wrestling / Columns
The 411 Wrestling Year-End Awards: Part Three – The Best Tag Teams of 2015
Welcome back to the Wrestling Top 5, year-end awards edition! What we are going to is take a topic, and all the writers here on 411 will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, and the end, based on where all of these topics rank on people’s list, we will create an overall Top 5 list. It looks a little like this…
1st – 5
2nd – 4
3rd – 3
4th – 2
5th – 1
It’s similar to how we do the WOTW voting. At the end we tally the scores and get our overall top 5! It’s highly non-official and final, like WWE’s old power rankings. From some of the best and worst, the 411 staff is ready to break down the awards! Thanks for joining us, and lets get down to work.
5. Sumerian Death Squad
4. Jason Jordan & Chad Gable
3. reDRagon
2. The New Day
1. Strong BJ (Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi) – The New Day have had an amazing second half of the year both in the ring and in segments. As heels they’re unbeatable but they spent the first half of the year as faces and were dreadful at it. Strong BJ (I know, the name is ludicrous) have been great all year, in every match and put in the kind of hard-hitting workrate that’s virtually unparalleled in any promotion. At the same time they’ve successfully feuded with each other and had success in different promotions. The team is based in Big Japan but has also been a hit in DDT and NOAH. Perhaps their only flaw is that every match they’re involved in is great so none of them really stand out in the memory.
5. Cesaro & Tyson Kidd
4. Dudleyz
3. Lucha Dragons
2. The Usos
1. The New Day – Believe it or not, I had a tough choice to make here. The New Day are the ‘in’ thing right now, but that was not until very recently. People forget their first half of the year and act like everything has been roses. Newsflash folks: It hasn’t been. Now, they are strong and entertaining, A few months ago, all of YOU (yes, you) were whining and crying about them begging for their act to thrown out. The Usos are not my cup of tea, but they have been a constant in WWE for over five years now. Injury notwithstanding, the brothers turned in another solid year. Cesaro and Tyson Kidd’s time was cut short. Lucha Dragons have a lot of potential to be tapped into, The Prime Time Players won the gold for the first time ever, and of course, the Dudley Boyz made a memorable return to WWE. Overall, The New Day edges out my top vote but just barely.
5. The Killer Elite Squad
4. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro
3. reDRagon
2. Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc
1. The New Day – Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc were very close to topping this list. Hell, there were teams like the Addiction and Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson who came close to cracking the top five. I went with the Killer Elite Squad for their 300+ day reign with the GHC Tag Team Titles. Kidd and Cesaro were the saviors of the tag team division for the first half of the year, while reDRagon held the ROH World Tag Team Titles at one point and the IWGP Jr. Tag Titles twice. New Day had to be first though. Never has a team or group turned things around so soundly. They started the year as a trio that barely had a place on shows before turning heel around WrestleMania. From then on, nobody could touch New Day. They won the Tag Team Titles twice and successfully defended them in the first ever tag team Elimination Chamber as well as a fantastic triangle ladder match. Not only did they have a successful year in terms of accolades, but no tag team in a long time has been as relevant. They get tons of TV and microphone time, as well as placement in several main event matches. I’m pretty sure they’re going to collectively win Wrestler of the Year from the WOTW votes on here, which is tremendous. New Day rocks indeed.
5. The Wolves (Richards and Edwards)
4. Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc
3. The New Day
2. reDRagon
1. Young Bucks – In my opinion, 2015 was another great year for high quality tag team wrestling, and when it came down to it I had to go with who entertained me the most. Overall that was the Young Bucks. So much good work in so many different promotions against a wide variety of opponents is what locked it for me. New Day is wildly entertaining outside of their matches, but didn’t have the laundry list of great in ring work. ReDRagon had a great year match wise, but also did a lot of singles work, so at the end of the day, based off of personal entertainment and great matches, the Bucks are the top for me.
5. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro
4. Lucha Dragons
3. Blake and Murphy
2. The Dudley Boyz
1. New Day – If you thought anyone else would take this spot, you’d be wrong. If you voted for anyone else to take this spot, you’re more than wrong – you’re BOOTY! In all seriousness, we can applaud the efforts of amazing tag teams this year that were full of athletic prowess and superior skill, but that still wouldn’t be enough alone to top the success that New Day had in 2015. In fact, one would say that “good wrestling” is such an already-placed attribute of the team that it goes without saying. The New Day win this award not based on workrate, even though they have it, and not on title wins, even though they’ve won a few. No, this is one of the few selections that is based on entertainment. There were some RAWs in 2015, especially near the tail end, where people clamored for at least an appearance of the three brightly colored tag team champions. As your RAW Recapper, I can attest to a large majority of the crowd simply begging for these guys to show up, and quipping immediately after their segment that they can now return to something other than watching RAW. Although I’m sure this was done in good humor, a lot of truth is said in jest. The New Day are three young, talented individuals who found gold amongst each other. Big E is a powerhouse that is still so young (younger than half of us, I’m sure), and Kofi has finally found a way to be a heel and it work. Woods is a freaking never-ending well of awesomeness. All three of these guys together are gold, and whether they’re in the ring or out, they’ve done everything they could to entertain us this year, and have succeeded in spades.
