411’s Top 25 Tag Teams of the Last 25 Years (#5-#1)

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the 411 wrestling section, and welcome to our latest feature, the top 25 tag teams of the last 25 years. The countdown started on Monday, and I would like to thank those of you that took the time to read and comment on the articles. Today we continue the countdown, from #5-#1. As a reminder, every 411 writer had the opportunity to share their top 25, and after over 25 writers produced and shared their list, the grand list was then complied to make the top 25. Remember, everyone has different values. Some value workrate and match quality, while other look at influence in the business or how much money they drew. While people will always disagree, we at 411 felt that this was the fairest way to make the list, and we know that some people will be left out. Here are the men that just missed the cut, and the first official members of the list…

Just missing the cut…
* Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi
* Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Buccanero
* Los Guerreros (Eddie & Chavito)
* The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers)
* The Heavenly Bodies (Dr. Tom Prichard, Sweet Stan Lane & Gigolo Jimmy Del Rey)

#25. The Hollywood Blondes (Steve Austin and Brian Pillman)
#24. Los Gringos Locos (Eddie Guerrero and Art Bar)
#23. The Holy Demon Army (Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue)
#22. America’s Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm)
#21. The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castignoli)
#20. The Briscoe Brothers (Mark and Jay)
#19. Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin)
#18. The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts and Jimmy Garvin)
#17. The Outsiders (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash)
#16. Miracle Violence Connection (Dr. Death Steve Williams and Terry Gordy)
#15. Beer Money (Robert Roode and James Storm)
#14. The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannety)
#13. Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray)
#12. The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn)
#11. The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid)
#10. The Hardy Boys
#9. Demolition
#8. Edge and Christian
#7. The Rock and Roll Express
#6. The Dudley Boys/Team 3D

And now…

The top 5 Tag Teams of the last 25 years!

Mike Campbell: One of the finest tag teams, if not the finest tag team, in wrestling during the late 1980’s was undoubtedly Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson. They were both founding members of the Four Horsemen in 1986, but didn’t start teaming regularly until the following year. Tully concentrated on singles matches winning both the United States and Television Titles, while Arn was teaming with Ole. One of the earliest Tully and Arn tags was in the 1986 Crockett Cup, where they fell to the Fantastics somewhat early on.

By January of 1987 Ole was out of the group and Arn didn’t have much to do. Lex Luger had replaced Ole in the group and won the United States Title, Tully dropped his Television Title to Nikita Koloff in August, and Arn and Tully formed a team and quickly won the NWA Tag Titles from The Rock and Roll Express in September on ’87. Tully and Arn were a living example of the ‘well oiled machine’ of tag teams. They were both great wrestlers individually, but as a team they were even better. They were good enough to beat you fair and square, but weren’t above taking the occasional cheap shot or shortcut if the opportunity presented itself. Tully and Arn had a virtual monopoly on the NWA Tag Titles from September ’98 until October ’88, aside from a few weeks where the more or less loaned the titles to Lex Luger (who’d left the group early in ’88) and Barry Windham, in one of the many great matches from the first ever Clash of Champions event.

Tully and Arn teamed up again for the 1988 Crockett Cup and not only avenged their loss to the Fantastics from two years prior, but they made it all the way to finals, before falling to the hot young team of Sting and Lex Luger. Tully and Arn’s NWA run started winding down in the fall of 1988 as they started a feud with the Midnight Express. the Midnights were the U.S. Tag Champions at that point and didn’t want to be second best. As Jim Cornette put it, money blew through the roof, as far as business went when the program got started. But before it could really get cooking, Tully gave his notice and Arn joined him.

They wound up the WWF a few weeks later as Bobby Heenan’s “Brain Busters” yet another silly name, but even that didn’t stop them from doing what they did best. Throughout 1989, Tully and Arn had great matches against the Rockers (including a pair of great ones on Saturday Nights Main Event), the Hart Foundation, Strike Force, and several other WWF Tag Teams. They eventually captured the WWF Tag Titles in the summer of ’89 from Demolition and defended them at Summerslam that year against the Hart Foundation. Toward the end of the year, both Tully and Arn decided to go back to the NWA and reform the Four Horsemen, but the WWF stooged that Tully had failed a drug test and he wasn’t welcomed back. For intents and purposes, this was the end of Tully and Arn. Tully made a few occasional WCW appearances at Slamboree, but never came back full time. It wouldn’t be until after both men had retired that they’d come together again in the WWE as part of Ric Flair’s emotional sendoff, along with Barry Windham, flashing the four fingers one last time.

Scott Rutherford: I’m not going to call this an accidental team even though it was never really supposed to be them. We all know the storied history of The Four Horsemen and know they had teamed in some kind of fashion for years. However, Tully was the other singles star of the group being a former US and TV Champion and Arn the respected enforcer and tag team specialist. So when Ole Anderson was pushed out of the group and his replacement was singles star Lex Lugar and later Barry Windham, it pushed Tully and Arn into becoming the tag team of the unit.

And thank fuck for that.

Arn Anderson has been the part of some phenomenal tag teams and his list of co-champions reads like a who’s who of wrestling…and Paul Roma. But this team, Tully and Arn, this was something special. Like many of the best teams, they each had something unique to offer and complimented and hide the weaknesses of the other. They looked different, talked different, acted different.

