Gimmick, Brother, or Thrown Together?

[Showtime]

So the question being brought up is what is your favourite kind of tag team template?; a gimmick tag team, a brother (or family) tag team, and a tag team made up of two people who were thrown together. Before I give me reasons why, I will describe the three types a bit.


Gimmick Tag Team
Notable teams: Legion Of Doom, The Rockers, Demolition, MNM, WGTT, Cade/Murdoch, La Résistance, LAX, AMW. Jesse and Festus?

Basically, any tag team where the members debuted with some gimmick and the members had little prior company experience or it was never referred to. This is the most frequently used template by the WWE and as such, also includes its share of faliures as well, (see the Highlanders, Duece 'n Domino). Still there have been many quality teams, including the longest reigning WWF tag champions Demolition, and LOD, possibly the best tag team ever.


Brother (Family) Tag Team
Notable teams: Edge and Christian, The Hardyz, The Dudleyz, Los Guerreros, Taker and Kane, Hart Foundation, Owen Hart/Davey Boy Smith, Harlem Heat, the Steiner Brothers. Carlito and Primo?

Tag teams with real family members or storyline brotherhood. Wrestling has many great wrestling families and with all of them being brought up around wrestling, they would develop good teamwork and connection with each other.


Thrown Together Tag Team
Notable teams: New Age Outlaws, DX, Miz and Morrison, The Outsiders, Londrick, APA, Money Inc, MCMG, Owen Hart/Yokozuna, Billy and Chuck, Rated RKO. Team Priceless?

When I'm saying Thrown Together tag teams, I don't mean Cena/Batista. The members must've stayed a team for significant amount of consecutive time, or held numerious tag titles together. Many great teams have been formed out of wrestlers who started out in different places.


My choice is on the brother tag teams. Most family tag teams have been very successful in WWE; they usually have a large number of title reigns. E+C, Hardyz and Dudleyz dominated the tag scene at the turn of the millenium, Harlem Heat won the WCW tag titles 10 times, UT and Kane were the first team to hold the WCW and WWE titles at the same time, and many of them had long successful careers after the tag team broke up. And that's the one strike verse gimmick and thrown together teams have, after the tag team breaks up, the have to make it on their own. Family can always fall back on each other, and as such, have longer tag team careers with each other. That is not to say that Gimmick and Thrown Together teams can't be great, but gimmicks always die at some point, same with thrown together teams. Family teams have longetivity and they tend to have a terrific natural chemistry with each other, so that is why I think they are the best kind of tag team.

 

[My$terio_Fan]

I perfer either a "gimmick" tag team or a "family" tag team. Sometimes when you throw two random guys together it works out(Miz/Morrison)and it feels like a legit tag team while others just don't seem right. I think teams already formed when they come into the WWE already with a gimmick just feels more natural to me. Also family teams tend to have the same feeling. I just find it strange when they throw two random wrestlers and try and make a tag team(Kenny & Johnny Nitro, Carlito & Santino, Shannon Moore & Yang).

 

[justinsayne]

IDK if there is really any one kind that I prefer, to me it really all comes down to the talent and chemistry that make up the team that determine whether or not I'm going to like them, not their gimmick, relation or whatever other connection they may have, if you can find two good wrestlers that mesh well together, then they can take whatever template they are given to explain their connection and run with it, so I really don't have a favorite tag team template as long as the guys work well together and can entertain me that's all I care about

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

Thrown Together.

The Family angle is my least favorite because it normally makes it harder for people to split up and go on their own. If they are legitimately related, that's different, like having Carlito/Primo, Eddie/Chavo....hell, even if they did TJ Wilson teaming up with Harry Smith. They're still somewhat related, you know? But having Matthew Cardona and Brian Myers call themselves "the Major Brothers", or having Edge and Christian play brothers, I never liked that. Bart and Billy Gunn weren't related at all. These people could've just been thrown together as friends with the same gimmick.

Gimmick I think applies to both Family and Thrown Together, rather than just given its own category. Sometimes, like with the Godwins, they're supposed to have the same gimmick as well as be related, but with others, like the Headbangers, they don't need to be.

Thrown Together to me offers the widest range of choices. You have separate characters that can merge together to form a tag team. Since they aren't related, they can be split up without being always associated with the other one. Bart Gunn became nothing because he was a lesser performer than "his brother, Billy", but having HBK and Diesel not secretly be cousins or something made them more flexible. Now, throwing teams together DOES have to have some sort of cohesion for it to work. You can't simply pick two names out of a hat and get a superstar tag team. Kendrick and Ezekiel works because you've got a smaller arrogant quick guy teaming up with a bigger bodyguard type. New Age Outlaws worked because they had the same type of attitude. Eh, I've typed enough, I'm tired.

