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

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

14. The Rock N Roll Express

The Rock 'n' Roll Express was formed by Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson in 1983 in Memphis by head booker Jerry Lawler. They were originally paired together as an alternative to the popular team of The Fabulous Ones (Steve Keirn and Stan Lane) when they could not wrestle in certain towns. The gimmick of The Rock 'n' Roll Express was a couple of high flying wrestlers who loved glam metal music, as it was a popular genre of music at the time. In 1983 and 1984, the team participated in a series of matches against The Galaxians, the Bruise Brothers, and the team of Lanny Poffo and Randy Savage.

They soon made their way to Mid-South Wrestling where they started a feud with the Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton, Dennis Condrey, and manager Jim Cornette). The feud began when Cornette threw a celebration for the Midnight Express after they won the Mid-South Tag Team Championship. During the celebration, The Rock 'n' Roll Express shoved Cornette's face into the celebratory cake. The rivalry between the two teams carried on into the National Wrestling Alliance.

They went to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) in 1985 and won four NWA World Tag Team Championships over the next couple of years. On July 9, 1985, the team debuted in JCP against the team of Ivan Koloff and Krusher Khrushchev, whom they defeated to begin their first reign as champions. The reign lasted until October 13 of that same year. At Starrcade in 1985, they recaptured the title, only to lose them on a prime time WTBS special, Superstars on the Superstation, on February 7, 1986. This title change is significant because televised matches between major contenders were rarely shown in those days. They won the title back in Philadelphia on August 16, 1986, and held them until a Saturday night prime time match on WTBS' World Championship Wrestling against Rick Rude and the Raging Bull Manny Fernandez. The Rock 'n' Roll Express won the belts back when Rude, still a champion, simply left the NWA to go work for Vince McMahon in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Needing to save face, promoter Jim Crockett had Ivan Koloff substitute for an 'injured' Rude, and the Express won the belts for what proved to be the final time.

In November 1986 at Starrcade, The Rock 'n' Roll Express defeated Ole Anderson and Arn Anderson in a Steel Cage match to retain the NWA World Tag Team Championship. They lost their title for a third and final time in the fall of 1987 to Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard thanks to a pre-match attack by their longtime rivals The Midnight Express. (They would win four more in later years, but only the first four were also recognized by World Championship Wrestling later). They feuded heavily with Four Horsemen members Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, who constantly mocked them and attacked them outside of the ring.

In 1988, The Rock 'n' Roll Express had a brief feud with The Midnight Rockers in the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), over the AWA World Tag Team Championship. Their first match on February 15, 1988, ended in controversy, causing the AWA World Tag Team title to be held up. A week later, on February 22, a rematch for the held-up titles was held and The Midnight Rockers won them back.

Returning to the NWA in 1989, with the advent of the Road Warriors and The Steiner Brothers as the new dominant face tag teams, the Rock 'n' Roll Express were turned into mid-carders. In June 1991 at Clash of the Champions, Morton turned on Gibson to join the York Foundation and they feuded, until Gibson was released.

They reunited in 1992 in Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) and feuded with the Heavenly Bodies, winning the tag team title ten times. The feud with the Heavenly Bodies, which had been ongoing for approximately a year, included a barbed wire cage match and a Texas death match. The rivalry carried over to both World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1993, splitting pay per view matches for the two promotions. The Rock 'n' Roll Express defeated the Heavenly Bodies (Stan Lane and Dr. Tom Prichard) at WCW's SuperBrawl III event and the Bodies (this time Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray) defeating the Express for the SMW Tag Team Championship at the Survivor Series. Defending the SMW tag title at the event was part of an agreement between the WWF's Vince McMahon and SMW's Jim Cornette.

Back in SMW in May 1994, The Rock 'n' Roll Express lost their title to the team of Chris Candido and Brian Lee, who were managed by Tammy Fytch. The duo, however, won the title back in August. After that feud ended, they feuded with The Gangstas over the titles. During that feud, they had Jim Cornette as their manager. Soon after the Gangstas feuded, Cornette betrayed Morton and Gibson, as they feuded with The Dynamic Duo.

In 1996, they returned to World Championship Wrestling (WCW), but used sparingly on the pre-taped B-Shows, WCW Saturday Night and WCW Pro, as preliminary wrestlers. They left in 1997 to participate in independent federations.

A year later, they were in the WWE for a brief stint as part of the NWA angle (managed by former rival James E. Cornette). During their time in the company, they appeared at WrestleMania XIV in March 1998 in a tag team battle royal, which was won by the Legion of Doom 2000. They also had feuds with L.O.D. 2000 and The New Midnight Express having an NWA Tag Team Title match at the WWF Pay Per View Unforgiven against the New Midnight Express. They also made several appearances in WCW as lower card talent.

In early 2003, Morton & Gibson appeared in TNA as part of VInce Russo's Sports Entertainment Extreme (SEX). The duo feuded with America's Most Wanted, Chris Harris & James Storm. In late 2003 and early 2004, they worked for the All World Wrestling League, owned by Eddie and Thomas Farhat, the sons of the "Original Sheik" Ed Farhat.

Starting in 2005, they would team up again, often wrestling against the Midnight Express in the Mid-Atlantic area. On June 7, 2008, they defeated The Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton) at the NWA 60th Anniversary Show in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Rock 'n' Roll Express have joined up with Booker T's Pro Wrestling Alliance in Houston, TX and have become the PWA Tag Team Champions

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

13. Team Hell No

In May 2012, after failing to win the WWE Championship at Over the Limit from CM Punk, Daniel Bryan continued to feud with the champion, demanding a rematch following the controversial ending of their match which saw Punk tap out moments after Punk was able to pin Bryan. On the SmackDown prior to Over the Limit, Bryan interfered in a match between Punk and Kane and attempted to frame Punk by attacking Kane with a steel chair. On the following Raw, Bryan faced off against Kane and was set up in a similar way by Punk, which resulted in the situation nearly reversing itself. Afterwards, Kane started attacking both Bryan and Punk indiscriminately after being a pawn in each of their plans, beginning a three-way rivalry. During this time, Bryan's jilted ex-girlfriend AJ turned her affections to both Punk and Kane. On the June 1 episode of SmackDown, Bryan's interference caused a WWE Championship match between Punk and Kane to end in a double disqualification, resulting in a triple threat match being set up at No Way Out, where Punk managed to retain the title after AJ distracted Kane. Kane's involvement in the feud would end on the June 25 episode of Raw, when Bryan defeated both him and Punk in a non-title three-way elimination match.