Tully was a slimy, scum sucking shithead. Very rarely has any man been able to elicit so little sympathy. He very rarely offered anything redeeming about himself and prided himself on being a terrible human being and a fantastic wrestler. Arn on the other hand didn’t have the look of a star but had that aura of respect about him and you knew he would hand your ass to you in a legit fight. Or as Ric Flair said to ex-footballer Kevin Green…Arn eats guys like you for breakfast.

In the ring they were combustible and especially when you put them in with a babyface team that the fans were apeshit about, it was an easy night at the office. They would generate such heat and hatred that fans would have to be restrained from coming over the rails. Nights like Barry Windham turning on Luger during a match with Tully and Arn were made even greater because they created the right environment for maximum shock.

When they jumped over to the WWF in 1989 it only further cemented their greatness thanks to an electric feud with The Rockers. Talk about the perfect teams for each other. The pretty-boy babyfaces with crowd-pleasing moves up against the wily, hard-boiled veterans who openly declared they cheated to win decades before Eddie Guerrero turned it into a catchphrase. They definitely brought out the best in each other and their matches were so good, it became the norm to end house shows with them as the main event over the slow moving, dinosaur main event guys.

Their best series of matches came against Demolition, even though they weren’t the same in-ring quality as the matches with The Rockers, these were great for a different reason. Ax and Smash are not Marty and Shawn. Tully and Arn had to use a completely different style that relied more on storytelling than great mat wrestling. It really should be no surprise since they had worked a million matches with The Road Warriors that they knew what to do with Demolition. And lets face it, the Demo’s were much better workers than Animal and Hawk.

Sadly, there time as a team came to an unexpected end thanks to a failed Tully drug test and his new WCW contract being terminated. What would have become of them if given another couple of years in the spotlight with a new crop of teams coming through? I’m not sure but at the very least it would have also given more credence to the reformation of The Four Horsemen.

They had the knack for getting people to believe what was happening in the ring and making everyone they worked with look better than ever. Tully and Arn were truly one of the great tag teams of any era.

Steve Cook: The Four Horsemen were one of wrestling’s first super groups, and to this day are considered one of the most dominant. While Ric Flair got the majority of the attention as the perennial NWA World Champion, the backbone of the group during its early years was the tandem of Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard. Flair was always out front, and the fourth member of the group changed on occasion, but Anderson & Blanchard were the two men that kept Flair on top of the promotion and kept the fans coming back night after night. In the early days Arn teamed with Ole Anderson while Tully held multiple singles titles including the National title, Television title & United States title. After Ole was booted from the group in early 1987, Arn began teaming with Tully. It didn‘t take long for Arn & Tully to become a championship-caliber tag team, as they won the NWA World tag team titles from the Rock & Roll Express in September.

Arn & Tully were magnificent together and were the perfect heel tag team for the good guys to chase after. Tully was an unlikable prick with tremendous in-ring ability & smarts, while Arn was a deadly combination of brute force & intelligence. Both men would use any means necessary to get the job done and they stole many a victory away from their opponents by breaking the rules after getting their asses handed to them for most of the match. Their manager James J. Dillon aided them in these efforts & served to annoy the fans even more. They held the NWA tag titles on two occasions, feuding with the Road Warriors, Sting, Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes and anybody else that stood for truth, justice & the American way. They would drop the titles to the Midnight Express in September 1988 & leave the NWA to try their fortunes in the World Wrestling Federation.

Most wrestlers would be completely repackaged when they went to the WWF, but Arn & Tully mostly remained the same. They were the same assholes that they were in the NWA, with a new name (The Brain Busters) & a new manager (Bobby Heenan). Oddly enough, Dillon was not assigned to be their manager…even though he left the NWA for the WWF at the same time as Anderson & Blanchard, he was given a front office job and kept off TV except for the occasional fight break-up. The Brain Busters were very successful during their year in the WWF, holding the WWF Tag Team titles for several months and helping young guys like the Rockers expand on their skills & become better pro wrestlers. Unfortunately the Brain Busters team ended in November 1989 when Tully failed a drug test and was fired. They were on their way to WCW anyway, and Arn still found a home there, but they refused to hire Tully after the drug test results were made public. It was a disappointing end for a tag team that accomplished so much in so little time.

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Mike Campbell: When making any sort of the list of the top tag teams, no matter what the criteria, no list is complete without the three men best known for being in the Midnight Express, “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey, “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton, and “Sweet” Stan Lane. When it comes to tag team wrestling, the Midnights are right alongside the Rock and Rolls when it comes to perfecting the formula for tag team matches. As great as Ricky was at taking the abuse, and as great as Robert was at being the fired up partner ready to clean house. It wouldn’t have come off nearly as well without Bobby and Dennis, or Bobby and Stan, being there to heap the abuse on Ricky and make fans so passionate and angry to furiously chant “Rock and Roll” or make Jim Cornette fear for his life because the only thing between the angry fans and the Midnights were about ten feet of distance and Jimmy himself.

