wrestling / Columns

Ask 411 Wrestling: How Long Should It Take to Replace John Cena?

July 8, 2015 | Posted by Ryan Byers

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Ask 411 Wrestling! I am Ryan Byers, and I am filing in for Mathew Sforcina again this week, though Massive Q will return in seven days to head up your favorite treasure trove of rasslin’ trivia.

There’s no better way to welcome Mat back to his online home than by asking him plenty of new questions, which you can do by clicking here.

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Zeldas!

Check out Mat’s Drabble blog, 1/10 of a Picture!

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Feedback Loop

Last week, we had a question on wrestling memes that generated a lot of good feedback, as I noted in the body of the column that I wasn’t going to be able to come up with anything approaching an exhaustive list. Go check that out if you want a trip down memory lane.

Also, somehow, the conversation of wrestling fans’ catchphrases somehow devolved into a weird thread about whether we should allow ourselves to watch and enjoy Chris Benoit matches in the twenty-first century. My thoughts on the subject? Give it up, guys. That topic is tired and needs to be put to bed. It’s the modern day equivalent of early 2000s wrestling fans discussing who was on the “right” side of the Montreal screwjob until they’re blue in the face.

Finally, a tip of the hat to Adam Poling on Twitter who corrected me when I referred to cerebral palsy as a nerve disorder. Adam was correct in noting that the effects of CP are felt more in the muscles, which is true. My “nerve disorder” reference was meant to reflect the fact that the disease has its origins in the brain, part of the nervous system.

The Trivia Crown

Robert Frost (not the famous one . . . I think) nailed last week’s trivia question. Here’s his answer:

You started your career as a WWF jobber, your first two matches being against Ric Flair former AWA Champ Rick Martel, and then some time later losing to Lex Luger. You also had a single WCW match, where you jobbed to Super Invader, AKA Warrior’s first big feud and Wrestlemania opponent, Hercules. You went on to become an ECW mainstay and long-running Big Japan guest, which eventually got you a brief WWE cameo backing up Lance Storm at the original ECW One Night Stand. Your most notable feuds were with Mikey Whipwreck and Jazz, so I have no idea what Ryan means about feuding with an announcer – I guess Joey Styles had a running gag about being allergic to you? Anyways, you are The Sexiest Man Alive, Jason Knight.

I won’t be asking a question this week since I won’t be around in seven days to answer it. This gives you all the more time to study.

Getting Down To All The Business

Andron‘s career has a solid upward trajectory:

After watching wwe’s failed attempt at bringing new stars to replace John Cena, first we had the failure of Ryback, then Daniel’s injury then we even had Roman Reigns sort of a failure for WWE’s search in finding a suitable replacement for John Cena. But In both cases here each may have just been rushed into that position and kept getting the same results right? Even John Cena was rushed into that position wasn’t he? My question is simply how long should it take the WWE to bring a wrestler from debut to face of the company?

Honestly, I don’t think that there is such a thing as rushing a wrestler into the main event scene. If you look at wrestling history, the old ax about giving somebody “too much, too soon” and it affecting his ability to draw is the invention of jealous main eventers who want to hold on to their spots.

If you look back to the 1970s and 1980s, it was literally only a period of weeks before somebody would be ready to challenge for the WWF Title in a main event position. All it took was a month or so of wins against the right people and fans would buy a new wrestler as a challenger to Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales, Bob Backlund, or even Hulk Hogan. Granted, that’s not the same thing as being “the face of the company,” but it’s only a couple of steps away, and it doesn’t take too much of a leap to go from the top wrestler’s challenger to just being the top wrestler.

If you’re going to argue that this is an outdated concept which can’t work in modern times, let’s take a look at Bill Goldberg. He had his first televised match on September 22, 1997, and he was the WCW World Heavyweight Champion less than a year later on July 6, 1998. Really, he was the company’s “face” even before that. Also, Kazuchika Okada returned to New Japan Pro Wrestling after a long hiatus on January 4, 2011 and, even though it was rough going for the first month, he was very quickly thereafter considered part of the company’s upper echelon thanks to a shocking IWGP Title victory.

It’s not a matter of having a prescribed period of time that somebody has to be on the roster for in order to make them the top face. It’s a matter of booking them properly in the time that they’re ascending to the throne, whether that occurs over a span of six weeks or a span of six years.

Quan’s wants to talk Japan and invasions:

1. Back in the mid 80s, the famous angle of Riki Choshu and his Ishingun (Revolution Army) from the Japan Pro Wrestling promotion, invaded the All Japan Pro Wrestling and set All Japan on fire for two years. I ever wonder if that is really the original birth of the “outside invaders” angle that NWO is famous for (even though Eric Bischoff said it was the NJPW vs UWF-i feud that inspired him). What made it unique is that Riki Choshu and his comrades, I believe, were booked as babyface instead of being heel.

There are three questions I want to ask from this: 1) What was really the first invasion angle ever, anywhere, in pro wrestling?; 2) Was there any invasion angle like the Ishingun angle, as the invaders are babyfaces?; 3) If we do a bit of fantasy booking, what could have happen with the WCW/ECW Invasion angle if the invaders (all members, or at least some of them, or at the very least ECW wrestlers) were booked as babyfaces?

No, this was not the first invasion angle in professional wrestling. In fact, it’s not even the first invasion angle in Japan. In 1981, a promotion called the International Wrestling Enterprise (or IWE) folded and three of its top stars – Rusher Kimura, Animal Hamaguchi, and Teranishi Isamu – jumped ship to New Japan Pro Wrestling and were portrayed as an invading force from the IWE.

The invasion angle was no stranger to the United States in the 1980s, either. One of the most notable examples would be a shoot that turned into a work, as the Jerry Jarrett/Jerry Lawler Memphis wrestling promotion had been involved in a nasty promotional war with the Poffo family’s International Championship Wrestling. When ICW had to close its doors in 1984, the promotion’s biggest names, most notably Randy Savage, started showing up and laying out Jerry Lawler for an American invasion angle of sorts.

As to your second and third questions, they’re actually interrelated. There was another invasion angle in which the invaders were babyfaces, and it was . . . WCW indvading the WWF. Seriously. People forget that, when the angle first started, Shane McMahon and the remnants of World Championship Wrestling were the good guys. However, they were playing mainly to WWF crowds, and the fans who had been conditioned to hate WCW for years didn’t change their opinions all too quickly, necessitating a heel turn. So, we don’t have to speculate about what would happen if the invaders were booked as babyfaces, because it happened, and it bombed.

2. Also related to All Japan, Giant Baba stopped booking non-finishes like count-out or DQ starting from 1989, around the time when shoot-style wrestling (and later MMA) gained tremendous popularity, and it proved to be a great decision. My question is, will WWE ready for completely abandoning non-finishes, regarding the fact that MMA is treated as a real sport today? What can it do to them, bad and good, if they apply it as part of the booking policy?

I don’t think that’s going to be happening. If anything, rather than attempting to emulate MMA because of its popularity, WWE has attempted to distinguish itself from MMA by making itself more outlandish and more like a “movie” than a sport. At this point, I don’t think an all clean finish format would impact WWE much one way or the other, because fans simply aren’t accepting of the product as an athletic contest.

3. Do you see any potential in an interpromotional angle between WWE and other companies? I think the industry is pretty bad in America at this point and the card started to dry up years ago. Will WWE ever do it, as Triple H is the apparent heir to Vince McMahon and maybe the way he thinks is different from the old man?