5. Blake and Murphy
4. Dash and Dawson
3. The Wolves
3. Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc
2. ReDragon
1. New Day – While I’m sure I’m forgetting some acts that the comments section will remind me of, I’m not sure that I can recall any WWE main roster mid-card act since The Rock that made a more dramatic improvement upon turning heel than New Day. From their generic and wildly uninspiring beginnings to arriving as a hilarious, entertaining, and solid-in-ring act, New Day blossomed into a truly special unit in the latter two thirds of 2015, redeeming so much of the previously untapped potential of Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods.
5. Chad Gable & Jason Jordan
4. Roppongi Vice
3. reDRagon
2. The New Day
1. The Young Bucks – This was a VERY tough call between #1 & #2. New Day is by far the most entertaining act in all of wrestling, but because of lack of actually being able to go out and put on great matches (TLC being the exception) it becomes tough to give them the nod. I watched Matt & Nick Jackson wrestle 56 times as a tag team this year (including multi-man matches) and on 21 of those shows they were the match of the night. I know their style of wrestling is not for everyone but night in and night out they go out their and bust their asses and continue to be entertaining. I am thrilled that they are staying with ROH/NJPW and will still be appearing at PWG. As for their best match this year? It’s a toss up from Day 19 of the G1 against their old foes reDRagon and their main event match against Death By Elbow (Chris Hero & JT Dunn) at Beyond Americanrana.
5. Blake and Murphy
4. ReDragon
3. The Young Bucks
2. The Wolves
1. New Day – Rather easy decision here as New Day has dominated the WWE for the majority of the year. They have also been the most consistently entertaining act on WWE TV. They have taken what was a dead end gimmick and rolled with the crowd’s hatred to become something fresh and original.
5. Finn Balor and Samoa Joe
4. The Young Bucks
3. reDRagon
2. Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc
1. New Day – The coolest, most organic group to come out of the WWE in ages. Once they convinced the power that be to let them do their own thing, they smashed the WWE stereotype of what a faction of black guys can be. They’re almost a perfect mix. Big E is the powerhouse. Kofi is the high flyer. Xavier is the agitator. They not only consistently have fun matches, but every time they come to the ring it’s must-see stuff. They started by stealing scenes, now they’re stealing shows. I question whether the WWE will push them properly. They could be co-main event players, but they aren’t the standard WWE type of story. Yet so far the E has let them work their magic without turning them into jobbers to the stars. I will renew my call for New Day vs. Usos in a Three Stages of Hell at WrestleMania. Real close 2nd place finisher for me with the Dysfunctional Trio. Their win of the Lucha Underground Trios Title had me out of my seat.
5. BAMF (Buddy Murphy, Wesley Blake/Alexa Bliss)
4. RPG Vice/Jason Jordan and Chad Gable
3. The Unlikely Trio (Ivelisse/Angelico/Son of Havoc)
2. reDRagon
1. New Day – This will probably be the most difficult category for me, because I’m an unabashed fan of tag team wrestling, and even the WWE main roster had some tag team highlights this year. Any of the top five teams could have taken the top spot – BAMF were the longest-reigning NXT tag champions in 2015, holding the titles from January until August and actually adding enough character to hang with their already solid ring work, RPG Vice and Jordan and Gable were just flat-out entertaining, the Unlikely Trio had probably the best storyline moments of any tag team in 2015 (Angelico’s early Lothario act aside), and I’m not sure there’s a team in the world that can match reDRagon for pure in-ring quality. So why did the New Day take my top spot? Because NEW…DAY ROCKS! NEW…DAY ROCKS! NEW…DAY ROCKS! No explanation needed. Seriously, though, with WWE’s creative team at what feels like an all-time nadir, the New Day have been the only consistently entertaining entity on WWE’s main roster programming for the entire year. The only way they could have had a better year would have been if their feud with Tyson Kidd and Cesaro hadn’t been cut short by Kidd’s untimely injury. New Day were able to elevate the Primetime Players and Lucha Dragons, and even make the Uso bearable (something I wasn’t sure was possible) throughout the course of 2015, but a prolonged feud with Kidd and Cesaro would be just what WWE needs to solidify the notion that it truly does care about its tag team division again after years of it being little more than an afterthought.
5. Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc
4. RPG Vice
3. reDRagon
2. The New Day
1. Young Bucks – Through out all of the wrestling I watched and kept track of, no one in 2015 had the laundry list of good matches (as far as tag teams go) as the Young Bucks. Whether is was in the US or Japan, in a regular tag or with AJ Styles in a six-man, these boys delivered the goods. I fully get that they aren’t everyone’s brand of wrestling, you pretty much either love them or loathe them, and that’s perfectly ok. Putting this year’s list together I knew I would be in the minority, but I strongly feel that they are my tag team of the year. They are quality in the ring, they are draws for the several companies they worked for, and that led to ROH snapping them up to the reportedly biggest contracts they ever signed anyone too. Add into that the fact that they were he most desired act to sign on the indes in 2015 (so much so that promotions booked shows specifically because the Bucks had a free day) and these guys had one hell of a year.
