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Worst tag team gimmick?


champkins

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The heavenly bodies get a pass for that match with the steiners at summerslam, by god I fucking love that match. I don't remember much from their match at survivor series 93 but given the two teams involved I assume it was shit hot.

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Can i count Road Dogg and K-Kwik in this? They were just awful, Road Dogg just made me cringe a lot.

 

Oh yeah I remember that, it was the drizzles!

 

Fo' shizzle, my nizzle.

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I liked Well Dunn/Southern Rockers but I don't actually remember what their gimmick was in WWE? I remember their matches and enjoying them as a JTTS heel team but I legit don't remember if they did any skits with them, etc. What did they do character-wise and why did it suck?

Only thing I remember about them was that they won bow ties & thongs. And managed by Harvey Wippleman. That's about it.

I remember that they seemed to only face the Bushwhackers in their whole tenure in the WWF.

I had the same impression. Here's an interesting one though, albeit in poor quality.

 

Well Dunn vs Bret Hart & Owen Hart

 

Bret Hart's all pink gear was awesome.

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It's clearly the guys who dressed up as condoms, then the guys with bells on their costumes in first and second place for this. You're automatically eligible for my Top 10 if you have the word 'New' in your name. New Midnight Express? New Rockers? New Foundation? GAH.

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New Foundation were fucking awesome. The unofficial "new" Orient Express of Pat Tanaka and Paul "Kato" Diamond were also better IMHO than the original tandem of Tanaka and Aldo Sato. In fact, Foundation and Express had a blinder at Royal Rumble 92.

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I liked Well Dunn/Southern Rockers but I don't actually remember what their gimmick was in WWE? I remember their matches and enjoying them as a JTTS heel team but I legit don't remember if they did any skits with them, etc. What did they do character-wise and why did it suck?

 

M.O.M. are a bit like The Godwinns in that they might have worked/fit into WWF just five years earlier but they came at a time it seemed a lot of the fans had already started rejecting a lot of the late 80s style gimmicks. In fairness to them, I also don't think it helped that Raw was being held in "a toilet" (in Mean Gene's words) full of drunken 25-35 year old Bret Hart fanatics who even booed Hogan that year. But in general your twelve year old Hulkamania Fan from 1985 was now twenty one, which is really how something like ECW was able to get as big as it did around that time with North Eastern (WWF) fans who'd grown tired of the WWF's direction wanting something a bit 'edgier' which is also something Eric Bischoff (for all his faults) realised sooner than later (and something it took WWF a few years to catch up on). Really poor old M.O.M. were led out there like lambs to the slaughter with the creative handicaps WWF gave them that Reznor mentioned.

 

Southern Rockers were good and in my opinion if they had carried that sort of role in the WWF then they may have done very well.

 

Yeah, they could have. Nice little team at a time, that seemed to come along at the right time when a lot the pretty boy teams from the 80s (Rock N Rolls, Fantastics, Rockers, etc.) were either being phased out or split up. Sure I saw someone say they sucked (maybe when Steve Doll died?) and never had the time to respond at the time but it did make me wonder if they were one of those acts people had 're-assesed'/gone off now for whatever reason.

 

Its a bit like the New Rockers really where, although not quite as bad as taking one of the most consistently over undercard babyfaces and turning him heel, you do think both those teams might have done well as babyface teams but it seemed like WWF in those days were determined to do the opposite of what you would expect - as with the point Reznor made here and in another thread about the other side of the fence with them having The Godwinns, The Body Donnas and The Natural Disasters as babyfaces when all were natural heels.

 

The only difference is that whilst I think it killed a lot of potential for those teams having to work face (particularly the Donnas), I do think both New Rockers and Well Dunn could have still done okay as heel teams with less comedy/a more serious push. I actually liked watching both work heel its just a shame they never got to build up any real momentum.

 

For me the whole Well Dunn gimmick summed up the WWF at that time. Their outfits were awful, with those horrible male thongs over their singlets. I seem to remember the promos were annoying also, although I have not been able to find any on you tube to confirm.

