FAN Countdown: Top 75 Wrestling Tag Teams (Starts on Page 2)

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

30. Strike Force

On August 29, 1982, Rick Martel and Tito Santana teamed up for the very first time in their careers. They faced AWA Tag Team Champions The High Flyers, Greg Gagne and "Jumpin'" Jim Brunzell for the title. Martel and Santana came up short after Brunzell pinned Santana.

The team officially formed on a permanent basis after Martel defeated both members of The Islanders (Haku and Tama) in separate singles matches in July 1987 (after the departure of his then tag team partner Tom Zenk from the WWF). On the August 15, 1987 episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling, the Islanders jumped Martel after his win over Barry Horowitz. Santana, who was doing commentary in the Spanish broadcast booth, ran to the ring to help Martel fight off the attackers. The team were played off as good looking pretty boys (a storyline that came directly from the team's predecessor the Can-Am Connection) even using the theme called "Girls In Cars", which was originally made for the Can-Am Connection. The name Strike Force came from Santana's promise that as a team they would, "be striking (the Islanders) with force." Martel immediately came up with the team's name based on this. They feuded with the Islanders until October, when they got a shot at the Hart Foundation for the Tag Team Championship. They won the title when Jim Neidhart submitted to Martel's Boston crab.

The team would hold onto the title until WrestleMania IV, where they lost the tag belts to Demolition. Martel had Smash in the Boston Crab, until Ax hit him in the back of the head with Mr. Fuji's cane, while the ref was distracted by a fight between Santana and Fuji.

Shortly afterward, Martel (kayfabe) suffered an injury after taking Demolition's finisher on the floor, splitting up the team for several months. In reality, Martel took an extended leave of absence to help take care of his wife, who was severely ill.

Santana wrestled in singles matches again afterwards for a while. Martel would return to the WWF in January 1989 at the Royal Rumble. Sometime later, Santana and Martel would reunite, taking on the Brain Busters at WrestleMania V. After Santana accidentally knocked Martel out with a flying forearm, Martel left Santana alone in the ring to fend for himself, thus turning heel. Martel later stated that he felt Santana had been riding his coattails and was sick and tired of carrying him. The two would feud for the next year as Martel transformed into "The Model" Rick Martel, becoming an arrogant, self-centered egomaniac. Both men scored wins over the other, including a win by Santana over Martel in the final of the 1989 King of the Ring tournament. Martel would go on to score a win over Santana later in the year at the Survivor Series when he pinned his former partner as the first elimination of the opening match of the night. The feud between the two effectively died out after the Survivor Series.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

29. Jeri-Show

At WWE The Bash, Chris Jericho and his partner Edge, both heels, won the Unified Tag Team Championship (which consisted of the WWE Tag Team Championship and the World Tag Team Championship) as surprise entrants in a tag team match. When Edge suffered an injury shortly thereafter which left him unable to wrestle, Jericho exploited a contractual loophole that allowed him to choose a new partner to replace Edge so that Jericho's reign could continue uninterrupted, while insulting Edge for being injury prone.

On July 26, 2009, at Night of Champions, Jericho revealed fellow heel Big Show as his new tag team partner and they defeated Legacy members Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase to retain the tag team titles. As Unified Tag Team Champions, this allowed Jericho, from the SmackDown brand, and Big Show, from the Raw brand, to appear on both brands. Jeri-Show would then feud with Cryme Tyme, which culminated in a successful title defense for Jeri-Show at SummerSlam. Jericho and Big Show would then feud with MVP and Mark Henry, this would also result in another successful title defense for Jericho and Big Show at Breaking Point against the challengers. Next, Jeri-Show would move on to feud with Batista, who then challenged for the tag team titles with Jericho's rival Rey Mysterio at Hell in a Cell, where the tag team champions again successfully defended their titles.

On October 5, 2009, Jeri-Show would begin a feud with Shawn Michaels and Triple H of D-Generation X (DX) following a loss in a non-title match on Raw. Leading up to Bragging Rights, Jericho was named as a captain for Team SmackDown while Big Show joined Team Raw, which was captained by DX. At Bragging Rights, Big Show turned on Team Raw when he attacked his teammates Kofi Kingston and Triple H, resulting in Jericho getting the win for Team SmackDown. Big Show would then reveal that his motives for aiding Team SmackDown was so that he would be granted a title shot against SmackDown's World Heavyweight Champion the Undertaker, while Jericho would insert himself into the title match as well after beating Kane. At Survivor Series, The Undertaker managed to retain his World Heavyweight Championship after Jericho and Big Show turned on each other during the Triple Threat match.

Jeri-Show would then continue their feud with DX. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs (2009), the 140 day reign of Jeri-Show as Unified Tag Team Champions came to an end when DX came out victorious in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. On the December 14 episode of Raw, Jeri-Show won a Slammy Award for "Tag Team of the Year". That same night, Jeri-Show used their rematch clause against DX. However, DX quickly intentionally disqualified themselves and retained their titles. As a result, Jericho, from the SmackDown brand, could not appear on Raw as he was no longer a Unified Tag Team Champion. DX granted Jeri-Show yet another rematch for the titles with the additional stipulation that Jericho had to "leave Raw forever" if he lost. On the January 4 episode of Raw, DX duly won the match to banish Jericho, marking the end of Jeri-Show.

After their breakup, Edge made his return at the 2010 Royal Rumble match to feud with Jericho. Meanwhile, Big Show would go on to win the Unified Tag Team Championships back from DX when he teamed with The Miz, forming ShoMiz. Jericho would eventually gain access to Raw again when he was drafted to the Raw brand through the 2010 WWE Draft.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

28. MNM

MNM was formed in the former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). Melina Perez, Johnny Nitro's real-life girlfriend, was introduced into the company in 2004 as his ex-girlfriend, an ally of Matt Cappotelli with whom Nitro was engaged in a scripted rivalry. Almost immediately, however, Perez betrayed Cappotelli and sided with Nitro. Together they introduced Joey Matthews to become MNM. While in OVW, Nitro and Matthews won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship once, holding it for over two months.

MNM was called up to WWE's SmackDown! roster in April 2005, with Matthews undergoing a name change to "Joey Mercury". They made their debut during Carlito's interview segment Carlito's Cabana, where they interrupted an interview between Carlito and Rey Mysterio, and attacked Mysterio. This provoked a feud between MNM and Mysterio and his partner, Eddie Guerrero, over the WWE Tag Team Championship. Two weeks later, in their debut match on the SmackDown! brand, they defeated Mysterio and Guerrero to win the WWE Tag Team Championship after Guerrero refused to tag into the match. While Nitro and Mercury held the championship, Melina was placed in an angle with Heidenreich. She publicly mocked him and was the impetus for an attack on him by Nitro and Mercury. In July, MNM were scheduled to face Heidenreich in a two-on-one handicap match, but attacked him before the match started. Road Warrior Animal saved Heidenreich from the attack and as a result, Heidenreich and Road Warrior Animal challenged Mercury and Nitro for the tag team title at The Great American Bash. MNM lost the match and the championship.

The loss of the tag team championship was seen as "bad publicity" by Melina so she introduced Jillian Hall, a storyline spin doctor to repair their image.[15][16] Hall got them a cover article in SmackDown! magazine, and began to introduce the team before and aid them during matches. In September 2005, Hall left the group to join John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL), who had lost a match to Rey Mysterio.

On the October 28 episode of SmackDown!, Mercury and Nitro were placed into a tag team title fatal four-way match against the teams of the Mexicools (Super Crazy and Psicosis), William Regal and Paul Burchall, and the WWE Tag Team Champions Legion of Doom 2005 (Heidenreich and Road Warrior Animal). During the match, Mercury and Nitro were able to perform the Snapshot on Heidenreich, to win the championship for a second time. MNM successfully defended the championship against Eddie Guerrero and Batista. In December, they began a feud with the Mexicools, who earned the right to face MNM at Armageddon for the WWE Tag Team Championship. Before Armageddon however, on the December 16 episode of SmackDown!, MNM lost the tag team championship to Batista and Rey Mysterio. A storyline was begun before the match, where Melina attempted to seduce Batista into forfeiting the match. The storyline played over to the next episode of SmackDown! when, before MNM invoked their rematch clause, Melina held a press conference in the ring where she claimed that Batista had sexually harassed her. During the tag team match, Mark Henry aided MNM in winning back the WWE Tag Team Championship. The following week, MNM defeated Batista and Mysterio in a steel cage match to retain the championship, Henry's aid. Henry was only with the group a short time before his contract was sold to Daivari in storyline. They went on to successfully defend the championship against The Mexicools and the team of Matt Hardy and Tatanka in early 2006.

In April 2006, MNM were placed in an angle in which they found themselves in a losing streak against the team of Paul London and Brian Kendrick. In non-title tag team matches, singles matches, and even a six-man tag match, London and Kendrick defeated the duo every time. At the Judgment Day pay-per-view in May 2006, MNM lost the tag team championship to London and Kendrick. After the match, Nitro and Mercury started brawling, disbanding the group. Later that night, Melina lost a singles match against Jillian Hall and after slapping General Manager Theodore Long in anger, she and Nitro were fired from the SmackDown! brand in storyline. Off-screen, Nitro and Mercury did not get along, and WWE management decided to split the tag team and send Nitro and Melina to the Raw brand. In addition, Mercury was about to begin serving a suspension for violating the WWE Wellness program.

After serving his suspension and a brief stint back in OVW, Mercury returned to WWE, reuniting MNM, in late November 2006 to answer an open challenge put out by The Hardys (Matt and Jeff) for the December to Dismember pay-per-view. At the event, MNM lost to the Hardys. MNM and the Hardys met again at Armageddon as part of a four-way ladder match, which also included the teams of Dave Taylor and William Regal and Paul London and Brian Kendrick. During the match, which saw London and Kendrick retain the WWE Tag Team Championship, Mercury was legitimately injured when he was struck in the face with a ladder, necessitating a trip to the emergency room where his broken nose received 15 stitches. The facial injury was worked into the angle, and when Mercury returned wearing a protective covering on his face, the rivalry between the teams intensified with MNM actively seeking to injure one or both of the Hardys, even going so far as to attack and perform a Snapshot on Matt on exposed concrete following a match. MNM lost to The Hardys at the Royal Rumble, and again at the No Way Out pay-per-view in February, which concluded the feud.

After their feud with the Hardys was over, Nitro and Melina continued to team on Raw, while Mercury wrestled in singles competition on SmackDown!. On March 26, 2007, through WWE's official website, it was announced that Mercury had been released from his contract. Melina and Nitro's association began to fizzle out when Melina became the WWE Women's Champion and began garnering attention as a singles performer. During the 2007 supplemental draft, Nitro moved to the ECW brand and was renamed John Morrison, while Melina remained on Raw. Mercury returned in 2010 and later began working as a trainer in Florida Championship Wrestling (later renamed NXT Wrestling). Melina and Morrison were both released in 2011.

The concept behind the group was that they were Hollywood celebrities. Upon their debut on SmackDown!, they claimed to be the "hot new team on the scene", because of their good looks and celebrity status.

As part of their in-ring personas, MNM had a distinctive ring entrance. They walked to the ring on a red carpet, while members of the "paparazzi" took photos of them. The male members of MNM usually wore fur coats to the ring. As they took them off, Melina suggestively rubbed their abs while removing the title belts from their pants, where they hung in an exaggerated phallic fashion. Melina has a signature entrance which involves her doing a split on the ring apron—from the floor—then bending forward and crawling under the bottom rope.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

27. Los Guerreros

In World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Chavo and Eddie were not really a tag team as they were later on in WWE. Chavo had only a year of experience in contrast to Eddie's eight or nine years. As part of their angle, Eddie would continually try to make Chavo adopt Eddie's cheating tactics, but Chavo often refused to do so.

On the March 9, 1998 episode of Nitro, Chavo lost to Booker T in a match. After the match, Eddie suplexed Chavo to teach him a lesson. On the March 12 episode of WCW Thunder, he defeated his nephew Chavo in a match and forced him to become his "slave". At Uncensored, Chavo was forced to support Eddie when he faced Booker T for Booker's WCW World Television Championship. Eddie lost the match after receiving a missile dropkick. Eddie and Chavo then feuded with Último Dragón. Chavo lost to Dragón at Spring Stampede. At Slamboree, Eddie defeated Dragón despite interference from Chavo. After the match, Chavo kissed Eddie and began to display insane behavior. Eddie would leave Chavo during a match, and that would lead them to feud with each other. At The Great American Bash, Chavo got an upset victory over Eddie. They faced each other in a Hair vs. Hair match at Bash at the Beach which Eddie won. Continuing to show his crazy behavior Chavo would shave his own head while Eddie looked on in disbelief. Eddie saved Chavo from beatings by Stevie Ray, seeming that he would align with Chavo but he wanted his release. Chavo's treatment at the hands of Eddie drove him "crazy" and he adopted the gimmick of a psycho fixated with a hobby horse he dubbed "Pepé." This led to a feud with Norman Smiley in which Pepé was thrown into a woodchipper by Smiley. Another result of his insanity, was his inability to join Eddie's Latino World Order stable, which was a take-off of the nWo. The stable included nearly every Latino wrestler in WCW except Chavo.

Los Guerreros was the official name of Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero when they were a tag team in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). This Los Guerreros formed sometime during 2002 following Eddie Guerrero's jump to the SmackDown brand. Eddie had been Chris Benoit's tag partner on Raw, but Benoit turned face and moved into a feud with Kurt Angle while they were a tag team on the side. Eddie and Chavo ended up teaming up as a heel tag team when a tournament was announced to crown the first-ever Tag Team Champions, then a new belt just being introduced. Los Guerreros defeated Mark Henry and Rikishi to make it to the semi-finals where they lost to Angle and Benoit.

The tournament ended with Benoit and Angle beating Edge and Rey Mysterio becoming the first-ever Tag Team Champions. Edge and Mysterio won the titles afterwards. At Survivor Series 2002, Los Guerreros defeated Benoit and Angle and Edge and Mysterio in a 3-Way Tag Team Elimination match to win their first WWE Tag Team Championship. After facing makeshift teams consisting of Edge, Mysterio, and Benoit for a few months, they turned babyfaces to feud with John Cena and B-2, and Team Angle (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas). They would lose the tag titles to Team Angle on the February 6, 2003 episode of SmackDown!.

Eddie later teamed up with Tajiri to win back the belts due to an injury to Chavo. Team Angle, by now known as The World's Greatest Tag Team, won back the belts but Chavo returned a few months later. On September 18 episode of SmackDown!, they defeated World's Greatest Tag Team for their second WWE Tag Team Championship. They would lose the belts to the Basham Brothers about a month later, leading to a storyline spanning several months in which Chavo eventually turned on Eddie, breaking up the team. Eddie then ascended to the main event by becoming a WWE Champion. Eddie and Chavo were last seen at together at Judgment Day 2005 when Chavo tried to interfere in the match between Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero.

Los Guerreros became extremely over with the crowd using the gimmick and motto "We lie. We cheat. We steal."

One of their most popular in-ring tactics was to toss an illegal weapon (Chair, belt etc.) to their opponent when the referee's back was turned and then drop to the canvas as if they had been struck with it. When the referee would finally turn around, the opponent would be caught seemingly red-handed.

Following the breakup of this team, both would retain the gimmick. While Chavo became more of a classical heel, Eddie's utilization was generally used during his face status.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

26. De-Generation X

According to Triple H, WWF management wanted to keep The Kliq, of which he and Shawn Michaels were members, apart, so they were hesitant to pair the duo together at first. Despite this, the group began to collude on the August 11, 1997 main event of Raw is War. During Michaels' match with Mankind, Triple H and Chyna both interfered as they were feuding with Mankind; towards the end of the match Rick Rude returned to the WWF revealing himself as Michaels' bodyguard and helped him win the match by attacking Mankind with a chair. The following week on Raw Michaels and Triple H teamed up to take on Mankind and The Undertaker, only to lose the match by disqualification after Michaels used a chair on Undertaker. Michaels would eventually face the Undertaker at Ground Zero: In Your House on September 7 with Triple H, Chyna and Rude all interfering on Michaels behalf to make the match end in a no contest. They were often shown on television practicing sophomoric/crude humor and rebelling against authority figures in the company, primarily Vince McMahon (then an on-air color commentator) and then-Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter, the latter of which DX made a particular habit of humiliating by giving him the nickname Sgt. Slobber.

