Analysis- Quality of In-Ring Tag Team Action Today vs Yesterday

[Ambiguous Turd]

What I would like to do is a little Compare and Contrast with the quality of Tag Team Wrestling in the past vs today. What I would like to do is show what is regarded to be one of the greatest Tag Team matches in WWE history-- the match with The Rockers vs The Orient Express (w/ Mr. Fuji) from the 1991 Royal Rumble.

And I would like you to watch the match in its entirety so you can analyze ALL of the elements that went into making this match so great, and what is not being done today:

With that being said, here is the match. Feel free to fast forward to when the match begins, but PLEASE DO NOT fast forward at any time during the match as I want you to soak it all in:

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Back in the day, The Rockers were generally regarded as the "second best" Tag Team at any point in time while they were with the WWE. They were always ranked behind teams like Demolition, The Hart Foundation, and The Legion of Doom, as they never held the Tag Team Championship while all of those teams did.

And The Orient Express was a team that really achieved no success while in the WWE at any time. However, they did have a rivalry since they debuted, against Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannety.

What I would like someone to do is to take that match and compare it to a Tag Team match that you see going on in WWE today. Examine all of the differences between the two matches, and that means inside and outside of the ring, and tell me what differences you see, and which you prefer and for what reason.

You can pick ANY recent and decent NON-GIMMICK Tag Team match, but I am going to pick the first one I found on You Tube after a search and that is DX vs Legacy from 1/25/10:

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[YOUTUBE]NTEpXRFwBAU[/YOUTUBE]​

Here is your chance to be an in-ring critic and explain which match you feel produced more excitement, ironically enough, both featuring Shawn Michaels. What went well in each of the matches, what could have been improved upon, and which match do you think is the better match?

 

[Zeedeevel]

Its late so I'm not going to go into extreme detail but the first thing you notice is the length of the matches. The first match was over 15 mins long and the match from Raw wasnt even 10 mins. Tag team wrestling is not given enough time in matches in this era and this proves it. The other two things I notice is that the match at the rumble has a lot more double team moves and generally just has a faster pace to it. It also has more chain wrestling which I am a big fan of and know first hand how difficult it can be to do well. Even during the rest holds in the rumble match the crowd was fully into it. While the match on Raw did have some double team moves, they all came from one team and werent really that exciting. The thing that I realized when watching that match is that Triple H is not a tag team wrestler.

Even though I made an opinion on the matter, the study of these 2 matches is greatly flawed. We have a ppv quality match for one and a match thrown together for Raw that had been done since August. Ill let it slide though since right now there really isnt much to chose from when looking for a regular tag match

Editor's Comments (Lord Sidious)- Then find a PPV Tag Team match that is NOT a GIMMICK MATCH, and you can do the same thing. Like I said, I found the first match I came to, and since all the PPV's are pretty much Gimmick PPV's it's difficult to find one on YouTube that is recent. But post another one if you find one.

 

[Crippler CrossFace]

Okay I chose to use the match you provided and I think two things need to be noted about that match before anything gets going. First is that it is before the Royal Rumble and they have the whole everyman for himself storyline they push with tag teams around that time. Next is that both these teams are heading for a breakup sooner rather than later.

With that said here's my attempt at an analysis of the differnce between the matches. Everything I'm gonna say pretty much stems from the theory that the tag team division now is more 4 superstars than 2 teams. By this I mean your not so much waiting for a team to succeed but rather for which superstar is going to win the match.

In the first match (Rockers vs Orient Express) you could tell that these were two teams. They dressed alike, they had similar styles, and they looked out for each other (pointed out in the commentary as well). In the Legacy vs DX match the two teams concept stopped pretty much at the dress. DX has the same colors but the outfits are unique to each wrestler and don't really provide a lot of continuity. Now for the actual match. Right from the start the RR match provided teamwork. It starts with the Orient Express knocking out Jannety and double teaming Michaels. Then we see synchronized moves from the Rockers. Many of the moves performed required both members of the team. They didn't overuse the tagging in function and used it as necessary. Many times the team would perform moves that utilized the fact that there would be three men in the ring in a double team, a great indicator of that was the belt and Michaels avoiding and using it to his advantage. Clearly the teams gelled. You could tell that they had the team concept in mind and were thinking along the same lines as most great teams (WWE or any other professional sport). The standout moment of this was when the Rockers used the double Irish Whip and the Orient Express used the dosey doe to reverse and attack the guy who threw them. Also the count was broken several times by the teammate and even a submission was broken to extend the match. Lastly, and this may seem trivial, but the finisher involved both men. It wasn't a finisher in the sense that the doomsday device was a finisher but it got the job done. Also as an added bonus Michaels went in and took care of the would be spoiler of the pinfall. Outside of the ring you really get a feeling that these guys want the team to win. Constantly cheering their guy on or to get up for the tag.

Now for the DX, Legacy match. There was not much gel. I understand that it was a shorter match but there was really only one moment of teamwork and that was when HBK jumped over DiBiase and into the Rhodes dropkick. I don't get the sense of teams working here. It is just four guys in a match that just so happen to have to tag in to get to wrestle. There is no teamwork. No thinking alike. No moves together. It's just blah. I didn't get the sense that these guys wanted to work together or had any intention of it. Like I said before they seemed to be 4 guys waiting for their turn. In this particular match there were not the many tags. But I remember seeing tags after 1 or 2 moves. They cut the ring in half not by domination but by literally not going to the other side of the ring. In the Rockers Orient Express match they would dominate the opponent and not let him get to the other side unafraid of using the other parts of the ring. When watching matches now it is almost as though the teams are afraid to venture out of their corners. What it all comes down to is that they have lost the team concept. I didn't see either team really rooting on their teammate or trying to rev up their guy. They reach out for the tag and shake their fingers but that is it.

I prefer the old time tag teams. They put on more compelling matches as two men are greater than one. I enjoyed seeing how innovative a team could be in attacking their opponents together. I mean double SCM is pretty awesome. Also the teams were compelling to watch cause now you get the feeling that teams are made just to be split up later and not for any type of longevity.

Hopefully this is along the lines of what you had in mind.