After once again failing to capture the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank, Bryan proposed to AJ the following night on Raw, which she accepted. On Raw 1000, Bryan's wedding ended in failure when AJ left Bryan at the altar and instead accepted Mr. McMahon's offer of the position of permanent Raw General Manager. Bryan's night turned from bad to worse as he was later attacked by The Rock and insulted by celebrity Charlie Sheen. AJ's rejection of Bryan turned him into an angry and bitter individual and resulted in Bryan lashing out at audiences. AJ continued to exact her revenge on Bryan by denying him a WWE Championship shot and instead forcing him to face Kane at SummerSlam, where Bryan emerged victorious. Following the win, Kane would go on a rampage and even attacked backstage interviewer Josh Matthews while looking for Bryan.

Following their SummerSlam match, Kane became increasingly violent in his demands for a rematch while Bryan, upset with fans for continuing to chant his catchphrase of "Yes!" after he had told them not to, continued to lose his temper and have bursts of anger during matches and interview segments. As a result of Bryan and Kane's issues, AJ enrolled them in anger management classes hosted by Dr. Shelby and later forced them to compete in a "Hug it Out" match. At the arrangement of Dr. Shelby and AJ, the two adversaries formed a team whose constant bickering and infighting even during matches inadvertently resulted in them defeating the Prime Time Players (Titus O'Neil and Darren Young) to become the number one contenders to the Tag Team Championship on the September 10 episode of Raw and then defeating defending champions Kofi Kingston and R-Truth to win the WWE Tag Team Championship at Night of Champions. Bryan and Kane made their first successful title defense the following night on Raw, defeating the former champions in a rematch. The following week on Raw, "Team Hell No" was chosen as the official team name via a Twitter poll, and the Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow) immediately began a feud with them. During this period both Kane and Bryan made the transition from heel to face, aided by the audience's enjoyment of their bickering over which one was (by himself) the Tag Team Champions.

On October 28 at Hell in a Cell, Team Hell No lost to the Rhodes Scholars via disqualification, but retained their titles as a result. This was followed by a rematch on the November 14 episode of Main Event, where Team Hell No defeated the Rhodes Scholars to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. On the November 26 episode of Raw, after Kane lost to WWE Champion CM Punk in a non-title match, he was assaulted by The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns); Bryan and Ryback, who both attempted to save Kane, suffered a similar fate. This attack had the effect of uniting Bryan and Kane, and after The Shield and Team Hell No, along with Ryback, attacked each other on the December 3 episode of Raw, all six men were decreed to face each other in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, where The Shield was victorious after pinning Bryan. On the following episode of Main Event, Team Hell No defeated Team Rhodes Scholars to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. On the December 31 episode of Raw, Team Hell No successfully defended their titles against 3MB (Drew McIntyre and Heath Slater). On January 27, 2013, at the Royal Rumble, Team Hell No once again retained the WWE Tag Team Championship against Team Rhodes Scholars. During the Royal Rumble Match, Bryan eliminated Kane and was in turn thrown out of the ring by Antonio Cesaro; Kane caught Bryan before he touched the floor and despite Bryan's begging, dropped him to complete Bryan's elimination. In February, both Bryan and Kane qualified for the number one contender Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship, but were both eliminated by Mark Henry at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.

Team Hell No then began a feud with Dolph Ziggler when he defeated both Bryan and Kane in singles competition due to interference from his enforcer Big E Langston. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29, Team Hell No defeated Ziggler and Langston for another successful title defense. The following night on Raw, Team Hell No rekindled their rivalry with The Shield after they saved the Undertaker from an attack. On the April 22 episode of Raw, Team Hell No and The Undertaker were defeated by the Shield in a six-man tag team match. The Shield went on to take out Undertaker and continuously rack up wins over Bryan and Kane in both singles and tag matches that also included WWE Champion John Cena. On May 19 at Extreme Rules, Bryan and Kane lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to Shield members Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, ending their reign at 245 days.

As Bryan being pinned led to the loss of the tag titles, Bryan became obsessed with proving that he was not the weak link of Team Hell No. As a result, Bryan became even more aggressive, but his overzealous behavior led to Team Hell No losing their rematch against Reigns and Rollins on the May 27 episode of Raw. When Kane tried to reassure Bryan, Bryan replied with harsh rebukes that alienated Kane from him. As a result, Bryan was paired with Randy Orton despite their poor relationship to face a common enemy in the Shield, while Kane began to go on his own. On the June 14 episode of SmackDown, Bryan, Kane, and Orton teamed up to end the Shield's undefeated streak in televised six-man tag matches when Bryan forced Rollins to submit to the Yes! Lock. Bryan and Kane then went their separate ways on the June 17 episode of Raw, as both announced their intention to become WWE Champion.

On the July 29 episode of Raw, Bryan and Kane faced each other in a match, which was won by Bryan. After the match, Kane attacked Bryan but was interrupted and attacked by The Wyatt Family. Meanwhile, Bryan's determination to prove himself led to a winning streak, culminating in him winning the WWE Championship at SummerSlam. When Kane returned on October 28 of Raw, he became "Director of Operations". Kane chokeslamed Bryan at the February 3 edition of Raw. The following week, Bryan attacked Kane and on February 17 edition of Raw they faced each other one more time, with Bryan winning by disqualification.