 

Check out the Video form Superstars 1994 to see the horrible outfits!

 

 

Italian Stallion~

 

Also for a bodybuilder-type guy, King/Well hits that Owen Hart-style rope flip out of the wristlock (don't know the proper name for it) and a faster-version of the Jacques Rougeau backflip really smoothly. I seem to remember him doing a bit of old school mat wrestling in some of their matches as well. I'd remembered that Dunn did that kick in the corner that Paul Diamond and (later) TNT/Kwang/Savio Vega used to do but hadn't seen the other stuff in ages.

 

Anyway, cool I wasn't sure if you were just going off the name like with Techno Team 2000 (in which case nothing will top The Dicks/Johnsons/Ding Dongs beat everything) but its coming back now. Yeah, the outfits were pretty bad. I remembered the 1980s women's wrestling style luminous thong-over leotard gear but forgot they wore those bow ties with it which somehow made it worse. I thought they switched to something else later in their WWF run but watching those videos it seems they just changed colours. Would be interested to see some of those promos if they do turn up online.

 

I actually got excited when Well Dunn showed up. They were never going to be serious players, but I liked having such a full card of tag teams. They were like a mid-90s Conquistadores. I remember seeing their first or second squash and they did almost nothing but flying forearms and jawjackers. It was fun.

 

That's what I liked about them as well. Same reason I defended teams like The JOB Squad in the Worst Factions thread I liked having talented undercard teams. They seemed really good in the JTTS role at working those three or four minute TV matches.

 

As far as their offense goes, the cool thing was that they didn't seem to have a set 'formula' to their matches. Maybe because they were so far down the card? As much as I preferred teams like the Bodies, Quebecers, Steiners, etc. at the time their matches did follow one. Whereas with Well Dunn I'm sure remember them doing team moves in one match and then never doing/getting the chance to do them again.

 

Actually, they may not all have been around at exactly the same time, but I seem to recall the Gunns (with the AWESOME Revolver finish), the Quebecers, Well Dunn, MOM and maybe one or two others all showing up within a matter of a month or two. I was so excited, especially since they mostly had a bunch of cool double-team spots.

 

The Heavenly Bodies (with all their cool moves) showing up that summer and then a bit later The Rock N Roll Express coming to WWF purely because of their ten year grudge against Jim Cornette was great. I liked all those teams except M.O.M. Add in WWF's existing tag team division of The Steiners, The Headshrinkers, The Bushwackers, The Beverly Brothers and Money Inc. (DiBiase was on his way out but was still around until SummerSlam) and for my money that is one of the best tag team divisions they ever had. Certainly the best they had had since the Hulkamania boom period ended in 1990.

 

I actually got excited when Well Dunn showed up. They were never going to be serious players, but I liked having such a full card of tag teams. They were like a mid-90s Conquistadores. I remember seeing their first or second squash and they did almost nothing but flying forearms and jawjackers. It was fun.

 

Actually, they may not all have been around at exactly the same time, but I seem to recall the Gunns (with the AWESOME Revolver finish), the Quebecers, Well Dunn, MOM and maybe one or two others all showing up within a matter of a month or two. I was so excited, especially since they mostly had a bunch of cool double-team spots.

1993 wasn't the worst year for WWF tag teams by a long shot, and i think those teams you listed were all around at the same time. Then you throw the Steiners, Headshrinkers, Heavenly bodies and Jannetty/Kid into it towards late 93, you have some division. Imagine how fun it would've been if Bret & Owen teamed for longer than a month in the lead up to the turn, and the Rock n Rolls hung around a bit longer.....

 

It's one of the best, IMO.

 

This might be a bit controversial I don't know but around late 1993 I think there was the potential there that 1994 should have been the best year ever for tag team wrestling in the U.S. with how well it started in The Big Two with Quebecers/Kid & Jannetty, Nasties/Cactus & Payne, Quebecers/Harts, Nasties/Cactus & Sullivan stuff. Its a shame it couldn't keep up that standard all year but even then we did get some good stuff with the matches like Bodies/Thrillseekers and Diesel & Michaels/Razor & Kid and the Bodies/Gunns, Stars & Stripes/Pretty Wonderful feuds but it could have been so, so much better.