D-Generation X's first feud was against Hart Foundation, who was led by Michaels' nemesis Bret Hart. At WWF One Night Only, the group helped Michaels beat Foundation member British Bulldog for the WWF European Championship to make him WWF's first Grand Slam Champion. On October 13, the group officially gave themselves the name "D-Generation X" with Shawn Michaels as the leader. Michaels' autobiography suggests that it was WWF head writer Vince Russo who first conceived the moniker for the faction, while Hart's claims it originated from New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick, a frequent critic of the WWF. On-screen, the name was taken from Hart, who claimed that they were nothing more than degenerates. It was also the first time they spoke their trademark slogan: "Suck It". This feud ended at Survivor Series when Shawn Michaels won his third WWF Championship via the Montreal Screwjob, whereby Bret was lied to about the match's pre-determined outcome and subsequently quit the company along with Bulldog and Jim Neidhart. As the only Hart Foundation member that remained in the WWF, Owen Hart continued to feud with DX, specifically Triple H.

D-Generation X was later used as the title for a WWF D-Generation X: In Your House pay-per-view telecast on December 7. By this point, DX holding the WWF Championship and European Championship as well as their victory in the feud with the Hart Foundation solidified their status as the lead stable in the company, with this pay-per-view being representative of that fact. Michaels headlined the event as he was disqualified in a WWF Championship title defense against Ken Shamrock when Owen Hart interfered, having been off-screen since Survivor Series. Earlier that night, Triple H defeated Sgt. Slaughter with the help of Chyna in a Boot Camp match. On the December 22 episode of Raw is War however, the two were forced to wrestle each other for the European Title. In a mock match Michaels laid down while Triple H ran around the ring and eventually pinned him for the championship.

In the beginning of 1998, Triple H exchanged the WWF European Championship with Owen Hart. At WrestleMania XIV, Shawn Michaels was the reigning WWF Champion and Triple H was the reigning WWF European Champion. They recruited boxer Mike Tyson to act as the "Special Enforcer" in the main event of the night featuring Michaels against Steve Austin. At the end of the match, Tyson turned on D-Generation X and cost Michaels the match.

In 2006, a series of events occurred which hinted at a DX reunion. At WrestleMania 22, former members Shawn Michaels and Triple H performed the crotch chop during their respective matches (the former against Mr. McMahon and the latter against John Cena for the WWE Championship), which was met with loud cheering from the fans in attendance. The two continued to deliver chops in the following episodes of Raw as Michaels feuded with Vince and Shane McMahon and Triple H focused on the WWE Championship, repeatedly running into McMahon in the process.

On the June 12 edition of Raw, the events came to a head, when, during Triple H's gauntlet match against the Spirit Squad, Shawn Michaels came in to help his former companion. After the duo had laid out the entire Spirit Squad, the two men began to perform their crotch chops. DX continued their brash antics at the expense of the Spirit Squad, the McMahons, and Jonathan Coachman for several weeks and repeatedly took part in blatantly camp product placement during Raw promos. Most of their antics now involved practical jokes on Vince.

On the June 26 edition of Raw, they added to the list of parodies with Triple H impersonating Vince McMahon, talking about his love of "Dicks" (a double entrende referring to Dick Ebersol, Dick Clark, and Dick Cheney, as well as the male member), while Michaels impersonated Shane McMahon.

On the July 3 edition of Raw, Vince banned DX from the arena; DX responded by sneaking into the production truck and performing a series of pranks on Mr. McMahon (including focusing a camera on McMahon in a public restroom [which was shown on the Raw Titantron] as well as tampering with his microphone). During their feud, DX defeated the Spirit Squad at Vengeance and on the July 15 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, as well as The McMahons (Vince and Shane) at SummerSlam. At Unforgiven in a handicap Hell in a Cell match that featured The Big Show on The McMahons' side, DX again came out victorious.

DX's next feud was with Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton). At Cyber Sunday, the fans selected Eric Bischoff over Vince McMahon and Jonathan Coachman to be the special guest referee for the match. Bischoff allowed the illegal use of a steel chair to give Rated-RKO the win, marking DX's first defeat as a tag team since their reunion in June 2006. At Survivor Series, Michaels and Triple H got back at Edge and Orton by leading Team DX (Triple H, Michaels, Matt and Jeff Hardy, and CM Punk) to a 5–0 sweep over Team Rated-RKO (Edge, Orton, Gregory Helms, Johnny Nitro, and Mike Knox). In 2007, DX challenged for the World Tag Team Championship against Edge and Orton at New Year's Revolution. The fight ended in a no contest after Michaels hit the referee. During the match, Triple H suffered a legitimate torn quadriceps. After the match, DX beat down Rated-RKO with steel chairs and on the announce tables.

After Triple H's injury, Shawn Michaels continued to uphold the DX image by himself leading into WrestleMania 23. Michaels would still come to the ring with the DX music and attire even though Triple H was not joining him during this period. During this time, he captured the World Tag Team championship with John Cena as well as went on to face Cena at WrestleMania 23 for the WWE Championship. Michaels would continue to use the D-Generation X motif until after Backlash, at which point he reverted to his traditional entrance music and attire, thus ending this incarnation of D-Generation X. Michaels and Triple H teamed up again under the D-Generation X on the January 28, 2008 episode of Raw defeating Umaga and Snitsky. Despite DX reforming for one night only occasions, both Triple H and Shawn Michaels have used the "crotch chop" since the one night only returns. On the September 29, 2008 edition of Raw, Triple H and Shawn Michaels reunited as DX to take on Chris Jericho and Lance Cade. They won by disqualification, due to Cade and Jericho attacking Michaels with a ladder. After being mocked by John Morrison and The Miz for two weeks, on the 800th episode celebration of Raw, DX defeated the duo. During the Christmas season, DX appeared in numerous vignettes to promote DX clothing and other WWE merchandise; one such commercial also featured Kelly Kelly. In the 2009 WWE Draft on April 13, 2009, Triple H was drafted back to the Raw brand.

In April 2009, Michaels took a hiatus from WWE after losing to The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXV. Meanwhile, Triple H was embroiled in a rivalry with Randy Orton and The Legacy (Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase). The feud continued from the spring through the summer with Triple H mainly combating with Orton over the WWE Championship. Eventually, Triple H would begin to target The Legacy because they were responsible for his losses against Orton during matches. After losing a handicap match to The Legacy, Triple H stated that he would search for Michaels in order to reunite DX. On the August 10, 2009 episode of Raw, video segments aired in which Triple H met with Michaels at an office cafeteria in Texas where he was working as a chef; throughout the segments, Triple H would try to convince Michaels return to WWE from hiatus. After several incidents during the segments (including a grease fire and Shawn getting shouted by a little girl), Michaels agreed to team with Triple H to face The Legacy at SummerSlam, superkicking the girl, and quitting from his chef job in the process.

On the August 17 episode of Raw, in St. Louis, MO, Michaels and Triple H officially reunited as DX, but as they were in the process of their in-ring promo, Legacy attacked them both. Their first match after reuniting was against Legacy at SummerSlam, which they won. At Breaking Point, however, they lost to Legacy in the first ever Submissions Count Anywhere match in WWE history. At the October pay-per-view Hell in Cell, DX defeated Legacy in a Hell in a Cell match. DX would challenge John Cena for the WWE Championship in a triple threat match at Survivor Series with both men failing to win the title, although they were able to retain their friendship and tag team partnership. On December 13 at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, DX defeated Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and Big Show) to win the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match; the first tag team championship reign for Michaels and Triple H as a tag team.

On December 21, Triple H announced that Hornswoggle was the new DX midget. This came about after Hornswoggle sued DX for emotional and physical distress due to them not allowing him to join DX. After being taken to court where they were ruled guilty by a jury and judge consisting of dwarves, Michaels told Triple H that Hornswoggle could be the mascot. Triple H agreed to it only if the charges were dropped, which Hornswoggle agreed to. On January 11 Mike Tyson, who was the Raw guest host for the night, teamed with Jericho to face DX; however, at the end of the bout, Tyson turned on Jericho and aligned himself with Michaels and Triple H. On the February 8, 2010 episode of Raw, DX lost their Unified Tag Team Titles to ShoMiz (The Miz and The Big Show) in a Triple Threat Elimination Tag Team match also featuring The Straight Edge Society (CM Punk and Luke Gallows.) On the March 1 episode of Raw they lost their rematch for the titles which would be their last televised match before Michaels retired.

Michaels and Triple H reunited in a non-wrestling capacity for the 2010 Tribute to the Troops, after SmackDown events in 2011 and 2012 and during the 2012 Hall of Fame ceremony when they inducted Mike Tyson.

When D-Generation X formed they began doing a gesture where they would put one arm on each side of their crotch and point down. This was known as the "crotch chop". There is an alternate version of the "crotch chop" where instead of pointing down on each side of their crotches, they point down and make their arms in an "X" formation, over their stomach/crotch. According to Paul Levesque (Triple H), Vince McMahon was hesitant to let them perform the "X" at first, but he was later talked into it. When DX enters the ring they do a pyro routine. Green X pyrotechnics go off three times, with DX crotch-chopping at each firing. They then pause for a second, then chop once more as the pyrotechnics fire for the fourth time.

The crotch chop is used in the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire by Jamal (Dev Patel) after getting away from pursuing security guards and by a character in the opening scenes of the 2008 movie Knocked Up. Fidel Edwards, the West Indian fast bowler has on occasions used the crotch chop after taking a wicket.[65] It has also been used by Professional Bowler Pete Weber after getting a strike, Weber himself is a fan of wrestling. The character Kenny Powers in the HBO series, Eastbound & Down also uses the gesture in a fantasy sequence where he walks through the halls of the school where he works. In a 2010 episode of Family Guy, titled "Extra Large Medium", a cutaway shows Spock doing the crotch chop after he wins the lottery.

"Suck it!" is DX's signature slogan. This is also used in their popular "Let's get ready to suck it!" comment, originally a parody of Michael Buffer's "Let's get ready to rumble!" who routinely handled ring announcing duties in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the WWF's chief competitor during the mid-to-late 1990s. The routine originated in the "DX Army" era with X-Pac, Road Dogg, and Billy Gunn and starts when Triple H asks the audience "Are you ready?" He then shouts "No, [city name], I said, Are you ready?!", or "I thought this was [city name], I said, Are you ready?!", to elicit a louder reaction from the crowd. He would continue on, in a similar voice to Buffer, "Then, for the thousands in attendance, and to the millions watching at home: Let's get ready to suck it!" Following this, Road Dogg would announce a variation of "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages: D-Generation X proudly brings to you its soon-to-be/WWF Tag Team Champions of the World! The Road Dogg Jesse James, The Bad Ass Billy Gunn: the New Age Outlaws!" depending on their status as champions. The group would then talk or posture in relation to the people they were feuding with at the time. Billy Gunn would then end the routine with "And if you're not down with that, we got two words for yah!" to which the crowd shouts "suck it!" back at them.

During the tag team revival of the group the routine was truncated so that Triple H would say his part while Shawn Michaels would take Billy Gunn's lines to conclude it. They often would just say these two parts, with brief ad libbing, rather than lengthy speeches each time.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

Countdown so far
75. The Jumping Bomb Angels
74. The Powers of Pain
73. Kane & X-Pac
72. The Usos
71. The Nasty Boys
70. The Second City Saints
69. The Gangstas
68. The Fabulous Rougeaus
67. Rated RKO
66. The Eliminators
65. The Spirit Squad
64. Booker T & Goldust
63. The Von Erichs
62. The Quebecers
61. Candice LeRae & Joey Ryan
60. Owen Hart & British Bulldog
59. The Super Smash Brothers
58. The Foreign Legion
57. The Dancing Fools
56. Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood
55. The Briscoe Brothers
54. Stone Cold Steve Austin & Dude Love
53. The Briscos
52. The Fabulous Ones
51. The Age of the Fall
50. Minnesota Wrecking Crew
49. AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels
48. reDRagon
47. Latin American Xchange
46. Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel
45. Doom
44. America's Most Wanted
43. Kevin Steen & El Generico
42. Rob Van Dam & Sabu
41. Brian Kendrick & Paul London
40. Generation Next
39. Cho-Ten
38. The Hollywood Blonds
37. The Young Bucks/Generation Me
36. The Brothers of Destruction
35. The Outsiders
34. Money Inc.
33. The Sheepherders/Bushwhackers
32. The Kings of Wrestling
31. The Mega Powers
30. Strike Force
29. Jeri-Show
28. MNM
27. Los Guerreros
26. De-Generation X

Tomorrow, we will find out the teams who made the TOP 25

Clues to the next five tag teams

* 1990 & 1991 World's Strongest Tag Determination League winners

* A play on the nickname of their hometown

* A great tag team put together during a storyline that won the Gooker

* Be jealous

* Believe in them

[RI Richmark]

My list updated:

1. The Mega-Powers (31)

2.

3. The Brothers of Destruction (36)

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11. Jeri-Show (29)

12. Money Inc. (34)

13.

14. Steve Austin & Dude Love (54)

15.

16.

17. D-Generation X (Triple H & Shawn Michaels) (26)

18.

19.

20.

21. Rated RKO (67)

22. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith (60)

23. The Usos (72)

24. The Jumping Bomb Angels (75)

25. Los Guerreros (27)

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

25. Miracle Violence Connection

The team of Steve Williams and Terry Gordy was originally formed in All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1990 and quickly became a top tag team for the next several years. The two quickly found success when they defeated Genichiro Tenryu and Stan Hansen to win the AJPW Unified World Tag Team Championship on March 6, 1990.[1] Williams and Gordy would make one successful title defense against Hansen and Dan Spivey before losing the titles to Jumbo Tsuruta and the Great Kabuki on July 19, 1990. In the fall of 1990, The MVC entered the World's Strongest Tag Determination League and would win the tournament by finishing in first with 19 Points. By winning the tournament, they also won the vacated World Tag Team Championship.

The Connection would hold the titles for four months, making two successful title defenses against Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada & Jumbo Tsuruta and Akira Taue. The Connection's second title reign ended on April 18, 1991 at the Nippon Budokan to Stan Hansen and Dan Spivey. A few months later on July 6, Williams and Gordy rebounded by regaining the titles for the third time. The title reign wouldn't last, three weeks later on July 24, they lost the titles to Misawa and Kawada.

Williams and Gordy entered their second Tag League in the fall of 1991 and would proceed to win the tournament for the second time by finishing in first with 21 Points. Along with the Tag Tournament the MVC also won the vacated World Tag Team Titles for a fourth time. Four months later on March 4, 1992, they lost the titles to Jumbo Tsuruta and Akira Taue. For the remainder of 1992, Williams and Gordy attempted to regain the titles but failed to including a rematch with Tsuruta and Taue on October 7. The two also entered the 1992 World's Strongest Tag League but finished 2nd place with 17 Points.

On January 30, 1993, The Miracle Violence Connection won their fifth and final Unified World Tag Team Title by defeating Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada. After holding the titles for 4 Months, Williams and Gordy would lose the titles to the newly formed: Holy Demon Army (Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue). After failing to winning the titles on July 26, Williams and Gordy would team one last time on July 29, 1993 defeating Johnny Ace and Kendall Windham. After the match, Gordy left All Japan breaking the Miracle Violence Connection up.

In 1992, they went to World Championship Wrestling where they won the WCW World Tag Team Championship by defeating the Steiner Brothers in Atlanta, GA on July 5, 1992. One week later, they won the vacant NWA World Tag Team Championship by defeating Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham in a tournament final. They held onto both titles until September 2, 1992 when they lost them to Rhodes and Windham.

During their relatively brief stay in WCW, they had a feud with the Steiner Brothers which, in addition to being a major WCW feud, was also seen as a major feud by Japanese fans even though the two teams never faced each other in Japan (as in Japan they were employed by rival promotions). Despite advances by New Japan, Gordy and Williams, out of loyalty to Giant Baba, refused to compete for the rival promotion.