On the April 21 episode of Raw, After Bryan married Brie Bella, Stephanie Mcmahon announces Bryan will be facing Kane at Extreme Rules for the WWE World Heavyweight Champion After the segment, Kane's music hit and attacked Bryan executing a three Tombstone Piledriver to Bryan on a concrete, steel steps, and to the announcer table which Bryan ended up on a stretcher. Bryan defeated Kane at Extreme Rules to retain the title.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

12. The Fabulous Freebirds

The Fabulous Freebirds started performing together in 1979 when Michael "P.S." Hayes, Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, and Buddy "Jack" Roberts decided to form a "three man gang" type of tag-team[dubious – discuss]—an unusual concept at the time. They usually worked as heels but also had several face runs as well.

The group wrestled in the Dallas-based World Class Championship Wrestling territory, where they had a legendary feud with the Von Erichs (David, Kevin, Kerry, Chris and Mike). This feud was ignited by an infamous incident in which Terry Gordy slammed Kerry Von Erich's head in a steel cage door.

They also performed in the NWA-affiliated Georgia Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling, the American Wrestling Association, and the Oklahoma-based Universal Wrestling Federation. While in the AWA they feuded primarily with the Road Warriors, costing them the World Tag Team Titles in a match against long time Freebird ally Jimmy Garvin and his partner Steve Regal.

They had a very brief run in the World Wrestling Federation in 1984, where they were a part of the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection period. In the WWF, they wrestled under the guidance of Cyndi Lauper's manager David Wolff, but soon left the promotion after an altercation with Andre the Giant, who was upset when the Freebirds arrived late to a show.

The group then moved on to their AWA run, returned to World Class, and then started a stint in the UWF where Gordy became the promotion's champion, Roberts held its TV title, and Hayes usually acted as their manager or served as a heel commentator on television broadcasts. After JCP purchased UWF in 1987, Hayes wrestled in World Class and several independent promotions, sometimes with Gordy, who began spending most of his time in Japan, and Roberts began to wind down his career.

Hayes and Garvin were paired as the Freebirds in WCW in 1989, enjoying several reigns as World and United States tag-team champions, and were joined by Gordy for a while as well. They later employed the services of masked third partner Fantasia/Badstreet and manager Little Richard Marley. The Freebirds were last together when Hayes, Gordy, and Garvin worked for the Global Wrestling Federation in 1994, ending the group after 15 years.

Their name was inspired by the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Free Bird," which would be their theme song until "Badstreet USA" (sung, composed, and co-written by Hayes) replaced it in 1984. It is often claimed that the Freebirds were the first to use entrance music for their ring introductions, though this is not completely true. The Freebirds were the first to use Rock 'n' Roll entrance music. The first to use actual entrance music was Gorgeous George ("Pomp and Circumstance") in the 1940s.

Gordy died of a heart attack, caused by a blood clot on July 16, 2001 at age 40 while Roberts died on November 29, 2012, at the age of 65, of pneumonia. Hayes (who retired from in-ring competition shortly after the Freebirds disbanded) is currently the head of the road agents/producers within WWE, while Garvin retired from wrestling shortly after disbanding and has become an Airline Transport Pilot.

The Freebirds concept was heavily derived from the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Free Bird" and the image of "Southern pride" evoked by the band. For most of the team's early existence, the song was used as their entrance music, in both television and live appearances. On occasion, they would also enter the ring to Willie Nelson's rendition of "Georgia on My Mind".

During the mid 1980s, a number of North American wrestling promotions who licensed copyrighted music faced difficulties in continuing those licenses. Other promotions which did not license music were under scrutiny for the practice. Promotions began looking for solutions. The WWF, which hired Jimmy Hart and Jim Johnston in 1985, used their talents to write and produce music under which the copyrights could be controlled by the company. Around this same time, Hayes recorded the song "Badstreet USA" and released a music video, which included the other Freebird members. This song would largely be used as the entrance music for the Freebirds from that point forward, though they would use the other songs on occasion.

During the Freebirds' career in the NWA, they won its tag-team championship. While holding the title, promoters added a sub-gimmick to the team: the (unofficial) "Freebird Rule", which allowed any two of the three members of the team to defend the title on any given night.

This rule has been re-used by a number of other companies when a three (or more) man team captures a tag-team championship. Examples include:
* The Midnight Express (Southeastern Championship Wrestling, 1981–1983)
* The Russians: Ivan Koloff, Nikita Koloff, and Krusher Khruschev (NWA, 1985–1986)
* Demolition: Ax, Smash, and Crush (WWF, 1990)
* The Wolfpac: Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Syxx (WCW, 1997)
* The Jersey Triad: Diamond Dallas Page, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Chris Kanyon (WCW, 1999) (Unlike other uses, the Jersey Triad was allowed to switch between the three members during a match, as long as one member was on the floor)
* Triple X: Elix Skipper, Low Ki, and Christopher Daniels (TNA, 2003)
* 3 Live Kru: Konnan, B.G. James, and Ron Killings (TNA, 2003–2004)
* The Spirit Squad: Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, Nicky, and Mikey (WWE, 2006)
* Chri$ Ca$h, Sexxxy Eddy, Nate Webb and J.C. Bailey (Combat Zone Wrestling)
* The Dudebusters: Trent Barreta, Caylen Croft and Curt Hawkins (Florida Championship Wrestling, 2009–2010)
* The Beautiful People: Lacey Von Erich, Velvet Sky, and Madison Rayne (TNA, 2010)
* The Band: Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Eric Young (TNA, 2010)
* The Family: Jessie Godderz, Rob Terry, Mohamad Ali Vaez and Rudy Switchblade (OVW, 2012)

In some cases, the Freebird rule has been applied to singles titles, most notably when Chyna and Chris Jericho co-held the WWF Intercontinental Championship in 2000.[8] Other such cases included when 3 Count won the WCW Hardcore Championship in 2000, and when Matt Bentley and Frankie Kazarian co-held the TNA X Division Championship in 2004. In 2010, after Layla won the WWE Women's Championship, Team Lay-Cool (Layla and Michelle McCool) co-held the title. This was a slight variation to the Freebird rule, as while both divas defended the title, only Layla was recognized as the official champion. Later that year, the same rule was instituted when Michelle McCool won the WWE Divas Championship; both members of Team Lay-Cool defended the title, but only McCool was recognized as official champion.

