Single Stars Turned Into A Tag Team.

[Ferbian]

We've seen it time and time again. Especially as of late. You get two singles stars who end up tag teaming together and perhaps eventually getting the tag team championships. Some have done it well, while others have gone on to be a rather dull combination.

For example I would say Chris Jericho and Big Show certainly managed to successfully get put together and create one hell of a tag team. However we most likely all think that John Morrison & R-Truth was pretty useless.

The same goes for TNA. They've managed to put together stars like Hernandez and Matt Morgan. A tag team which I feel never truly lived up to the potential it could've had with time.

But that only brings me to the purpose of this thread. What exactly is it that creates for a tag team of two established singles stars put together to become successful? To actually work out as a proper tag team, and not just a failure of a filler?

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

I dont think there is any specific deciding factor when they do this because some are massively successful and other are complete failures. Perhaps they have an idea for a tag team and one indiviual they certainly want in it and then they look at the roster, maybe get them to have try-out match together to see if there is chemistry. You have to be fair to TNA because matt morgan and abyss were put together like this, as were london brawling who when they return seem promising and the daddy of them all BEER MONEY. They also have had morgan and hernandez who never really felt right from day one and orlando jordan and EY who in true WWE santino fashion dont appear to be going anywhere soon, just entertaining people.

So thats just TNA but either its clear to see there isnt a formula, its more luck than anything. You just have to rely on two characters developing real chemistry on the live shows and you cant know that going to happen before its happened.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

There's no formula to follow. You can't simply take two parts brute, one part charism and three parts chemistry and—voilà!—instant tag team.

Like Alex noted above me — there is no deciding factor. Tag teams, whether patch-worked or established outright work for two reasons:

1. The story supports them working, which means they aren't simply a means to an end, but rather a team for a reason.

2. The team themselves have something the fans want to see — even if it's as simple as both superstars themselves (a la Rated RKO).

 

[I Suck Ass]

I think that it helps give them a push that they otherwise wouldn't have gotten. With JeriShow, Jericho and Big Show weren't really doing any thing at the time, and DX needed 2 top guys to feud with, and that feud led to some great matches. As for Jo-Mo/R-Truth, I don't think it failed, they just never got a quality push. Their WM26 match vs. ShowMiz was just awful, though. A great teaming is Rhodes and McIntyre. Rhodes had the gimmick, but needed the title, and McIntyre needed something to do, or he would fall. Rambling aside, I think they do it to give younger guys a push, and veterans that aren't in the title scene something to do.

 

[Tastycles]

This kind of team is usually set up so that midcarders who don't really have anything to do are given a purpose and can get on the card. There's not really a formula for making a good one, it's just a case of hoping that the team you create has the right chemistry. Sometimes, the potential is obvious, and it's no great surprise that a team like Miz and Morrison hit it off, but something like Jerishow is pot luck. It's the way that two wrestling styles and two promo styles hit it off, and that's the sort of thing that doesn't even work how you'd expect.

 

[Icedawg316]

sometimes it's for story line/advancing storyline purpose only.. you see the HBK-Cena team before heading into Mania winning the tag belts, or the Hogan-HBK team so HBK could turn on Hogan in a way that made sense. I was watching a Raw from '97 last night and Dude Love became Austin's partner.

Others guys are just thrown together without any real rhyme or reason, but it seems to work. I currently like the Cody/Drew team

 

[Spidey Revivey]

I believe it's because we need the Tag Division not to go stale. Simple as that.

Take the champions right now, Cody and Drew. Did anyone REALLY stop and think "Hey! You know who's gonna take the belts off of Hart Dynasty? Fuckin Drew and Cody man!"? Hell no the average person couldn't have thought that shit up by himself. There's no way we could've predicted it. But they're champs now and the system works. Thus making the props we call titles appear fresh. Eventually a pairing with an actual Tag-Teamish name will come along (Uso Brothers, etc) and beat our odd couple and start the whole cycle up again.

It's not really complicated. The belts need to swap hands from time to time and if it just so happens you don't have many Team-names on your list, go with the second best thing-putting two single competitors together.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

How does an X-Pac and Kane team work where a R-Truth/JoMo team doesn't?

Simple. People cared about X-Pac and Kane BEFORE they became a tag team. JoMo has his followers, but can you really say R-Truth has enough fans of him and his character and not just his theme songs?

In both instances, two random wrestlers were thrown together to make a tag team because enither guy had anything to do at the time.

Kane and X-Pac (I don't know this for sure, so i am assuming) probably had an actual angle or segment worked out where one of them had been beaten up by 2 guys, and then the other one was attacked by the same two guys, and the first victim comes down for the save, then suddenly there's a tag fued.

With JoMo and R-Truth, they were thrown together in a tag match, and WWE decided to just keep doing it over and over again, and we the fans think we've got a new established team, based on the fact they had a tag title shot once.

Do we all consider Evan Bourne and Mark Henry to be a tag team?