I see absolutely no upside in an interpromotional angle between WWE and another company, because there is no other company on the face of the earth that is anywhere near the level of the E’s popularity. Part of the allure of doing an invasion angle is getting fans excited about matches that they’ve always dreamed about and can now finally get the opportunity to see. However, so few of WWE’s fans are watching other wrestling promotions that you’re not going to have enough of that kind of fantasy booking going to generate a buzz. Less than a quarter of WWE’s fanbase watches TNA and knows who Bobby Roode is, for example, so you’re probably not going to have a special crowd reaction if he were to show up on Monday Night Raw to face off against John Cena.

What A Manuever succeeds by failing:

In your opinion, who is the worst booker to ever have been inexplicably successful with his booking decisions? To clarify, there are and have always been bookers who failed due to incompetence, but what of success in spite of silly booking?

There is no reason that this man ever should have been employed in professional wrestling ever again after he proved with his WCW run that he was not the primary force behind the WWF’s success during the Attitude Era. Period. However, despite some hiatuses, he’s consistently been working in the industry for closing in on twenty years. TWENTY. YEARS.

Connor is going to war:

Whatever happened to The Warlord? He had such a great look, he had good managers and actually put on solid matches, but never really got a main event push. He seemed like Vince’s kind of guy, and could have had a solid run with Ultimate Warrior in 1990, who desperately needed heel contenders when he was the champion. Heck, Warlord even got the number 30 spot in the 1992 Royal Rumble, then he just vanished. Does he still wrestle these days?

The Warlord got out of wrestling in the mid-1990s because he was in injured in an automobile accident in which he was hit by a Pizza Hut delivery vehicle. Unfortunately, he was in a second major car accident just a few years after that. However, he is still doing relatively well. He doesn’t work anything approaching a full-time schedule, but he will take a handful of indy dates every year, mostly on nostalgia shows. I’ve got record of him working on four shows in 2014, two of them being reunions with his old Powers of Pain partner the Barbarian.

Probably the most noteworthy thing that he has done in recent years is participating in Chikara’s King of Trios weekend in 2012, when he, the Barbarian, and and Haku participated in the KOT tournment and then the Powers of Pain entered the company’s annual tag team gauntlet, which featured a showdown with their old rivals Demolition.

Nightwolf has two opinion-based questions:

1. I was watching the Miracle on 34th Street Fight between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt. At the Dean Ambrose sends both himself and Bray Wyatt through a table. The show goes off the air with Ambrose having this sadistic look on his face. I know people like to compare Dean Ambrose to past wrestlers. I think the direction of Ambrose is a mix between “Loose Cannon” Brian Pillman and Mick Foley. What are your thoughts on that.

I disagree. Both Brian Pillman and Mick Foley were portrayed as serious, dangerous wrestlers during their runs. Ambrose, for better or for worse, has been injected with a health dose of modern, WWE PG era comedy. If anything, he reminds me of the circa 1992 babyface version of Roddy Piper, in that he’s got a gimmick that could and should have a harder edge to it but instead he’s spent being a goofy, smiley good guy for the benefit of the kiddies.

2. Where did Vince get the notion that big muscular guys like Hogan would make excellent faces of the WWE? I mean let’s face it, they can’t exactly wrestle all that great. I think the only exception to that rule is Bruno Sammartino because he’s one of those once in a lifetime wrestlers that could actually wrestle. How does Vince expect his wrestlers to grab his brass ring knowing damn well most of them don’t fit his mold of what a superstar should look like? I know what you are going to say… but Stone Cold. Yes, but Stone Cold is an exception to that case as well because everyone at some point in their life wants to punch their boss in the mouth and stand up to them.

Vince got the notion that big muscular guys like Hogan would make excellent faces of the WWE because big muscular guys like Hogan have made excellent faces of the WWE. Bruno Sammartino, though he was a great wrestler compared to some of the muscular stiffs that we would see in the 1980s and the 1990s, really was not considered one of the better in-ring performers of his era. Instead, he got by on the charisma that he had in his hard working, “common man” immigrant role and his spectacular physique by the standards of the day. That was the pattern the company essentially repeated with Hulk Hogan and then again with John Cena, and it’s worked every time, even though Cena is obviously a couple of notches below his predecessors.

Also, I wouldn’t consider Austin to be that big of a variance from the pattern. Granted, he’s not a bodybuilder, but the dude is still massive by the standards of your average human being, and he may not have gotten the same look that he did if he were not given the size biases that still existed twenty years ago.

Melvin is a submission specialist:

When did tapping out become a legit way to submit in the WWF? When did it become commonplace?

It started in the mid-1990s. Taz had been doing his ECW gimmick in which he was portrayed as a UFC-style “shooter,” and tapping out in modern American pro wrestling really began with him. At around the same time, Ken Shamrock signed a deal with the WWF, and it made sense for people to tap to him given his background. WCW also got on board with the trend during this era, as I believe tapping started there in the cruiserweight division.

If you think about it, tapping makes far more sense than the verbal submissions that wrestlers were using before. With tapping, you have something that is visual and dramatic and can be teased before the finish, almost creating the submission equivalent of a two count.

Criss is the Tim Gunn of Ask 411:

I’ve been re-watching a lot of the much-maligned mid-90’s WWF. I’m talking 1993-1996, The Dark Ages. Horrible gimmicks, cheesy presentation. All over these shows is Double J, Jeff Jarrett. With that ring gear he wore in the 90’s – you know the stuff: collar, “suspender” ribbons, crazy colour combinations. Plus that mullet. Just awful. In my opinion, the most ludicrous gear I’ve ever seen. I’ve always wondered if he wore it on purpose for heel heat, since there’s no way we could have taken him seriously with that gear.

So, in your opinion, who has had the worst (ie, silliest, ugly, ill-conceived, most ridiculous etc) ring gear in mainstream wrestling. You can do a Top 5 if you like, or even just name a couple from each major promotion over the years. This doesn’t have to be a list of WrestleCrap inductees, just your opinion on the ugliest gear ever.

I know that you said to stay away from WrestleCrap inductees, but if I’m answering the question 100% honestly, there is no way that the ugliest gear in history does not belong to the Giant Gonzalez. A full bodysuit with airbrushed musculature that was supposed to give us the impression that he was naked and that we would see his junk if not for the massive patches of pubic “fur” that were sewn on to the whole getup. THAT is something that never should’ve gotten past quality control.

If I were to try to think of some less “gimmicky” wrestlers to use to answer this question, I would give some consideration to Faarooq Asad in his first WWF run. The gear he wore for his debut with Sunny was not only ugly but it also made zero sense. Why would you take a pro wrestler who is well known by his real name and persona, give him a name that is Islamic in origin, and then dress him up like a ROMAN GLADIATOR of all things? The worst part was the blue, Nerf-looking helmet, which wouldn’t have been too bad if it were part of his entrance gear but for some reason remained on during his matches.

Oh, and can we talk about Brutus Beefcake for a minute? I get that the guy was originally doing a male stripper gimmick and that part of his schtick was to get homophobic heel heat, but you’d think he would’ve toned that aspect of his character down when he turned babyface. If anything, he went even more over the top with it when he was a good guy, putting on clothes that would make a drag queen blush. Don’t even get me started on his run as the Bootyman, when he had fake ass-cut-outs in his gear.

Lukas has a remarkable high volume of questions that all relate to his recent viewing of Wrestlemania III:

1. The Can-Am Connection seemed to be a solid team, with a lot of potential. Why did they break up, and was Strike Force essentially put together to complete what was originally intended for the CAC?