There were offshoots like the Blackbirds and the Extreme Freebirds.

The original three Freebirds briefly appear in action against Greg Gagne, The Tonga Kid, and Jim Brunzell during the opening sequence of the 1986 film Highlander, which occurs at an arena-based wrestling show in "Madison Square Garden" (the actual site was the Izod Center in New Jersey, as they didn't take the Meadowlands banners down for filming but was said to be Madison Square Garden), as wrestlers in-action.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

11. The Midnight Express

In 1980 a new team was formed in Southeast Championship Wrestling (SECW) when Dennis Condrey’s previous partner Don Carson retired. Condrey teamed up with Randy Rose and won the NWA Southeast Tag Team Championship shortly after they started teaming up. The team started a storyline feud with Norvell Austin who was one of the regulars in SECW. Austin recruited various partners such as Paul Orndorff, who were successful in briefly capturing the Southeast tag team gold. In an attempt to throw Rose and Condrey off Austin would adopt the masked persona of “The Shadow” and together with Brad Armstrong defeat the team for the titles on May 4, 1981, holding them until July 27, 1981 before losing the belts back to Condrey and Rose. After the title loss Austin turned on Armstrong and joined up with Condrey and Rose to form a stable (group) known as The Midnight Express. In the book The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams Condrey explains that the name did not stem from the movie Midnight Express (although later versions of the Midnight Express would use the film’s theme by Giorgio Moroder as their theme music) but from the fact that they all dressed in black, drove black cars, and were out partying past midnight. Together the three men would win the AWA Southern Tag Team title in the CWA and invoke a rule that’d later be referred to as the Freebird Rule which allowed any two of the three men to defend the titles on a given night so that their opponents never knew what combination to expect. The Midnight Express would lose the AWA Southern tag team title to Bobby Eaton and Sweet Brown Sugar before returning to SECW in the spring of 1982.

Upon their return to Southeastern Championship Wrestling the Midnight Express would quickly regain the Southeastern Tag Team title from Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden on September 27, 1982. The Express then became involved in a feud with the Mongolian Stomper and his storyline son “Mongolian Stomper Jr.” whom they would lose the Southeastern title to but ultimately regain as they sent Stomper and Stomper Jr. packing. After having dealt with the Stompers the Midnight Express’ next challengers came in the form of the odd duo of ”Dizzy” Ed Hogan and local workhorse Ken Lucas. Hogan and Lucas won the tag team title in June only to see the Midnight Express use their 3 on 2 advantage to regain the titles. Despite holding the titles once more in July 1983 it was not long until the Midnight Express finally got the better of their challengers by reclaiming the titles for good by the end of July 1983. The Midnight Express’ final feud in the SECW was with the local heroes Jimmy Golden and Robert Fuller who managed to drive the group out of SECW, at least in storyline terms. After dropping the Southeastern Tag Team titles to Brad and Scott Armstrong, Austin, Condrey and Rose went their separate ways.

When Bobby Eaton was sent to Mid-South Wrestling under promoter Bill Watts as a part of a talent trade it was decided that he should be part of the new version of the Midnight Express. Eaton teamed with former rival Dennis Condrey under the management of Jim Cornette to form a new version of the Midnight Express. The Express had up until this point been a group of wrestlers, but once Eaton and Condrey joined together the Midnight Express worked exclusively as a two-man team. To compliment “Loverboy" Dennis, Eaton was nicknamed “Beautiful Bobby", a nickname he still uses. The Express was first booked in an angle (storyline) with the Mid-South Tag Team champions Magnum T.A. and Mr. Wrestling II. The highlight of the angle saw Eaton and Condrey tarring and feathering Magnum TA in the middle of the ring. The Express won their first tag team championship when Mr. Wrestling II turned on Magnum TA and attacked him during a match, allowing Eaton and Condrey to walk away with the titles without much opposition.

With Mr. Wrestling II and Magnum TA splitting up, the Midnight Express needed a new team to defend their newly won titles against. This team was The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson), whom they started a long-running series of matches that would run well into the 1990s and span several wrestling promotions. The two Expresses had a series of matches which differed so much from the way tag team wrestling was traditionally presented at the time, that it gathered a lot of attention both locally and nationally. The two teams feuded throughout 1984 in Mid-South Wrestling before the Midnight Express left the promotion to work elsewhere. The Midnight Express versus Rock 'n' Roll Express series of matches was so well received by the fans that independent promoters all over the United States still book that match today, 20 years after the rivalry started.

The Midnight Express had a short stay in World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas where they feuded mainly with The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers). When opportunities in WCCW looked to go nowhere the Midnight Express started to look elsewhere for employment and what they found would give the team national and international exposure.

In 1985 Eaton, Condrey and Cornette signed with Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) and thus were exposed on a national level through JCP’s television shows that were broadcast on SuperStation TBS. Shortly after joining JCP, the Midnight Express reignited their feud with the Rock 'n' Roll Express from whom they won the NWA World Tag team titles in February 1986. Eaton and Condrey lost the titles back to the Rock 'n' Roll Express six months later. Besides feuding with the Rock 'n' Roll Express, Eaton and Condrey also had long-running feuds with The New Breed (Chris Champions and Sean Royal) as well as The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk). The feud with the Road Warriors included a high profile Scaffold Match at Starrcade 1986, which the Midnight Express lost. Early in 1987, Dennis Condrey suddenly left JCP without giving any reason. After missing the March 25 show in San Francisco, CA and other shows in the following week, the decision was made after he missed the March 31 tapings that a change was needed.

Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton are regarded as the most decorated tag team of all time, compiling a total of 50 tag team titles.

