what was so good about the old tag division

[supersayian]

the Creative and Stephanie who i assume is talent relations. need to come together and put guys together who can work well off each other. look at what Kenndrick and London did they were over hugely with the crowd and both knew what entertainment was. they have the teams now they just need to put them in action more and give them promo time so the fans can see why we should watch them wrestle.

 

[shadowlaw85]

guys dat goes to show how da tag team divison back in da was da shizznit,I mean I can remember where da tag team divison made up 50% of da wrestling industry.my opinion da tag teams from da 80's,90's n 2000's were great,not sayin all of em but a lot of em were.its tough 2 name a top 5 bcuz I hav so many favs but here it is but not in dis exact order


sting n lex lugar
the outsiders
demolition
motor city machine guns
the steiner bros



those are my top fav but I can go on wit a top 10 but dats not wat dis thread is about.wwe really need 2 get it 2getha about a lot of things but dats anotha thread in itself.oh I 4got 1 thing 2 mention,right now tna is beatin wwe by a long shot when it comes 2 there tag team division, thus makin wwe havin 2 play catch up.......n dats all I hav 2 say about dat

 

[Savage1]

For me personally the golden age of tag teams was the 80's. You had a plethora of tag teams, many of which were very good! I loved the Attitude Era for tags as well but the 80's had something that no other era had as far as tags go. It could just be a nostalgia factor for me but I believe that the teams were better and there were definitely more of them. You had the Hart Foundation, LOD, Demolition, Freebirds, Rougeaus (sp.)?, Orient Express, Twin Towers, Steiners, Rockers etc...you even had the novelty teams that were singles wrestlers put 2gether for a storyline and they were head and shoulders above the teams that were just thrown 2gether in the 90's. The Mega Powers were ridiculous! Even though I wasn't a big Hogan fan they were still a great pairing. Savage and Hogan as a tag team?! Are you kidding me?! They wore the same colors and worked great 2gether. The only downfall was that it was basically all for Hogan. His colors, his theme music and I believe they were put 2gether for a fued that was originally Hogans but either way they were great! Hogan and Beefcake, Savage and Warrior, You can't put 2gether teams like that nowadays. For me it was about 2 teams...The Hart Foundation and The Rockers.The Rockers were so gnarly, especially for that time. They were one of the first teams to use double team high flying moves and use them well. They were one of the main reasons I became such a huge fan of this sport. From the bright clothes, to the theme music, to the double team moves, these guys were IT for me! So when all is said and done I would say the 80's were the golden age of tags and I would love to see they wwe bring back the tag division and give them sufficient tv time and time to grow as a team like someone else on this thread has said. Heres my top 5 in no particular order....

1. Rockers
2. LOD
3. Hart Foundation
4. Steiners
5. Hardy's
On a side note I'm pretty amped to see what becomes of the new Hart Foundation and Legacy and all of the up and coming 2nd generation stars. Loved thier fathers and hope they can all become they kind of performers thier dads were! It's something to look forward to...finally!

 

[THTRobtaylor]

I am amazed so few have named The British Bulldogs... Biased or not, they were the team that truly put Tag Team wrestling on the cutting edge in the mid 80's WWF... The first team to truly offer something different but easy to get behind... Even the most ardent 80's heel fan couldn't fail to love Dynamite going for the headbutt or Davey Boy's cartwheel escapes...

The reality is that true tag teams died out in the early 1990's... when Money Inc and The Natural Disasters ruled over "true teams" like the Nasty Boys...and Tag Teams became... one singles future star, one not...

If I truly had to pick a list of the most impactful team, The Hollywood Blondes would be the the top of it... because they were the last GREAT tag team... Hardyz... Edge and Christian, Dudleyz? nah... Pillman and Austin created something special with no prior association, no family ties or going to school together... 2 guys who got tag teaming for what it truly was, 2 guys, more than the sum of their parts... Nearly every team since then has been a poor clone of them, throw 2 wrestlers together...dynamite might happen...

Some of the teams on this list from peeps are poor rip offs... APA...Outlaws...Quebeccers... Motor city Machine guns... Beer Money... all thrown together on the "promise" of another Blondes...

Prior to the Blondes, the best teams would be...

1: British Bulldogs (bar none, totally revolutionary for their time and beyond)
2: Rockers...nuff said...
3: Blanchard and Anderson (would be 1 if not for the piss poor WWE run...)
4: Road Warriors (as above and for allowing their legacy to be butchered... also they were on reflection one dimensional...)
5: Steiners... Too short as WWE champs to be higher... but in their day, could have been top 2...