The team broke up because Tom Zenk left the promotion. His version of the story, which he has brought up in shoot interviews over the years, is that Rick Martel was negotiating new contracts for the both of them and worked out a deal in which Martel was getting paid more than Zenk. Zenk was upset because he thought that they should be treated equally since they were partners, but Martel thought he should be paid more because he was the veteran. That’s the story according to the Z-Man.

2. Did the Billy Jack Haynes/Hercules feud continue after WM? Who won the feud and how/when?

Yes, the feud continued. There really was no “winner” of the feud because there wasn’t a huge televised blowoff match. You have to keep in mind that wrestling was still in an era where things were focused primarily on house shows, so they ran a normal house show program that just sort of ended after they had done the match everywhere that they could. In this particular instance, they did a series of chain matches after Wrestlemania, and Hercules won them across the loop.

3. What was the purpose of inserting the “little people” into the King Kong Bundy and Hillbilly Jim feud? Was there historical context here?

There wasn’t even really a King Kong Bundy/Hillbilly Jim feud to speak of. They had a handful of house show matches before this, which Bundy always won. As far as I know, there was no reason to insert the little people. It was just an opportunity to do something different on the card. Again, you have to remember that Wrestlemania in that era was not the same thing as Wrestlemania now. In its early years, Mania was basically a bigger version of the monthly Madison Square Garden show. The top two or three matches would have a heated feud behind them, but on the bottom half of the card there was a lot of filler and matches that took place just for the sake of having more matches.

4. Before he got injured and had to leave the WWF, were there any plans to make Harley Race champion? I was 7 at the time of WM3, and remember considering him to be something of a paper challenger to Hogan.

I’m not aware of any such plans. It wouldn’t have made sense to make him champion, as he was fairly beaten up and past his prime. Plus, the “king” gimmick is not usually a gimmick that you would put on a main eventer . . . just ask Wade Barrett. (And, yes, Randy Savage is the exception that proves the rule.)

4. I understand the logic behind Brutus Beefcake being kicked out of the Dream Team, and turning him face, but why replace him with Dino Bravo? Was there a shoot or kayfabe explanation around this?

The company needed a heel tag team in that position, and Bravo wasn’t really doing anything. Plus, if I remember correctly, he was already being managed by Luscious Johnny V prior to becoming half of the “New Dream Team,” so the move could be seen as Luscious Johnny giving the spot to one of his own guys.

5. When was it known that Piper was retiring? Why did he retire? Was the intent that he was actually done for good, or was this just to allow him time to go film They Live? Also, how much longer did Adrian Adonis work for WWF after this match? I have no recollection of seeing him wrestle while bald.

Per shoot interviews that I have heard with Piper, the idea is that he felt that he had done all he could do in wrestling at the time and was, in fact, leaving to pursue a full-time career in Hollywood. However, he quickly came back to the ring when things didn’t work out in the movie business. This was planned headed into the show.

As far as Adonis is concerned, I believe that he was only around for another month or so. I don’t believe he had another televised appearance that was taped after Wrestlemania III.

6. Did Danny Davis ever get his comeuppance from the Bulldogs?

Not really. Throughout the spring and summer, Davis mostly wrestled matches against Tito Santana, Koko B. Ware, and George “The Animal” Steele.

7. After Butch Reed left WWF, were there ever plans to bring him back? What happened to him after his WCW run?

I am not aware of any plan to ever bring Reed back to the WWF, aside from his one-off appearance for Teddy Long’s wedding to Kristal Marshall on Smackdown several years ago. When he left WCW, he greatly cut back on his wrestling commitments and started competing on the professional rodeo circuit. Immediately after WCW, he participated in a tour of Europe headlined by stars like Jake Roberts and the Ultimate Warrior. The most noteworthy promotions he worked for after WCW were the USWA and the Global Wrestling Federation on ESPN.

8. Steamboat/Savage. The Greatest Match of All Time in my opinion. Was there ever a proper rematch between these two outside of House Shows? Also, by November, they were on the same Survivor Series team. Was their past ever acknowledged on screen?

There was never a televised rematch between the two men, and I don’t believe that their history was ever acknowledged on screen aside from a passing reference here or there.

9. What was the logic around having Honky cleanly beat Jake Roberts here? This match reeks of what should have been a interference laden loss. Honky wasn’t in plans to win the IC title at this point (as it’s been reported), so why put him over clean?

He didn’t win clean. Jimmy Hart interfered by grabbing Roberts’ leg to distract him and then, when he was distracted, Honky rolled him up and grabbed the ropes to win. Both of those things are illegal.

9b. At the 1987 Survivor Series, Honky came out late in the card and cut a promo on Hulk Hogan. Why? He was in the middle of a hot feud with Savage, and outside of a few House Shows, I don’t recall anything between the two. Were there plans for a feud?

At the time, we were not that far removed from the October 3, 1987 episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event, on which Elizabeth enlisted the help of Hulk Hogan to save Randy Savage from a beating at the hands of the Honky Tonk Man in the moment that would essentially lead to the formation of the MegaPowers. Most likely, what you’re seeing is residual heat from that angle, even though the real feud that it advanced was Honky against Savage.

10. Were there any regular tag teams in WWF at the time that didn’t appear on this card?

The Islanders of Haku and Tama were part of the WWF roster in March 1987 and weren’t on Wrestlemania III. Dan Spivey had also been teaming up with Jerry Allen on some house shows leading up to the card, but they were not particularly well known as a duo. The same could be said for the “savage” team of Kamala and Wild Samoan Sika.

11. Hulk Hogan just appeared on Bill Simmons’ “The BS Report” podcast. He claimed that Andre was legit 7’5″ at one point, and around 700 lbs at time of WM3. Is this true, or typical Hogan propaganda? I’ve always heard that Andre was 6’11” at best, and around 450 lbs.

Andre was never 7’5” or 700 pounds. I have heard some people claim that Andre was legitimately 7’2” in his youth but got shorter as time went on and he put on large amounts of weight. However, by the late 1980s, he was definitely in the high 6′ range, as there are photographs of him hanging around with the 7’1” basketball player Wilt Chamberlain, and Andre is clearly several inches shorter.

12. Where the heck was Paul Orndorff on this show? He was Hogan’s main rival for the better part of 1986. Why didn’t he at least have a match on the show?

He wasn’t on the show because he was injured. As noted, there was a huge Orndorff/Hogan feud in 1986 that still ranks among one of the WWF/WWE’s most successful rivalries of all time from a business perspective. While that feud was ongoing, Mr. Wonderful tore a muscle in his arm, but he refused to take time off because he was making so much money off of the gates with Hogan. When the run with the Hulkster was over, he finally decided to take time away to recouperate, but it was essentially too little, too late, as he had done permanent damage, which is one of the reasons why Orndorff to this day has one arm that is much more developed than the other.

There is an alternate theory floating around on the internet that Orndorff was held off the card so that he could be a last minute replacement for Andre the Giant in case Andre’s own physical problems prevented him from working the show, but I’ve never seen any support for that beyond speculation.

Raza closes it out with a scary huge question about 1990s WWF tag teams. Here goes nothing.

I am a very vivid fan of the WWF tag team division of the early 1990s and was privileged to see some of the great tag team matches and rivalries between them at that time. However, somehow I am not able to find the results of match(es) between the following tag teams except of a few which I remember like the Bushwackers losing to Nasty Boys, LOD and The Natural Disasters on separate occasions. Similarly, I also remember Rockers losing to both LOD and Nasty Boys. I also remember watching the Hart Foundation’s victory over The Demolition, Legion of Doom defeating the Nasty Boys, Rockers beating Haku & Barbarian and I am sure some of the following tag teams might never have a match in WWE with each other ever. I would like to know what are the results of the tag matches between the following teams in WWF (only results i.e win or loss will do, no other details like date, venue etc would not be required).