After Condrey's departure, Eaton was left without a partner. As a possible replacement, "Sweet Stan" Lane, who had worked against Eaton and knew him well, was suggested. J.J. Dillon approached Stan Lane in Florida telling him that Dusty Rhodes wanted to talk to him. At the time, business was going badly in Florida and Lane's longtime partner Steve Keirn had already quit wrestling. Lane took the opportunity and made the jump to Jim Crockett Promotions after meeting with Rhodes and Eaton in Charlotte. Eaton and Lane's familiarity with each other showed as the new version of the Midnight Express gelled from the beginning. According to Tim Horner, he was also considered to replace Condrey, but Stan Lane just happened to call the office at the right time. Lane debuted as Condrey's replacement on April 4, 1987 in time to join Eaton in facing the Road Warriors that night in Boston, MA. They quickly meshed as a team, reaching the semi-finals of the Crockett Cup Tag Team Tournament on April 11, 1987 in Baltimore, MD.

On May 16, 1987 the combination of Eaton and Lane became champions as they won the NWA United States Tag team titles for the first time, a title they would win three times during their time together. A year later the team was cheered on despite being heels as the Midnight Express won the NWA World Tag Team Titles from the Horsemen Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard on September 10, 1988. The Midnight Express' run with the titles only last a little over a month-and-a-half before the Road Warriors (who had recently turned heel on Sting) took the gold from them in a brutal match up that saw the Express further their turn to face.

Lane, Eaton and Cornette completed their turn to babyface when they entered into a feud with a team newly arrived from the AWA. "The Original Midnight Express" was a reunion of Midnight Express founding members Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose, who had been teaming up before Condrey and Eaton became a team. The duo was led by longtime Jim Cornette nemesis Paul E. Dangerously in a storyline that saw the originators trying to prove they were better than the new version. The surprise appearance of the Original Midnight Express gave Dangerously’s team the initial momentum in the feud, but soon after Dennis Condrey left the promotion once more before a "loser leaves town" match that would see the wrestler that took the losing fall getting fired. This forced the bookers to bring in Jack Victory as a replacement as Condrey’s disappearance cut the promising feud short. Cornette contends in a "shoot" interview that backstage politics and animosity between the Original Midnights, promotion head Jim Crockett, and head booker George Scott is what led to the feud being cooled off and Condrey once again leaving the promotion. Rose ended up taking the pin in the resultant match and was fired from the promotion afterwards.

Due to various differences over the direction of the Midnight Express, Cornette, Lane and Eaton left JCP for a short while, around the time that Ted Turner bought out Jim Crockett and began promoting the federation under the name World Championship Wrestling (WCW). When the issues were resolved Cornette and the Midnight Express returned to the federation and a very strong tag team division. When they returned they took part in the tournament to determine the vacated world tag team titles where they advanced to the finals before losing to the Freebirds with some assistance from the Samoan Swat Team. They would engage in a feud with the Freebirds and Samoans until the 1989 Great American Bash where they teamed up with the Road Warriors and Dr. Death Steve Williams to defeat the Freebirds and Samoans in a War Games match. They would soon turn heel as a result of a feud with the Dynamic Dudes who they duped into thinking that Jim Cornette wanted to be the Dudes manager when in reality he was all along on the side of the Midnight Express during a match between the teams at Clash of the Champions IX show in New York. The Dynamic Dudes would gain a measure of revenge when the Midnight Express laid out an open challenge for any team for $10,000 and after dispatching of a couple of no name teams. The next team was announced from Gotham City and were the Dynamic Duo who of course were the Dynamic Dudes under masks who eventually pinned the Express and won the money. The feud would soon lose steam and was forgotten soon after.

After returning to their cheating ways, the Midnight Express started a storyline with the up-and-coming team of Flyin’ Brian and "Z-Man" Tom Zenk over the United States Tag team titles. The Express won the titles from the young team in early 1990, but lost them to The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) three months later. After a loss at the WCW pay-per-view Halloween Havoc 1990 the Midnight Express split up when Jim Cornette and Stan Lane left the federation. For the first time in almost a decade there was no Midnight Express, it was the end of an era in tag team wrestling.

Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose first teamed up in 1981, thus are the Original Midnight Express. After Condrey left the NWA in 1987, he reunited with Rose in the AWA, where they won the AWA World Tag Team Championship, and were managed by Paul E. Dangerously. In 1988, Condrey, Rose, and Dangerously came to the NWA to feud with Eaton, Lane, and Cornette; however, the feud ended abruptly when Condrey left the NWA, just days before Chi-Town Rumble. After defeating Rose and Jack Victory, Dangerously went on to manage the Samoan Swat Team to feud with Eaton, Lane, and Cornette.

In 2003, Eaton worked for NWA Mid-Atlantic forming a new version of the Midnight Express with Rikki Nelson. This Midnight Express version was very short lived as Eaton soon started touring with Dennis Condrey (and sometimes Lane and Cornette) as the Midnight Express instead. This version of the Midnight Express still performs together on select independent wrestling cards in the United States.

On June 7, 2008, they lost to The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton) at the NWA 60th Anniversary Show in Atlanta, Georgia.

[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
15. Harlem Heat
14. The Rock N Roll Express
13. Team Hell No
12. The Fabulous Freebirds
11. The Midnight Express

Clues to the next five tag teams

* A hitman & an anvil

* Matilda

* Oh you didn't know

* They broke up at a barber shop

* Walking disasters

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

10. New Age Outlaws

The Outlaws first formed on a 1997 episode of Shotgun Saturday Night when struggling superstars Billy Gunn and "Road Dogg" Jesse James, then known as Rock-a-Billy and "The Real Double J" Jesse James respectively, ended their feud and teamed up.

