at the same time. They did more with a look that shouldn't have gotten over and adapted with the times and changed their style to fit the needs of the federation they were working for. The LOD wrestled one style their whole lives. I would take the Dudley Boys in a match with the LOD.

[DocMidnite]

Tag Teams are still important. Just not as Vinnie Mac uses them. It seems...IMO Vinnie Mac just throws guys together because he doesn't know what to do with them. MNM, Heartbreakers seem to be doing an OK job. At least there is a thought process there. Tired 80's retread or not.
You have so much talent..or at least you did before the cuts. William Regal is a master on the mic...and still has the skills to sell. Can you find him a devious partner to match his talent. Remember the Blue Bloods? Ya had to hate the uppity englishman bravado. But that's what made them watchable. Even La Resistance....another tired retread was somewhat watchable. Again their was a purpose and two people who worked well off one another.


God!!!The Godwinns...that brings back some bad memories. Just look at stuff like "Head-Cheese??Groan!!!! ::)Is Heidenreich gonna don the shoulderpads and makeup???and team with the remaining member of LOD? Team Angle could wrestle Haas and Benjamin have skills and were better suited as a tag team. Personally don't think Benjamin has all that much on the table as a singles competitor. **by the way I met Charlie Haas at a show. He is a tad arrogant!***

Square Peg..Square hole! Unfortunately Vinne Mac doesn't work that way. He has let the TT flounder because to him...It's unimportant! He only worries about the BIG talent!

IMO the TT Titles could once again flourish under the guidance of say one writer. Put one person in charge of the TT's and let them run...Vince needs to stop controling every aspect of the show. Trust the people you put in charge and hopefully something will grow from it!

[DrayvensCrow]

I'd say put them under two writers, two people who have a clear and definite vision of what and where TTs could accomplish. Those same two could also have an amazing affect on the women's division and the Cruiserweights. If only Vince would hire those two unknows......Ladadeedumladadeeda

[jpmessiah]

That's right. Hire these two unknowns. Hmmmmm....who could he be talking about. Someone give me the pen. The WWE is ruining the Matt Hardy angle, they can't do anything with cruiserweights and they don't know a thing about women or tag-teams. Keep writing for everyone else. Good job. Oh, but wait, fans want to see more, so stop getting all half assed and bring wrestling back to the way it was in the old days of Attitude. Tag-teams meant something. They can mean something again. You don't have to release wrestlers if you know how to get them over the right way and tag-teams are certainly one way to go. If creative can't figure that out, maybe they need to be canned and replaced by two real fans who know something about wrestling.

[jpmessiah]

Remember back in the day when it was the British Bulldogs, the Fabolous Rougeaus, Killer Bees, Islanders, Hart Foundation, Strike Force, Roma and Powers, Demolition. They had so many teams, they made a Survivor Series match out of it. Those were the best ones, too. I miss that a lot. Teams stayed strong with the Rockers, Brain Busters and more. Things died down, but tag-teams still heated up with Money Inc., the Steiner Brothers, The Quebecers and Headshrinkers and later with Owen and Davey Boy Smith against Austin and HBK or Austin and Dude Love, but things died for a little while after that with the Headbangers and only started getting strong again with the New Age Outlaws, Hardies, Edge and Christian, Dudley Boys, APA and Too Cool. Even Smackdown got hot again with Angle and Benoit vs. Edge and Mysterio vs. Los Guerreros and on Raw with Booker T and Goldust, UnAmericans, Christian and Jericho, but now they seem just really dead right now. Something has to be done. Don't just put teams together. Make them interesting again. Make them teams we want to see. BWO, Mexicools, Nunzio and Vito; that's all good and all, but build them up. Don't waste their talent. MNM is a great team. They need real competition. Right now, they got rid of the competition with the elimination of the Dudley Boys and Bashams and Hardcore Holly and Haas. Oh, the creative geniuses they all are.

[DrayvensCrow]

All right, that's enough! Look....Let's just call Juvie, SC and Psychosis what they really are....the WWE's LWO! And if they should be going after any of the tag teams, it should be MNM. They beat the hell out of them for 2-3 matches, take the titles and Melina, then bring back Nidia and have a series of six-man tags where the LWO gets embarrassed by MNM and kick Nidia to the curb after Melina "sees the error of her ways"! Then some hot HLA! LOL

[DocMidnite]

OK now that the mask is off!!!!!Gone is the 80's SuperPatriot (I was 10x better than DelWillkes ever was). Now tremble at Drayvencrows TTP!

WWE need to get there heads out of their proverbial @rses and rebuild this division. Yes their are some decent TT's yet with the talent pool there should be a ton more. Yes Johniie Boy I too loved that TT survivor series type matches.

And not only TT's but what about the "Stables". DX, 4 Horsemen, Hart Foundation and such? They were great. You need the cliques too. I watched an old WCW Legends video last night on Ric Flair. He talked about the Good Vs Bad and how important it still is. I'm not talking going wayyyyy back to the white hat type era. With the "Attitude" shift years ago the lines were now a bit grayer. But there are still the guys who are good and those who are bad.

Austin...with all his attitude and FU ways was still considered a good guy. Woops went off target a little there.