Legion of Doom

The Hart Foundation

Rockers

Steiner Brothers

The Bushwackers

The Demolition

The Natural Disasters

Nasty Boys

Haku and Barbarian

Well, this one’s going to take some time. Thanks to the excellent wrestling database CageMatch for providing most of these results.

We’ll take it match-by-match, noting first the matches that Raza asked about which, as far as I can tell, never took place at any promotion in any era. Those matches are: The Hart Foundation vs. The Steiner Brothers, The Hart Foundation vs. The Bushwackers, The Hart Foundation vs. The Natural Disasters, the Hart Foundation vs. Haku & Barbarian, The Rockers vs. The Steiner Brothers, The Rockers vs. The Bushwackers, The Steiners vs. The Bushwackers, The Steiners vs. Demolition, The Steiners vs. The Natural Disasters, The Bushwackers vs. Haku & The Barbarian, Demolition vs. The Natural Disasters, Demolition vs. The Nasty Boys, Demolition vs. Haku & The Barbarian, The Natural Disasters vs. The Nasty Boys, and The Natural Disasters vs. Haku & The Barbarian.

Now on to the bouts that did occur . . .

The Legion of Doom vs. The Bushwackers
The Legion of Doom (a.k.a. The Roadwarriors) actually did battle with the Bushwackers (a.k.a. The Sheepherders) before either team set foot in the WWF. The only records that I could find of the two teams facing each other was for Jim Crockett Promotions. On May 22, 1988 in Atlanta, the Roadwarriors came out on top. That year, the same match with the same result occurred for JCP on June 20 in Montgomery, Alabama and on September 11 in Greensboro, NC.

There was no Legion of Doom/Bushwackers match in the WWF as near as I can tell.

The Legion of Doom vs. The Steiner Brothers
The Steiners and the LOD have a pre-WWF history. At NWA Starrcade 1989, they were part of a one night, round robin tag team tournment, in which the Steiners were victorious in the confrontation between the two teams.

They later went to the WWF but never faced each other. If I’m remembering correctly, their WWF tenures would have overlapped each other only very briefly, if they ever did at all. However, they did wrestle each other again in WCW, with the Roadwarriors getting their win back against the Steiners on the March 11, 1996 episode of Nitro in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The Steiners picked up another victory on Nitro in a tag team trinagle match, where they beat both the Roadwarriors and the Nasty Boys on WCW Nitro from April 1, 1996 from Cleveland, Ohio. Nobody was victorious a few days later, when the Nasty Boys and the Steiner Brothers teamed up to face the four man team of the Roadwarriors and the Public Enemy on the April 10 WCW Saturday Night. The eight men wrestled to a no contest that evening.

The Roadies and the Steiners also did a house show loop in WCW, with three matches ending in either a Roadwarrior victory by DQ or a double count out April 13, 1996 in Roanoke, Virginia, April 20 in Little Rock, Arkansas, and April 21 in Jackson, Tennessee.

The Legion of Doom vs. Demolition
When Hawk and Animal jumped to the WWF, a feud with Demolition seemed like a natural, because Demolition was essentially the most prominent of many Roadwarrior knockoff tag teams (more on that in a bit). It wasn’t long before there was a house show program between the two teams, though it began as a series of six man tags, where the three-man version of Demolition – Ax, Smash, and Crush – would do battle with The Legion of Doom and the Ultimate Warrior.

The trios wrestled in 1990, on August 30 in Nashville, September 1 in Denver, September 2 in Witchita, September 14 in Landover, Maryland, September 15 in Boston, September 16 in Chicago, September 17 in Indianapolis, September 21 in Madison Square Garden, September 22 in Richfield, Ohio, September 23 in Charlotte, September 28 in Milwaukee, September 29 in Auburn Hills, Michigan, September 30 in Cincinnati, October 1 in Columbus, Ohio, October 6 in Omaha, October 7 in Atlanta, October 8 in Tampa, October 9 in Springfield, Illinois (actually a dark match for a TV taping), October 10 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri (another TV taping dark match), October 13 in Orlando, October 19 in Minneapolis, October 20 in Philadelphia, October 21 in Montreal (which was for some reason an elimination match), a second match on October 21 in Toronto, and finally November 11 in Richmond Virginia, with the LOD and the Warrior winning all of those matches.

In an odd variation on the aforementioned six man tag match, Demolition Ax was apparently unavaialble some evenings, as he was replaced by Randy Savage on October 5 in St. Louis and October 12 in San Antonio. Mr. Perfect also subbed in for Ax once on October 11. Neither of these variations changed the result, as the Legion of Doom and the Ultimate Warrior were still victorious.

During the house-show run described above, the six man tag was showcased on television Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC on September 18, broadcasting from Toledo, Ohio. Again, the babyfaces took home the victory. A variation was also part of the 1990 Survivor Series in Hartford, Connecticut, where the LOD and Ultimate Warrior added “Texas Tornado” Kerry Von Erich to their team to defeat the three-man version of Demolition along with Mr. Perfect.

The six man tags were interspersed with a series of straight LOD/Demolition tag matches on house shows, including against Ax & Smash on September 6 in Moline, Illinois, Ax & Crush on September 8 in Madison, Wisconsin, Ax & Smash on September 9 in Green Bay, Ax & Smash on September 29 in Lacrosse, Wisconsin (yes, the same day as one of the six man tags referenced above), Ax & Smash on October 22 in Ottawa, Ax & Smash on November 1 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Ax & Smash on November 18 in St. Louis, Ax & Smash on November 21 in Utica, New York, Crush & Smash on November 23 in South Bend, Indiana, Crush & Smash on February 17, 1991 in Tampa, Crush & Smash on February 20 in Kansas City, Crush Smash on February 21 in Detroit, Crush & Smash on February 23 in Rochester, New York, Crush & Smash on February 24 in Binghampton, New York, Crush & Smash on March 7 in Sacremento, Crush & Smash on March 9 in San Francisco at the Cow Palace, Crush & Smash on March 14 in Winnipeg, Crush & Smash on March 15 in Milwaukee, and Crush & Smash on March 17 in Miami. On October 14, there was a big variation in the match, as Hawk & Animal faced Ax & Smash in a steel cage in Providence, Rhode Island and Crush & Smash in the cage on October 15 in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

There was also at least one Legion of Doom vs. Smash & Crush match aired on local television, which occurred on January 21, 1991 in Madison Square Garden, with the card broadcast on the MSG Network. However, they never faced each other on pay per view or in a truly national television broadcast outside of the Survivor Series eight man tag.

The Legion of Doom vs. The Nasty Boys
The LOD and the Nasty Boys faced each other for the first time on a WWF card in Portland, Maine on February 27, 1991 where Hawk and Animal emerged victorious. The same match took place on March 16 in Auburn Hills Michigan.

Not long after that, the Nasty Boys won the WWF Tag Team Titles and had a series of defenses against the LOD on house shows, which Hawk and Animal would always win by count out or disqualification so that there would be no title change. These matches occurred on April 13, 1991 in Minneapolis, April 14 in Chicago, April 18 in Normal, Illinois, April 19 in New Haven Connecticut, April 20 in Landover, Maryland, April 22 in Montreal, April 26 in Providence, Rhode Island, April 27 in Rochester, New York, April 28 in Orlando, April 29 in West Palm Beach, Florida, May 3 in Atlanta, May 5 in St. Louis, May 9 in Miami, May 10 in San Francisco, May 17 in Houston, May 19 in Pittsburgh, July 20 in Philadelphia, July 21 in Toronto, August 1, 1991 in in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and August 3 in Orlando.