In October 1992, Gordy left WCW, before Halloween Havoc, while Williams left in December, after Starrcade.

After breaking up, Williams and Gordy would team up one more time in ECW where they lost to The Eliminators at High Incident on October 26, 1996.

After leaving All Japan, Gordy would wrestle in several promotions including the GWF, SMW, USWA, IWA Japan, & ECW. In GWF, Gordy was one-half of the last GWF Tag Team Champions with fellow Freebird Jimmy Garvin on June 3, 1994 until the promotion closed in September.[10] In SMW, Gordy had a brief reign with the SMW Heavyweight Championship winning the title from Brad Armstrong on October 20, 1995 and eventually lost the title back to Armstrong on November 23, 1995.

Gordy also took part in IWA Japan's King of the Deathmatch, making it to the quarter-finals before losing to Cactus Jack. In 1996, Gordy wrestled for ECW where he challenged Raven for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on June 22, 1996 and lost to Bam Bam Bigelow in the "Battle of the Bamm Bamms" on October 5, 1996.

Gordy signed with the WWF in October 1996 and became the Executioner who sided with Paul Bearer and Mankind in a feud with The Undertaker. Gordy wrestled and lost to the Undertaker at In Your House 12: It's Time in an Armageddon Match. After the loss, Gordy formed a team with Mankind for a few house shows in January 1997 where they challenged Owen Hart and The British Bulldog for the WWF Tag Team Championship before leaving the WWF and retiring.

Gordy would pass away on July 16, 2001 due to a heart attack. He was 40 years old.

Williams, meanwhile, would continue to work for All Japan for the next decade forming successful tag teams with Johnny Ace, Gary Albright, & Vader, winning the AJPW Unified World Tag Team Championship with each partner. He also won the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship on July 28, 1994 and held the title until October 22, 1994. He also reunited The Varsity Club with Mike Rotunda and the two won the 2000 World's Strongest Tag League. Williams eventually left All Japan in 2003.

Williams also had brief tenures in the WWF from 1998-1999 where he took part in the infamous Brawl For All and then with World Championship Wrestling in 1999.

Williams eventually started wrestling in the independent scene with OVW, MLW, & IWA Mid South.

In 2004, Williams was diagnosed with Throat Cancer, he would eventually get surgery and was declared cancer-free for five years until 2009 when his cancer returned. He eventually died on December 29, 2009. He was 49 years old.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

24. Motor City Machine Guns

Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin first started teaming in Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX in 2006. On August 25 they took the ZERO-1 MAX International Lightweight Tag Team Championship from Minoru Fujita and Ikuto Hidaka, holding them for almost two years before dropping them back to Fujita and his new partner Takuya Sugawara. After returning Stateside, the pair had short runs in the independent promotions Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Ring of Honor under the names Motor City Machine Guns and Murder City Machine Guns respectively until their main employer, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) requested their wrestlers stop taking bookings with certain independent companies.

It was not until April 2007 that the team debuted in TNA, where hence they had been singles X Division wrestlers. After showing brief teamwork while wrestling as opponents in an Xscape match at the annual Lockdown pay-per-view they became regulars in the tag team division, first using the Murder City name, before it was changed to Motor City. On an episode of TNA Today Shelley implied that this was against the team's wishes, saying that "Murder City" was the real name, and "Motor City" was the PG version. After being together for a few weeks in TNA, Kevin Nash—who already had a history with both men, and was also a Detroit native—was brought in as a manager, ending his previous alliances with Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt in the process, though his association with the group was short lived.

The team continued to work in independent promotions in parallel with their work in TNA, getting a run with the Illinois–based All American Wrestling's Tag Team Championship between September 2007 and January 2008. In October 2007 at Bound for Glory the team interfered in a tables match between Team 3D (Brothers Ray and Devon) and The Steiner Brothers (Scott and Rick), trying to prevent Team 3D from cheating and effectively helping the Steiners win the match. The following month at Genesis the Motor City Machine Guns surprised Team 3D and defeated them in a tag team match. Later in the event Ray and Devon, embarrassed by their loss, attacked the X Division Champion Jay Lethal and his number one contender Sonjay Dutt after their match and declared a war on the X Division as a whole, demanding that the entire X Division and all the members therein be disbanded and removed from TNA. The entire feud focused mainly upon Team 3D (including a new member in Johnny Devine, who was dubbed "Brother Devine") against the Machine Guns and Jay Lethal.

During the feud, Team 3D awarded the stolen X Division Championship to Devine, before Devine won the title outright. The two teams faced off in an Ultimate X match for the title at Final Resolution. Prior to the pay-per-view, it was claimed that Ray and Devon were too heavy to support themselves on the cables, so they "broke" Sabin and Shelley's fingers, making them unable to climb. Team 3D won this match by using a ladder to get Devon up to the title belt (which broke the "unwritten rule" of the match). At Against All Odds, Sabin, Shelley, and Lethal won a Street Fight with the existence of the X Division as a whole (excluding Devine) on the line. Sabin and Shelley were beaten off early in the match, essentially making it a handicap match of Team 3D against Lethal. As agreed in the pre–match stipulations, the win resulted in Lethal being given back the X Division title. And the members of Team 3D would not be allowed to compete in TNA as long as any member was a super heavyweight. Failure to meet the weight limit would result (as it frequently did) in one or more members of the team being disqualified. The stipulation also applied to Devine, although he did not have a televised match when it as in effect.

They were members of Team TNA alongside Kaz and Curry Man in the 2008 edition of the TNA World X Cup, but lost to Team Mexico at Victory Road. They then slipped into the role of tweeners, showing disrespect to Christian Cage, A.J. Styles, Consequences Creed, B.G. James and The Latin American Xchange however still being cheered heavily by the fans and showing respect for the fans.

On the October 30 episode of Impact!, The Machine Guns along with A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe, Jay Lethal, Consequences Creed, Petey Williams, Eric Young and ODB formed a faction of younger wrestlers called The TNA Front Line to oppose The Main Event Mafia.

At Turning Point, Shelley and Sabin received a shot at the TNA World Tag Team Championship, but were defeated by the champions Beer Money, Inc. (Robert Roode and James Storm), after their manager Jacqueline interfered in the match. Earlier in the evening they disrespected Mick Foley as he was addressing the TNA originals backstage. Despite this and other showings of disrespect, they remained fan favorites and a part of the team opposing the Main Event Mafia. However, they would turn heel months later attacking Lethal Consequences (Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed) after losing a tag team match to them. As part of their gimmick they were now described as "TNA Frontline members in name only". At Final Resolution, the Guns were attacked by the debuting Suicide

At Genesis, Shelley defeated Sabin in the finals of a tournament to become the new TNA X Division Champion. At Destination X, Shelley lost his X Division title to Suicide in an Ultimate X match that also involved Consequences Creed, Jay Lethal and Chris Sabin. The Guns and Lethal Consequences spent the next few months unsuccessfully trying to unmask Suicide, initially also claiming that he is Daniels.

On the August 6 episode of Impact!, Shelley and Sabin both turned face once again aligning themselves with Daniels against World Elite when an all out brawl broke out in the Impact! Zone. In September Shelley and Sabin began appearing as occasional commentators alongside Mike Tenay and Taz on Impact! broadcasts. At Bound for Glory the duo won the pre–show match against Lethal Consequences, and immediately afterwards competed in the Ultimate X match for the X Division Championship which was won by champion Amazing Red. On the following episode of Impact!, they won a tag team Ultimate X match against Lethal Consequences when Sabin retrieved the X, to become #1 contenders for the TNA World Tag Team Championships and challenged the champions British Invasion (Doug Williams and Brutus Magnus) at Turning Point. On the November 12 episode of Impact! Beer Money, Inc. defeated the British Invasion in a non–title match to join the Motor City Machine Guns in the Tag Team Title match at Turning Point. At the pay-per-view The British Invasion defeated Shelley and Sabin and Beer Money, Inc. in a three–way match to retain the TNA Tag Team Titles. The following month at Final Resolution the British Invasion defeated Shelley and Sabin to once again retain their titles. At Destination X the Machine Guns defeated Generation Me (Jeremy Buck and Max Buck) in an Ultimate X match to earn another shot at the TNA World Tag Team Championship. Shelley and Sabin received their title shot on the April 12 episode of Impact!, but were defeated by World Tag Team Champion Matt Morgan and Amazing Red, who replaced the injured Hernandez in the match.

The following month at Sacrifice the Motor City Machine Guns defeated Beer Money, Inc. and Team 3D in a three–way match to earn another shot at the Tag Team Championship. On July 11 at Victory Road the Motor City Machine Guns defeated Beer Money, Inc. to win the vacant TNA World Tag Team Championship for the first time. After Victory Road the Motor City Machine Guns entered a Best of Five Series with Beer Money, Inc., contested for the TNA World Tag Team Championship. Beer Money won the first two matches, a ladder match and a Street Fight, after knocking their opponents out with beer bottles. However, Shelley and Sabin came back to win the two following matches, a steel cage match and an Ultimate X match, to even the score to 2–2 and set up a deciding match for the August 12 episode of Impact!. On the August 12 episode of Impact! the Motor City Machine Guns defeated Beer Money, Inc. in a Two Out of Three Falls match to win the Best of Five Series and retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship. The following month at No Surrender, the Motor City Machine Guns retained their titles in a match against Generation Me. After the match Generation Me turned heel by attacking the Machine Guns and injuring Shelley. On the following episode of Impact! Generation Me laid claim to the TNA World Tag Team Championship, claiming that the champions wouldn't be able to defend them for 30 days, due to Shelley's injury, before stealing Sabin's title belt. Shelley would however make his return two weeks later and promised Generation Me a rematch for the World Tag Team Championship at Bound for Glory. At the pay–per–view the Motor City Machine Guns defeated Generation Me to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship. Also at Bound for Glory, Team 3D announced their retirement from professional wrestling, but requested one final match against the Motor City Machine Guns, whom they called the best tag team in wrestling. The Motor City Machine Guns accepted and the match took place on November 7, 2010, at Turning Point, where they defeated Team 3D to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship. After Jeremy Buck pinned Sabin in an eight person tag team match, where the Motor City Machine Guns teamed with Jay Lethal and Velvet Sky and Generation Me with Robbie E and Cookie, on the November 18 episode of Impact!, the Motor City Machine Guns challenged Generation Me to an Empty Arena match. The match took place later that same night on Reaction with the Motor City Machine Guns coming out victorious. On December 5 at Final Resolution the Motor City Machine Guns defeated Generation Me in a Full Metal Mayhem match to retain the World Tag Team Championship. The following month at Genesis the Motor City Machine Guns lost the TNA World Tag Team Championship to Beer Money, Inc., after Roode rolled up Sabin, following a miscommunication between the Machine Guns, ending their reign at 182 days, two days short of the longest reign in the title's history.

The Motor City Machine Guns received their rematch for the title on the January 13 episode of Impact!, but lost again due to a miscommunication. For the next three months, the Motor City Machine Guns went inactive, as Shelley suffered a collarbone injury and Sabin returned to the X Division. On the April 28 episode of Impact!, Shelley made his return, saving Sabin from a beatdown at the hands of Mexican America (Anarquia and Hernandez). Ironically, the same day Shelley made his return, Sabin suffered a knee injury in his match with Anarquia, who was out of position causing Sabin to tear both his ACL and MCL. Later that same week, Sabin underwent knee surgery, which would sideline him for the rest of the year.

On March 18, 2012, at Victory Road, TNA aired a video, promoting the upcoming return of the Motor City Machine Guns. The Motor City Machine Guns returned on the April 5 episode of Impact Wrestling, defeating Mexican America in a tag team match, before announcing their intention of going for the TNA World Tag Team Championship, held by Magnus and Samoa Joe. On April 15 at Lockdown, The Motor City Machine Guns unsuccessfully challenged Magnus and Joe for the TNA World Tag Team Championship in a steel cage match. During the next month, The Motor City Machine Guns did not make another appearance on Impact Wrestling, instead wrestling exclusively on TNA house shows. On May 21, it was reported that Shelley had chosen not to renew his contract with TNA, instead leaving the promotion and disbanding the Motor City Machine Guns.

On March 30, 2007, in their hometown of Detroit, Shelley and Sabin made their ROH debut as a team under the name The Murder City Machine Guns by challenging and then attacking Jay Briscoe after he and his brother Mark, who had injured himself during the match, had won back the ROH World Tag Team Championship from Naruki Doi and Shingo. On April 28 in Chicago, IL, at Good Times, Great Memories the Briscoe Brothers successfully defended their tag team titles against Shelley and Sabin. After the event TNA pulled all of their wrestlers from any upcoming ROH shows.

In April 2008 Shelley and Sabin returned to Ring of Honor, losing to the Age of the Fall (Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs) and defeating the Briscoe Brothers on the 18th and 19th respectively.

They returned to Ring of Honor in August 2008. On August 1 in Manassas, VA they fought Austin Aries and Bryan Danielson to a 20 minute time limit draw and then a 5 minute overtime draw. The next day in New York City they were defeated by Kevin Steen and El Generico when Steen forced Sabin to submit to the Sharpshooter. The team was scheduled to return to ROH on October 24 and 25, but were pulled from the events by TNA and replaced by the Latin American Xchange.

On February 13, 2010, Ring of Honor announced at their 8th Anniversary Show that the Motor City Machine Guns would return to the company on May 8 in New York City. On May 8 the Motor City Machine Guns were defeated by the ROH World Tag Team Champions Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) via disqualification, when the Briscoe Brothers interfered in the match.

On January 4, 2009, Sabin and Shelley defeated No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro) at New Japan Pro Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom III in Tokyo Dome to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. They followed in the footsteps of American Dragon and Curry Man as the only other gaijin team to win those titles. After three successful title defenses, two of which took place in TNA, Shelley and Sabin lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title to Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) on July 5, 2009, at New Japan Pro Wrestling's Circuit 2009 New Japan Soul. On November 8, 2010, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that the Motor City Machine Guns would be returning to the promotion the following month, competing at events on December 11 and 12. On December 11 the Motor City Machine Guns were defeated by No Limit in their New Japan return match. The following day they defeated Apollo 55 in the fourth ever match between the two teams.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

23. The Shield

The group debuted on 18 November 2012 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, when the debuting Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns, interfered in the main event, a triple threat match between CM Punk, John Cena, and Ryback for the WWE Championship. They powerbombed Ryback through the announcers' table, allowing Punk to pin Cena to win the match and retain his title. The next night on Raw, the group identified themselves as the "The Shield" and vowed to rally against injustice. Despite claiming that they were not working for CM Punk or Paul Heyman, over the next few weeks, on both Raw and SmackDown, they would routinely emerge from the crowd to attack Punk's adversaries such as Ryback, The Miz, and WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan). They also attacked Randy Orton after he defeated Brad Maddox; Maddox was the referee who helped Punk defeat Ryback during their Hell in a Cell match for the WWE Championship. This led to their debut match at the TLC pay-per-view, where they faced Ryback and Team Hell No in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match and emerged victorious.

After TLC, despite continuing to attack Punk's and Maddox's adversaries such as Ric Flair, Brodus Clay, and Sheamus, the Shield soon expanded their ambushes to other wrestlers, such as Mick Foley, Tommy Dreamer and Ricardo Rodriguez. The Shield's attacks were also used to write off wrestlers from television via injury angles, such as Randy Orton and Sin Cara, who were already suffering from legitimate injuries.

During the 2 January 2013 NXT, which was taped on 6 December 2012, the Shield made their first appearance in NXT, though Rollins and Reigns had already wrestled there before and Rollins was the inaugural NXT Champion. Rollins defended his title against Corey Graves; as Graves was about to win the match, Ambrose and Reigns attacked him to cause a disqualification so that Rollins retained his title. The Shield then fended off the entire NXT locker room but retreated from Big E Langston. On the 9 January NXT taped on the same date as the previous episode, Rollins faced Langston in a no disqualification title match. The NXT locker room neutralized the other Shield members, and Langston defeated Rollins to win the title.