With Cody and Drew, prior to that Tag Gauntlet match at NOC, did anyone actually identify those two guys as a tag team? Or were they just two guys who were beating up Matt Hardy and Christian every week, an angle they unceremoniously decided to just stop half way through?

JeriShow was nothing like JoMo/Miz or any of the other random tag teams we've had in recent years.

When JoMo/Miz were thrown together, they won the tag titles in a random tag title match on SD that was actually part of the MVP/Matt Hardy fued going on at the time. This wasn't done to create a new tag team, it was done to get the belts OFF of Hardy/MVP so their US title fued could continue. 3 nights after this Miz and Morrisson were wrestling each other in a triple threat match with Punk for the ECW title!

Then they started getting these stupid online shows and Miz and Morrisson were able to show off their mic skills and get over through that, and THEn they started fueding with guys like DX, after they had already proven that they were worth more money as a tag team.

Now let's look at JeriShow in comparison:

-2 ME heels. That's ME heels that people actually enjoy watching.

-Chris Jericho is still giving the best promos in the entire company at this point, as Punk hadn't gone fully blown heel at this stage. He's also had a red hot fued with Rey Mysterio recently, so seemingly everything Jericho is touching is turning to gold.

-There was interest buzzing around Jericho well before they became a tag team, because he and Edge were team mates first, and Edge got injured and we had a month of 'Who's Jericho's new partner?' And even when it turned out to be Big Show, people were still interested because of the mic work, and the whole total coward Jericho + One Punch Big Show dynamic they had going on PLUS the awesome mic work.

-They were on the PPV card EVERY month. You can't even say that about Drew and Cody, because they didn't wrestle at HIAC and apparently won't be wrestling on Sunday either. Do we really need LayCool v Natalya two PPVs in a row?

Let's take some more examples that worked:

Taker/Big Show - Again, two ME heels that everyone wanted to see, put together because Show hated Kane, Taker hated Kane for betraying him and hated X-Pac for being the reason behind it, plus X-Pac cost Taker the title at Fully Loaded '99. Kane/X=Pac win the tag belts, Show and Taker decimate them immediately after.

The 2 biggest, most evil guys on the roster at the time pair up. Who the fuck is going to stop them? Straight in a tag fued. Job done.

Rock 'n' Sock - Honestly i can't even remember why these two paired up to begin with, but again, ME faces everyone wants to see with great mic work and chemistry, went straight into a fued with Taker and Show.

Two Man Power Trip - Again, the two biggest heels pair up with the full backing of the boss. Was done to fully cement Austin's heel turn. Not only did he shake hands with Vince, he's also tagging with HHH, the man who tried several times to cripple Austin. Crushed the Rock, beat up just about everyone else, straight into a fued with Taker/Kane.

Rated RKO - 2 ME heels (noticing the pattern yet?), came together because both of them absolutely hated DX, went on to fued with them immediately.

Legacy - Everyone wondered who Ted Dibiase's tag partner would be, and considering that he hadn't even wrestled prior to that tag match, people were wondering what Dibiase could bring to the table. Once Cody turned on his own partner, to win his own tag titles, people wanted to see what was next....... turned out it was nothing, but then guess what? A ME'er was added to the mix in Randy Orton, and they became relevant again.

And then there's the pairings that came simply from two guys who'd fueded repeatedly, and then circumstance put them in a tag team i.e. Jericho/Benoit tagged to defend themselves from Austin/HHH, Benoit/Angle forced to take part in a tag tournament by Stephanie tec.

Now here's examples of ones that didn't work:

-Renee Dupree and Kenzo Suzuki. How many of you even remember who Kenzo Suzuki was?..... Exactly. Renee had failed to get over as a tag team guy. He failed to get over as a singles guy. They then put him in another tag team, and they BOTH failed.

-Sylvan Granier and Rob Conway. Conway basically filled Dupree's spot and assisted Granier in NOT getting over as French invaders.

-William Regal and Dave Taylor. Who the fuck is Dave Taylor? Exactly......

And then there's the guys who got over, but it's obvious it was nothing to do with them being a great tag team. These include:-

Billy and Chuck - Could their extremely flamboyant manager Rico have had something to do with it? Because surely it wasn't the bleach blonde hair jobs and the Nsync backing music that did it, and Chuck's wreslting ability definitely didn't have anything to do with it either. Rico's character was the only interesting thing about his tag team with Charlie Haas as well for that matter.

T&A - Obviously because of Trish. Notice how no one gave a flying fuck about either of them once they'd split up.

Head Cheese - Got over as comedy relief, not as a decent tag team. Santino and Kozlov are the modern day equivalent except not as funny.

Benoit/Ryhno - Tagged together because both had suffered broken necks. Now that's a good basis for a tag team if i ever heard one. 'Hey we've got the same weakness. Wanna be a tag team?'

And then there's the guys who got over purely because they were apparenlty related i.e. The Hollys (debatable whether they actually got over or not. Crash did, people seemed to just continue tolerating Bob) or the Guerreros, or the Bashams (again, could have just been wasshername from Tough Enough with the bondage gear that made them stand out, because once she was gone no one cared anymore)