The Midnights were officially formed in the early 1980’s by Condrey, Randy Rose, and Norvell Austin in Alabama. But the name became best known when Bill Watts saw something in Bobby Eaton (then a babyface in Memphis) and Dennis Condrey (then a heel in Memphis) that made him think they’d make a great team. As part of a talent exchange with Jerry Jarrett in Memphis, he took Bobby and Dennis, along with Cornette to manage them, and the rest was history. As the story goes, Watts asked Condrey if Bobby could work and Cornette could talk, which Dennis talked up both them huge. Watts asked about a good name for them, and Condrey told them he was in a team called the Midnight Express in Alabama, which Watts thought was perfect.

Watts’s instincts were right about Dennis and Bobby; they made a great tag team, often stealing the show when working with the Rock and Rolls, along with other popular teams of the era like the Fantastics and Road Warriors. One only needs to look at the Bobby/Dennis versions most famous match. The scaffold match at Starrcade ’86 against the Road Warriors. No, they weren’t the main event (Ric Flair vs. Nikita Koloff was), but the event was named “Night of the Sky walkers” after the scaffold match.

Condrey left the business for a spell in 1987 and was replaced by Stan Lane. *THIS* is the Midnight Express that everyone generally talks about as one of the all time great tag teams. Brian Pullman once described them as being a team of Air Traffic Controllers, with hand signals and code word’s. Bobby and Stan also had great matches with the other tag teams of the era, including a pair of matches with the Fantastics for the United States Tag Titles in 1988, a show stealer at the first Clash of Champions, and then another on NWA World Wide Wrestling where the Fants won the titles.

After the program with the Fants, they started a program with then NWA Tag Team Champions Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson, which was cut short when they left the NWA in September of ’88. To make up for it, the NWA brought in Randy Rose and Dennis Condrey who’d been teaming as “The Original Midnight Express” in a very famous angle on NWA TV. Where Cornette got a phone call where he was getting worked up (not that it took much) and suddenly yelled “JESUS CHRIST!” and the three were ambushed by Paul E. Dangerously and the new Midnights, with Cornette doing a huge blade job on television.

When the NWA became WCW, the business changed dramatically, because it wasn’t wrestling people in charge of the company. Jim Crockett had signed them to very large contracts because of their track record of excellence and drawing money. The people are Turner simply saw them as a small team with fat contracts and constantly tried to get rid of them. Despite *still* being able to steal the show, as they did on several WCW PPVs of 1990 (Wrestlewar with the Rock and Rolls, Capitol Combat with Pillman and Zenk, and Great American Bash with the Southern Boys) they were still disrespected and treated like second class citizens. This eventually led to Cornette and Lane quitting WCW at the end of 1990, and effectively ending the team (unless one wants to count Bob Holly and Bart Gunn, and even Cornette won’t do that).

Steve Cook: Bill Watts & Jerry Jarrett agreed to exchange some of their talent in 1984, as both men’s promotions needed some freshening up. Watts went to one of Jarrett’s shows and saw a young manager named Jim Cornette that was interfering in every single match (He usually didn’t, but Jarrett wanted to get rid of him without making his wife that was friends with Cornette’s mom mad), a young white meat babyface named Bobby Eaton that flew around the ring like nobody’s business, and a cagey veteran named Dennis Condrey that knew everything there was to know about working a crowd. Watts decided that the perfect thing to do was to put these three men together as a heel tag team with a motor-mouth manager. The Midnight Express made its debut in Mid-South Wrestling, and business immediately picked up in the territory. Their feuds with the Rock & Roll Express & Bill Watts/Junkyard Dog did tremendous business and helped turn Watts’ territory into arguably the hottest promotion in the country. The feud with the R & R’s would become the MX’s calling card, and indy promotions still book Express vs. Express matches for the nostalgia factor. In their prime, there were no better opponents for each other than the Midnight Express & the Rock & Roll Express.

The Midnights headed to World Class, where they feuded with the Fantastics and waited for their chance at the top of the card. They didn’t get it there, but their stay with Jim Crockett Promotions would prove to be quite fruitful. Another feud with the R & Rs led to good times, and the MX had their most famous match at Starrcade 1986 when they faced the Road Warriors in a scaffold match. The Starrcade 1986 video tape was the highest selling wrestling video for a very long time mostly due to people wanting to see Cornette’s bump off the scaffold. Not long after that seminal moment, Dennis Condrey would leave Eaton & Cornette behind. No notice, no explanation for an incredibly long time. He just left.

A replacement was found in the form of Stan Lane, a man who had already been part of a legendary team in the Fabulous Ones. There has been much debate over which version of the MX was better…most will tell you that Eaton & Condrey were the better tag team in the ring, but that Stan Lane brought a charisma and look to the team that Condrey didn’t have. The MX didn’t miss a beat with Lane inserted into Condrey’s spot, as they continued to win championships, have classic matches and earn the respect of smart wrestling fans everywhere. The MX did have a face turn late in their run, which led to a feud with the Original Midnight Express of Randy Rose…& Dennis Condrey. The Express broke up in October 1990 when Cornette & Lane had finally had enough of Jim Herd & WCW’s general incompetence & left the company. The Midnight Express is remembered by “smart” wrestling fans to this day as one of the greatest in-ring tag teams of all time whose innovations can still be seen to this day.