On a later edition of Shotgun Saturday Night, Jesse James walked out to the ring following a loss by Rock-A-Billy and asked him to turn on his manager The Honky Tonk Man and team with him. Rock-A-Billy answered by smashing a guitar on Honky Tonk Man's head and telling James he was in. Rock-A-Billy re-dubbed himself "Badd Ass" Billy Gunn and Jesse James rechristened himself The Road Dogg. The team made an immediate impact on the WWF tag team scene with blatant attacks against other tag teams and, not having an entrance theme, walking out to the ring with only Road Dogg making a rant against their opponents over the PA system. The team became known for pulling wins out of nowhere via cheating and use of weapons. Through their attitude, charisma and antics, they began to get over with the crowd as heels.

James and Gunn defeated the Legion of Doom for the Tag Team Championship in November 1997. This marked Gunn's fourth Tag Team Title Reign and Road Dogg's first. Not only did the team win the titles that night, but they also got their "Outlaws" nickname when they "stole" the win and then ran to a waiting car, prompting Raw announcer Jim Ross to liken them to outlaws leaving a robbery. The name stuck and the New Age Outlaws quickly became one of the most hated teams in the WWF. During their feud with LOD, the Outlaws joined Triple H and Shawn Michaels, collectively known as D-Generation X, in assaulting the team on an episode of Monday Night Raw, including shaving off one of Road Warrior Hawk's mohawks and throwing Road Warrior Animal through the announce table.

Shortly before the Royal Rumble in 1998, the New Age Outlaws began a feud with Mick Foley, first fighting him as Dude Love, then as Mankind and finally Cactus Jack. When it became apparent that he needed help dealing with the Outlaws, Foley brought in Chainsaw Charlie. Following a disqualification against The Legion of Doom at the Royal Rumble, the team were confronted by DX who told them they needed to start making waves by acting more controversially. In response to this, the Outlaws locked Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie in a dumpster and threw it off the entrance ramp on to the concrete floor. The Outlaws initially looked concerned, but ultimately attacked their injured rivals in what Foley would describe as "one of the funnier examples of bad sportsmanship" At WrestleMania XIV, the New Age Outlaws lost the titles to Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie in a Dumpster match. The next night on Raw, however, with the aid of Triple H and X-Pac, the Outlaws regained the title in a steel cage match and officially joined DX.

The growing popularity of the "new" DX quickly turned the group from heels to tweeners, and they feuded with many different tag teams over the course of 1998. Their immense popularity was part of what helped the WWF challenge World Championship Wrestling for ratings supremacy during the Monday Night Wars. They lost the tag title to Kane and Mankind in the summer of 1998, only to regain the titles from that same team at SummerSlam in a handicap match after Kane no-showed. In late 1998 Vince McMahon's Corporation tried to tempt the Outlaws away from DX and failed, which led to the Outlaws losing the title to Corporation members Ken Shamrock and Big Boss Man.

As 1999 started, the Outlaws slowly began to drift apart, with each man striving for singles gold. Road Dogg held both the Hardcore Title and the Intercontinental Championship in the first few months of 1999 (including a successful IC title defense at Wrestlemania XV), and Gunn briefly held the Hardcore title as well. In March, the pair started to team once again, leading to a match with Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart at Backlash in April. A week later, Gunn turned heel on Road Dogg, resulting in a feud and a match at Over the Edge. The following month, Gunn went on to win the King of the Ring tournament.

During the fall of 1999 the Outlaws reunited, first as faces, but then as heels when they rejoined the reformed and now heel DX. No Way Out 2000 saw the final end of the Outlaws when Gunn received a serious arm injury during a match with the Dudley Boyz. Gunn was soon kicked out of DX after "losing his cool" and getting into a fight with all of the DX members; in reality, he needed to have surgery to repair his torn rotator cuff. Road Dogg was released from his WWF contract in early 2001 due to ongoing drug issues while Gunn was released from his contract in 2004 after ten years with the company.

On September 18, 2002, "Road Dogg" Jesse James debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under his birth name B.G. James. In July 2003, he formed a stable with Konnan and Ron "The Truth" Killings known as The 3Live Kru (3LK). The trio went on to become fan favorites and eventually won the NWA World Tag Team Championship on two occasions, which they defended collectively under the Freebird Rule. Billy Gunn debuted in TNA at Against All Odds on February 13, 2005, interfering in the NWA World Heavyweight Championship bout between Jeff Jarrett and the challenging Kevin Nash. Gunn struck Nash with a chair, but he was able to kick out of Jarrett's subsequent pin attempt. After Gunn seized the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt in order to strike Nash with it, B.G. James ran to the ring and wrestled it away from him.

B.G. James and Gunn, now renamed The New Age Outlaw (later shortened to just The Outlaw), came into conflict once more on April 24, at Lockdown, when Jarrett, The Outlaw and Monty Brown faced Diamond Dallas Page, Sean Waltman and B.G. James (who was replacing an injured Kevin Nash) in a Lethal Lockdown match. Page, Waltman and James were victorious, although during the match James and The Outlaw refrained from fighting one another. Through October and November 2005, "The Outlaw" (now using the name Kip James, due to threats from the WWE that "The Outlaw" sounded too similar to their trademarked New Age Outlaws name) helped 3LK numerous times during their feud with Team Canada. Although he was obviously helping the Kru at every turn, Konnan refused to trust Kip.

On the November 26 episode of TNA Impact!, and even though Konnan had his doubts, 3LK inducted Kip into the group and renamed themselves the 4Live Kru. At Turning Point, however, Konnan turned on the group, eventually forming his own group, The Latin American Xchange (LAX). Killings also went out on his own afterward, leaving only Kip and B.G. together.

On January 14, 2006 Kip James and B.G. James, now calling themselves The James Gang, announced that they had reunited in the face of Konnan and his new group after LAX attacked B.G.'s real-life father "Bullet" Bob Armstrong. Their official in-ring reunion took place the next night at Final Resolution, where they defeated the Diamonds in the Rough. Their feud with LAX continued and included several more appearances by "Bullet" Bob Armstrong, including an Arm Wrestling match between Konnan and the 67-year-old Armstrong.