On the 7 January Raw, the Shield once again aided CM Punk by attacking Ryback during their Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for the WWE Championship, which resulted in Punk retaining his title.[17] On 21 January, during the last Raw before the 2013 Royal Rumble, the Shield triple-powerbombed The Rock, Punk's WWE Championship contender at the event, resulting in Vince McMahon declaring that their interference in the title match would result in Punk being stripped of the title. Four days later on SmackDown, Punk denied an alliance with the Shield before calling them out and informing them that he did not want them to interfere in his upcoming title match. However, during Punk's title match at the Royal Rumble, a blackout occurred and The Rock was attacked by the Shield in the darkness and when the lights came back on The Rock had been put through the announce table leading to Punk pinning The Rock and retaining his title. The match was later restarted by McMahon with The Rock winning the WWE Championship. The following night on Raw, it was revealed through footage played by Vince McMahon that Punk's manager Paul Heyman had been paying the Shield and Brad Maddox to work for him all along.

Also on the January 28, 2013 Raw, the Shield attacked John Cena; Sheamus and Ryback were also beaten down when they attempted to save Cena. The next week on Raw, while calling out the Shield, Maddox revealed that he was the one who had given McMahon the footage showing that they were working for Heyman. The Shield then attacked Maddox, but were forced to retreat due to an attack by Cena, Ryback, and Sheamus. The Shield justified their attacks due to a "decade of injustice" caused by Cena creating an environment where any wrestler would not face consequences for his actions, and whose mentality they felt had spread to other wrestlers like Ryback and Sheamus. This set up a six-man tag team match on 17 February at Elimination Chamber, which the Shield won. The Shield had their first Raw match the following night, when they defeated the team of Ryback, Sheamus, and Chris Jericho.

Sheamus then formed an alliance with Randy Orton to battle the Shield. On the 1 March SmackDown, while attacking Orton during his match with Big Show, the Shield inadvertently provoked Show into attacking them;[28] the Shield thus started a feud with Show as well. On the 11 March Raw, the Shield's first singles match occurred when Rollins faced Show; Show won via disqualification as Ambrose and Reigns interfered and beat him down. Despite twice helping Orton and Sheamus to fend off the Shield, Show on both occasions turned on the duo immediately afterwards. The Shield then challenged Orton and Sheamus to find a partner and have a match with them at WrestleMania 29. Show volunteered, but Orton and Sheamus chose Ryback as their partner. Meanwhile, Mark Henry's distraction of Ryback resulted in the Shield conducting a successful assault on Ryback, resulting in Ryback being inserted into a WrestleMania match against Henry. Without a partner, Orton and Sheamus eventually accepted Show's offer to take on a common enemy despite their mistrust of him. On 7 April at WrestleMania 29, the Shield took advantage of their opponents' inability to work together to win in their WrestleMania debut.

The following night on the April 8 episode of Raw, the group attempted to attack The Undertaker, but were ultimately forced to retreat by Team Hell No. On the 22 April Raw, the Shield faced and defeated the combination of The Brothers of Destruction and Team Hell No (Undertaker, Kane and Bryan). Four days later on SmackDown, Ambrose made his singles debut against Undertaker, but lost via submission; after the match, the Shield attacked Undertaker and triple-powerbombed him through the announcer's table. Three days later on Raw, the Shield defeated Team Hell No and WWE Champion John Cena in a six-man tag team match with Reigns pinning Cena for the win. Ambrose then started a feud with WWE United States Champion Kofi Kingston after pinning him in a six-man tag team match also involving the Usos. On the 13 May Raw, The Shield's undefeated streak in televised six man tag team matches ended in a disqualification loss in an elimination match against Cena, Kane and Bryan. With Kane and Bryan eliminated, Cena pinned Rollins and then Reigns was disqualified. Ambrose was disqualified when Reigns and Rollins attacked Cena.

On 19 May at Extreme Rules, Ambrose defeated Kofi Kingston to become the new United States Champion. Later that night, Rollins and Reigns defeated Team Hell No to become the WWE Tag Team Champions. Ambrose faced Kingston on the 24 May SmackDown in a rematch for the title, and retained when Reigns and Rollins interfered causing a disqualification. Ambrose defeated Kingston in yet another rematch for the title three days later on Raw. That same night, Rollins and Reigns retained their tag titles in a rematch for the titles against Team Hell No. On the 14 June SmackDown, the Shield's unpinned/unsubmitted streak in televised six-man tag team matches came to an end at the hands of Team Hell No and Randy Orton, when Daniel Bryan submitted Rollins. Three days later at WWE Payback, Ambrose defeated Kane via count-out to retain the United States Championship while Reigns and Rollins defeated Bryan and Orton to retain their tag team titles. The following night on Raw, Ambrose had a title rematch against Kane and once again retained after Reigns and Rollins interfered and Ambrose was disqualified.

After the Shield attacked Christian and the Usos became the number one contender to the WWE Tag Team Championships, the Shield were defeated by them in a six-man tag match on the 28 June SmackDown. On 14 July, during the Money in the Bank pre-show, Reigns and Rollins defeated the Usos to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. Later on in the pay-per-view, they interfered in Ambrose's World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match, but the Usos in turn attacked Reigns and Rollins and Ambrose failed to win the match. The Shield then began a feud with Mark Henry,[58] defeating Henry and the Usos in two six-man tag team matches, but losing to the team of Henry, Big Show and Rob Van Dam. Ambrose retained his championship via disqualification against Van Dam at the SummerSlam kickoff show.

The following night on the 19 August Raw, the Shield began working for chief operating officer Triple H. They would aid WWE Champion and "the face of the WWE" Randy Orton against his number one contender, Daniel Bryan, while also attacking wrestlers like Big Show and Dolph Ziggler for speaking out against Triple H's regime. At Night of Champions, the Shield enjoyed successful title defenses when Ambrose defeated Ziggler while Reigns and Rollins defeated the Prime Time Players.[65] At WWE Battleground, a fired Cody Rhodes and Goldust earned their jobs back by beating Rollins and Reigns in a non-title match. On the 14 October Raw, Rollins and Reigns faced the Rhodes brothers again with the tag titles on the line in a no disqualification match; the Shield lost the tag titles after an attack by Big Show. Two days later on Main Event, Ambrose successfully retained his title against Ziggler.

The first seeds of dissension were sown in the Shield with Ambrose's boasting of being the only member left with a championship, but from then on Ambrose was frequently pinned during The Shield's matches. At Survivor Series, the Shield teamed with The Real Americans (Jack Swagger and Antonio Cesaro) to beat the team of Rey Mysterio, the Rhodes brothers and the Usos; Ambrose was the first man eliminated, Rollins (with one elimination) was the fourth man eliminated for his team and Reigns was the Sole Survivor after eliminating four opponents.

Next, CM Punk's criticism of Triple H earned him an attack by the Shield, but Punk tasted revenge at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs when he overcame the Shield in a handicap match after Ambrose received a Reigns spear aimed for Punk. Going into 2014, Punk's taunts increased tension between the Shield members, and Reigns emerged as the only Shield member to defeat Punk in a singles match, albeit with Ambrose's interference. All three members of the Shield competed in the 2014 Royal Rumble match. Late in the match, Ambrose tried to eliminate Reigns, who retaliated by eliminating both Ambrose and Rollins. Reigns eventually finished as runner-up in the match while setting a new record for most eliminations in a single Rumble with 12; Ambrose and Rollins scored three eliminations each, and Rollins spent the second longest amount of time in the match.

On the next Raw on 27 January 2014, the Shield faced Daniel Bryan, Sheamus and John Cena for the chance to enter the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, and were denied that opportunity when the Wyatt Family attacked their opponents, causing the Shield to lose via disqualification. The Shield vowed revenge, so a match was set up between them and the Wyatt Family at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. On the 10 February episode of Raw, Ambrose's open challenge for his title was answered by Mark Henry, in which Ambrose only retained his title upon disqualification due to the Shield's interference; Reigns continued his tension with Ambrose by defeating Henry without interference on the next Raw. With both the Shield and the Wyatt Family being heel (villainous) teams, WWE positioned the Shield as the team the audience should root for when the Shield was willing to engage in a confrontation with the Wyatt Family, which retreated instead. At the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, the Shield lost to the Wyatt Family; during the match, Ambrose and Bray Wyatt brawled into the crowd, but Wyatt returned to the ring with no sign of Ambrose, which caused Rollins and Reigns to be outnumbered and overwhelmed. On the March 3 Raw, the Shield lost a rematch with the Wyatt Family when the Shield's poor teamwork led to Rollins walking out during the match; Rollins claimed that he had enough of being the glue holding the group together.

On the March 7 SmackDown, the members of the Shield met in the ring to clear the air on their disharmony. Rollins said that his actions achieved his purpose of getting Ambrose and Reigns to finally see eye-to-eye. After Ambrose and Rollins hit each other, the trio reconciled.

The Shield's next feud was against Kane, who was now acting as 'Director of Operations' for the Authority. Kane had ordered the Shield to attack commentator Jerry Lawler on the March 17 episode of Raw, however the Shield attacked Kane instead, thus turning face (assuming heroic characters). In retaliation, Kane and the New Age Outlaws attacked the Shield on the March 21 episode of SmackDown while the group was already being double-teamed by RybAxel (Ryback and Curtis Axel) and the Real Americans after an inconclusive fatal-four-way match meant to determine the contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship. This set up a match pitting the Shield against Kane and the Outlaws at WrestleMania XXX, which the Shield won quickly and decisively.

The next night on the post-WrestleMania Raw, Kane inadvertently revealed that Triple H masterminded the attack on the Shield on the previous month's SmackDown. As a result, when Triple H faced WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan in a title match after Bryan was attacked by Kane, Randy Orton and Batista, the Shield interrupted the match to turn on Triple H, chasing the other wrestlers away to protect Bryan. On the April 8 episode of Main Event, The Shield finally defeated The Wyatt Family in a six man tag team match. Three days later, The Shield would again save Bryan from Kane, Randy Orton, and Batista, by giving a triple powerbomb to Kane.

On the April 14 episode of Raw, after they had ambushed Batista and Randy Orton earlier in the night, the Shield were forced to face 11 other wrestlers in a 11-on-3 handicap match, which ended in a no-contest after descending into a brawl in which the Shield members were outnumbered and beaten down by their opponents. They were then further attacked by Triple H, Orton and Batista, who reformed the group Evolution.[94] Four days later on SmackDown, Triple H would announce that The Shield would be competing in a six-man tag team match against Evolution at Extreme Rules. In retaliation, The Shield would assault Jack Swagger, 3MB, Fandango, Curtis Axel, and even Raw General Manager Brad Maddox before winning a 5-on-3 handicap match against Ryback, Bad News Barrett, Titus O'Neil, Damien Sandow and Alberto Del Rio a week later on SmackDown. It was initially supposed to be another 11 on 3 match, but the Shield had attacked their opponents throughout the show to whittle down the opposition. The Shield would go on to defeat Evolution at Extreme Rules. The next night on Raw, Triple H would force Ambrose to defend his United States Championship against 19 other wrestlers in a 20-man battle royal, which Ambrose was eliminated last by Sheamus, ending Ambrose's WWE record reign at 351 days. Triple H would then book The Shield to compete in a six-man tag team match against The Wyatt Family, which the group lost with a distraction by Evolution, who proceeded to assault the Shield.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

22. John Morrison & The Miz

Before they formed a partnership, John Morrison and The Miz were opponents, competing for the ECW Championship in October. On the November 16, 2007 episode of SmackDown!, then-rivals Morrison and The Miz were paired together to face Matt Hardy and Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) in a match for the WWE Tag Team Championship, which they subsequently won after MVP turned on Hardy. After winning the title, Morrison and The Miz brought the title to the ECW brand. Soon after winning the WWE Tag Team Championship, the two were no longer portrayed as enemies, but rather as trusting friends. They would defend the title on numerous occasions on both ECW and SmackDown as well as multiple pay-per-views against opponents like Shannon Moore and Jimmy Wang Yang, Jesse and Festus, and Tommy Dreamer and Colin Delaney. The team's gimmick was further expanded upon when they were given a show on WWE.com called The Dirt Sheet. During the sixth annual WWE Draft on June 23, 2008, on Monday Night Raw, the duo defeated the Hardys (Matt and Jeff) which earned ECW its only draft pick, which turned out to be Matt Hardy. At the Great American Bash in July, Morrison and The Miz lost the title in a four team tag match to Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder; however, neither The Miz nor Morrison were pinned during the match.

After losing the tag team titles, Morrison and The Miz entered a feud with ECW newcomers Evan Bourne and Ricky Ortiz, who they had previously mocked (and continued to do so) on the Dirt Sheet. They also had an Internet-centered feud with Raw's Cryme Tyme (Shad Gaspard and JTG) based on which WWE.com online show was better: the Dirt Sheet or Cryme Tyme's Word Up. Morrison and The Miz won a match between the two teams at Cyber Sunday, which was voted for by fans over a World Tag Team Championship match.

Throughout October, the team mocked D-Generation X (DX) (Triple H and Shawn Michaels), using phrases such as "Are you 50?" instead of DX's usual catchphrase "Are you Ready?" to mock their ages due to DX being formed in 1997, when both Morrison and Miz were in high school. On the October 28 episode of ECW, their feud with DX continued as they mocked them after a live Dirt Sheet and then proceeded to attack two impostors playing Michaels and Triple H. On the 800th episode celebration of Raw, Morrison and The Miz competed in a match against DX, and were defeated. During the match, they mocked DX's signature moves, with Morrison successfully performing a superkick (mocking Michaels' Sweet Chin Music) on Triple H as well as The Miz attempting a Pedigree on Triple H. Following their feud with DX, they continued to feud with Cryme Tyme. Morrison and The Miz were part of John "Bradshaw" Layfield's team at the annual Survivor Series but they lost to the team of Shawn Michaels.

On the December 8 episode of Raw, Morrison and The Miz won the 2008 Slammy Award for Tag Team of the Year and also for the Best WWE.com exclusive, for their show, The Dirt Sheet. On December 13, at a house show in Hamilton, Ontario, Morrison and The Miz won the World Tag Team Championship for the first time, defeating Kofi Kingston and CM Punk. In a dark match at WrestleMania XXV, Morrison and the Miz lost the World Tag Team title to The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) in a Lumberjack match to unify the World Tag Team and the WWE Tag Team Championships. On the April 13 episode of Raw, The Miz lost a match to Kofi Kingston after Morrison accidentally got Miz disqualified, which gave Raw a draft pick in the 2009 WWE Draft. The pick was then revealed to be The Miz, and he subsequently attacked Morrison, ending their partnership. Which, turned Morrison face Two days later on April 15, Morrison was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft.

In October 2009, WWE premiered a new pay-per-view event based around inter-brand matches. At the time, The Miz was the second-tier champion on Raw after winning the United States Champion and was subsequently booked against SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion, John Morrison. In the build up to their first match since splitting, the two hosted a one-off edition of The Dirt Sheet on the October 16 episode of SmackDown where the two compared themselves to '80s tag team The Rockers, debating over which is more comparable to the successful Shawn Michaels and which was the less successful Marty Jannetty. At Bragging Rights, Miz pinned Morrison to become the only member of the Raw roster to win an interpromotional match. The following month at Survivor Series, Miz captained a team of five wrestlers against Team Morrison in a five-on-five Survivor Series elimination match and once again bested his former partner. At the Tribute to the Troops in December, Miz rolled up Morrison for the win in a singles match. The two had another match the following March, when John Morrison and his new partner R-Truth challenged for the Unified Tag Team Championships held by The Miz and the Big Show. Morrison was finally able to defeat The Miz in a singles match, however Morrison could not pick up the victory for the titles at WrestleMania XXVI.Miz and Morrison briefly united at Bragging Rights (2010) in Team Raw to a losing effort to Team Smackdown. Miz defeated Morrison in a singles match on the second season of NXT.