Greg DeMarco: The retirement of a little known wrestler named Don Carson is actually reason we have The Midnight Express’ glory to celebrate today. Carson was the partner of Dennis Condrey, and his retirement lead Condrey to find a new partner in Randy Rose. From there, The Midnight Express was born. Norvell Austin would later turn on his partner Brad Armstrong to join Rose & Condrey, making The Midnight Express a stable. The name originally had nothing to do with the movie, but rather that the combo’s gimmick was a group of men who wore all black, drove black cars and partied well past midnight. They used The Freebird Rule in the Continental Wrestling Alliance in 1981 & 1982 (before the rule was termed “The Freebird Rule”), before losing the titles to Sweet Brown Sugar and (ironically) Bobby Eaton. Later into 1983, the trio split up and left the CWA.
When Bobby Eaton also left the CWA in a talent trade with Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling, his was quickly paired up with former rival Dennis Condrey, and the duo took on the name The Midnight Express as well as the monikers of “Loverboy” Dennis and “Beautiful” Bobby. They also added Jim Cornette as a manager. From this point forward, The Midnight Express would only compete as a tag team, it was never again a stable. They had an early feud with Magnum TA and Mr. Wrestling II, before entering their legendary feud with The Rock-N-Roll Express. This feud would be rekindled in the National Wrestling Alliance, and is still booked by promoters in 2011.

The Midnights moved to World Class Championship Wrestling (and feuded with the Fantastics, another feud that would resurface in the NWA), but left out of fear they wouldn’t be pushed. That decision proved to be very fruitful, as the free agent tag team signed with Jim Crockett Promotions, and appeared on their weekly World Championship Wrestling television program as part of the National Wrestling Alliance.

They were immediately put into a feud with The Rock-N-Roll Express, and the two teams traded the World Tag Team Championships. They also feuded with The New Breed and The Road Warriors, the latter of which lead to an infamous Starrcade ’86 Scaffold Match. It was early in 1987 that Dennis Condrey left the NWA/Jim Crockett Promotions, leaving Bobby Eaton without a tag team partner.

Enter “Sweet” Stan Lane. Stan Lane was working in Florida, but the territory had experienced some problems. JJ Dillon told him to reach out to Dusty Rhodes, and the most popular version of The Midnight Express was born. There is a funny story that circulates indicating that “White Lightning” Tim Horner was actually considered as a replacement for Condrey. Thankfully that role went to Lane!

Lane & Eaton quickly gelled like to other Express combination before them. They won the United States Tag Team Championships, and later defeated Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard in a rare heel vs. heel match-up. The fans were solidly behind The Midnights in this match-up, and they were eventually part of a double turn that saw the Road Warriors turn heel and The Midnights turn face—the Road Warriors also won the World Tag Team Championships as a part of that turn. During their NWA run, they also rekindled their feud with The Fantastics, including an outstanding match at the first ever Clash of the Champions.

The Dynamic Dudes (Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace—imagine that combo) were positioned to be a new big-time face team in the NWA/WCW, and feuded with The Midnight Express over Jim Cornette’s leadership. The Dudes lost steam early into their run, and were quickly dispatched of when the Midnights turned heel. The match happened in New York, and the crowd was so apathetic towards The Dudes that they cheered the Midnights’ heel turn! It was in 1990 that Jim Cornette and Stan Lane left WCW, ending The Midnight Express as we knew them.
Today, Bobby Eaton, Dennis Condrey, Stan Lane and Jim Cornette make appearances as The Midnight Express, signing autographs and wrestling matches for nostalgic purposes. It was at one of these appearances that the infamous “it’s still real to me” video was recorded, a video that still circulates the internet and Facebook today.

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Scott Rutherford: While there has been more decorated teams in wrestling in terms of titles won, there is little doubt that the Hart Foundation are what the essence of true tag team wrestling is all about. They were a classic combo, the cool technical wrestler and the crazy, nut job brawler. One was big and the other was small. One was the heir apparent to a wrestling family dynasty and the other was a transplanted ex-footballer. They were different but the same all at once.

Bret Hart was originally tapped to be gimmicked as a cowboy when he proposed to George Scott a tag team with fellow Stampeder Jim Neidhart and promised the matches they could have with the British Bulldogs would blow the roof off the place. Scott laughed stating that the fans would never buy Hart as a heel with his look. Eventually George relented when Bret was set to quit, and as a man of his word, Bret made sure the newly created Hart Foundation was having ***+ matches with anything that moved.

They blended perfectly in the ring. Bret knew Jim wasn’t a great wrestler so he would be the mechanic in the ring. Jim would tag in, murder people and then tag out. Bret also knew that he sucked at doing promo’s so Jim, a natural character, became the mouthpiece. Jimmy Hart was brought on board as a manager and the final piece of the puzzle was in place. Almost. Add some pink wrestling trunks…and you have the perfect look to match.

They could wrestle anyone in any style and when The British Bulldogs couldn’t carry on as champs, The Dynamite Kid stated he would only lay down from them as a sign of respect for their talent and hard work. Several years later the Hart Foundation showed just how talented they were when they embarked on another run as champs but this time as white hot babyfaces.

Bret and Jim are the pinnacle of WWF tag team wrestling and no talk of the best tag teams in wrestling history is ever complete about a dissection of the Hart Foundation and the legacy they left behind. We are not only talking of good matches but the distinctly different types of matches they could have. These guys were no one-dimensional brawlers like the Road Warriors or high-flyers like The Rockers or the Rock n’ Roll Express. With two distinct workers in the team, they could adapt to any style of match that was required.