Another common match was a six man tag featuring the Big Bossman and the Legion of Doom against the Nasty Boys and the Mountie, which the babyface team would usually win. These matches took place on July 26, 1991 in San Francisco and July 27 in Denver. There was a rare role reversal on August 2, 1991 in Pittsburgh, where the heels took home the victory. The LOD did a little bit better when they adopted Sid Justice as their six man tag partner, defeating The Nasty Boys and the Undertaker on September 7, 1991 at a house show in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Of course, the most famous match between the Nasty Boys and the LOD occurred at Summerslam 1991 at Madison Square Garden, which saw the WWF Tag Team Titles change hands when Hawk and Animal defeated the Nastys in a street fight. Four nights later, on August 30, the LOD retained their newly-won championships against Knobbs & Sags at a house show in Richfield, Ohio. Other rematch retentions by the LOD occurred on August 31 in Sacremento, September 1 in Fresno, September 8 in London, Ontario, September 12 in Bangor, Maine, September 13 in Milwaukee, September 27 in Minneapolis, September 28 in Boston, October 3 in Miami, October 4 in London, England, October 5 in Barcelona, Spain (which appears to have been carried on local TV), October 7 in Sheffield, England, October 8 in Birmingham, England, and October 9 in Paris, France.

After spending some time apart, the two teams would meet each other again as part of the Arsenio Hall Show taped in Los Angeles on November 21, 1991 . . . and I’m not making this up. During the talk show, Hawk and Animal retained their WWF Tag Team Titles over the Nasty Boys.

In 1992, the two teams were reunited as opponents during the WWF European Rampage Tour. Hawk & Animal triumphed over the Nasties on March 13 in Sheffield, England, April 11 in Milan, Italy, April 12 in Sussex, England, April 15 in Wiesbaden, Germany, April 16 in Dortmund, Germany, and April 17 in Birmingham, England. Also on the tour was a six man tag team match with the British Bulldog & The LOD beating the Mountie & The Nasty Boys on April 14 in Munich, Germany.

After the European tour closed out, the teams clashed again stateside on July 1, 1992 in White Plains, New York, in a six man tag that saw the Legion of Doom reunite with their old partner the Ultimate Warrior to defeat the Nasty Boys and Papa Shango. I would’ve loved to see the promos for that one.

It would be six years before the Nasty Boys and the Roadwarriors would see each other again, and this time around it was in WCW. Hawk and Animal beat their old rivals Knobbs and Sags on the March 18, 1996 Monday Nitro from Chattanooga, Tenneesee. Two weeks later, there was a trinagle match in which the Steiner Brothers beat both the Roadwarriors and the Nasty Boys on the April 1, 1996 Nitro from Cleveland, Ohio, and, of course, we can’t forget about the eight man tag involving the Steiners, the Nasty Boys, the Roadwarriors, and the Public Enemey that I mentioned back up in the Steiner Brothers section.

When I was putting this column together, I figured that the WCW meeting between the Nasties and the Roadwarriors would be their last match, but I was wrong. The two teams actually met up again as part of the XWF, the short-lived promotion that Jimmy Hart and Hulk Hogan attempted to start up in 2001 after WCW folded. Ultimately, the company failed to get a television deal, though the matches from their tapings were released as part of a DVD box set years later.

In a match to crown the first ever XWF Tag Team Champions, the Nasty Boys won a four-way also involving the Roadwarriors, the Shane Twins (later known as the Gymini in WWE), and the Public Enemy, who at the team were called the South Philly Posse for legal reasons. That match took place on November 14, 2011 at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. The XWF also ran a brief series of live events, during which the Roadwarriors beat the Nasty Boys on December 28, 2001 in Hammond, Indiana, December 29 in Milwaukee, and December 30 in Green Bay.

The Legion of Doom vs. The Hart Foundation
There was only one match between the Legion of Doom and the Hart Foundation in the WWF in the early 1990s. It took place as a dark match during a television taping on March 12, 1991 in Biloxi, Mississippi. The two teams wrestled to a double count out.

When the LOD returned to the WWF in the late 1990s, they were part of a feud with the five man version of the Hart Foundation consisting of Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Owen Hart, the British Bulldog, and Brian Pillman. There were many six mans involving the LOD and a partner against Owen Hart, Bulldog, and Brian Pillman. On two occasions, there were multi-man tag matches that involved the classic Hart Foundation duo of Bret and Neidhart against Hawk and Animal. Most famously, this occurred when the five-man Foundation beat the LOD, Ken Shamrock, Goldust, & Steve Austin at the WWF Canadian Stampede pay per view. However, the same tag team match also took place as a dark match after a WWF Raw taping on June 30, 1997 in Des Moines, Iowa, where the American team won.

The Legion of Doom vs. The Natrual Disasters
The first encounters between Hawk, Animal, Earthquake, and Typhoon were actually in six man tag team matches in which the LOD teamed with the Big Bossman and the Disasters teamed with the Mountie, essentially a variation on the six man tags mentioned above that involved Bossman & LOD against Mountie & The Nasty Boys. The first of these tag matches occurred on August 17, 1991 in Landover, Maryland, followed by August 24 in Philadelphia. Interestlingly, the heels won both of these matches.

There was a variation on the six man tag team match that saw the LOD paired with Jim Duggan, while the Natural Disasters retained the Mountie. Duggan, Hawk, & Animal won the first of these matches on November 15, 1991 in San Francisco. The same match occurred on November 16 in Anaheim and again on the same day in San Diego, as well as on November 17 in Fresno.

Yet more six man fun occurred on January 11, 1992 in Philadelphia, when Bret Hart teamed with the Legion of Doom to defeat the Mountie and the Natural Disasters. They rematched with the same result on January 12 in Hamilton, Ontario. On January 18 in Boston, Hart was replaced by Roddy Piper, and, once more, the results were the same.

The Natural Disasters and the Legion of Doom met on pay per view for the first time at the 1991 Survivor Series, broadcast live from Detroit, Michigan, where in a unique six man Survivor Series elimination match, the Big Bossman, Hawk, and Animal stood victorious over Irwin R. Schyster, Earthquake, & Typhoon.

When the LOD was still primarily feuding with the Nasty Boys, they did meet up with the Natural Disasters once on the house show circuit, retaining their WWF Tag Team Titles via disqualification in a match on September 30, 1991 in Wheeling, West Virginia.

A more regular run of LOD Tag Team Title defenses against the Natural Diasters started a few weeks later, with the Roadies winning on October 18 in Houston, October 19 in Philadelphia, October 20 in Toronto, October 21 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, October 24 in Sacremento, October 25 in Oakland, California, October 26 in Los Angeles, October 27 in Tempe, Arizona, October 28 in Madison Square Garden, November 2 in Milwaukee, November 3 in Moline, Illinois, November 3 (yes, again) in Champaign, Illinois, November 4 in Denver, November 8 in Youngstown, Ohio, November 9 in Cincinnati, November 10 in Boston, November 11 in Utica, New York (a TV taping dark match), November 13 in New Haven, Connecticut, November 14 in Portland, Oregon, November 22 in Orlando, November 23 in Tampa, November 24 in West Palm Beach, Florida, November 28 in Ottawa, November 30 in Hamilton, Ontario, a second show on November 30 in London, Ontario, December 1 in Fort Worth, Texas, December 5 in Pensacola, Florida, December 8 in St. Louis, December 14 in Honolulu, Hawaii, January 5, 1992 in Atlanta, January 9 in Sarasota, Florida, January 12 in Oshwa, Ontario, January 17 on Long Island, New York, and January 20 in Montreal.