Soon after, Miz continued his ascendency and won the WWE Championship. On the January 3, 2011 episode of Raw Miz retained his title in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Morrison had a further chance to win the title at April's Extreme Rules, in a Triple Threat Steel Cage Match but John Cena was triumphant. Later that year in November, Miz and Morrison had one final Falls Count Anywhere match during which Miz was scripted to give Morrison a severe injury which was used to write Morrison off WWE television as his contract had expired.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

21. Bad Influence

Christopher Daniels and Kazarian were first united in TNA as members of the stable Fortune in 2011. Kazarian had been one of the first two founding members of Fortune alongside A.J. Styles from the group's formation in 2010, while Daniels would make his second return to TNA to join Fortune in their feud against Immortal after Styles was injured heading into the 2011 Lockdown pay-per-view. After Lockdown went by with Fortune defeating Immortal in the Lethal Lockdown main event, Daniels was confirmed as a member of Fortune, and he and Kazarian, who was X-Division Champion at the time and would lose it about a month later, would continue on in that capacity for the next few months. This would lead up to Destination X on July 10, TNA's first ever all X Division pay-per-view, where Kazarian would defeat Samoa Joe while Daniels would face Styles in the main event, with Styles emerging victorious. For weeks after this, Daniels would begin talking to Styles on an unknown matter for a number of weeks, heading into Hardcore Justice, where A.J., Daniels, and Kazarian would defeat three members of Immortal in a tag match.

Soon after this, it was revealed that Daniels wanted a rematch of their Destination X encounter, which Styles finally granted on the September 1 episode of Impact Wrestling, where Daniels managed to pick up the win. After the match, however, Daniels refused to shake hands with Styles. On the September 22 episode of Impact Wrestling, Daniels refused to return the favor and give Styles a rematch, which eventually led to a brawl between the two. When the two were finally separated from each other by Kazarian, Daniels kicked Styles in the groin, completing his heel turn and leaving Fortune. Two weeks later it was announced that, at Daniels' request, he and Styles would face each other at Bound for Glory in an "I Quit" match. On October 16 at Bound for Glory, Daniels submitted in the "I Quit" match after being threatened with a screwdriver, but continued the feud by attacking Styles after the match. On the October 27 episode of Impact Wrestling, Daniels entered a feud with Rob Van Dam after hitting him with a toolbox during a match between the two and thus losing via disqualification. This feud would involve Van Dam stopping Daniels from using a screwdriver in a match against Styles on the November 10 episode of Impact Wrestling, as well as two straight pay-per-view losses to Van Dam on November 13 at Turning Point and on December 11 at Final Resolution.

Daniels then returned to his rivalry with A.J. Styles, managing to convince Kazarian to turn on him on the January 5, 2012 episode of Impact Wrestling, effectively putting the nail in the coffin of the now defunct Fortune. On the February 9 episode of Impact Wrestling, Daniels defeated Styles in a singles match with help from Kazarian, who was now showing signs that Daniels was holding something over his head and had forced him to turn on Styles against his will. On March 18 at Victory Road, Daniels and Kazarian were defeated in a tag team match by Styles and Mr. Anderson. The rivalry continued on April 15 at Lockdown, where the two duos were on opposing teams in the annual Lethal Lockdown match. Styles' and Anderson's team, led by Garett Bischoff, ended up defeating Daniels' and Kazarian's team, led by Eric Bischoff.

During Styles' absence from Impact Wrestling, Daniels and Kazarian set their sights on the TNA World Tag Team Championship, attacking champions Magnus and Samoa Joe on the April 26 episode. On the May 10 episode of Impact Wrestling, Kazarian revealed that he originally aligned himself with Daniels to keep him from revealing Styles' secret, but changed his mind after learning what the secret was. Daniels then revealed the secret, a series of photographs insinuating a relationship between Styles and TNA president Dixie Carter. Three days later at Sacrifice, Daniels and Kazarian defeated Magnus and Samoa Joe to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship for the first time. Later in the event, Daniels and Kazarian cost A.J. Styles his match with Kurt Angle, who afterwards turned on the two, saving Styles from a beatdown. On May 31, Daniels main evented a live episode of Impact Wrestling, losing to A.J. Styles in a singles grudge match. After the match, Daniels and Kazarian attacked both Styles and Angle, who attempted to make the save, before rolling an audio of a phone conversation to prove an affair between Styles and Carter. The tape was abruptly cut short by Carter ending the show. On June 10 at Slammiversary, Daniels and Kazarian lost the TNA World Tag Team Championship to Styles and Angle.

On the following episode of Impact Wrestling, Daniels entered the 2012 Bound for Glory Series, taking part in the opening gauntlet match, from which he eliminated both Styles and Angle, before being eliminated himself by James Storm. On the June 21 episode of Impact Wrestling, Styles and Carter proved that Daniels and Kazarian had been lying about their relationship by producing a pregnant woman named Claire Lynch, whom they had been helping overcome her addictions. The following week, Kazarian teased dissension with Daniels, claiming that he had been lied to. However, in the main event of the evening, Kazarian revealed that he was still on Daniels' side, when the two defeated Styles and Angle, after Kazarian hit Styles with a steel chair, to regain the TNA World Tag Team Championship. Following the win, Daniels admitted that Styles and Carter had told the truth about Claire, but claimed that they had left out the part about Styles being the father of her unborn baby. On July 8 at Destination X, Daniels was defeated by Styles in a Last Man Standing match. On the August 8 episode of Impact Wrestling, Daniels and Kazarian, billing themselves as "The World Tag Team Champions of the World", made their first televised defense of the TNA World Tag Team Championship, defeating Devon and Garett Bischoff. Daniels' participation in the 2012 Bound for Glory Series ended on the following episode of Impact Wrestling with a loss against A.J. Styles, leaving him outside a spot in the semifinals. As a result of the win, Styles also earned a paternity test, which revealed that Claire was not pregnant at all. The storyline ended with Claire, through her attorney, revealing Daniels' and Kazarian's plot to blackmail Styles with her fake pregnancy. On September 6 as part of the first "Championship Thursday", Daniels and Kazarian successfully defended the TNA World Tag Team Championship against Chavo Guerrero, Jr. and Hernandez. Three days later at No Surrender, Daniels and Kazarian made another successful title defense against previous champions, A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle. On October 14 at Bound for Glory, Daniels and Kazarian lost the TNA World Tag Team Championship to Chavo Guerrero, Jr. and Hernandez in a three-way match, which also included A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle. Daniels and Kazarian received their rematch on November 11 at Turning Point, but were again defeated by Guerrero and Hernandez. On December 9 at Final Resolution, Daniels defeated A.J. Styles in what was billed as their "final match", after hitting Styles with his own Styles Clash finisher.

Daniels and Kazarian then dubbed their tag team Bad Influence and began a rivalry with James Storm after he defeated Kazarian at Final Resolution, and again on the January 3, 2013 episode of Impact Wrestling. On January 13 at Genesis, Daniels defeated Storm in a number one contenders match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Daniels received his title shot on the January 24 episode of Impact Wrestling, but was defeated by defending champion Jeff Hardy. On March 10 at Lockdown, Bad Influence unsuccessfully challenged Austin Aries and Bobby Roode for the TNA World Tag Team Championship in a three-way match, also involving Chavo Guerrero, Jr. and Hernandez. In April, Daniels and Kazarian began teasing a Fortune reunion to battle the Aces & Eights stable, however, this plan was foiled by A.J. Styles and Bobby Roode both turning down offers to join them. Bad Influence faced Austin Aries and Bobby Roode in a number one contenders match on the May 9 episode of Impact Wrestling, however, the match ended in a no contest after special guest referee James Storm superkicked Daniels and Aries and walked out on the match. On June 2 at Slammiversary XI, Bad Influence failed to capture the TNA World Tag Team Championship from Chavo Guerrero, Jr. and Hernandez in an fatal four-way elimination match, which also included Austin Aries and Bobby Roode and was won by Gunner and James Storm. On the June 13 episode of Impact Wrestling, Daniels and Kazarian defeated Gunner and Storm in a non-title match to qualify for the 2013 Bound for Glory Series. While Daniels started off the series with seven points with pinfall victory over Hernandez, Kazarian would go on to lose all of his beginning matches. On the July 11 episode of Impact Wrestling, Kazarian and Bobby Roode defeated Daniels and Austin Aries in a tag team match, with Kazarian pinning his Bad Influence partner for the win, to qualify for the BFG series gauntlet match later in the evening. During the match, however, Kazarian was the first man eliminated by A.J. Styles.

On the August 8 episode of Impact Wrestling, Daniels and Kazarian faced off in a BFG series match, but despite teasing tension earlier in the night, got themselves intentionally counted out to each gain two points in the tournament. Afterwards, Daniels and Kazarian allied themselves with Bobby Roode to form a new force, intended for one of the three to win the Bound for Glory series. With each other's help, both Kazarian and Roode picked up twenty points each in the BFG series on August 15 at Impact Wrestling: Hardcore Justice, with Kazarian winning a four-way ladder match and Roode winning a four-way tables match. The following week, the trio labelled themselves the Extraordinary Gentlemen's Organization (EGO) and Roode and Kazarian went on to defeat TNA World Tag Team Champions Gunner and James Storm in a non-title match. EGO would also try to recruit Roode's former tag team partner Austin Aries but Aries answered their offer by attacking Daniels and costing him his BFG series match. At TNA No Surrender 2013, Roode was defeated by Magnus & later, EGO interfered and attcked both Styles & Magnus in the finals. at the next edition, EGO defeated Mafia. Now, the trio team up very rarely because Kazarian and Daniels are in a different storyline with Eric Young and Abyss while Bobby Roode is in the TNA World Title Tournament. At TNA Turning Point, Bobby Roode defeated longtime rival James Storm in a Florida Death Match to advance in TNA World Title Tournament while Kaz & Daniels insulted Abyss's brother Joseph Park.

At Bound for Glory, Bad Influence were defeated by Eric Young and Joseph Park in a Gauntlet match. After being eliminated, both attacked Park and made him bleed. The same night, Abyss appeared and attacked Bad Influence. Over the following weeks, Bad Influence mocked Park and tried to reveal his true identity. On December 5, 2013, Bad Influence revealed Park's Law Firm was closed 13 years ago. On December 12, 2013, Bad Influence were defeated by Park and Eric Young when Young made Park bleed. On December 26, 2013, Bad Influence were defeated again by Park in a Monster's Ball match. On March 2, 2014, Bad Influence were part of a group of TNA wrestlers that took part in Wrestle-1's Kaisen: Outbreak event in Tokyo, Japan, defeating Junior Stars (Koji Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka) in a tag team match. On March 9, 2014 at TNA Lockdown, Bad Influence along with Chris Sabin were defeated by Wrestle-1's The Great Muta, Sanada, and Yasu in a six-man interpromotional tag team steel cage match. On April 12, 2014, at TNA One Night Only's X-Travaganza 2 event Bad Influence were defeated by The Wolves (Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards) in the EC3 Invitational Ladder match where the winners received $25,000. This was Daniels' last TNA appearance, as he announced his departure from TNA on April 23. Kazarian also left TNA following May 10.

On April 5, 2014, Kazarian and Daniels returned to the independent circuit at Dragon Gate USA's Mercury Rising in a Dark Main Event defeating the Open The United Gate Champions The Bravado Brothers. The same day they defeated OI4K at the CZW WrestleCon. Bad Influence are scheduled to face Team 3D on June 7, 2014 at House of Hardcore 5 and The Young Bucks on June 14, 2014 at House of Hardcore 6.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

Countdown so far
75. The Jumping Bomb Angels
74. The Powers of Pain
73. Kane & X-Pac
72. The Usos
71. The Nasty Boys
70. The Second City Saints
69. The Gangstas
68. The Fabulous Rougeaus
67. Rated RKO
66. The Eliminators
65. The Spirit Squad
64. Booker T & Goldust
63. The Von Erichs
62. The Quebecers
61. Candice LeRae & Joey Ryan
60. Owen Hart & British Bulldog
59. The Super Smash Brothers
58. The Foreign Legion
57. The Dancing Fools
56. Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood
55. The Briscoe Brothers
54. Stone Cold Steve Austin & Dude Love
53. The Briscos
52. The Fabulous Ones
51. The Age of the Fall
50. Minnesota Wrecking Crew
49. AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels
48. reDRagon
47. Latin American Xchange
46. Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel
45. Doom
44. America's Most Wanted
43. Kevin Steen & El Generico
42. Rob Van Dam & Sabu
41. Brian Kendrick & Paul London
40. Generation Next
39. Cho-Ten
38. The Hollywood Blonds
37. The Young Bucks/Generation Me
36. The Brothers of Destruction
35. The Outsiders
34. Money Inc.
33. The Sheepherders/Bushwhackers
32. The Kings of Wrestling
31. The Mega Powers
30. Strike Force
29. Jeri-Show
28. MNM
27. Los Guerreros
26. De-Generation X
25. Miracle Violence Connection
24. Motor City Machine Guns
23. The Shield
22. John Morrison & The Miz
21. Bad Influence

Clues to the next five tag teams

* Drink beer, play cards, and smoke cigars

* Driving While Investing

* Founding members of the Four Horsemen

* This is your life

* Two All Americans from Michigan & Seton Hall

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

20. World's/Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team

The tag team made their debut on the December 26, 2002 edition of WWE's SmackDown!. Paul Heyman introduced Benjamin and Haas under the name Team Angle as a "gift" to his top client Kurt Angle. Team Angle quickly involved themselves in a scripted rivalry with Chris Benoit and Edge, defeating them on January 30, 2003 to become the number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship.

The following week, on February 6, they won the WWE Tag Team Championship by defeating Los Guerreros. They continued their rivalry with Benoit, facing him and Brock Lesnar at No Way Out in a handicap match, where they teamed with their mentor Angle in a losing effort. After a successful title defense at WrestleMania XIX against Los Guerreros and the team of Chris Benoit and Rhyno, Team Angle lost the championship to Eddie Guerrero and his new partner Tajiri at Judgment Day on May 18 in a ladder match. Shortly afterwards, on June 12, Angle confronted Benjamin and Haas about the losing streak they had been in for a couple of weeks, and, after they blamed him for losing the Tag Team Championship and began to question his leadership, he fired them both from Team Angle. For a few weeks they wrestled against Angle, both in singles matches and in tag team matches.

Soon after the breakup, Benjamin and Haas referred to themselves as The Best Damn Tag Team Period and then The Self-Proclaimed World's Greatest Tag Team, or The World's Greatest Tag Team for short. They went on to recapture the WWE Tag Team Championship from Eddie Guerrero and Tajiri on July 3. Following their win, they competed against the teams of Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman and The APA, before losing the championship to the reformed Los Guerreros team two months later on September 18. After their loss The World's Greatest Tag Team continued competing against Los Guerreros in an attempt to regain the championship, but were unsuccessful.

In early 2004, The World's Greatest Tag Team began a scripted rivalry with The APA, and beat them at the No Way Out pay-per-view. Following their loss, The World's Greatest Tag Team mocked The APA, leading to The APA attacking them. Both the team of Scotty Too Hotty and Rikishi and the Basham Brothers also got involved in the brawl, leading to a fatal four-way match at WrestleMania XX for the WWE Tag Team Championship. At WrestleMania, Scotty Too Hotty and Rikishi retained the championship.

The group stayed together until March 22, 2004 when, during the Draft Lottery, Benjamin was drafted to the Raw brand, breaking up The World's Greatest Tag Team. On the Raw brand Benjamin was quickly added to the WWE Intercontinental Championship picture, first challenging for it at Bad Blood in June 2004 against Randy Orton. He eventually won the championship at Taboo Tuesday in October by defeating Chris Jericho, and held the championship for approximately eight months, eventually losing it to Carlito in June 2005. He held the championship twice more during 2006.

After Benjamin's draft, Haas gained Miss Jackie as a valet and teamed with Rico to win the WWE Tag Team Championship on April 22, 2004.[32] After a brief spell in singles competition, Haas joined forces with Hardcore Holly briefly, before being released from WWE in July 2005. Haas wrestled in the independent circuit for nearly a year, wrestling in Jersey All Pro Wrestling and other independent promotions before returning to WWE on the Raw brand in April 2006.