6... ok, just to be controversial... The Sheepherders/Bushwhackers.... These guys had 2 careers... one as Hardcore innovators, the 2nd as cartoon characters... and they did it better than all the Attitude era teams mentioned...

 

[Debisibmania]

The reality is that true tag teams died out in the early 1990's... when Money Inc and The Natural Disasters ruled over "true teams" like the Nasty Boys...and Tag Teams became... one singles future star, one not...

ummm... no. you my friend are wrong. Both of these 'future' singles stars were bigger stars before the formation of their respective tag teams. DiBiase was at the top of his game in the mid 80s and Earthquake in the early 90s. Money Inc and Natural disasters were around in 93.

The fact is that there are always a couple great ones. Like many have stated, it's that the focus isn't on them now.

But to say that true teams died out before 93 is ridiculous to the furthest extent. Yea, The Hart Foundation, Rockers, Demolition, Brain Busters, Bulldogs, Strike Force... all great... but after that... mid 90's was rough, i agree... with the likes of Men on a Mission and the Smokin Gunns.
But that turned around big time... HUGE time.
Owen and Jarrett was great, Edge and Christian and the Hardy Boyz all got over strictly based on being a tag team. Sure they got pushed alone, but if they never broke up, theyd still be in the hall of fame as a tag team alone.
And they were together for many years.

How about the Harlem Heat??? one of the best.

and though thrown together, Miz and Morrison IMO are one of the greats.

anyway my favs..
5. New age outlaws
4. Bam Bam and Vader
3. Edge & Christian
2. Miz/Morrison
1. Hart Foundation

 

[TheBadGuy]

i don't think we'll ever see another tag-team division like the wwe had in the late 80s/early 90s. It was the golden-age of tag-team wrestling. teams like the british bulldogs, the hart foundation, the rockers, the bralnbusters, lod, the fabulous rougeaus, demolition, strike force, the twin towers, the nasty boys, and the steiner brothers. the fans were spoiled, wwe's division was ridiculously stacked. i miss the days when they spent time and money developing legitimate teams!

 

[Tim_Seraphim]

I remember a sweet tag division not too many years ago... It involved the likes of AMW, Triple X, The Naturals, a HOT heel LAX, a Dream Team, Team 3D, and a group of Canadians. Ah, the good old days of TNA.

 

[Black Snow]

I think that the WWE tag teams of 1999-2001 are overrated. Was anyone really a mark for the Hollys? The APA didn't exactly light up the ring with workrate. T&A and RTC were just formed from random guys that weren't getting over on their own. Etc.

When people talk about that era of tag teams the first names they say are E&C, Hardyz and Dudleyz for a reason and it's not just because they faced each other more often than not and revolutionized the ladder match. It's because those were the only three teams that fans genuinely cared about. You can make a case for the incredibly overrated New Age Outlaws but even they were on life support when the division blew up and Gunn was already proving that he wasn't a viable singles competitor.

BUT despite all the crap I'm talking about the so-called golden era of tag teams at least they were booked in a way that made them seem important. The tag titles were almost always defended on PPV. In the rare cases in which they weren't the champs still had matches. Nowadays we can go for months on end without the tag titles getting a match on PPV. That horrible statistic is compounded by the fact that until a couple months ago there were two sets of belts.

So generally, the attitude era tag division was great because it was booked as if it actually friggin' mattered. The overall talent of that era is overrated but they still always did a top notch job of making us care.

The best thing for the WWE to do right now is have the Colons defend the titles on an almost weekly basis on Superstars. If they aren't defending it on Superstars then they should put together new tag teams and have them battle it out for the right to challenge the Colons. If you make it seem like the wrestlers actually care about the belts then the fans will care as well.

 

[HBK-aholic]

The 'old' tag division was so good because there were legitimate teams all wrestling for that one piece of gold that they'd been working towards since they started. The fact that there are now 2 tag belts is horrible, specifically when you look at the division and realise there isn't enough talent for even one championship.

My favourite tag team was The Rockers. Sure, they never won the title properly, and won't go down as all-time greats. But there matches in WWE were some of the best title matches I'd seen at that time. Looking back now, you see how different they were to other teams around that time, and looking at teams from the last few years, you still see pieces of The Rockers in them. They were entertaining, and that's what counts.

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

The 'old' tag division was so good because there were legitimate teams all wrestling for that one piece of gold that they'd been working towards since they started. The fact that there are now 2 tag belts is horrible, specifically when you look at the division and realise there isn't enough talent for even one championship.

My favorite tag team was The Rockers. Sure, they never won the title properly, and won't go down as all-time greats. But there matches in WWE were some of the best title matches I'd seen at that time. Looking back now, you see how different they were to other teams around that time, and looking at teams from the last few years, you still see pieces of The Rockers in them. They were entertaining, and that's what counts.