On Febraury 7, 1992, the Legion of Doom lost the Tag Team Titles to Money, Incorporated, but the house show matches between the LOD and the Natural Disasters continued for a bit, again with Hawk and Animal always winning. Those matches occurred on February 8 in Los Angeles and February 9 in Las Vegas,

Notable non-house show matches between the LOD and the Natural Disasters occurred twice. The first was on December 12, 1991 in Japan as part of a jointly promoted card between the WWF and the short-lived Super World of Sports promotion. At the Tokyo Dome, Hawk and Animal beat Earthquake and Typhoon to retain the WWF Tag Team Titles. Then, at the 1992 Royal Rumble from Albany, New York, the LOD retained the titles against the Disasters again, this time via disqualification.

The Legion of Doom vs. The Rockers
The LOD and the Rockers didn’t face each other often. Their most notable match occurred on an episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling taped on December 4, 1991, which saw Hawk and Animal retain their WWF Tag Team Titles.

The Legion of Doom vs. Haku & The Barbarian
As best I can tell, this match never took place in the WWF. However, the Roadwarriors did beat the Faces of Fear (Meng & The Barbarian) on the January 29, 1996 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, which aired live from Canton, Ohio. The Roadies also won a rematch on the March 6, 1996 episode of WCW Saturday Night from Macon, Georgia.

The Hart Foundation vs. The Rockers
The first recorded Hart Foundation vs. Rockers match that I am aware of was on November 25, 1989, where the two teams wrestled to a twenty minute draw in Landover, Maryland. Later the same day, they did exactly the same match at Madison Garden for a show that was broadcast locally on the MSG Network.

More draws between the Foundation and the Rockers took place on November 26 in Providence, Rhode Island, November 27 in Daytona Beach, Florida, December 8 in Vancouver, December 9 in Regina, Saskatchewan, December 14 in Hamilton, Ontario, December 15 in Montreal, and December 16 in Philadelphia.

On March 24, 1990, the teams met again, this time in Las Vegas, and they switched things up by doing a double disqualification instead of a time limit draw. That match repeated on March 25 in San Diego and later the same day in Los Angeles. The highlight of this run was a double disqualification between the two teams on April 23 in Austin, Texas, which aired as part of Saturday Night’s Main Event.

The most infamous meeting between the Hart Foundation and the Rockers – and perhaps one of the more infamous WWF Tag Team Title matches of all time – occurred on October 30, 1990 in Fort Wayne, Indiana at a television taping. In the two out of three falls match, the Rockers apparently defeated the Hart Foundation for the WWF Tag Team Championship, but the decision was reversed quickly thereafter. The kayfabe reason for the reversal was that a rope broke during the match, thereby invalidating the result. However, the true reason is that the belts were taken off of the Hart Foundation because Jim Neidhart was getting ready to leave the WWF for greener pastures. When Neidhart changed his plans and remained with the Fed after all, the company decided to never air the title change on television and, for a time, attempted to pretend that it never happened.

The two teams did meet one more time after that, with the Foundation beating the Rockers at a show co-promoted with SWS at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on March 30, 1991.

The Hart Foundation vs. Demolition
The first record that I can find of a Hart Foundation vs. Demolition match involved Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart defending their WWF Tag Team Titles against Ax & Smash at a WWF house show in New Haven, Connecticut on September 14, 1987. The match went to a double disqualification.

The teams did not meet again until Summerslam 1988 in Madison Square Garden, where Ax & Smash retained their WWF Tag Team Titles over Hart and Neidhart. A rematch with the same result occurred on the October 25, 1988 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, which was broadcast from Baltimore, Maryland. The two teams were also on opposite sides of the ten team (or twenty man) Survivor Series elimination match which occurred on the 1988 version of that show from Richfield, Ohio. Interestingly, though the teams wrestled each other on major cards throughout 1988, they did not have any house show program during the year, as the Harts faced off against the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers most of the time on those cards.

After some time off, Demolition clashed with the Foundation again in 1990, with a championship match that saw Ax & Smash hold on to their belts when the match ended in a double DQ in Richmond, Virginia. Later the same day, the teams wrestled each other for the titles again in Landover, Maryland, this time going to a double count out.

The double DQ or double count out title program continued on April 25 in Grand Rapids, MI, April 26 in Toledo, Ohio, April 27 in Springfield, Massachusetts, April 28 in Boston, April 29 in Denver, May 5 in Pittsburgh, May 6 in Dayton, Ohio, May 11 on Long Island, May 12 in Chicago, May 13 in Omaha, May 17 in San Diego, May 18 in Sacremento, and May 20 in Houston

On June 1 in Birmingham, Alabama, the Hart/Demolition program changed but with a bit of a variation, as Brian Adams (or Crush) started substituting for Ax. Interestingly, after that substitution, Demolition started actually winning the matches outright, and they were successful on June 2 in Atlanta, June 3 in West Palm Beach, Florida, June 8 in Seattle, June 9 in San Francisco, June 17 in Miami, June 21 in London, Ontario, June 22 in Ottawa, June 27 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, June 30 in Victoria, British Columbia, July 1 in San Jose, later in the day on July 1 in San Diego, July 7 in South Bend, Indiana, July 8 in Toronto, July 10 in Kingston, Ontario, July 15 in Kansas City, and July 27 in Landover, Maryland.

Ax returned to the fold in late July, and he and Smash beat the Hart Foundation on July 23 in West Palm Beach Florida. The more rare combination of Ax and Crush beat the Harts to retain the titles on July 28 in Detroit, and then we were back to Smash and Crush on July 29 in Hartford, Connecticut. From there the rotation continued, still with the Demos winning, as we got Ax & Smash on July 30 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Crush & Smash on August 4 in Indianapolis, Crush and Smash on August 6 in Jackson, Mississippi, Ax & Crush on August 10 in Tampa, Ax & Crush in Orlando on August 11, and Crush & Smash on August 12 in Fort Meyers, Florida.

From there, things got morphed into a series of six man tag team matches, with Jim Duggan joining the Hitman and the Anvil to take on all three members of Demolition. The tide turned here, as the babyfaces won the first of these matches, which took place on August 16 in Binghampton, New York. Before long it was back to heel victories, as Demolition took the match on August 17 in Albany, August 18 in Boston, and August 20 in Columbus, Ohio. We then got one more house show tag match, with Crush & Ax beating the Hart Foundation on August 24 in Montreal.

What followed is probably the most famous Hart Foundation/Demolition match of all time, as Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart recaptured the WWF Tag Team Titles in a two out of three falls match against Smash and Crush at the 1990 edition of Summerslam in Philadelphia.

After the Harts won the Tag Team Titles, there was a house show rematch that saw them retain the belts against Ax & Crush in Dallas on November 29, 1990. Crush & Smash also failed to take the championships back on November 30 in Miami and then again on December 26 in Toronto. In a rare count out win for the heels, Ax & Crush beat the Harts on December 28 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, though the champions got their momentum back by retaining the titles against Crush & Smash in Chicago on December 29. Several months later, the Hart Foundation cleanly retained their titles against Demolition, defeating Crush & Smash on March 16, 1991 in Philadelphia.