On April 17, 2006, Haas returned to WWE as part of the Raw brand, defeating his former tag team partner, Benjamin, the very same night. On the December 4 episode of Raw, after Benjamin pinned Super Crazy, Haas entered the ring, berated Crazy, and celebrated with a bewildered Benjamin. The next week, Benjamin announced The World's Greatest Tag Team was officially back in a segment with Cryme Tyme. They defeated The Highlanders in a match later that same night. They then started a scripted rivalry with Cryme Tyme, but were largely unsuccessful, including a tag team turmoil match at New Year's Revolution. They finally pinned Cryme Tyme, however, ending their undefeated streak, on the January 29, 2007 episode of Raw.

On April 2, The World's Greatest Tag Team was unsuccessful in defeating the team of Ric Flair and Carlito, but defeated them in a rematch on April 16 when Haas distracted Carlito, allowing Benjamin to gain the win. They won again two weeks later when Carlito turned on Flair, attacking him and allowing The World's Greatest Tag Team to win via countout. They then challenged the Hardy Boyz for the World Tag Team Championship at One Night Stand in a ladder match, but were unsuccessful.

Following this, The World's Greatest Tag Team began a rivalry with Paul London and Brian Kendrick after losing to the duo in their debut match on Raw.[49] A few weeks later, London defeated Benjamin in a singles match, however, on the July 23 episode of Raw, The World's Greatest Tag Team got a tag team win over London and Kendrick to end the rivalry. For this match they were announced as The (Self-Proclaimed) World's Greatest Tag Team, having been previously using simply The World's Greatest Tag Team since their reformation.

Following this, Benjamin and Haas competed against the teams of Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes and Super Crazy and Jim Duggan until November, when the team was disbanded due to Benjamin joining the ECW roster. Benjamin was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2008 Supplemental Draft.

On April 15, 2009, Haas was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft.[56] On the May 8, 2009 episode of SmackDown, Benjamin accompanied Haas to the ring for his match against John Morrison, hinting at a possible reunion. The following week on the May 15 episode of SmackDown, Benjamin and Haas unofficially reunited and competed against John Morrison and CM Punk in a losing effort. At Judgment Day, Haas escorted Benjamin to the ring for his match against Morrison. On June 29, Benjamin was traded back to the ECW brand. On February 28, 2010, WWE announced that Haas had been released from his contract, and two months later, on April 22, WWE announced that Benjamin had also been released.

On August 2, 2010, Ring of Honor announced that Haas and Benjamin would reform as a tag team, at Glory By Honor IX on September 11, 2010, to wrestle the ROH World Tag Team Champions The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli). The duo later stated that they would collectively be known as Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team. At Glory By Honor IX Haas and Benjamin were defeated by Hero and Castagnoli in a non–title match. On December 8, 2010, Haas and Benjamin returned to Ohio Valley Wrestling, more than seven years after their previous match for the promotion. In their return match they defeated The Elite (Adam Revolver and Ted McNaler). The following day they took part in their first Ring of Honor Wrestling tapings, defeating the Bravado Brothers (Harlem and Lance). The following day, at the second set of television tapings, Haas and Benjamin defeated the All Night Express of Kenny King and Rhett Titus, before participating in an eight-man tag team match, in which Haas and Benjmain teamed with the Briscoe Brothers against the Kings of Wrestling and the All-Night Xpress. The match ended in a no contest. On December 18 at the Final Battle 2010 pay-per-view, Haas and Benjamin announced that in 2011 they would be wrestling regularly for Ring of Honor. At the following pay-per-view, 9th Anniversary Show, on February 26, 2011, Haas and Benjamin defeated the Briscoe Brothers in the main event of the evening to earn another shot at the Kings of Wrestling and the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

On April 1, at Honor Takes Center Stage Night One, Haas and Benjamin defeated the Kings of Wrestling to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship. On June 26 at Best in the World 2011, Haas and Benjamin successfully defended the ROH World Tag Team Championship in a four-way match against the Briscoe Brothers, the Kings of Wrestling and the All Night Express. On December 23, Haas and Benjamin lost the ROH World Tag Team Championship to the Briscoe Brothers at the Final Battle 2011 pay-per-view, turning heel during the match. On May 12, 2012 at Border Wars, Hass and Benjamin regained the ROH World Tag Team Championship from the Briscoe Brothers. On June 24 at Best in the World 2012, Haas and Benjamin lost the title to Kenny King and Rhett Titus.

Shortly after their loss, Benjamin was suspended in storyline, to explain his absence while wrestling in Japan. Benjamin returned at the Death Before Dishonor X pay-per-view, accompanying Haas and Rhett Titus in a tag team championship match. Following Death Before Dishonor, Haas and Benjamin would continue to feud with Titus and his new tag team partner B.J. Whitmer defeating them at Glory By Honor XI. They defeated them again in a street fight at Final Battle. Benjamin was released from ROH in December 2012. He made one more appearance for ROH on February 2, 2013, when Haas turned on him during an ROH World Tag Team Championship match against the Briscoe Brothers.[5] The team officially disbanded on March 30th 2013, after Benjamin began working full-time in Japan, and Haas left the promotion in March.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

19. Beer Money, Inc.

James Storm and Robert Roode had teamed up on several occasions over the years following the end of their alliances in America's Most Wanted and Team Canada respectively, but it wasn't until the second quarter of 2008 that they started to become a regular tag team.

On the June 12, 2008 episode of TNA's primary television program, TNA Impact!, Storm and Roode challenged The Latin American Xchange (LAX) (Homicide and Hernandez) for the TNA World Tag Team Championship. Storm and Roode were successful in winning the match following a superkick from Storm, which he named the Last Call, to Hernandez with a leather-belt wrapped around his boot. LAX's manager, Hector Guerrero, was at ringside and informed the referee about what happened and the match was restarted. LAX ended up retaining the titles after the restart. After the match, Storm, Roode and Jacqueline handcuffed LAX to the ring posts, and then proceeded to whip them with leather belts. Later that night they challenged LAX to retaliate.[7] The next week on Impact!, LAX challenged Storm and Roode to a Fan's Revenge Match at Victory Road for the titles, which would involve the two teams fighting in a ring surrounded by legitimate fans of the promotion armed with leather belts.

Furthering the feud, the following week on Impact!, Homicide challenged Roode to a Parking Lot Brawl, which he accepted. Although both Storm and Hernandez were meant to be barred from the area, Storm interfered during the brawl, and the two dragged Homicide back into the arena and attacked him, until Hernandez saved him. At Victory Road, LAX retained the titles. At Hard Justice, there was a rematch where Beer Money defeated LAX to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship. In the rematch at No Surrender, Beer Money defeated LAX to retain the titles. Two weeks later, on Impact!, they faced LAX again in a Six Person Mixed Tag Team match with the two teams managers also competing, in which the losing team would lose the services of their manager. Beer Money won the bout, and as per the pre-match stipulation, Guerrero could no longer be LAX's manager. After that Beer Money retained the tag team titles at Turning Point against The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin).

Beer Money, Inc. later engaged in a feud with Matt Morgan and Abyss, retaining the titles against them at Final Resolution. On the January 8 episode of Impact!, they lost the titles to Jay Lethal and Consequences Creed after Lethal cashed in his Feast or Fired briefcase. At Genesis, they won back the TNA World Tag Team Championship by defeating Matt Morgan and Abyss and Lethal and Creed in a 3-Way Dance. Beer Money faced Creed and Lethal again at Against All Odds, with Beer Money retaining the championship.

On the February 19, 2009 episode of Impact! Beer Money began a weekly segment they called the "Off the Wagon Challenge", where the stipulation was that any two wrestlers could challenge them and they would put the World Tag Team Championship on the line, however, if they were able to retain their belts the wrestler who was pinned or made to submit would be released from TNA. They were first challenged by Eric Young and Petey Williams, in which Williams was pinned. The second challengers were The Rock 'n Rave Infection (Lance Rock and Jimmy Rave), who were defeated when Rock was pinned. On the March 5 episode of Impact!, LAX challenged Beer Money, but were unable to regain the titles as the champions got themselves disqualified. After the match Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) saved LAX from a beatdown and announced that they would accept Beer Money's Off the Wagon Challenge at Destination X. At Destination X, Beer Money got themselves disqualified, however Jim Cornette restarted the match and made it a No Disqualification match, in which Roode walked out with Storm draped over his shoulder, resulting in a countout.

At Lockdown, Beer Money lost the TNA World Tag Team titles to Team 3D in a match where Team 3D's IWGP Tag Team titles were also on the line. On the May 21, 2009 episode of TNA Impact!, Beer Money came to Team 3D's aid against The British Invasion (Doug Williams, Brutus Magnus and their bodyguard Rob Terry) and shook hands with 3D afterwards which turned them face. Beer Money then entered Team 3D's Invitational Tag Team Tournament, where the winners would receive a tag team title shot against Team 3D. Beer Money made it all the way to the finals, and they beat The British Invasion at Sacrifice on May 24, 2009 to face Team 3D for the TNA World Tag Team Titles. In the weeks leading up to Slammiversary, Team 3D assisted Beer Money in fending off The British Invasion however, Beer Money didn't return the favour. In the last week before Slammiversary, Beer Money brawled with Team 3D after making crude remarks. At Slammiversary, Beer Money defeated Team 3D to win the TNA World Tag Team Titles for the third time. Two weeks after Slammiversary, Booker T and Scott Steiner of The Main Event Mafia defeated Team 3D to win the right to face Beer Money for the titles at Victory Road, thus entering into a feud with the two. At Victory Road, Beer Money lost the titles to Booker T and Scott Steiner.

The two teams would see their feud intervene with that of Team 3D and the British Invasion, causing a 4-way war that would last the next 3 months. Beer Money would go on to lose to the British Invasion in an IWGP Tag Team Championship match at Hard Justice, win a Lethal Lockdown match at No Surrender (teaming with Team 3D against MEM and the Invasion), and lose a 4-way Full Metal Mayhem match at Bound for Glory for both the TNA and IWGP Tag Team Championships, with Team 3D winning the IWGP belts and the British Invasion the TNA belts. Beer Money were permitted one last title shot the following Impact!, where they fought the British Invasion in a Six Sides of Steel match. Brutus Magnus would have his team disqualified by punching the referee, causing him and Doug Williams to retain the championships. On the November 12 episode of Impact! Beer Money defeated the British Invasion in a non-title match to join the Motor City Machine Guns in the Tag Team Title match at Turning Point. At the Pay-Per-View The British Invasion managed to retain their titles after Kevin Nash nailed Storm with the TNA Global Championship belt. At Genesis Roode and Storm scored an upset victory over The Band of Kevin Nash and Syxx-Pac.

With Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff taking over TNA at the beginning of 2010, Beer Money's TV time was significantly reduced. Upon their return to Impact!, Beer Money turned heel on the March 8 episode of Impact! by first volunteering to face Jeff Jarrett in a handicap match and then defeating him after a low blow and the DWI, claiming it was the only way they were going to get noticed by the new management. Roode and Storm have since acted as Bischoff's henchmen, taking on wrestlers he's had problems with, often in two-on-one situations. At Destination X Beer Money challenged Matt Morgan and Hernandez for the TNA World Tag Team Championship, but were unable to dethrone the defending champions. At Lockdown Beer Money, along with Sting and Desmond Wolfe, represented Team Flair in the annual Lethal Lockdown match, where they were defeated by Team Hogan (Abyss, Jeff Jarrett, Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy). They then started a feud with the newly formed team of Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson, known collectively as The Enigmatic Assholes, who would go on to defeat them at Slammiversary VIII. On the following episode of Impact! Ric Flair, who had aligned himself with Beer Money, A.J. Styles, Desmond Wolfe and Kazarian, announced that he would reform the Four Horsemen under the new name Fourtune, stating that each of them would have to earn their spots in the group and that in order for Roode and Storm to earn their spots, they needed to become the Ole Anderson and Tully Blanchard of the group. After the TNA World Tag Team Championship was vacated in June, Beer Money entered a four–team, two–week long tournament to decide who would get to face The Motor City Machine Guns for the titles at Victory Road. Beer Money advanced to the title match at the pay-per-view by defeating Team 3D and Ink Inc. (Jesse Neal and Shannon Moore).[38][39] At Victory Road Beer Money was defeated by the Motor City Machine Guns in the match for the World Tag Team Championship.

After Victory Road Beer Money entered a Best of Five Series with the Motor City Machine Guns, contested for the TNA World Tag Team Championship. Beer Money won the first two matches, a ladder match and a Street Fight, after knocking their opponents out with beer bottles. On the July 29 episode of Impact!, Ric Flair announced that Roode and Storm, who were just one victory away from becoming four–time TNA World Tag Team Champions, had earned the right to join himself, Styles and Kazarian to become the final two members of Fourtune. However, Shelley and Sabin came back to win the two following matches in the Best of Five Series, a steel cage match and an Ultimate X match, to even the score to 2–2 and set up a deciding match for the August 12 episode of Impact!. On the August 12 episode of Impact! Beer Money, Inc. was defeated in a Two Out of Three Falls match and as a result lost the Best of Five Series 2–3. Later that night Douglas Williams and Matt Morgan were added to Fourtune, as the stable attacked EV 2.0, a stable consisting of former Extreme Championship Wrestling performers. In the weeks leading to Bound for Glory, the stable's name was tweaked to Fortune to represent the expansion in the number of members in the group. At Bound for Glory Roode, Storm, Styles, Kazarian and Morgan were defeated in a Lethal Lockdown match by EV 2.0 members Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Rhino, Sabu and Stevie Richards, ending the feud between the two factions. On the following episode of Impact! Fortune formed an alliance with Hulk Hogan's and Eric Bischoff's new stable, Immortal. At Turning Point Fortune defeated EV 2.0 in a ten man tag team match and, as a result, EV 2.0's Sabu was released from TNA. The following month at Final Resolution, Beer Money, Inc. returned to the TNA World Tag Team Championship picture by defeating Ink Inc. in a number one contender's match. On January 9, 2011, at Genesis, Beer Money, Inc. defeated the Motor City Machine Guns to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship for the fourth time.

On January 31 at the tapings of the February 3 episode of Impact!, Fortune turned face by attacking Immortal, when they interfered in a TNA World Heavyweight Championship match between Mr. Anderson and Jeff Hardy. Ric Flair, who did not take part in Fortune's turn due to being out with a torn rotator cuff, returned at the February 14 tapings of the February 17 episode of Impact!, turning on Fortune and jumping to Immortal. On April 17 at Lockdown, Roode, Storm, Kazarian and Christopher Daniels, who replaced an injured A.J. Styles, defeated Immortal representatives Ric Flair, Abyss, Bully Ray and Matt Hardy in a Lethal Lockdown match. In early May, Roode returned to using the first name Bobby, which he had previously used during his days as a member of Team Canada. On May 15 at Sacrifice, Beer Money, Inc. successfully defended the TNA World Tag Team Championship against Immortal representatives Matt Hardy and Chris Harris, Storm's old tag team partner who had made his surprise return to TNA on the previous episode of Impact!. On the following episode of Impact Wrestling, Immortal assaulted Roode, sidelining him with a storyline shoulder injury. Two weeks later, Eric Bischoff attempted to strip Beer Money, Inc. of their TNA World Tag Team Championship due to Roode's injury, but was interrupted by the champions' former rival Alex Shelley, who agreed to take Roode's spot in the title defense against the British Invasion at Slammiversary IX. At the pay-per-view, Storm and Shelley were successful in their title defense. Roode made his in-ring return on the June 23 episode of Impact Wrestling, in a tag team match, where he and Storm were defeated by Crimson and Matt Morgan. On July 13, Beer Money, Inc. became the longest reigning TNA World Tag Team Champions in the title's history, breaking the previous record of 184 days set by A.J. Styles and Tomko in 2007. On August 7 at Hardcore Justice, Beer Money, Inc. successfully defended the TNA World Tag Team Championship against Mexican America (Anarquia and Hernandez). Two days later, at the tapings of the August 18 episode of Impact Wrestling, Mexican America defeated Beer Money, Inc. in a rematch, following interference from Jeff Jarrett, to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship, ending Roode's and Storm's record-setting reign at 212 days.