 

At the start of 1994 WWF had:

 

1. The Quebecers (WWF Tag Team Champions)

2. The Steiner Brothers

3. Bret and Owen Hart

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I liked Well Dunn/Southern Rockers but I don't actually remember what their gimmick was in WWE? I remember their matches and enjoying them as a JTTS heel team but I legit don't remember if they did any skits with them, etc. What did they do character-wise and why did it suck?

 

M.O.M. are a bit like The Godwinns in that they might have worked/fit into WWF just five years earlier but they came at a time it seemed a lot of the fans had already started rejecting a lot of the late 80s style gimmicks. In fairness to them, I also don't think it helped that Raw was being held in "a toilet" (in Mean Gene's words) full of drunken 25-35 year old Bret Hart fanatics who even booed Hogan that year. But in general your twelve year old Hulkamania Fan from 1985 was now twenty one, which is really how something like ECW was able to get as big as it did around that time with North Eastern (WWF) fans who'd grown tired of the WWF's direction wanting something a bit 'edgier' which is also something Eric Bischoff (for all his faults) realised sooner than later (and something it took WWF a few years to catch up on). Really poor old M.O.M. were led out there like lambs to the slaughter with the creative handicaps WWF gave them that Reznor mentioned.

 

Southern Rockers were good and in my opinion if they had carried that sort of role in the WWF then they may have done very well.

 

Yeah, they could have. Nice little team at a time, that seemed to come along at the right time when a lot the pretty boy teams from the 80s (Rock N Rolls, Fantastics, Rockers, etc.) were either being phased out or split up. Sure I saw someone say they sucked (maybe when Steve Doll died?) and never had the time to respond at the time but it did make me wonder if they were one of those acts people had 're-assesed'/gone off now for whatever reason.

 

Its a bit like the New Rockers really where, although not quite as bad as taking one of the most consistently over undercard babyfaces and turning him heel, you do think both those teams might have done well as babyface teams but it seemed like WWF in those days were determined to do the opposite of what you would expect - as with the point Reznor made here and in another thread about the other side of the fence with them having The Godwinns, The Body Donnas and The Natural Disasters as babyfaces when all were natural heels.

 

The only difference is that whilst I think it killed a lot of potential for those teams having to work face (particularly the Donnas), I do think both New Rockers and Well Dunn could have still done okay as heel teams with less comedy/a more serious push. I actually liked watching both work heel its just a shame they never got to build up any real momentum.

 

For me the whole Well Dunn gimmick summed up the WWF at that time. Their outfits were awful, with those horrible male thongs over their singlets. I seem to remember the promos were annoying also, although I have not been able to find any on you tube to confirm.

 

Check out the Video form Superstars 1994 to see the horrible outfits!

 

 

Italian Stallion~

 

Also for a bodybuilder-type guy, King/Dunn hits that Owen Hart-style rope flip out of the wristlock (don't know the proper name for it) and a faster-version of the Jacques Rougeau backflip really smoothly. I seem to remember him doing a bit of old school mat wrestling in some of their matches as well. I'd remembered that Dunn did that kick in the corner that Paul Diamond and (later) TNT/Kwang/Savio Vega used to do but hadn't seen the other stuff in ages.

 

Anyway, cool I wasn't sure if you were just going off the name like with Techno Team 2000 (in which case nothing will top The Dicks/Johnsons/Ding Dongs beat everything) but its coming back now. Yeah, the outfits were pretty bad. I remembered the 1980s women's wrestling style luminous thong-over leotard gear but forgot they wore those bow ties with it which somehow made it worse. I thought they switched to something else later in their WWF run but watching those videos it seems they just changed colours. Would be interested to see some of those promos if they do turn up online.