Inevitably, Bret’s star rose and he became a singles star and went on to became WWF Champion. Jim had less fortune and was in an out of the WWF. In 1997 however, the Hart Foundation was reborn as a wrestling stable breathing life back into the career of Neidhart and creating a catalyst for the Attitude area to take hold.

So much controversy has surround Bret Hart these days that it’s very easy to lose site of the greatness that was The Hart Foundation. They very rarely won any matches outright, often losing most of their matches or them ended up some kind of no result even when they were champions. Yet they still maintained a level of believability amongst the fans as elite thanks to the talent of both men involved.

Chad Nevett: I’m Canadian, therefore I love the Hart Foundation. But, you don’t get as far as the Hart Foundation got because Canadians love you. If all Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart had going for them was Canadians loving them, they would have been back to Stampede Wrestling within a year after arriving in the WWF. One big advantage they had was Jimmy Hart. The Mouth of the South was an expert heat getter and the Hart Foundation benefited greatly from that. Jimmy Hart brought eyeballs and that’s all a team like the Hart Foundation needed. So many teams go for the big man/little man tandem, but few have pulled it off like the Hart Foundation. Part of that was the two men genuinely liked one another. Bret Hart has said that, while teaming together, they never had a cross word. They just got along and that translated into how they worked together in the ring. When they were heels, Bret would pick apart his opponent’s body one piece at a time before Jim would crush him; when they were faces, Bret would struggle against the heels and eventually make the hot tag to Jim so he could crush them. Pretty basic stuff, but name a better ‘little man’ than Bret Hart. Hell, in the context of tag teams, name a better ‘big man’ than Jim Neidhart. He wasn’t a lumbering monster that dwarfed his partner, he was just a mean, thick man that laughed gleefully as he hurt people. He had a solid foundation of wrestling ability that made him seem more than just Bret’s protector. What’s funny about the Hart Foundation is that I don’t remember their angles, I remember their matches. They almost didn’t need angles to get over, relying on putting on spectacular matches with the likes of the British Bulldogs, the Rockers, Demolition, the Quebecers, and even made the Nasty Boys tolerable. They got over through their talent and they rose to the top through their talent. Even when Bret and Jim split, the team wouldn’t die and every iteration was great. It was a family thing and that came across even when they weren’t beating us over the heads with that fact every five seconds. That they were Canadian (Jim was close enough) sure didn’t hurt when it came to winning over my childhood self.

Jeremy Thomas: Ahh, the Hart Foundation. I hated these guys so much, and I mean that in the best possible way. With Jimmy Hart managing, Bret Hart providing the technical expertise and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart providing the power wrestling, these guys were the perfect combination of everything a team needed for greatness, and they fulfilled their roles as heels unbelievably well. I remember when the Harts were feuding with the British Bulldogs in 1987 over the tag team belts and Danny Davis helped the Harts win the match. I was appalled and angry and threw a fit. (Hey, I was ten and a half, okay?) But that was part of one of the greatest tag team rivalries of the 1980s and without the Harts being the bastards they were, the Bulldogs would not have been nearly as beloved as they were. Watching these two teams battle is something that you can’t even really find a comparison to people who weren’t around to experience it. Tag team wrestling has never really reached that height of greatness since, not even in the Smackdown Six days or the E&C/Dudleys/Hardys era. It was just amazing to watch.

But the Harts weren’t just a team that worked great with one set of opponents. When Dynamite Kid got injured, the Harts moved on from the Bulldogs and had great feuds with other times from Demolition and Strikeforce to the Rougeaus and the Rockers. Against each of these teams, the Hitman and the Anvil showed how incredibly good they were as partners. People talk about telling a story in the match like it’s a mythical thing, but with the Hart Foundation it was tangible. They were matched up so well; Neidhart would beat their opponents and wear them down, allowing Bret to get in there and use his technical skills to finish them off. They delivered consistently great matches—not consistently good, but consistently great. They resonated with the crowd both as heels and as babyfaces and created a legacy strong enough that it has lasted through the years to the point that Tyson Kidd and DH Smith got over largely by using a variation of the name. Of course Bret would go onto great singles success and even Anvil had some level of midcard success in a singles run, but these guys will always be remembered most fondly by many people for their run as one of the greatest tag teams during one of the greatest periods for tag team wrestling in the history of the industry.

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RC Sutton: The span from 1989 till 1998 saw, in my opinion, the greatest tag team of all time. Rick and Scott Steiner (Steiner Brothers) dominated tag team wrestling during their time in the business. Their combination of in ring ability, look, charisma and team continuity propelled them to the top of the industry like a rocket. Before there was “Big Poppa Pump” or “Big Bad Booty Daddy” there was Scotty Steiner, the All American that wore his varsity jacket to the ring with his brother Rick, who still wore his amateur wrestling headgear and barked in the ring as the “Dog faced gremlin”. Nicknames and jackets were not what made the Steiner Brothers arguably the greatest of all time. Their in ring ability and multiple championships make that argument for them.