After the Foundation lost the Tag Team Titles to the Nasty Boys, they had one more match against Demolition, with the Pink and Black Attack coming out on top at Wembley Stadium in London, England on May 2, 1991.

The Hart Foundation vs. The Nasty Boys
The Hart Foundation and the Nasty Boys originally encountered each other when Bret & Neidhart were the WWF Tag Team Champions. At a house show in Normal, Illinois on January 30, 1991, the Foundation retained the titles when the Nasties got themselves disqualified. The match repeated itself on March 3 in Chicago, and the Harts got their first clean title retention over Knobs & Saggs on March 17 at a house show in Richfield, Ohio.

Of course, this all built to a championship change, as the Nasty Boys used nefarious means to triump over the Hitman & the Anvil at the grandaddy of them all, Wrestlemania VII in Los Angeles. In the Harts’ only rematch for the titles, they lost via disqualification on July 1, 1991 in Madison Square Garden, with the card airing on the MSG Network.

The Rockers vs. Demolition
The orignal Ax & Smash version of Demolition defeated the Rockers on October 24, 1998 to retain their WWF Tag Team Titles at Madison Square Garden, with the match being aired on the MSG Network. On a more mainstream television broadcast, the Rockers actually managed to beat the Demos in a Tag Title match, though it was only by count out. The match took place in San Francisco on November 15, 1988 and was shown on WWF Superstars of Wrestling.

After a year and a half, the two teams wrestled each other again, this time on July 16, 1990 in Omaha for Saturday Night’s Main Event. Demolition were again the Tag Team Champions at the time of the match, and the Smash/Crush version of the team successfully retained those belts against Michaels & Jannetty.

Another match between the two teams occurred on November 24, 1990. No titles were on the line as the Rockers beat Smash & Crush by disqualification in Madison Square Garden which was, once again, aired on the MSG Network. Smash & Crush managed to get a clean victory for themselves on December 27, when they won a house show match in Auburn Hills, Michigan, only for the Rockers to get their own victory on January 20, 1991 in Hartford, Connecticut.

The Rockers also won matches against these men on January 25 in Valpariso, Indiana, January 26 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, January 27 in Moline, Illinois, later in the day on January 27 in Omaha, January 30 in Green Bay, February 1 in Richfield, Ohio, February 3 in Landover, Maryland, February 3 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, February 7 in Knoxville, Tennessee, March 3 in Chicago, and April 28 in Manchester, England.

The Rockers vs. The Natural Diasters
On the October 1, 1991 edition of WWF Wrestling Challenge, the Natural Disasters beat the Rockers in Huntington, West Virginia.

The Rockers vs. The Nasty Boys
The first of many matches between the Rockers and the Nasty Boys was in Boston, with the Nasties winning a house show battle in Boston on February 2. The match repeated itself later the same day in Springfield, Massachusetts, though this time the result was different, as the two teams battled to a time limit draw.

The program picked up again later in the month, as the Nasties won matches in Pittsburgh on February 15, in Lowell, Massachusetts on February 16, on Long Island later in the day on February 16, in Kansas City on February 20, in Detroit on February 21, in Rochester, New York on February 23, and in Binghampton, New York on February 24. For reasons unknown to me, the Rockers suddenly won one of the matches, triumphing in Boston on March 2, though it was via disqualification.
The Rockers won against the Nasty Boys by disqualification again, this time in a Tag Team Title match that aired on WWF Superstars. The bout occurred on April 15, 1991 at was taped in Omaha.

There was also a six man tag team match in which the Rockers and their partner the Big Bossman defeated the Nasty Boys and their partner the Mountie on June 24, 1991 in Niagra Falls, New York.

In another failed title challenge by the Rockers, they beat the Nasties via count out on a house show in Landover, Maryland on July 19, 1991, and the Knobbs & Sags managed to beat them back on October 3 in London, England, though they were no longer the champions by that point in time.

The teams then traded wins back in the United States, with Michaels & Jannetty winning on October 18 in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Knobbs & Sags winning on October 20 in Toronto. The Nasties then took three straight in Beaumont, Texas on October 23, in Tuscon, Arizona on October 25, and in Dallas on October 26. The Rockers got a measure of revenge by winning in Portland, Maine on October 28, but the Nasties regained control of the series by winning in Las Vegas on November 1, Hershey, Pennsylvania on November 15, Syracuse, New York on November 17, later in the day on November 17 in Albany, New York, Winnipeg on November 28, Lexington, Kentucky on November 29, Philadelphia on November 30, Madison Square Garden later on November 30 (broadcast on the MSG Network), Pensacola, Florida on December 5, Houston on December 6, Denver on December 7, Los Angeles and Sacremento both on December 8, Honolulu on December 14, and Richfield, Ohio on December 28.

The Rockers vs. Haku & The Barbarian
These two teams locked it up at Wrestlemania VII from Los Angeles, where the Rockers scored a clean victory. There was only one rematch, and it had the same result, occurring on a house show in Toledo, Ohio on June 22, 1991.

The Steiner Brothers vs. The Nasty Boys
These two teams have more history with each other in WCW than they do in the WWF, having met for the first time on October 14, 1990 in Atlanta for a house show match that saw the Steiners beat the Nasties to retain their NWA United States Tag Team Titles. Rematches with the same result occurred on October 21 in Baltimore, October 25 in Norfolk, Virginia, and October 26 in Richmond, Virginia.

The biggest match of this series occurred at Halloween Havoc 1990 in Chicago, Illinois, broadcast live on pay per view. That match was another successful title defense for Rick and Scott. When the match went back on the road for house shows, it occurred inside a steel cage, but the result was the same, as the All Americans from the University of Michigan beat Knobbs and Sags in Atlanta on November 22.

The teams never met during their WWF tenures, which I am fairly confident did not overlap or only barely did.

In fact, it would be several years before the teams would meet again, and, when they did, it was for New Japan Pro Wrestling of all places. As part of the 1994 Summer Struggle tour, the Steiners once again defeated their old adversaries at the Nakajima Sports Center in Sapporo, Japan.

Two more years would go by, and then the Nasties and Steiners would begin facing each other during the Monday Nitro era of WCW. Their first match back was on the March 24, 1996 edition of WCW Main Event, which saw them wrestle to a no contest in Tupelo, Mississippi. This was followed quickly by the triangle match and eight man tag match that involved the Roadwarriors that I mentioned up above in the Steiners vs. LOD section. The Steiners would also defeat the Nasties on the July 8 edition of Monday Nitro from Disney/MGM Studios in Orlando in a match that was for the number one contendership to the WCW Tag Team Titles.

After years of losing virtually every match against them, the Nasty Boys finally got a win in a match with the Steiner Brothers on July 20, 1996 in Columbia, South Carolina. It was a WCW house show, and Knobbs and Sags wona triangle match that involved the Steiners and Public Enemy.

The Steiner Brothers vs. Haku & The Barbarian
Haku and the Barbarian really weren’t teaming at the time that the Steiner Brothers entered the WWF, though they did have some run-ins a few years later in WCW. The first came as part of a four corners tag team match at a house show in Rock Hill, South Carolina on July 19, 1996. In that match, the Steiners were victorious against the Faces of Fear, the American Males, and Public Enemy.