From June to September, Roode and Storm were two of the twelve participants in the Bound for Glory Series to determine the number one contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. When the group stage of the tournament concluded, both of them finished in the top four and thus advanced to the finals at No Surrender along with Immortal members Bully Ray and Gunner. On September 11 at No Surrender, Storm was eliminated from the tournament after losing to Ray via disqualification. Meanwhile, Roode defeated Gunner via submission to set up a tiebreaker match against Ray later in the event, in which Roode managed to pick up the win via pinfall to become the number one contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Bound for Glory. On October 16 at Bound for Glory, Roode failed in his attempt to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship when he was pinned by Kurt Angle, after the referee failed to notice his arm under the ropes or Angle using the ropes for leverage. On the following episode of Impact Wrestling, after it was revealed that Roode was not eligible for a rematch with Angle, new authority figure Sting gave the next title shot to James Storm, who then went on to defeat Angle to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship for the first time. On the November 3 episode of Impact Wrestling, Roode defeated Storm to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, after hitting him with his own beer bottle, dissolving Beer Money, Inc.

Storm and Roode reunited for first time in 2 years on December 4, 2013 (aired January 2, 2014) at Impact Wrestling, Beer Money defeated Kurt Angle and Gunner.

On February 2nd, Beer Money appeared as Beer Money in the TNA One Night Only Joker's Wild where they have been beaten by The Wolves.

On February 15, 2009, Beer Money, Inc. made their debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling, defeating the team of Akira and Masahiro Chono at the Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

On May 29, 2010, Beer Money, Inc. made their debut for British professional wrestling promotion One Pro Wrestling (1PW), challenging Fight Club (Kid Fite and Liam Thomson) for the 1PW Tag Team Championship and winning the match via disqualification, which meant that Fite and Thomson retained their titles. On June 6, 2010 Beer Money, Inc. participated in the Mexican wrestling promotion Asistencia Asesoría y Administración's (AAA) Triplemanía XVIII event. The team competed in a 4-way elimination match for the AAA World Tag Team Championship and outlasted both then champions Atsushi Aoki and Go Shiozaki as well as former champions La Hermandad 187 (Joe Lider and Nicho el Millonario), but were defeated by Los Maniacos (Silver Cain and Último Gladiador), who won the championship. The match was a result of a working relationship between TNA and AAA. On October 12, 2010, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that Beer Money, Inc. would return to the promotion on October 22. In their match Roode and Storm defeated IWGP Tag Team Champions, Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson), in a non–title match. The following day Beer Money, Inc. continued their undefeated streak in Japan, by defeating No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi). Beer Money, Inc. returned to New Japan on January 4, 2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome, where they unsuccessfully challenged Bad Intentions for the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a three–way match, which also included Muscle Orchestra (Manabu Nakanishi and Strong Man).

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

18. The Rock N' Sock Connection

On August 30, 1999, the Rock 'N' Sock Connection was formed when The Undertaker and Big Show attacked The Rock on Raw, leading The Rock to challenge both of them to a match. At the time, it was considered career "suicide" to face a team as deadly as The Undertaker and The Big Show. With this in mind, Mankind (who used a smelly sock named "Mr. Socko" as part of his gimmick) asked his former enemy if he could help with his fight against Undertaker and Big Show. The Rock reluctantly accepted, and later that night, the two captured The Undertaker and Big Show's WWF Tag Team Titles when they pinned Big Show after a double People's Elbow.

They lost the belts on September 7, 1999 on SmackDown in a Buried Alive match against Undertaker and Big Show, when then-heel Triple H interfered. However, Triple H was really only helping out Undertaker, as he hit The Big Show with a sledgehammer.

On September 20, the Rock 'N' Sock Connection won the titles back in a Dark Side Rules match against The Big Show, Mideon, and Viscera (The Undertaker did not feel like being in the match so they took his place, thus turning the match into a three-on-two). Three days later on SmackDown!, the New Age Outlaws reunited and challenged Rock 'N' Sock Connection for the titles, which The Outlaws won.

Several days later, Mick Foley and Dwayne Johnson helped WWF Raw achieve some of its highest ratings ever with a segment featuring himself (as Mankind) and The Rock. The "This is Your Life" segment aired on September 27, 1999, and received an 8.4 rating. Two weeks later, The Rock told Mankind that he was tired of him, did not like the whole Rock 'N' Sock team, nor did he enjoy Mankind stealing his catchphrases during promos. Mankind begged The Rock to team up with him for one more night, but he did not tell The Rock who they would be fighting.

They ended up challenging The New Age Outlaws for the championships on October 14, 1999. That night, the Rock 'N' Sock Connection won the tag team titles for the third time, meaning they would have to continue teaming together to defend the titles. Four days later on SmackDown!, before their title defense against The Holly Cousins, Mick Foley gave the Rock an autographed copy of his book, Have a Nice Day!, but later found it in the trash. Mick confronted The Rock and cursed him out for throwing away his life's work. Later that night, during their match, a crushed Mankind refused to participate as he sat despondently on the steel steps, facing away from the ring, as Hardcore and Crash Holly (with outside interference once again by Triple H) beat The Rock for the Titles.

The Rock and Mankind began a feud with each other, until Foley discovered that it was his close friend, Al Snow who threw the book in the trash, since the book contained many Al Snow jokes. In real life, Foley and Snow are very good friends, and continually make good-natured fun of each other and their careers.

The Rock 'N' Sock would later reunite to take on The McMahon-Helmsley Faction. Upon opposition, Triple H, then WWF Champion, would place those two in a Pink-Slip-On-A-Pole match, where the loser will be fired from the WWF (kayfabe). Mankind lost the match, thus resulting in termination. However, a few days after Mankind's firing, The Rock was interviewed and finally announced that he acknowledged and respected Mankind's hard work with the company, mentioning that the Faction was abusing power. The Rock even went so far as to rally various WWF Superstars on a RAW episode to demand Mankind's reinstatement, which Triple H complied and did. They teamed off-and-on until Foley's in-ring retirement in March 2000 and The Rock's blossoming movie career.

In 2004, The Rock 'N' Sock Connection reunited at WrestleMania XX when they took on then Evolution members Randy Orton, Ric Flair, and Batista in a 3 on 2 handicap match. However, the Rock 'N' Sock Connection lost the match, when Orton pinned Foley after an RKO. There were rumors that Mick Foley would appear on WWE Raw on May 2, 2011, to reunite with his longtime friend The Rock as together as the Rock 'n' Sock Connection for The Rock's birthday. However, this did not happen. However Foley was confirmed to appear on Nov 14, 2011 Edition of 3 hour Raw "Rock Reunion" edition for a possible reunion of Rock and Sock connection, before The Rock's in ring return at Survivor Series. They both appeared on that edition of Raw only for Rock to Rock Bottom Foley and leave. On Raw's 20th Anniversary, Mick Foley was greeted by his friend, The Rock. The two hugged each other before being interrupted by Vickie Guerrero. Foley was puzzled why The Rock didn't talk back, then The Rock said to trust him, and watch the Rock Concert. The two then exchanged hugs once more, and The Rock congratulated Foley for his impending WWE Hall of Fame induction and wished him well.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

17. The Brain Busters

Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard were founding members of the Four Horsemen, and often teamed up for six and eight man tag team matches with Ric Flair and Ole Anderson. Blanchard was the number two heel in the NWA, behind only NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair, winning the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship, the NWA National Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Television Championship. Meanwhile, Anderson was designated as the "Enforcer" of the stable, and teamed with Ole Anderson as the final version of The Minnesota Wrecking Crew. In the spring of 1987, Ole was kicked out of the Four Horsemen, and was replaced with associate member Lex Luger. Shortly after losing the Television Title, Blanchard quickly began teaming with Arn and targeted the NWA World Tag Team titles.

Tully and Arn won the NWA World Tag Team Championship on September 29, 1987 by defeating the Rock 'n' Roll Express after The Midnight Express attacked Ricky Morton prior to the match. They were immediately challenged by the Road Warriors to a title match at Starrcade '87 in the LOD hometown of Chicago. Despite a hostile pro LOD crowd, the Horsemen retained the titles on a reverse decision. The Horseman would next receive a stiff challenge from ex-Horsemen Lex Luger, and longtime Horseman rival Barry Windham, who were dubbed the Twin Towers. The teams met at the 1st ever Clash of the Champions live on TBS and the challengers upset the Horsemen, when heel miscommunication caused Anderson to get hit by a chair from Horsemen manager J.J. Dillon, and pinned by Luger.

Arn and Tully regained the titles less than a month later on April 20, 1988 when Barry Windham turned on his tag-team partner and joined the Four Horsemen. The duo would mainly defend the titles against various combinations of teams between the trio of Sting, Nikita Koloff and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. Things began to sour behind the scenes for the champions, as the NWA launched its first-ever uninterrupted pay-per-view, The Great American Bash, promoters were attempting to draw a large gate and, according to the DVD Ric Flair & The Four Horsemen, Blanchard had suggested a rematch with the Road Warriors, but instead they were booked against Sting and Koloff, (whom they wrestled to a time limit draw), and when the PPV payouts were given out, it was discovered that Dillon who was their manager received 3 times the payout of the 2-time World Tag Team Champions. This was the last straw for Blanchard, who saw this as an insult and immediately prepared to give his notice. Meanwhile on camera, the champions had begun a feud with NWA United States Tag Team champions The Midnight Express, who they (kayfabe) considered to be ungrateful punks who weren't on their level. The Midnight Express won the titles from the Horsemen on September 10, 1988, as both Blanchard and Anderson gave their notices to Jim Crockett Promotions, ending the original Four Horsemen and according to Blanchard, it was the end of an era.

The duo made their debut late in October 1988, as "The Brain Busters," due to being under management of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan[1] (and, by default, members of the Heenan Family). It was commonplace for the WWF at this time to assign wrestlers to some sort of gimmick, or new identity. The Brain Busters were allowed to keep their names and ring persona. The only changes Arn and Tully made to their style were pointing to their heads to show they were smarter than everyone else and the use of a spike piledriver as a finishing move.

The Brain Busters made their pay-per-view (PPV) debut at the 1988 Survivor Series in the 10 team tag match, where they eliminated the Hart Foundation, before being eliminated via double disqualification with the Rockers. This led to a match with the Rockers on WWF Superstars of Wrestling where both teams were again disqualified before the match could even get started. This kicked off a red hot series of house show matches. One match in particular on January 23, 1989 was rated as one of the 50 greatest matches in the Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 10th year anniversary issue, where the Brainbusters narrowly defeated the Rockers as Anderson held down Marty Jannetty's leg as Blanchard pinned him. The teams wrestled to yet another DQ on the March 11, 1989 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event.

The Brain Busters made their first and only WrestleMania appearance at WrestleMania V against former WWF Tag Team Champions Strike Force. After an even start, the Brain Busters dominated the ex-champions as Rick Martel walked out on Tito Santana and he was brutalized and beaten after a spike piledriver and eventually pinned.

After their WrestleMania win, the Brain Busters finally got to face the WWF World Tag Team Champions Demolition and defeated them by disqualification on the May 27, 1989 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. The Brain Busters defeated Demolition for the titles in a rematch on July 18, 1989 in a two out of three falls match.[2] After losing the first fall, by pinfall, the Busters won the second fall, via disqualification, and won the third fall, with a distraction from Bobby Heenan and a steel chair thrown in from André the Giant, the Brain Busters ended Demolition’s record-breaking 478-day title reign and became the first team to win both the WWF and NWA World Tag Team Championship. It also was the first time a title changed hands in a two-out-of-three falls match where one of the decisions ended in a disqualification. After then defeating The Hart Foundation in a non-title match at SummerSlam, they then lost the titles back to Demolition on October 2, 1989, in an equally controversial fashion as Blanchard, who was the illegal man, was pinned after receiving the Demolition Decapitation finisher. As was customary at the time, the Busters continued to defend the titles on house shows until the title change was acknowledged on television on November 4, 1989.

The duo made their debut late in October 1988, as "The Brain Busters," due to being under management of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan (and, by default, members of the Heenan Family). It was commonplace for the WWF at this time to assign wrestlers to some sort of gimmick, or new identity. The Brain Busters were allowed to keep their names and ring persona. The only changes Arn and Tully made to their style were pointing to their heads to show they were smarter than everyone else and the use of a spike piledriver as a finishing move.

The Brain Busters made their pay-per-view (PPV) debut at the 1988 Survivor Series in the 10 team tag match, where they eliminated the Hart Foundation, before being eliminated via double disqualification with the Rockers. This led to a match with the Rockers on WWF Superstars of Wrestling where both teams were again disqualified before the match could even get started. This kicked off a red hot series of house show matches. One match in particular on January 23, 1989 was rated as one of the 50 greatest matches in the Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 10th year anniversary issue, where the Brainbusters narrowly defeated the Rockers as Anderson held down Marty Jannetty's leg as Blanchard pinned him. The teams wrestled to yet another DQ on the March 11, 1989 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event.

The Brain Busters made their first and only WrestleMania appearance at WrestleMania V against former WWF Tag Team Champions Strike Force. After an even start, the Brain Busters dominated the ex-champions as Rick Martel walked out on Tito Santana and he was brutalized and beaten after a spike piledriver and eventually pinned.

After their WrestleMania win, the Brain Busters finally got to face the WWF World Tag Team Champions Demolition and defeated them by disqualification on the May 27, 1989 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. The Brain Busters defeated Demolition for the titles in a rematch on July 18, 1989 in a two out of three falls match. After losing the first fall, by pinfall, the Busters won the second fall, via disqualification, and won the third fall, with a distraction from Bobby Heenan and a steel chair thrown in from André the Giant, the Brain Busters ended Demolition’s record-breaking 478-day title reign and became the first team to win both the WWF and NWA World Tag Team Championship. It also was the first time a title changed hands in a two-out-of-three falls match where one of the decisions ended in a disqualification. After then defeating The Hart Foundation in a non-title match at SummerSlam, they then lost the titles back to Demolition on October 2, 1989, in an equally controversial fashion as Blanchard, who was the illegal man, was pinned after receiving the Demolition Decapitation finisher. As was customary at the time, the Busters continued to defend the titles on house shows until the title change was acknowledged on television on November 4, 1989.

Their last match was a best-of-three-falls contest against The Rockers on Saturday Night's Main Event. The Brain Busters lost the first fall after not following directions from an enraged Heenan, who left the ringside area. The Brain Busters won the second fall, after which Heenan fired them during a backstage interview. The Rockers would go on to win the third and final fall of the match.

On the day of the 1989 Survivor Series, Tully Blanchard failed a drug test and the lack of a suitable replacement saw him replaced by Heenan who would wrestle for the first time since Wrestlemania V. Arn Anderson left the federation more or less immediately after the pay-per-view and returned to the NWA in December. However, the NWA refused to rehire Blanchard when news of his failed drug test became known, thus ending the Brain Busters for good. Tully Blanchard would renegotiate a new contract with NWA a few months later, but ultimately declined what he considered to be a very low offer (reportedly half of a previous verbal agreement).

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

16. APA (Acolyte Protection Agency)

As single competitors in the World Wrestling Federation, Layfield's (under the name of Bradshaw) and Simmons' (under the name Faarooq) careers had stalled. WWF management then placed Bradshaw and Faarooq in a tag team called Hell's Henchmen managed by The Jackyl. Both men made their first appearance on TV as a team on the November 15, 1998 episode of Sunday Night Heat attacking 8-Ball, Skull and Paul Ellering as the D.O.A. came down to the ring for a match. The following week on Sunday Night Heat, The Jackyl came down to the ring as the duo interrupted a match and proclaimed Bradshaw and Faarooq to be his Acolytes. Both men would make their official tag team debut on the November 30, 1998 edition of Raw, where they attacked Tiger Ali Singh and his manager, Babu, after Singh's match against Val Venis. The team was notorious for their intense and brutal beatings done during the ensuing matches. Afterwards, they won tag team matches against the team of Venis and The Godfather and the team of the J.O.B. Squad.