One way to argue the merits of one tag team over another is to look at championships won. The Steiner Brothers are one of the most decorated tag teams of all time. Some of the highlights of their illustrious team career are: United States Tag Team Champions, 7 time NWA/WCW Tag Team Champions, 2 time WWE Tag Team Champions, and 2 time IWGP Tag Team Champions. This is just some of the gold the Steiner Brothers have accumulated in their time as a team. The Steiner Brothers and tag team gold went together like peanut butter and jelly. The significance of all those championships is that no matter the company they worked for, that company wanted the Steiner Brothers to be the face of their tag team division. They were recognized as the best in their company, no matter where the Steiner Brothers have called home.
Another way to judge the merits of a tag team is based on actual in ring performance. The list of some of Rick and Scott’s accomplishments include: PWI & Wrestling Observer Tag Team of the Year (1990), PWI Tag Team of the Year (1993) and Match of the Year (1991)for both PWI and Wrestling Observer for DIFFERENT matches. These accomplishments identify the in ring ability of the Steiner Brothers. They could have earned many more accolades. The two years they spent in their prime during their WWE run were spent marred in battles with the Headshrinkers, Heavenly Bodies and Money Inc. While the WWE did the best they could with the Steiner Brothers, they did not have the needed in ring talent for the Steiner Brothers to compete with night after night.

The Steiner Brothers also used high impact tag team maneuvers that devastated, punished and destroyed their opponents. The real life brothers had incredible chemistry and continuity in their matches. They could combine a wicked “Steinerline” clothesline with a German suplex, elevated DDT, elevated bulldog all with a force and impact that put team after team down in their wake. The Steiner Brothers were by no means just tag team maneuvers either. Each man could single handily hold their own in the ring. While Scott is more decorated as a singles wrestler, Rick has held singles gold as well. Combined these 2 were the ultimate in size, speed, ability and agility and one of, if not THE Greatest of all time.

Shawn Lealos: Follow me back to 1986. Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert was running roughshod over Bill Watts’ Mid South Wrestling and built a stable of wrestlers, two of which were Sting and Rick Steiner. Steiner worked with both Sting and Gilbert as a tag team wrestler. When Jim Crockett purchased the UWF from Watts, he got the Hot Stuff stable and put Steiner into another tag team situation in Kevin Sullivan’s Varsity Club. However, he slowly turned face and left the group bringing in his younger brother Scott to help him.

That was the origin of how the Steiner Brothers finally arrived on the scene. In May 1999, the brothers teamed for the first time and had Missy Hyatt in their corner. Rick was the ground and pound brawler while Scott was the more athletic high flyer (completely different than you see him now). They soon brought in a second valet to be by their side named Robin Green but, when they got a shot against the tag team champion Freebirds, Green turned on them and cost them their title. Green changed her name to Woman and brought in a new team named Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed). Woman was, of course, Nancy Benoit.

In November 1999, the Steiners finally won the NWA World Tag Team Championship from The Freebirds. They would lose them to Doom but then won the U.S. Tag Team belts from The New Midnight Express (Eaton and Lane). When WCW broke off from the NWA, the Steiners won the WCW World Tag Team titles. They also won the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki and were called Triple Crown Champions.

In 1992, the Steiners left WCW for the WWF. In 1993, the Steiner Brothers won the WWF tag team championship from Money Inc. They held the belts twice during their two year stay there. After a short stay in ECW, they headed back to WCW> It was during this time that the nWo was about to take over WCW. Before this happened, the Steiners had a great feud with Harlem Heat and won the WCW titles from them.

After the nWo attacked, the Steiners were at the forefront of the fight against the Outsiders as they feuded for almost two years with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. By the time their tag team ran its course, the held the NWA/WCW titles a total of seven times. They split up when Scott Steiner turned into the Big Bad Booty Daddy and soon Rick faded from the scene. More recently the two had a short stint as tag team partners in TNA but it was a short term return.

The Steiner Brothers were, at one time, one of the hottest tag teams in all of wrestling. With Rick’s stocky wrestler build and Scott’s high flying aerial actions, they were a perfect combination. Later years, when Scott began to bulk up, they lost much of what made them great but, when they were at the top of their game, there wasn’t anyone better.

Chad Nevett: It’s almost hard to remember a time when Scott Steiner wasn’t the Genetic Freak Big Poppa Pump. I can’t help but think of Scott Steiner as two men: one half of the Steiner Brothers and the muscle-bound, rambling crazy man he would eventually become. As such, a lot of people may not even know about the Steiners, thinking Scott has always been what we see occasionally in TNA. There was a time when he was seen as a fantastic in-ring worker despite being the bigger of the two brothers. As a kid, I didn’t really learn about the Steiners until they came to the WWF and, immediately, I loved them. Scott looked like a babyface should look: square-jawed, cool hair, and impressive in the ring. Rick was funny. He was the Dog-Faced Gremlin and he wore his amateur wrestling gear and barked like a dog. He was downright mean, but in that way you could cheer for, because you knew his heart was in the right place. I could be entirely off-base, but that’s how I remember them then. What I’ve learned later is about their time in WCW and Japan and how damn good a tag team they were. They were innovative and exciting, putting on matches that made them legends in Japan with insane spots like the Frankensteiner. Like so many teams on this list, the Steiners got over and remain favorites because they went out and did their best to out-wrestle anyone they came across. It’s sometimes hard to remember that when you see Scott Steiner rambling incoherently.