 

I actually got excited when Well Dunn showed up. They were never going to be serious players, but I liked having such a full card of tag teams. They were like a mid-90s Conquistadores. I remember seeing their first or second squash and they did almost nothing but flying forearms and jawjackers. It was fun.

 

That's what I liked about them as well. Same reason I defended teams like The JOB Squad in the Worst Factions thread I liked having talented undercard teams. They seemed really good in the JTTS role at working those three or four minute TV matches.

 

As far as their offense goes, the cool thing was that they didn't seem to have a set 'formula' to their matches. Maybe because they were so far down the card? As much as I preferred teams like the Bodies, Quebecers, Steiners, etc. at the time their matches did follow one. Whereas with Well Dunn I'm sure remember them doing team moves in one match and then never doing/getting the chance to do them again.

 

Actually, they may not all have been around at exactly the same time, but I seem to recall the Gunns (with the AWESOME Revolver finish), the Quebecers, Well Dunn, MOM and maybe one or two others all showing up within a matter of a month or two. I was so excited, especially since they mostly had a bunch of cool double-team spots.

 

The Heavenly Bodies (with all their cool moves) showing up that summer and then a bit later The Rock N Roll Express coming to WWF purely because of their ten year grudge against Jim Cornette was great. I liked all those teams except M.O.M. Add in WWF's existing tag team division of The Steiners, The Headshrinkers, The Bushwackers, The Beverly Brothers and Money Inc. (DiBiase was on his way out but was still around until SummerSlam) and for my money that is one of the best tag team divisions they ever had. Certainly the best they had had since the Hulkamania boom period ended in 1990.

 

I actually got excited when Well Dunn showed up. They were never going to be serious players, but I liked having such a full card of tag teams. They were like a mid-90s Conquistadores. I remember seeing their first or second squash and they did almost nothing but flying forearms and jawjackers. It was fun.

 

Actually, they may not all have been around at exactly the same time, but I seem to recall the Gunns (with the AWESOME Revolver finish), the Quebecers, Well Dunn, MOM and maybe one or two others all showing up within a matter of a month or two. I was so excited, especially since they mostly had a bunch of cool double-team spots.

1993 wasn't the worst year for WWF tag teams by a long shot, and i think those teams you listed were all around at the same time. Then you throw the Steiners, Headshrinkers, Heavenly bodies and Jannetty/Kid into it towards late 93, you have some division. Imagine how fun it would've been if Bret & Owen teamed for longer than a month in the lead up to the turn, and the Rock n Rolls hung around a bit longer.....

 

It's one of the best, IMO.

 

This might be a bit controversial I don't know but around late 1993 I think there was the potential there that 1994 should have been the best year ever for tag team wrestling in the U.S. with how well it started in The Big Two with Quebecers/Kid & Jannetty, Nasties/Cactus & Payne, Quebecers/Harts, Nasties/Cactus & Sullivan stuff. Its a shame it couldn't keep up that standard all year but even then we did get some good stuff with the matches like Bodies/Thrillseekers and Diesel & Michaels/Razor & Kid and the Bodies/Gunns, Stars & Stripes/Pretty Wonderful feuds but it could have been so, so much better.

 

At the start of 1994 WWF had:

 

1. The Quebecers (WWF Tag Team Champions)

2. The Steiner Brothers

3. Bret and Owen Hart

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Thanks, HappyWanderer. Dustin and Barry had split up by then, as had Vader and Sid who were hastily split up to set up the main event of Starrcade '93 which never happened after Sid was fired for the scissor incident in Blackburn.

 

Of the teams I listed then in the WWF Bret and Owen and Kid and Jannetty were only really around for the first month of the year - although the latter should have carried on much longer. In WCW, The Colossal Kongs were shown the door the second Dusty Rhodes was removed from the booking team, Harris Brothers were fired, rehired then left again and the Scorpio/Bagwell team ended when Scorp was fired that coming spring (although we got Stars & Stripes soon after instead).

 

The thing I don't understand about not having proper tag teams these days is there is so much time to fill on Raw, SmackDown!, Superstars and (until fairly recently) ECW that you would think tag matches are an easy way to do it.