When The Jackyl left the WWF, the duo joined The Undertaker's new heel stable, the Ministry of Darkness. They debuted in Undertaker's Ministry on the January 11, 1999 edition of Raw, where they recruited Dennis Knight into the Ministry, giving him the name Mideon. After Undertaker's Ministry merged with The Corporation to form the Corporate Ministry, the Acolytes began a feud with X-Pac and Kane over the WWF World Tag Team Championship. The feud began on the May 30, 1999 edition of Sunday Night Heat, where the Acolytes attacked X-Pac after his match against The Big Boss Man. Their attack was to no avail, however, as Kane, X-Pac's tag team partner, came down to the ring to attack the Acolytes. Later that night, the Acolytes challenged X-Pac and Kane for a WWF Tag Team Championship match on the following Raw broadcast. The following night on Raw, X-Pac and Kane accepted the challenge. During the match, however, Shane McMahon, who was also a member of the Corporate Ministry, interfered in the match, causing Kane to chase McMahon to the backstage area. The situation allowed Bradshaw to hit X-Pac with a Clothesline from Hell into a pinfall, allowing the Acolytes to win their first WWF Tag Team Championship.

The Acolytes then began a feud with the Hardy Boyz, which began at King of the Ring where the Hardy Boyz defeated The Brood to become the number one contenders to the Acolytes' WWF Tag Team Championship. The feud intensified on the July 3, 1999 edition of Shotgun Saturday Night, where the Acolytes attacked the Hardy Boyz during a segment. On the July 5, 1999 edition of Raw, however, the Acolytes lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to the Hardy Boyz, after Jeff attacked Bradshaw with Michael Hayes's, the Hardy Boyz's manager, cane, and Matt delivered a Tornado DDT on Bradshaw into a pinfall. The Acolytes regained the WWF Tag Team Championship at Fully Loaded in a No Disqualification Handicap match against the Hardy Boyz and Hayes.

After regaining the championship, the Acolytes began another feud with Kane with various partners. On the August 8, 1999 edition of Sunday Night Heat, Kane teamed up with Road Dogg to face the Acolytes for the WWF Tag Team Championship, in a losing effort. The following night on Raw, Kane then teamed up with X-Pac to face the Acolytes in another Championship match, where X-Pac delivered a X-Factor to Faarooq into the pinfall, which meant that the Acolytes lost the title. The following week, they lost a rematch for the WWF Tag Team Championship. After losing their rematch, they won a number one contendership for the WWF Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam, where they won a Tag Team Turmoil match. They were unable to regain the WWF Tag Team Championship, as their match against The Big Show and The Undertaker went to a no-contest. After this, they began a feud with the Dudley Boyz, which ended at Unforgiven where they defeated the Dudley Boyz. After their feud with the Dudley Boyz, the Acolytes began a gimmick as card players and beer drinkers, where they hustled many WWF superstars/employees out of their money.

After sporadic feuds, the Acolytes won a tag team battle royal at Armageddon against seven other tag teams to win a WWF Tag Team Championship match. They were unable to win the championship at Royal Rumble, where the New Age Outlaws defeated them, after Billy Gunn performed a Fame-ass-er on Bradshaw, after interference from X-Pac.

On the January 31, 2000 edition of Raw, the Mean Street Posse asked the Acolytes to protect them, which they refused to do, until the Posse offered to pay them. When they did, Bradshaw started the Acolytes Protection Agency (APA). In reality, the gimmick of the tag team was created by Bradshaw. To further enhance their gimmick, the APA began to appear weekly backstage in an office, dubbed the APA Office. After protecting many WWF superstars, the APA began a feud with Bull Buchanan and The Big Bossman. The feud began on the April 10, 2000 edition of Raw, where Buchanan and Bossman attacked the APA during a match, where they protected Kai En Tai. The APA, however, was unsuccessful in winning a tag team match against them at Backlash. On the May 18, 2000 edition of SmackDown!, the APA were hired to protect Crash Holly for an hour, to prevent him from losing his WWF Hardcore Championship. After the hour was up, the APA left, allowing Gerald Brisco to pin Holly for the Hardcore Championship. The situation resulted in Holly challenging Bradshaw in a Hardcore match, which Bradshaw won. Later that week on SmackDown!, Faarooq defeated Holly in a Hardcore match.

On the June 26, 2000 edition of Raw, the APA won a Tag-Team Battle Royal against seven other teams to win a WWF Tag Team Championship match. During the weeks leading up to Fully Loaded, Edge and Christian avoided defending the Tag Team Championship against the APA. On July 10, 2000, the APA were scheduled to face Edge and Christian for the Tag Team Championship, but Edge announced that he would face Bradshaw one-on-one in a match, which Bradshaw lost. Later that week on SmackDown!, Edge and Christian were scheduled to defend their Tag Team Championship against the APA, but they again made a one-on-one match, where Christian was defeated by Faarooq. At Fully Loaded, the APA won the Tag Team match by disqualification; due to WWF rules, Edge and Christian retained the Tag Team Championship. On the September 7, 2000 edition of SmackDown!, the Dudley Boyz and the APA formed an alliance. The following week on Raw, the APA faced Right to Censor (Bull Buchanan and The Goodfather) in a losing effort. Then, on the September 18, 2000 edition of Raw, the Dudley Boyz also lost to Buchanan and The Goodfather. After the match, all the members of the Right to Censor (Buchanan, The Goodfather, Steven Richards, and Val Venis) attacked the Dudley Boyz, which resulted in the APA coming out to help the Dudley Boyz, as a part of their alliance. The Dudley Boyz and the APA were then booked in an Eight-man Tag Team match against Right to Censor at Unforgiven, which Right to Censor won via pinfall.

After sporadic feuds through midway 2001, the APA were awarded a WWF Tag Team Championship match against the Dudley Boyz on the July 9, 2001 edition of Raw, where Bradshaw pinned D-Von to win the WWF Tag Team Championship. The following month on SmackDown!, however, the APA lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to Kanyon and Diamond Dallas Page. After their loss of the Tag Team Championship, Faarooq was briefly absent, while Bradshaw began to pursue singles championships, like on the September 27, 2001 edition of SmackDown!, where Bradshaw lost an WWF Intercontinental Championship match against Christian. On the October 22, 2001 edition of Raw, Bradshaw defeated The Hurricane to win the WWF European Championship. When Faarooq returned, Bradshaw lost the European Championship to Christian on the November 1, 2001 edition of SmackDown!. At No Way Out, the APA won a Tag Team Turmoil match to win a WWF Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania X8. The APA were unsuccessful in winning the Tag Team Championship on two occasions: on the February 28, 2002 edition of SmackDown! and at WrestleMania X8.

On March 25, 2002, the APA were split up when the WWE roster was divided into the Raw and SmackDown! brands. Bradshaw was drafted to Raw, while Faarooq was drafted to SmackDown!. On the Raw brand, Bradshaw won the WWF Hardcore Championship eighteen times, while Faarooq had a brief stint with the SmackDown! brand, teaming with Reverend Devon in a tournament to determine the newly created WWE Tag Team Championship.

After their brief single careers, Bradshaw and Faarooq reunited in WWE's former farm territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling, winning the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship on April 10, 2003. They vacated the Tag Team Championship when they returned to WWE television on the June 19, 2003 edition of SmackDown!, where they assisted The Undertaker in an ambush from the F.B.I. During their return, they revived their former gimmick of beer drinking and card playing segments in backstage areas. At Vengeance, the APA hosted a Bar Room Brawl, which Bradshaw won. On the September 4, 2003 edition of SmackDown!, the APA were booked in a WWE Tag Team Championship match against the defending champions, Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, which the APA lost. After sporadic tag team matches, the APA was once again booked in a WWE Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania XX, in a Fatal-Four way Tag Team match also involving Haas and Benjamin, Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty, and the Basham Brothers, which Rikishi and Hotty won to retain the Tag Team Championship. On March 18, 2004, SmackDown! general manager Paul Heyman forced the APA to face Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty after they mocked his being Stunned by Stone Cold Steve Austin the previous week, with the added stipulation that "If you lose, you will be fired". After they were defeated, Heyman clarified that he would only be firing Simmons, not both men as he implied. He then told Bradshaw to worry about his own career, claiming that as a published author and a Fox financial analyst he was a valued asset to the company. Bradshaw opted to stay, and Faarooq left in disgust. In reality, Simmons retired from professional wrestling, which was covered up in the storyline as an on-screen firing. Three years later in 2006, Layfield retired from professional wrestling, becoming a commentator for Friday Night SmackDown!. Layfield returned as an active wrestler in 2008, on the Raw brand, while Simmons began cutting promos with his trademark catchphrase, "Damn".

The APA had an in-ring reunion on the December 3, 2007 episode of Raw when Hornswoggle hired their protection services for his Handicap match against Jonathan Coachman and Carlito. Simmons and Layfield reunited for one night only on the 1,000th episode of Raw on July 23, 2012, when they provided protection for Lita during her brief match with Heath Slater. Layfield hit Slater with a Clothesline from Hell, and after the match, Simmons simply said his trademark catchphrase, "Damn".

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

Countdown so far
75. The Jumping Bomb Angels
74. The Powers of Pain
73. Kane & X-Pac
72. The Usos
71. The Nasty Boys
70. The Second City Saints
69. The Gangstas
68. The Fabulous Rougeaus
67. Rated RKO
66. The Eliminators
65. The Spirit Squad
64. Booker T & Goldust
63. The Von Erichs
62. The Quebecers
61. Candice LeRae & Joey Ryan
60. Owen Hart & British Bulldog
59. The Super Smash Brothers
58. The Foreign Legion
57. The Dancing Fools
56. Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood
55. The Briscoe Brothers
54. Stone Cold Steve Austin & Dude Love
53. The Briscos
52. The Fabulous Ones
51. The Age of the Fall
50. Minnesota Wrecking Crew
49. AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels
48. reDRagon
47. Latin American Xchange
46. Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel
45. Doom
44. America's Most Wanted
43. Kevin Steen & El Generico
42. Rob Van Dam & Sabu
41. Brian Kendrick & Paul London
40. Generation Next
39. Cho-Ten
38. The Hollywood Blonds
37. The Young Bucks/Generation Me
36. The Brothers of Destruction
35. The Outsiders
34. Money Inc.
33. The Sheepherders/Bushwhackers
32. The Kings of Wrestling
31. The Mega Powers
30. Strike Force
29. Jeri-Show
28. MNM
27. Los Guerreros
26. De-Generation X
25. Miracle Violence Connection
24. Motor City Machine Guns
23. The Shield
22. John Morrison & The Miz
21. Bad Influence
20. World's/Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team
19. Beer Money, Inc.
18. The Rock N' Sock Connection
17. The Brain Busters
16. APA

Clues to the next five tag teams

* Beautiful and sweet

* From Badstreet

* Had a bad breakup feud in 1991

* I am the tag team champions

* Suckas

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

15. Harlem Heat

Booker T and Stevie Ray (real name Lash) started to team together as The Huffman Brothers in Ivan Putski's Western Wrestling Alliance after a brief feud with each other. Soon after, the WWA ceased operating and the brothers started touring the Texas Independent circuit until they caught the eye of Skandor Akbar who was involved with the Global Wrestling Federation out of Dallas in 1992. The brothers were repackaged as The Ebony Experience and quickly rose through the ranks of the GWF tag team division under the guidance of Gary Hart, defeating Skandor Akbar’s “Goodfellows” ("Gorgeous" Gary Young and Steve Dane) for the GWF Tag Team Championship on July 31, 1992.[6] Their first run with the GWF tag title lasted only a week before they were defeated by The Blackbirds (”Iceman” King Parsons and Action Jackson). Booker and Stevie Ray made a comeback and defeated the cheating birds in September.

The second run with the title lasted a bit longer than a week but was ultimately short lived as the Rough Riders (Black Bart and Johnny Mantell) won the gold on October 23. The title loss was forced due to Booker T suffering a knee injury that needed surgery and time off to recover. In early 1993 the Ebony Experience returned to action and started to chase Bad Breed (Axl and Ian Rotten) who had won the titles while Booker T recovered. On February 26 the Ebony Experience won their third GWF Tag Team championship, becoming the only team to hold that title 3 times. Their third run with the title proved to be their longest as they held them until May 7 where Guido Falcone and Vito Mussolini (known as the Sicilian Stallions) defeated them for the titles. Not long after this Booker T and Stevie Ray left the GWF to work for World Championship Wrestling.

In August 1993, they debuted as the tag team Harlem Heat, with Booker renamed Kole and Lash renamed Kane. They were then billed from Harlem. Originally, they were supposed to be a pair of wrestling prisoners won in a card game by manager Col. Rob Parker, but was changed due to racial sensitivity based on their look, coming out to the ring in wrist and foot shackles. They became heels and teamed with Vader and Sid Vicious in the War Games at Fall Brawl on September 19, 1993, against Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes, and The Shockmaster. They lost the match but were over as heels because of the caliber of faces they wrestled.

Sister Sherri began managing the team in 1994 and changed their names back to Booker T and Stevie Ray, at their request. By the end of 1994, they were already Tag Team Champions, having defeated Stars and Stripes (The Patriot and Marcus Alexander Bagwell) in December, en route to a five-month title reign. This would be their first of ten WCW World Tag Team Championship reigns together.

After dropping the title to the Nasty Boys, Harlem Heat regained the belts on June 24, 1995. Harlem Heat became tweeners and entered a feud with Col. Parker's Stud Stable of "Dirty" Dick Slater and Bunkhouse Buck, eventually dropping the titles to them on an episode of WCW Saturday Night on July 22, 1995, thanks to interference from Parker. Parker and Sherri were carrying on a love affair and Parker eventually left the Stud Stable in favor of the Heat to be with Sherri. Harlem Heat regained the WCW World Tag Team titles from Slater and Buck at Fall Brawl 1995. Their third title only lasted one day, but the duo regained the tag team title nine days later from the American Males (Marcus Alexander Bagwell and Scotty Riggs). On the June 24, 1996 "Nitro," Harlem Heat defeated Lex Luger and Sting to capture their fifth WCW World Tag Team titles. Three days after losing the tag team titles to the Steiner Brothers, Harlem Heat regained the straps from the Steiners on July 27, 1996. On September 23, 1996 Booker T and Stevie Ray were defeated by Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) but took the titles back for the seventh time on October 1, 1996.

After the loss of their seventh WCW World Tag Team Championship, to the Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) on October 27, 1996 they became full-fledged faces when they fired Col. Parker and beat him up. They briefly feuded against Parker's newest team The Amazing French Canadians, a feud they would win. In 1997, they feuded with Public Enemy, The Steiners, and the nWo. In fall 1997, they fired Sherri and added a new manager, Jacqueline. They were briefly put out of action by the nWo, but returned to feud with the "Faces of Fear" (Meng and The Barbarian). Stevie then took five months off from WCW to recover from an ankle injury and Jacqueline left for the WWF while Booker made a transition to singles competition. Booker managed to win the WCW World Television Championship during Stevie's absence. Upon his return to WCW, Stevie Ray joined the New World Order, while Booker continued to be a rising singles star. Despite being on opposite sides they managed to peacefully co-exist (despite Booker expressing dismay at Stevie for joining the nWo).

By mid-1999, Booker was able to convince his brother to leave the nWo and reunited Harlem Heat once more. The two defeated Bam Bam Bigelow and Kanyon for the WCW World Tag Team titles at the 1999 Road Wild but lost them to Barry and Kendall Windham. Harlem Heat would defeat them about a month later at the 1999 Fall Brawl for the WCW World Tag Team titles. When the Filthy Animals were stripped of the WCW World Tag Team belts due to an injury suffered by Rey Mysterio Jr., the title was put up in a three-way dance at Halloween Havoc 1999. Harlem Heat claimed their tenth WCW World Tag Team title defeating members of The First Family (Hugh Morrus and Brian Knobs) and the Filthy Animals (Konnan and Billy Kidman).

In late 1999, a female bodybuilder named Midnight joined Harlem Heat. While Booker T liked the addition, Stevie Ray neglected her help and started arguing with Booker T. Stevie Ray eventually challenged Midnight in a match that would decide whether she would stay with Harlem Heat. After being defeated with a surprise small package, Stevie Ray turned on both Booker T and Midnight.