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Mike Campbell: There’s no doubt that people are going to hate the fact that the Road Warriors are the number one team on this list, but the fact is that they belong at the top of any list of top tag teams. No, they weren’t great workers like other teams that were ranked, but they were amongst the most popular tag teams of the era, and were big draws of their time. Hawk and Animal are the only tag team to have held the NWA, AWA, WWF, and All Japan International Tag Titles, Hawk also held the IWGP Tag Titles with Kensuke Sasaki.

Hawk and Animal were established right out the gate as a team to reckon with. Two big and powerful guys, looking menacing with facepaint, coming out to “Iron Man” by Sabbath, and throwing their opponents around like ragdolls. They often won their matches in mere seconds. They quickly won tag titles in both the Georgia Territory and the AWA and were established as draws with the titles. Their first trip to Japan was a huge deal at the time, with them being greeted at the airport by lots of media, including many legitimate news reporters, and they sold out buildings all over Japan for Giant Baba’s All Japan Pro Wrestling.

After leaving the AWA to go back to the NWA in 1986, they weren’t put into the title picture right away, but remained as one of the most popular tag teams in the promotion. It was one of the first cases of a talent being so over with the fans that they didn’t even really need the tag titles. They were so popular that when they finally did win the NWA Tag Titles in 1988 it was only to make them into heels, which wound up lasting all of two months because the fans simply couldn’t hate them.

Like many great teams of the 1980’s, the 1990’s brought about a fall from grace. They joined up with the WWF and a lot their mystique was gone. It certainly didn’t help that their longtime manager was brought in and then given a silly gimmick of a dummy named Rocco. They broke up in 1992 after Animal suffered a back injury and Hawk tried his hand at singles matches and also teamed with other wrestlers. They resurfaced in 1996 in WCW, but time had passed them by and the focus was on teams like Harlem Heat and the Steiners. They jumped to the WWF in 1997, but the Attitude Era and Steve Austin didn’t mesh with the dominant team of the 1980’s, and sadly the era of the Road Warriors ended with a wimper. But despite the sad ending, there is no denying the impact Hawk and Animal made on wrestling during their heyday and they are, without question, the top tag team of the last 25 years.

Steve Cook: WWE’s DVD set on the career of the Road Warriors bills them as wrestling’s most dominant tag team. It’s very difficult to argue that notion. Hawk & Animal were close friends before they started training to be wrestlers under Eddie Sharkey. Animal got the first chance at the big time, debuting in Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1982 as the Road Warrior. Ole Anderson decided that there needed to be two Road Warriors, and they needed to beat the living crap out of people to get over as monsters. So Hawk was brought in and they began to do exactly that. Paul Ellering managed them from the beginning up until they entered the WWF in 1990.

Hawk & Animal did a lot to make themselves stand out. After starting out as biker dudes, they got the idea to paint their faces & wear spiked shoulder pads. They shaved their heads so that if you combined their haircuts you’d have a full head of hair. They spent a lot of time in the gym and making themselves bigger than everybody else…a large portion of the success of the Road Warriors had to do with their look & charisma. Their entrance to the song “Iron Man” was a sight to behold. They would try to work as heels several times during their time as a team, but it never took because the fans just wanted to cheer them as they destroyed people.

The Road Warriors dominated every promotion they went to. Whether it was the NWA, the AWA, All Japan Pro Wrestling or the WWF, Hawk & Animal made life difficult for everybody. After starting out in the NWA, they returned home to the AWA, the wrestling they grew up watching. Most of the wrestlers they grew up watching were still there, so it was pretty easy for the Warriors to take over & win the titles. After getting bored with the AWA they went back to the NWA and joined Dusty Rhodes in his battle against the Four Horsemen. They would not win the NWA World Tag Team titles until they turned heel during a match against the Midnight Express in 1988. The heel turn didn’t take and the Warriors became faces again, but they left the company in 1990 and tried their luck in the WWF.

The Legion of Doom was heavily pushed in the WWF at the beginning, even disposing of Demolition, a popular tag team that was very similar to the Road Warriors gimmick. When they won the WWF tag team titles in August 1991 they became the first team to win the WWF, NWA & AWA tag team championships. Things went downhill after they lost the titles and WWF gave them a ventriloquist dummy, so Hawk quit the company. Animal left wrestling for several years, but they reunited in 1996. Runs in WCW & the WWF followed, but things weren’t the same, as Hawk had been overtaken by alcohol abuse. The Road Warriors were no longer the dominant force they once were. But, in their prime, there was never a team more dominant that caught on with more fans. That’s why they top this list.

Greg DeMarco: You’d be hard pressed to find any wrestling fans unfamiliar with The Road Warriors. Hawk and Animal, along with “Precious” Paul Ellering, built a legacy that is unmatched in the business. Road Warrior Animal originally completed in Georgia Championship Wrestling as “The Road Warrior,” and was a member of Paul Ellering’s Legion of Doom stable. However, he was soon renamed Animal, paired with Hawk, and The Road Warrior tag team was born. The Legion of Doom stable was short lived despite its amazing list of members (Arn Anderson, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Matt Borne, King Kong Bundy, The Iron Sheik, the original Sheik and more). “The Legion of Doom” moniker soon became synonymous with The Road Warriors, and both names were used interchangeably throughout their careers.

Thanks to their unique attire and their muscular build, the tag team found immediate success, winning Georgia’s top tag team title, the NWA National Tag Team Championship, multiple times. The duo then found more success in the Minneapolis based American Wrestling Association (AWA), winning the AWA World Tag Team Championships and feuding with The Fabulous Freebirds. The team stayed in the AWA for less than two years before returning to the NWA, this time on a national scale.