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As an 11-year-old watching Worldwide, I thought Thunder & Lightening's finish - an irish from one corner to the opposite, met by a top rope clothesline - was awesome, and bettered only at the time by the Powerplex and Pam Anderson's tits in terms of "best thing I've ever seen."

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On a side note, what was wrong with Kronik? Their gimmick seemed to consist of being big mercenary types who beat people up.

They had a bad match in WWE. So now everyone has decided they were shit all along.

 

The sad thing about that is I really do think that is the way some in WWF/E saw/see things considering guys like Arn Anderson, Tully Blancard, Chris Jericho, TAKA Michinoku, Rob Van Dam, Tazz, Booker T., Diamond Dallas Page, Chris Kanyon, Mike Awesome, CM Punk and probably others I'm forgetting were all either told to change their styles or given the old "Doesn't understand how to work WWF/E style" at one point or another.

 

Anyway, I've always thought the Heavenly Bodies and Bushwackers were tied for the worst, most boring, most pointless tag team of all time. Hideous both.

 

What is your opinion on the Body Donnas? At the time I thought of them as a more WWF friendly version of The Bodies.

 

Another fan of the Heavenly Bodies here, they really were not around the WWF long enough for my liking.

 

In terms of watching them, then yeah it would have been nice to see them hang on until 97/98 when they'd have had some new people to work with and probably ended up in Jim Cornette's NWA faction where they'd have been a better fit than the New Midnights but on the other hand in terms of them ever getting a push I think that ship had sailed.

 

The interesting thing about the Bodies was that back in 1993/early 1994 the reason they didn't go all the way with them seemed to be that they were still working for SMW. That was the impression I got from reading SOW/PowerSlam anyway. Then as soon as they signed full-time they proceeded to job them out.

 

Not that their two year run was bad but I think they'd pretty much settled into the role of JTTS by that point (in both singles and tag matches). If they'd stuck around in 96 I imagine it would have involved putting over The Godwinns week after week until the new teams arrived towards the end of 1996 and they could have probably done some good stuff against Davey Boy & Owen Hart/Headbangers/New Blackjacks/Furnas & Lafon and then later Road Warriors/Harris Brothers/Los Boricuas/Nation/New Age Outlaws in that undercard role especially since the heel/face line was blurred. In terms of getting a push however I don't think it would have happened.

 

The Revolver was indeed the backdrop/piledriver combo. That thing was too sweet. Ludicrously dangerous, obviously, but they only did it to jobbers so it doesn't really matter.

 

... and Well Dunn:

 

The Smokin Gunns really were pretty underrated imo, most folk seem to shit on them, but i never saw where the hate came from. And yeah, their double teams were always spectacular. What was the 'revolver' again, was it the back body drop into a piledriver, or the powerbomb/canadian backbreaker lift with the other one coming off the top and driving him down. I remember the sidewinder was the awesome looking sidewalk slam/top rope legdrop combo.

 

I always presumed it was because they got a big push in 1995-96.

 

I don't think anyone hated them when they were in The Rockers old spot in 1993/94 (I may be wrong on that) the only people I knew who still watched wrestling by then liked them, the mark magazines seemed to praise them, even on the smarkier side of things I remember Powerslam putting Billy in the first ever PS 50.

 

By 95-96 when the tag team division went to hell (admittedly entirely through their own devices/poor booking of talented teams) they seemed to go over everybody. I thought that was what annoyed people and somehow gave them the label as being overrated/overpushed which never really went away.

 

Thing is they had very few bad matches until they turned heel which is where the hate sort of falls apart. Yes, they were underrated.

 

I seem to recall them utilising Billy's "greatest pure athlete" abilities at one point too, with a crazy high standing dropkick on a guy Bart hoisted up as if for a Hart Attack clothesline. Am I imagining that?

 

Sounds familiar. Not sure when the Gunns did it but I remember the Rougeaus doing a version of that move.