The teams would go against each other straight up on the January 27, 1997 episode of Monday Nitro, which saw the Steiners beat the Faces of Fear in Des Moines, Iowa. The teams would wrestle again, this time to a double count out, on the February 6 edition of WCW {Pro}, which was taped at Universal Studios in Orlando. The teams had another no contest on July 30 in Gainesville, Georgia as a dark match during a set of tapings for WCW Saturday Night and again on Monday Nitro from Milwaukee on September 8. Haku/Meng and the Barbarian finally managed to beat the Steiners on the September 22 Nitro in Salt Lake City, Utah, but the Steiners got their win back on the December 9 WCW Saturday Night in Erie, Pennsylvania and again on a January 3, 1998 house show in Columbia, South Carolina. That match repeated the next day on a house show in Columbus, Georgia.

The last and most recent battle between these two teams was actually fairly recent. It was part of an indy show called Wrestlecade in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and it occurred on November 29, 2014. In a four way involving the Faces of Fear, the Steiners, the Rock n’ Roll Express, and Tom Prichard & George South, the Steiners came out on top.

The Bushwackers vs. Demolition
The Wackers and Demolition, consisting of Ax and Smash, met in the ring for the first time in Toronto on November 25, 1990. Not surprisingly, the Demos got the victory. Not to be outdone, Crush joined up with Smash to beat Luke and Butch on January 3, 1991 in Tuscon, Arizona, January 4 in San Francisco, January 5 in Long Beach, California, and January 12 in Tempe, Arizona.
After some time apart, the two teams met again on February 2 in Boston, where Luke and Butch won via disqualification. Crush and Smash got their revenge later the same day, when they defeated the Bushwackers in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Luke and Butch finally got themselves a clean victory over Smash & Crush on March 1, 1991 in San Antonio, Texas. This actually turned into a bit of a run for the Bushwackers, as they did the same thing on April 30 in Birmingham, England and May 1 in Brighton, England, closing the program on a bright note.

The Bushwackers vs. The Natural Diasters
The first match between these two teams took place on August 9, 1991 in Los Angeles, with the Disasters winning via disqualification. Shortly thereafter, Earthquake and Typhoon got outright victories in rematches on August 16 in Montreal and August 18 in Toronto. A pay per view version of the match with the same result was part of Summerslam 1991 in Madison Square Garden.

The Bushwackers vs. The Nasty Boys
A matchup between the Bushwackers and the Nasty Boys would seemingly be a natural given their similar styles, so the WWF did in fact program them against each other quite a bit.

The Nasties beat the Bushwackers for the first time on January 20, 1991 in Philadelphia and then again on January 21 in Madison Square Garden (broadcast on the MSG Network), January 25 in Hamilton, Ontario, January 26 in Chicago, January 26 in Auburn Hills, Michigan, February 1 in Richfield, Ohio, February 3 in Landover, Maryland, later on February 3 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, February 7 in Knoxville, Tennessee, February 8 in Murphysboro, Tennessee, February 9 in Cincinnati, Ohio, later the same day in Lousiville, Kentucky, February 11 in New Haven, Connecticut, March 7 in Sacremento, California, March 8 in Fresno, California, March 9 in San Francisco, March 14 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and March 15 in Milwaukee.

Then, in an interesting twist, a promotion called the Arena Wrestling Alliance ran a series of shows New Zealand, using mostly lower card WWF talent. The shows, which were in Hamilton on March 31, 1991, Whanganui on April 3, and Hastings on April 4, were all headlined by WWF Tag Team Title matches that saw the Bushackers defeat the Nasty Boys by disqualification.

There was another championship match between the two teams on the April 15, 1991 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, which took place in Omaha, Nebraska. If you’re familiar with the history of the WWF Tag Team Titles, you should know that the Bushwackers lost. Then, in a somewhat unusual six man tag team match, on the May 28, 1991 edition of WWF Superstars of Wrestling, the trio of Earthquake and the Nasty Boys defeated Tugboat and the Bushwackers before Quake decided that he and Tugboat should be friends.

Before too long, it was back to our standard of the Nasty Boys retaining the WWF Tag Team Titles over the Bushwackers, which occurred again on June 3, 1991 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The Wackers did get a measure of revenge on July 8 in Calgary during the dark match of a WWF Wrestling Challenge taping, as they teamed with the Big Bossman to beat the Mountie & The Nasty Boys in another six man tag.

After several months, the two rival teams met once more, this time with the Bushwackers winning via disqualification. This match was on November 14, 1991 in Providence, Rhode Island. The Nasties quickly fired back, winning matches on November 16 in Landover, Maryland and later the same day in Allentown, Pennsylvania in addition to November 22 in Richfield, Ohio, November 23 in Evansville, Indiana, November 24 in Chicago, December 26 in Landover again, a second December 26 show in Hershey, Pennsylvania, December 29 in Chicago, December 29 once again in Madison Square Garden, and January 5, 1992 in Moline, Illinois.

Things got a little bit mixed up in 1992, as Jerry Sags was sidelined for a show, leading to the Bushwackers defeating the very odd team of Brian Knobbs and Kato of the Orient Express on Valentine’s Day in St. Louis.

That was followed by a six man tag in Utica, New York, with Bret Hart & The Bushwackers defeating The Mountie & The Nasty Boys on February 19. That six man repeated itself on February 21 in Binghampton, New York and February 22 in Syracuse, New York. A variation on the match took place on February 28 in Normal, Illinois, when Bret Hart & The Bushwackers beat Brian Knobbs, Bret Hart, & Shawn Michaels and then again on March 1 in Moline, Illinois. Sags was back for the more conventional match after a bit, with the babyface threesome winning on March 7 in Chicago, March 8 in South Bend, Indiana, March 15 in San Diego, later on March 15 in Oakland, March 21 in Omaha, March 22 in Denver, March 23 on the MSG Network, March 25 in Moncton, New Brunswick, March 26 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and March 27 in Montreal.

There were also some more straight tag matches mixed in there, with the Nasties going over on February 20 in Niagra falls and the Wackers getting a rare victory on February 21 in Providence, Rhode Island. They traded wins again a few days later, with Knobbs & Sags winning on February 23 on the MSG Network and Luke & Butch winning on February 24 in Worchester, Massachusetts. On March 14, the Boys won again, this time in Anaheim, California.

The rivalry between the two teams expanded into an eight man tag on March 9, 1992, as the Nasty Boys and the Beverley Brothers came out on top against the Bushwackers, Jim Duggan, & Sgt. Slaughter.

After several months apart, the Nasty Boys and the Bushwackers locked up one more time for good old time’s sake, with the Wackers winning the match via disqualification. This took place on July 21, 1992 in Portland, Maine and was taped for WWF Wrestling Challenge. There was also another six man tag, as the dark match for Summerslam 1992 was Jim Duggan & The Bushwackers beating The Mountie & The Nasty Boys.

The Nasty Boys vs. Haku & The Barbarian
This match never happened in the WWF. However, it did happen in New Japan Pro Wrestling, with the Tongan team picking up the victory on August 6, 1993 in Tokyo’s Sumo Hall. The duo rematched in WCW at a October 13, 1996 house show in Tupelo, Mississippi, with the Faces of Fear again getting the victory.

At the 1996 World War 3 pay per view in Norfolk, Virginia, the two teams met each other again, but this time they both came out on the losing end, as they were involved in a triangle match against the Outsiders. There was a rematch of this bout on a January 3, 1997 house show in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the result was the same.

Meng and the Barbarian defeated the Nasties yet again on the December 9, 1996 Monday Nitro from Charlotte, North Carolina and the January 1, 1997 WCW {Pro}, taped at Disney MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida.

Well, that was exhausting. Hopefully somebody other than Raza found that interesting.

Thanks to Mat Sforcina as always for giving me the opportunity to fill in, and thanks to all of you for reading. I’ll look forward to the next run.