 

[klunderbunker]

I'll take gimmick. Teams that dress alike, have similar names and wrestle well together are just impossible to beat for me. Teams like Demolition or LOD for example. They're not related, but they're the same size, the same basic style. It makes sense to give them matching attire and have them just beat people down. Teams like Matt Hardy and MVP when they were tag champions made my head hurt. These people are supposed to hate each other yet they can win the tag titles and have a decent run? I don't think so. Brothers are a close second here. There's a natural chemistry that can't be beaten. Those people grew up together and know each other so perfectly well that not even close friends can match their chemistry.

 

[Miko]

All three, I like all three of the options you've given, I couldnt really give a crap if your related or have the same gimmick all that matters is that your entertaining and as you proved with your first post all three options have provided these teams.

It's an interesting mix when you have teams like the Hardy's going head to head with T&A or the APA.
The only snag I have with thrown together teams is that there has to be somewhat of a reason for it, by that I mean anything like "these two guys are friends, so it makes sense to have them team up" or "these two guys were forced to team up but ended up becoming friends" or as was the case with T&A "these guys were scouted by someone and they bought them together.

So back to my original point, I like all varieties of tag team, as long as they strengthen the division and entertain people.

 

[JackAttack]

Brothers, hands down. Most brother tag teams have amazing chemistry, and simply work well together. Even brother tag teams who arent too amazing like Primo and Carlito still have great chemistry.

Another great reason why brother tag teams work well is because they are easy to build a story around. Take Kane and Undertaker. Becuase they were brothers, they had decent story's building up even before they were even a tag team. This made it easier to later make them into an effective team because their relationship with each other was already well established and explained.

Also, once you build up a great brother tag team, you can always look forward to an amazing brother vs. brother fued, like the epic and legendary Edge vs. Christian match. Having a breakup in which both brothers put on a spectacular match with each other can permanently solidify them as credible singles wrestlers.

 

[Afro-Ameri-Spawn]

Actually, the be very truthful, this question should only have two choices as majority of brother teams that get put together are gimmicky. Hell, pretty much every tag team put together in the modern era has had some sort of gimmick. You have had teams that came together because of their names such as The Hart Foundation(Hart and NeidHART), The Killer B's (B. Brian Blair and jumping Jim Brunzell), and The Rock and Rave Infection(Lance Rock and Jimmy Rave). Then you have teams that come together because they trained together or they bear a resemblance to one another that created a natural chemistry or gimmick that could be parlayed into a brother team such as Edge and Christian, The Minnesota Wrecking Crew(Ole and Arn Anderson), The Major Brothers(Ryder and Hawkins), The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, and even The Brothers of Destruction.

The fact of the matter is that other than tag teams that are just thrown together for a match, each tag team with great chemistry has a gimmick. And that is what makes tag teams great. It's not who is involved, it's what they do as a team. Whether it be unique double team moves, an amazing finisher, or even the fact that they feed off of one another to showcase their theme and draw the crowd in to their similarities or complimentary talents, as in the case with teams along the lines of Power and Flory(Hercules and Paul Roma), Shawn Micheals and Diesel, or Jesse and Festus. So to say that any team that wrestles together regularly(two matches or more) is without a gimmick is rather ludicrous in it's own context to begin with.

I would hate to see a world where tag team wrestlers did not have a gimmick. It's A symphony. And art form. A dying trade. It should be passed on from generation to generation so that any fed with a tag team title can be legitimate and have a legacy that was meant to stand the test of time. But alas, tag team wrestling has slowly died over the past century. And it can't be blamed on Vince McMahon or Vince Russo or anybody who books matches today. It began many years ago with how popular it became. It was like the automobile. At first, it was keen to have. And then cars got bigger and bigger and bigger, to where they sucked the life out of the planet on which they travelled. The same thing happened with tag team wrestling.

First there were world tag titles. And that was a fine concept, having the two top men who wrestle as a team have gold. And then, there came the secondary tag titles like the US tag team titles. And Cruiserweight tag team titles. And regional tag team titles. And if having the second and third best tag teams hold gold, then it seems logical to have tag team titles for teams of more than two the way that there were Six Man tag team titles. The problem was over-saturation. It seemed as if everybody with a gimmick needed a title. It got to be the fact that people started not even carrying that The Road Warriors tried to carve out Dusty Rhodes' eye because he missed the match where they lost their six man titles to the Four Horsemen, having Sting fill in for him. So slowly, but surely, tag team wrestling began to spiral downwards. Far to fast for damage control. And what is left is what you see today. A sad sad state. Man, I miss the old days.