 

My favourite Billy Gunn "best pure athlete" spot was when they'd hit the Sidewinder except instead of it being the sidewalk slam/top rope legdrop, Billy would just jump from a standing position as Bart had the opponent in the sidewalk slam.

 

In addition to the finishers mentioned, I thought the double Russian legsweep was a great mid-match spot that I'm surprised we don't see more often. The Midnight Express drop-toehold/legdrop, backsuplex/neckbreaker, double dropkick, their version Poetry in Motion with Billy's Stinger Splash, vertical suplex/flying bodypress were all cool as well.

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The Smokin Gunns really were pretty underrated imo, most folk seem to shit on them, but i never saw where the hate came from. And yeah, their double teams were always spectacular. What was the 'revolver' again, was it the back body drop into a piledriver, or the powerbomb/canadian backbreaker lift with the other one coming off the top and driving him down. I remember the sidewinder was the awesome looking sidewalk slam/top rope legdrop combo.

 

I always presumed it was because they got a big push in 1995-96.

 

I don't think anyone hated them when they were in The Rockers old spot in 1993/94 (I may be wrong on that) the only people I knew who still watched wrestling by then liked them, the mark magazines seemed to praise them, even on the smarkier side of things I remember Powerslam putting Billy in the first ever PS 50.

 

By 95-96 when the tag team division went to hell (admittedly entirely through their own devices/poor booking of talented teams) they seemed to go over everybody. I thought that was what annoyed people and somehow gave them the label as being overrated/overpushed which never really went away.

 

Thing is they had very few bad matches until they turned heel which is where the hate sort of falls apart. Yes, they were underrated.

Yeah, i went off them a bit when they turned heel, and when Sunny was with them - her cowgirl outfits were nothing on her lycra bodydonnas gear :) .Perving aside, they weren't suited as heels. But the main body of their work was as faces for what must've been close to 2 & a half years and as you say, it was mostly good stuff.

 

I seem to recall them utilising Billy's "greatest pure athlete" abilities at one point too, with a crazy high standing dropkick on a guy Bart hoisted up as if for a Hart Attack clothesline. Am I imagining that?

 

Sounds familiar. Not sure when the Gunns did it but I remember the Rougeaus doing a version of that move.

 

My favourite Billy Gunn "best pure athlete" spot was when they'd hit the Sidewinder except instead of it being the sidewalk slam/top rope legdrop, Billy would just jump from a standing position as Bart had the opponent in the sidewalk slam.

 

In addition to the finishers mentioned, I thought the double Russian legsweep was a great mid-match spot that I'm surprised we don't see more often. The Midnight Express drop-toehold/legdrop, backsuplex/neckbreaker, double dropkick, their version Poetry in Motion with Billy's Stinger Splash, vertical suplex/flying bodypress were all cool as well.

Billy Gunn's a weird one. It seems almost ridiculous, because you generally don't suddenly start to suck overnight, but as much as i liked him in the rodeo/cowboy/rough texan gimmick with the Gunns, i couldn't stand him in anything afterwards, even as past of the NAO who most fans remember fondly. He was pretty springy though, it has to be said. I remember on Smackdown once he hit the fame-asser on one of the Dudleys who was standing, bent over on top of a standing table. Ridiculously dumb and elaborate spot, but the athleticism was pretty awesome. I think he fucked his groin though. His top rope legdrop was always really spectacular too, To set himself apart from any of 20 or so other guys who used the move, he added a little variation, where he started out actually diving forward (like a splash), then quickly adjusted at the last minute and extended the legs. Wasn't a huge deal, but still pretty neat.

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He was pretty springy though, it has to be said. I remember on Smackdown once he hit the fame-asser on one of the Dudleys who was standing, bent over on top of a standing table. Ridiculously dumb and elaborate spot, but the athleticism was pretty awesome. I think he fucked his groin though.

 

I'm pretty sure that Billy screwed up his shoulder or rotator cuff on that spot. He came down straight-armed on one side and jarred his shoulder really badly. Damn impressive spot to even try though, to be fair.

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