Thanks to Mike Kincaide, I am now aware that WWE.com released a list of the Top 50 Tag Teams in WW(W)(F)E history.  I used to be a huge fan of tag team wrestling when I was watching wrestling growing up.  As a matter of fact, I almost liked the tag teams better than I liked singles wrestlers.  So here are my top 15 favorite tag teams when I was growing up and watching wrestling.  So this list will engulf all of the wrestling I saw from 1980 – 1997 (earliest memories of watching wrestling until I got into the business and my personal experiences started influences my opinions…SIDE NOTE: I did not watch anything from Mexico or Japan during this time frame)

 

15.  The Super Powers – “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes & “The Russian Nightmare” Nikita Koloff & Magnum TA.  I’m adding Magnum into this because he was teaming with Dusty before he had his car accident that ended his career and damn near his life.  Stuck for what to do to replace Magnum, they turned Nikita Koloff (fresh off a major feud with Magnum) due to his having supreme respect for Magnum after the Best of 7 series of matches for the US Title.  This led to Dusty & Nikita teaming with the Road Warriors to battle the Four Horsemen in the War Games matches.  Great stuff.  Loved the feud.

 

14.  Ivan & Nikita Koloff.  I can’t quite explain it but I LOVED this team as a kid.  When I first got online, I got hooked on Rampage Wrestling sim game and The Koloffs were always in my tag title scene and Nikita was always in my US Title/TV title scene…complete with using the “Russian” chain as a weapon at every opportunity.  I was always partial to the mist from The Great Kabuki and The Great Muta and the Russian Chain on that Rampage Wrestling game.

 

13.  Demolition – Ax & Smash.  I couldn’t stand them when they first debuted in WWF.  Stupid Road Warriors clones…yet again.  But Demolition grew on me.  I really loved The Masked Superstar and I didn’t mind Krusher Kruschev in the Koloffs pairings so not surprising that I eventually grew to like this team.  Just not enough to put them into the Top 10 since they were a clone after all.

 

12.  The Hollywood Blondes – “Stunning” Steve Austin & “Flying” Brian Pillman – When this pair was put together, I had little to no hope for it amounting to anything.  Boy was I wrong.  I was a big fan of Stunning Steve Austin’s but wasn’t much into Pillman’s character as a good guy.  He could do some phenomenal stuff but he was just bland to me.  I always preferred the bad guys (as these rankings show lol) and Pillman really took off in this team.  They had great moves.  They had a cocky attitude.  They just didn’t have the longevity to crack the Top 10.

 

11.  The Miracle Violence Connection – “Dr. Death” Steve Williams & Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy.  I never saw any of their Japan stuff.  I would read about them in the Apter mags.  I loved Gordy from his time as a Freebird.  I loved Dr. Death from his stuff in UWF feuding with the Freebirds.  I remember being so excited when they came to WCW and had that small feud with The Steiner Brothers.  A few great matches that I got to see.  I’m sure if I had gotten to see their Japan stuff that they would be rated even higher.

 

10.  The British Bulldogs – Davey Boy Smith & The Dynamite Kid.  They did things I had never seen before.  They really opened my eyes to a new style of wrestling and changed the dynamics of the sport.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the longevity of other teams and Vince did what he always does…cartooned them up by giving them an actual bulldog and having the bulldog kidnapped.  Sigh.

 

9.  Money Inc. – “The Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase & “IRS” Irwin R. Shyster.  Great wrestlers.  Rotunda (IRS) had a lot of tag team success in his career.  This team.  US Express with Barry Windham.  Varsity Club with Rick Steiner and Dr. Death Steve Williams.  Dibiase had a successful run with Dr. Death in UWF as well.  I always viewed them as the WWF’s version of Arn & Tully.

 

8.  “The Midnight Rockers” – Marty Jannetty & Shawn Michaels.  They will always be the “Midnight” Rockers to me because I watched them in AWA which rated way higher than WWF to me as a kid.  It irked me that they were a “knock off” of the Rock N Roll Express and that they combined the names of the Midnight and Rock N Roll Express to come up with the Midnight Rockers but they ended up coming close to living up to the legacy of the name.  Kudos to them.

 

7.  The Rock n Roll Express – Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson.  I hated the RnR Express when I was a kid.  I mean HATED.  They were everything that I wasn’t.  Good looking.  Popular.  Athletic.   So I loved watching The Midnight Express, The Russians and The Horsemen beat the ever loving hell out of them.  Now that I’m older and know more about what makes wrestlers great, I’m probably severely underrating them by putting them at 7^th but my bias is going against them.

 

6.  The Hart Foundation – Bret “The Hitman” Hart & Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart.  I wasn’t a big WWF fan at all until Ric Flair’s 1^st run there.  I was an NWA guy first, an AWA guy second and a WWF guy third.  So maybe the Foundation deserves a higher ranking but this is my list.  Perhaps if Neidhart was better or if they were anywhere outside of WWF, I would rank them higher.  No denying they were good though.

 

5.  The Fabulous Freebirds – Michael “P.S.” Hayes, Jimmy “Jam” Garvin, Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy & Buddy “Jack” Roberts.  My personal favorite combo was Hayes & Garvin because I saw them more.  TBS was very influential and I was older and watching more and so more sticks with me of that version.  You can’t go wrong with the original version of Hayes/Gordy/Roberts either.  I’m going to group them all together however so more teams can make the list instead of having 3 or 4 versions of Freebirds combinations.

 

4.  The Steiner Brothers – Rick and Scott.  Innovators.  If Scott hadn’t gotten hooked on steroids and bulked up so much that he could no longer do all the things that made him so great, they might have made it to #1 on the list.  Coulda, woulda, shoulda.  No shame being in the top 5 though.

 

3.  The Brain Busters – Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard.  The Four Horsemen.  NWA World Champions.  WWF World Champions.  While my personal favorite tag team, I think The Midnight Express had a little more longevity and no one could match The Road Warriors for longevity of dominance during this timeframe.

 

2.  The Midnight Express – “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton, “Sweet” Stan Lane and “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey.  I always preferred the Lane/Eaton version.  I was a bigger fan of Stan Lane than I was Dennis Condrey.  I thought Lane could do a lot more in the ring plus I just saw more of this version.  More shows on TBS, Clash of Champions, PPVs etc for Lane version than Condrey version. The first tag team I really saw that had a flamboyant and colorful manager that was very active in the outcome of the matches.

 

1. “Legion of Doom” – The Road Warriors – Hawk & Animal – They changed the game the second they showed up on Georgia Championship Wrestling.  They destroyed everyone.  They scared the shit out of me as a kid.  Powers of Pain, Demolition and many more tried to duplicate their success and just couldn’t do it.  Not the greatest wrestlers but they had the greatest impact…won the AWA, NWA, WWF World Titles along with regional belts along the way.