The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering entered the NWA in 1986, and much like their prior promotion moves, found immediate success. They won the first Crockett Cup and were a huge draw for the 1986 Great American Bash tour in matches with Ivan & Nikita Koloff and The Midnight Express. I had a Great American Bash 1986 VHS tape that featured a Russian Chain match between The Road Warriors & The Koloffs that easily won me over as a kid. Another childhood memory I had of the Road Warriors was their feud with The Powers of Pain, which featured a power lifting competition gone bad when Animal was injured in the inevitable brawl that ended the contest. This feud was blown off at the first Clash of the Champions, as The Road Warriors & Dusty Rhodes beat The Powers of Pain & Ivan Koloff in a barbed-wire match that featured Animal’s memorable protective hockey mask that matches his signature spider web face paint. The feud was set to continue until The Powers of Pain left the NWA for the WWF.
With a popularity that was unmatched, The Road Warriors amazingly turned heel at a New Orleans house show and defeated The Midnight Express to win the NWA World Tag Team Championships in late 1988, a move that also turned The Express face for the first time. Hawk & Animal lost to Dusty Rhodes & Sting in the semi-main event of Starrcade ’88 in Norfolk Virginia. Their heel turn was short lived as fans quickly showed favor to the painted Warriors regardless of their brutal actions or popular opponents. As faces, they feuded with The Varsity Club, The Samoan Swat Team and The Skyscrapers. The Road Warriors won Starrcade ‘89’s Ironman Tag Team Tournament (round-robin style), but never received a title shot based on their win.

On July 15, 1990, Hawk & Animal—The Legion of Doom—made their first WWE TV appearance. This date signifies the end of The Road Warriors gimmick, and was their first appearance in eight years without Paul Ellering seconding them to the ring. The duo initially moved into a natural feud with Demolition, a team many believed Vince McMahon created three years prior to match the likeness of the world’s most popular tag team. At SummerSlam 1991, the team beat The Nasty Boys for the WWF World Tag Team Championships, holding them until February 1992 when the titles were dropped to Money, Inc (Ted Dibiase & IRS). After a brief hiatus, they returned to action with “Precious” Paul Ellering by their side once more, but he didn’t come alone. They were also flanked by “Rocco,” a ventriloquist dummy who never caught on with fans. This caused Hawk to leave the company after SummerSlam 1992, with Animal wrestling on house shows until suffering a back injury that put him on the shelf. During this time, Hawk competed almost exclusively in Japan, teaming with Kensuke Sasaki as “The Hell Raisers,” until Animal returned in 1996. Later that year The Road Warriors returned to WCW for a brief six-month run before leaving due to a contract dispute with Eric Bischoff.

The LOD were then reborn in the WWF in 1997, having a run that lasted less than a year when internal conflicts lead to a storyline brawl between Hawk & Animal and they were removed from TV. Their absence was once again short lived as they returned at WrestleMania XIV, repackaged as LOD2000 with Sunny as their manager. During this time, they were often introduced as “Road Warrior Hawk & Road Warrior Animal—LOD2000,” the first use of The Road Warrior name on WWF TV. From there the duo were saddled with a feud against the DOA, who had recruited Paul Ellering as their manager—a move that Ellering, Hawk & Animal each had a hard time managing. From there they had a storyline focused on Hawk’s real life addiction problems, complete with a faked suicide attempt on RAW. The angle was soon dropped, and LOD made only sporadic appearances before leaving in 1999.

For the next four years, the duo would make independent appearances, and Animal also had a singles run in WCW. The team eventually returned to the WWE on May 12, 2003, failing to win the tag straps from Rob Van Dam and Kane. Unfortunately, this was Hawk’s last appearance before his death. From Hawk’s death forward, Animal would wrestle sporadically, including a partnership with Heidenreich in the WWE that was meant to pay tribute to Hawk.
Animal eventually left the promotion in early 2006, resurfacing in Japan a year later to form “The Hell Warriors” with Kensuke Sasaki—Hawk’s former partner some 14 years ago as “The Hell Raisers.” The Road Warriors & “Precious” Paul Ellering were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year.

As a kid, I had so many memories of The Road Warriors. The first time I saw the team on AWA television, I was hooked by their look and style. When they debuted on TBS’s NWA broadcast, they became my favorite tag team, and their theme song caused me to become a fan of Ironman comics as a youngster. Growing through grade school, high school and college I always followed their careers, including the excitement of their many returns to the WWF and WCW and the sadness of Hawk’s drug-addiction inspired storyline and ultimate passing. The Road Warriors will always be a part of my life as a wrestling fan, and I think their legacy and influence will continue to live on for many years to come.

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THE COMPLETE LIST!

Special thanks too…
* C. Csonka (Graphics)
* L. Csonka
* M. Campbell
* S. Randle
* G. DeMarco
* RC Sutton
* S. Lealos
* TJ Hawke
* A Ramerez
* S. Cook
* T. Acero
* M. Elusive
* C. Nevett
* M. Sforcina
* T. Howell
* J. Thomas
* A. Berenstein
* A. Critchell
* D. James
* R. Byers
* J. Bramma
* S. Gustusfon