In May 2006, The James Gang began a feud with Team 3D over which of them was the greatest tag team. The James Gang picked up a victory over Team 3D at Sacrifice after Kip used a pipe on Brother Devon. They met again at Slammiversary, with Team 3D picking up the win this time. With the teams standing at 1-1 (and Brother Runt returning to in-ring action), Team 3D challenged The James Gang to find themselves a partner and face them (Brother Runt included) in a six-man tag match at Victory Road. Whereas Team 3D expected them to get someone from their family (such as "Bullet" Bob Armstrong), the James Gang "made a deal with the devil" and paid James Mitchell to have Abyss team up with them instead. The James Gang and Abyss won the no-disqualification six-man tag match after Abyss Black Hole Slammed Brother Runt onto a table and got the pin.

On the November 2 edition of Impact!, Kip and B.G. James cut a worked-shoot promo announcing they were quitting the company out of frustration. During the promo B.G. claimed that TNA had mismanaged him during his run there, and as Kip attempted to speak into the microphone it was cut off. Attempts to use an announcers microphone and scream directly to the crowd were met with another microphone cutting and then the show abruptly going to commercial.

After a November 11 house show in Connecticut (where World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is based) was canceled, TNA filmed a vignette at WWE headquarters featuring the James Gang discussing the show cancellation, posting it on their website two days later. This vignette was followed with a promo on the November 16 Impact!, during which they announced that they had been given "creative control", and were changing their name to the Voodoo Kin Mafia (VKM for short, a play on Vincent Kennedy McMahon's initials) and declaring "war" on WWE. During the "war" they called out the revived D-Generation X (DX), calling it a "failure" and stated that the original run was saved by their insertion as The New Age Outlaws in 1998. During their matches and promos on TNA television they continually included references to DX, including use of their signature taunts and maneuvers. Soon a series of vignettes began airing on Impact! with B.G. and Kip in and around Stamford, Connecticut, calling out Paul Levesque, Michael Hickenbottom, and Vince McMahon. During the vignettes they said they were trying to get a cease and desist letter signed and get WWE to stop using the DX name. The vignettes were notable for using the same style of humor as the original DX while running down the revived DX for doing the same thing.

When The Hardys reunited for December to Dismember and issued an open challenge the TNA website quickly posted a message from VKM accepting, though it had already been accepted by MNM. On December 1, VKM showed up at a WWE house show at the Knoxville Civic Center with Vince Russo, Jeremy Borash, and a camera crew. They interviewed fans outside, filmed themselves purchasing tickets and eventually entered the building, watching the main event match - featuring DX - from an upper level seat. At December's Turning Point, they performed a parody of DX, then, in response to Jim Ross commenting on his website that Vince McMahon probably would not respond to the "war", and in response to their still receiving of legal warnings from WWE, they issued a "Million Dollar Challenge" to Vince McMahon and DX, offering to put up $1 million for a big fight between the DX members and themselves. Hermie Sadler of the UWF promotion later offered to host the "Million Dollar Challenge" at a UWF show during the weekend of WWE's Armageddon pay-per-view event (scheduled for December 17) citing that his event was close to Richmond, Virginia, the site of Armageddon. After the challenge was ignored, they narrowed it on the January 4 Impact!, challenging just Hickenbottom to meet them at the Alamo in his hometown of San Antonio the following Wednesday. VKM declared themselves victorious in their "war" during a promo at Final Resolution citing WWE's refusal to acknowledge their presence while fans loudly chanted both "TNA" and "VKM" during the January 8 episode of WWE Raw.

In the same promo, they entered an angle with Christy Hemme, who declared that women deserve respect in wrestling and found herself heavily disagreed with and mocked by Kip James, while B.G. attempted to agree with her. To shut VKM up, the evil Hemme brought in The Heartbreakers (Antonio Thomas and Romeo Roselli) in to TNA as mystery opponents at Destination X, but VKM made quick work of them. Around this time, Lance Hoyt began hanging around with VKM, keeping Christy Hemme out of VKM's matches. In April, at Lockdown, Hemme had Serotonin face VKM on the pre-show, but again VKM came out victorious. At Sacrifice 2007, VKM lost to Hemme's new team Damaja and Basham formerly known as The Basham Brothers in World Wrestling Entertainment, though not fairly, as Basham and Damaja injured (kayfabe) BG James before the match, making it a handicap match. VKM finally defeated Basham and Damaja at Slammiversary after Kip pinned Basham, but Lance Hoyt turned on VKM after the match. Weeks later, at the Victory Road pay-per-view, VKM debuted a new valet/accomplice, the so-called "Voodoo Queen" Roxxi Laveaux. She attacked Hemme after VKM's match.

On February 21, 2008, Kip turned on his partner by hitting him and his father with a crutch in a tag title match against A.J. Styles and Tomko, thus ending the team.

TNA creative writer Vince Russo stated that the Voodoo Kin Mafia gimmick was cut short out of respect to Triple H, who got injured at the time.

On July 23, 2012, the New Age Outlaws returned to WWE on the 1000th episode of Raw to re-unite with X-Pac, Shawn Michaels and Triple H to reform D-Generation X for one night only. On December 17, Billy Gunn and Road Dogg appeared to present the Slammy Award to Jerry Lawler for Comeback of the Year. Starting on December 26 in Detroit at the Joe Louis Arena, the team reunited to face Team Rhodes Scholars in a house show loop.

On the March 4, 2013, episode of Old School Raw, the New Age Outlaws competed in their first televised tag team match in WWE since February 2000, where they defeated Primo and Epico. The following week on Raw, the New Age Outlaws answered a challenge to take on Rhodes Scholars, but during the match they were attacked by Brock Lesnar.