5. Konosuke Takeshita & Tetsuya Endo
4. Yuji Okabayashi & Daisuke Sekimoto
3. Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada
2. The Killer Elite Squad
1. New Day – I’m a little bit late to the party in terms of turning in this vote, so there’s not much left for me to say about this team that hasn’t already been said. The New Day have taken what should have been a dead end gimmick and turned themselves into one of the most talked about and critically acclaimed acts in all of American wrestling. Plus, they’ve had some nice in-ring performances to back up their shtick, even though they haven’t been in the main event scene in a manner that would allow them to demonstrate their full potential. If you want a true measure of just how over the New Day is, they’ve managed to convince a group of mostly grown men to purchase a large quantity of what are essentially glow-in-the-dark sex toys and strap them to their foreheads. New Day Rocks, indeed.
5. The Vaudevillains
4. Chad Gable & Jason Jordan
3. ReDragon
2. The Young Bucks
1. The New Day– When we’re approaching the year 2020 and start doing reviews of the ten years that have just passed us by, the Young Bucks will surely be considered the team of the decade. They’ve achieved more in their careers thus far then practically anybody on the independent scene who hasn’t had at least a cup of coffee with WWE. The sheer outrageousness of their personalities and their style of wrestling has turned them into far more than just a really good tag team; they have actively tried to become the worst nightmare of the Jim Cornettes of the world. Are they cutting edge and post modern, or just silly and decadent and embarrassing? To an extent, The Young Bucks are a parody of all the worst stereotypes surrounding independent tag teams, but are they are a genuinely great team in their own right? And more pressingly, is it OK to superkick a child in the face? Whether you like the Young Bucks or you don’t, these are questions that you can only ask of them, which is testament to the utterly unique position they’ve carved out for themselves in the business. For my money though, they’re just brilliant, the obvious successors to the Rockers and the Hardy Boyz, but with a crotch chopping, D-Generation X attitude. They boast stunning athleticism and have perfected all the crazy dives and near falls that most indy wrestling fans want from tag matches. They are the great success story of modern, independent tag team wrestling, globetrotting superstars who turned down WWE and now boast the most lucrative contract in Ring of Honor history. This is the era of the Young Bucks, and other tag teams are just living in it. Having said all that, 2015 was a rare year when I think there was a tag team that were perhaps more impressive than the Bucks. Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods were going nowhere when they were first lumped together back in the summer of 2014, and after a run together on house shows that didn’t lead anywhere, their re-debut in November of that year as a happy clappy, nauseatingly sincere trio of quasi-gospel singers cum wrestlers with uncomfortably racist undertones was, erm, not ideal. They limped through the next few months, their only noteworthy moments coming when hostile crowds booed them out of the building. By the night after Wrestlemania anybody could see that enough was enough and it was clearly time for a change, and so The New Day were finally allowed to do something resembling what they’d wanted to do all along. They morphed into a trio of obnoxious, smart-ass rule-breakers, playing up and exaggerating their smiling, positive characteristics until they became completely impossible to like. So far, so Bo Dallas, but in a thin tag division they had more chance to establish their act than poor old Bo, and it paid off in spades. All three of them are really talented wrestlers, and frequently demonstrate a brilliant, surreal sense of humor that has led to Xavier Woods performing mid match trombone solos and Big. E proclaiming that they are unicorns while everyone else is booty and Kofi Kingston pretending to be a cat stuck up a tree to prove some obscure point about how they are manly, manly men. By the night after Summerslam, the circle was complete- The New Day were beginning their second reign as tag team champions, and received a roaring ovation from the Brooklyn crowd despite ostensibly being heels. Since then they’ve faced a steady stream of extremely credible challengers, from the Dudleyz to the Usos to the Lucha Dragons but they’ve kept hold of their belts because it’s unjustifiable to take them off them. They’re just so good. Not so long ago, it really did seem like the huge potential of all three of these men would go to waste. As we enter 2016, it doesn’t seem inconceivable that one of them could be WWE Champion in the near future, if only for a caretaker spell. Not a bad turn around, on the whole.
5. The Wolves – 8 points
4. Angelico, Ivelisse and Son of Havoc – 17 points
3. The Young Bucks – 24 points
2. reDRagon – 32 points
1. The New Day – 60 points
THE 2015 411 WRESTLING AWARDS:
* The Biggest Disappointment of The Year: The WWE Main Roster Creative Is Largely Shit – 26 points
* The Best Non-Wrestler of The Year: Dario Cueto – 43 points
* The Best Tag Team of The Year: The New Day – 60 points
* The Worst PPV/Major Show of The Year: TO BE DETERMINED (January 7th)
* The Best Female of The Year: TO BE DETERMINED (January 8th)
* The Best PPV/Major Show of The Year: TO BE DETERMINED (January 11th)
* The Best Promotion of The Year: TO BE DETERMINED (January 12th)
* The Best Match of The Year: TO BE DETERMINED (January 13th)
* The Biggest Stories of The Year: TO BE DETERMINED (January 14th)
* The Best Wrestler of The Year: TO BE DETERMINED (January 15th)
