The Powers Of Pain

[andrew8798]

what is everybody's opinion on them

[Samoa Kenny]

I loved the stuff they did with Fuji and The Demos.. although I feel like they almost bumped TOO much sometimes

[willywonka666]

I liked them, but can't believe how they were such a blatant ripoff of the Road Warriors. They were good in their own right. Was there an angle that led to them copying the Warriors gimmick? I know about their feud after the bench press challenge, but was there any more to it?

[lovingway]

Barbarian was good. Never thought much of Warlord though

["Sweet & Sour" ImSoFudginGreat]

I loved their match against the Bolsheviks at Summerslam 88.

[Mongo & Pepe: Back in Black]

I loved their feud with the Road Warriors with the bench press thing. Too bad they jumped to the WWF before the payoff of the angle.

[Professor Chaos]

A cheap rate version of the L.O.D., and to a lesser extent Demolition.

[Hiroshi Hase]

divalover said:

A cheap rate version of the L.O.D., and to a lesser extent Demolition.

But they had their gimmick before the Demolition though, didn't they?

[Aceorton]

Back then, years before I would've been anything even remotely close to smarky, I thought of Barbarian as a sloppy, dangerous wrestler. Sometimes he'd kick a guy in the face, and it was just ... I dunno, mean. Like, "Oh, wow, that's really reckless." I felt strange concern for horrible, evil goons like Nikolai Volkoff.

Imagine being the Bolsheviks in 1988, getting the absolutely crap smacked out of you every night by these guys.

[Jared Has Been Enlightened :)]

Neither could really talk, neither could really work, but damn they were cool looking. From a physical standpoint, I'd argue they were the most awesome team ever. The Warlord was bigger than Hawk and Animal put together, how that guy's still living is a miracle, and the Barbarian was no slouch. I also digged the face paint, and the whole theme of the team. The Powers of Pain - a couple of oversized, face paint wearing, ass kicking brutes. I really thought they get jipped in the WWE, as they were made to be nothing more than Demolitions b****** despite being far cooler looking (which is all that really matters when you think about it).

["Nature Boy" Ric Moranis]

willywonka666 said:

Was there an angle that led to them copying the Warriors gimmick? I know about their feud after the bench press challenge, but was there any more to it?

To be fair, "The Barbarian" gimmick started off as a copycat hybrid of Bruiser Brody/Missing Link as "King Konga" around the same time as the start of The Road Warriors on WTBS. That evolved into "Konga The Barbarian" in Mid-Atlantic/Georgia around the same time that the Road Warriors were in AWA.

Warlord was just a juiced up guy that Dusty Rhodes put face-paint on and teamed him with Konga in NWA to feud with the Road Warriors in late-1987, because the popular LOD didn't have anymore heel teams to realistically feud with (since they finished with Midnight Express, Arn & Ole Anderson broke up, the Koloffs broke up, etc.).

So that was the angle, I guess. They were intentionally the anti-Road Warriors in NWA, then Vince signed them and had the misguided vision to try and make them the real thing.

[skillz]

I liked the POP in 1988 when they came in as faces. I had never seen them before since I only got/watched the WWF at the time, so to me they had a cool look and were natural foils to Demolition. When the double turn happened, my interest in them kind of faded away.

[Redbeard's Ghost]

Man, I was a big mark for these guys growing up. I always liked Barbarian in his Paul Jones days in Crockett. He just had a presence about him. Warlord was just a big, tough guy. Together they were a cool team.

[renzino]

I liked the Powers Of Pain as well.

I also still feel to this day that they should have at least got one reign as WWF Tag Team Champions.

[simongr81]

I believe Demolition was older than the Powers of Pain, but not by that much. I liked both teams. The Powers of Pain did win the NWA world six man tag team championship with Ivan Koloff, though never either world tag team championship.

[Crappler El 0 M]

Yes I thought they were a rip-off of the Road Warriors (and I was like six), but I didn't care. They looked like intimidating larger than life monsters. I really loved seeing them wrestle with Demolition. I never understood back then why they never got the tag belts and why they were broken up. I think they should have been kept together longer and should have feuded with LOD. On a related note, LOD and Demolition's feud should have had definitive PPV match, possibly at Royal Rumble.

[ICBM]

I remember the anti-road warrior angle particularly a dbl dq finish at the Crockett Cup

[simongr81]

It wasn't a double dq. The Powers of Pain won. Sting and Lex Luger eliminated the Powers of Pain en route to winning it all. That was a great card/video.

[CaptainFall]

I always thought Powers of Pain were kind of dull. They never seemed to have much of a personality and definitely paled in comparison in that respect to Demolition. They worked a whole lot better as heels than faces and could have been pushed further as a monster like unstoppable tag team but I don't think it's a great loss that they weren't.