Speaking of The Rockers and great Tag Team Matches, this match posted below, is one of the most under-rated Tag Team Matches in WWE history. It is the opening bout of Royal Rumble 1991 between The Rockers and The Orient Express.

For anyone that asks "what is so great about the old Tag Team division", I would recommend watching this match in its entirety, because this match is the epitome of what I miss from Tag Team wrestling. And I find it a crying shame that matches of this caliber were taken away from me, because of Vince McMahon's so-called belief that "Tag Team Wrestling does not sell".

What sold was the entire WWE package, Vince. The entire build-up of the card. Not just the Main Event, like you may want to think ... and what you have conditioned your loyalists to think.

Anyway, here is the match. Pay particular attention to the energy level of the crowd, as well. To add to the drama, you had a manager on the outside (something Vince has also taken away), who you also had to watch for interference. And also, pay particular attention to Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper in getting the action over. Piper was never my favorite commentator, but him and Monsoon did one Hell of a job in this match.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz2Nri3hYp4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_q-4RzX8hI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p5DPv2M7sY

 

[Pimpin]

As a person who grew up in the Attitude Era, I have more knowledge on the teams from that era & the teams from that era were pretty damn entertaining as we had a different variety of teams to like.

Here are some of my favorite teams.

The Hardyz- They were(still are) cool back then. Matt was(is) the less extreme one of the group while Jeff was(still is) the one who would jump off of shit & they also had Lita with them so that was a plus. It's always fun to look back at their footage & just go in awe of how they made it to where they are now.

Edge & Christian- They were funny as hell & the Con Chair To is one of my favorite double team moves of all time. It's a shame that the WWE doesn't have a tag team that's remotely even similar to E&C.

Team 3D/Dudley Boyz- I loved these guys back in ECW & I loved it when they powerbombed women through the table for no apparant reason(I don't personally condone that in real life).

New Age Outlaws- I loved the introduction as Road Dogg was the best on the mic & I felt that this was their best run as a tag team.

APA- Shockingly JBL was even cheered, but their gimmick of bar room brawlers/hired hitmen was gold. I liked how they beat the hell out of people, their poker games & just anything about this team. It's just sad how JBL then turned into a crappy, boring type of wrestler & I personally am glad to see him retired.

 

[huntmaster86]

i think one of the biggest questions though is was the attitude era tag division only good because of the gimmick matches? dudleys, E&C and the hardys all relied on them quite a lot, and most of the ppv matches they oparticipated in were tlc, ladder or table matches or whatever. if it were the 80's teams, would they have survived in the gimmick matches though? also teams like the colons, miz and morrison, priceless, new hart foundation, are they better suited to the old school 'no gimmick matches' or the attitude era where it seemed you were having tables, ladders and chairs rammed down every orifice?

 

[RVDgurl]

What was so great about the old tag team division? I have a few answers to that question:

1. The tag team division has developed some of the greatest main event wrestlers of the 90's. HBK, Edge or Bret Hart, anyone? They all spent years developing their skills as part of elite tag teams. Tag team wrestling used to be a stepping stone for bigger and better things.

2. There used to be real tag teams! Instead of simply throwing together a few guys who just can't get over as single's wrestlers, there used to be teams who worked exclusively together. British Bulldogs, Hart Foundation, Road Warriors, Killer Bees, Demolition, Dudley Boyz, Hardy Boys, The Rockers, etc, etc. These were real tag teams that made up a full roster for the tag team division. Hell, I think that The Road Warriors and The Dudley's basically spent their entire careers as a team. That really is a lost art.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

When the thread starter said old I thought he was on about the late 80's WWE division. But then I saw him list a load of shitty tag teams from the late 90's and I new instantly what he was getting at. Yeah, that tag division was shit. Take out a couple of ladder matches and maybe a cage match and you've got nothing worth looking at again.

I've said for years that the TLC Era tag division is a pile of rubbish.

 

[Ovaltine]

Okay, there is NO WAY IN HELL that the attitude era had the best tag teams! Pre attiude had L.O.D. The Steiners, the Rockers, The Hart Foundation, The British Bulldogs, Demolition, nasty Boys, Money Inc the Colossal Conection- and there were a bunch more. I'm not saying this to sound mean, but if you really think that the Attitude Era had the best tag teams you are probably too young to have seen anything pre attitude era! The attitude era had two teams that could work (Edge & Christian and the Hardys) and one team that had to rely on Hardcore to get over (The Dudleys) Now, I like the Dudley's, but they weren't over until they brought all the hardcore stuff to the WWF. They are good workers, but the WWF audience didn't take to them until the TLC matches.