On the January 6, 2014, episode of Old School Raw, the Outlaws were in the corner of CM Punk during his match against Roman Reigns. On the January 10 episode of SmackDown, the Outlaws teamed with CM Punk in a six-man tag match against The Shield in a losing effort. On the January 13 episode of Raw, the Outlaws again teamed with Punk in a rematch against The Shield, only to abandon Punk and lose the match. Four days later on SmackDown, they defeated WWE Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Goldust in a non-title match. At the Royal Rumble, the Outlaws defeated Rhodes and Goldust to become WWE Tag Team Champions, their first reign with these particular title, their sixth overall tag team championship reign in WWE and first in over 14 years, marking the longest time between reigns in WWE history. The following night on Raw, Rhodes and Goldust invoked their rematch clause, with the Outlaws retaining the title after losing by disqualification after Brock Lesnar interfered and attacked both Rhodes and Goldust. On the February 3 episode of Raw, Triple H granted Rhodes and Goldust a rematch for the titles in a steel cage match, in which the Outlaws would retain their title. At Elimination Chamber, the Outlaws successfully defended their titles against The Usos, but lost the championship in a rematch to The Usos on the March 3 episode of Raw. The New Age Outlaws teamed with Kane to take on The Shield in a losing effort at WrestleMania XXX.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

9. Demolition

Randy Colley and Bill Eadie created the Demolition gimmick and worked for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). They debuted as a heel tag team on the January 17, 1987 edition of Superstars, alongside manager Luscious Johnny V, defeating the team of Salvatore Bellomo and Mario Mancini. The tag team resembled Lord Humungus of the 1981 film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, with the facepaint of hard rockers KISS. Demolition wore studded black leather outfits and leather-covered hockey masks to the ring, which they removed to reveal face paint usually made up of some combination of black, white, red, or silver colors, though other colors were sometimes included. After only a few matches, Colley was replaced with Barry Darsow in a match aired on the February 14, 1987 edition of Superstars. In an RF Video shoot interview with Eadie and Darsow, Eadie claimed that Colley was replaced because he was recognizable to the fans as the man who previously performed as Moondog Rex. The WWF pitched a few potential replacements to Eadie, but he felt fans would recognize the suggested replacements. Eadie felt that many WWF fans would not recognize Darsow, who left Jim Crockett Promotions following a dispute in order to take over the role of Smash.

On the March 14 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Demolition participated in a battle royal, won by Hercules Hernandez. Demolition became known for their aggressive style in the ring and the way that they dominated their matches. Their first feud was with the team of Ken Patera and Billy Jack Haynes, which started after Ax and Smash brutalized WWF jobber Brady Boone (billed in storyline as the cousin of Billy Jack Haynes) during a televised match. Demolition claimed victories over all of the established face tag teams in the WWF at the time, including the Killer Bees (Jim Brunzell and B. Brian Blair), The Rougeau Brothers (Jacques and Raymond), British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith), The Young Stallions (Paul Roma and Jim Powers), The Islanders (Haku and Tama), and Can-Am Connection (Rick Martel and Tom Zenk). Around that same period, Johnny Valiant (who left not too long afterwards) "sold" their contracts to Mr. Fuji who became their manager.

Demolition made their pay-per-view debut at Survivor Series in an elimination tag team match where 5 babyface teams faced 5 heel teams. Demolition was part of the heel group, They were disqualified for shoving down referee Dave Hebner during the match and the face team went on to win the match.

At WrestleMania IV, Ax and Smash defeated Strike Force (Rick Martel and Tito Santana) to win their first WWF Tag Team Championship. Ax struck Martel in the back of the neck with Fuji's cane while he had Smash in a Boston crab (Fuji had dropped the cane into the ring while taking a beating from Santana who carried on oblivious to what was happening in the ring). Martel was knocked out and Smash covered him for the pin while Ax hid outside with the cane. As champions, they defeated a number of the top teams of the WWF, which at the time had a very talent-rich and hotly contested tag division, most notably the British Bulldogs and Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart).

Their first big challenge came in the summer of 1988, when the Powers of Pain (The Warlord and The Barbarian) entered the WWF and challenged them for the Tag Team Championship. During the elimination tag team match at Survivor Series, Mr. Fuji attacked Demolition and joined forces with the Powers of Pain. A double turn took place as Demolition turned face while the Powers of Pain turned heel. Demolition defeated the Powers of Pain & Mr. Fuji in a tag team handicap match at WrestleMania V to retain the WWF Tag Team Championship when they caught Fuji in the "Demolition Decapitation". Prior to this, Ax and Smash also memorably squared off against each other as entrants #1 and #2 in the Royal Rumble match at the Summit in Houston in 1989, tearing into each other for the full two minutes before being joined in the ring by the third entrant André the Giant, where they once again joined as Demolition and targeted the big man.

After WrestleMania V, Demolition started a feud with the Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard), who were the members of the heel stable The Heenan Family, led by none other than Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. On the May 27, 1989 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, the Brain Busters defeated Demolition by disqualification. Demolition became the longest reigning WWF Tag Team Champions after breaking the record of The Valiant Brothers (Jimmy and Johnny), and lasting a reign of 478 days. They finally dropped the titles to the Brain Busters in a two out of three falls match on the July 29 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. Demolition started a feud with André the Giant and the Twin Towers (Akeem and The Big Bossman). At SummerSlam 1989, King Duggan and Demolition defeated André and the Twin Towers in a six-man tag team match. Demolition focused on regaining the tag titles and restarted their feud with the Brain Busters. On the November 4 edition of Superstars (taped on October 2), Demolition defeated the Brain Busters to regain their tag titles and win their second WWF Tag Team Championship.

Demolition next feuded with the new Heenan Family team, the Colossal Connection (André the Giant and Haku). On the December 30 edition of Superstars (taped on December 13), Demolition lost the tag titles to the Colossal Connection. At WrestleMania VI at the Skydome in Toronto, Demolition defeated the Colossal Connection to regain the titles and win their third and final WWF Tag Team Championship, and finally put an end to their feud with the Heenan Family. Due to his deteriorating physical condition, André never tagged in during the match with Haku facing Demolition on his own.

Shortly after WrestleMania VI, the team gradually began to turn heel again. This intensified when Brian Adams debuted in WWF and joined the team as Crush. In kayfabe it was claimed that this was a heinous scheme to gain a three-on-two advantage over other tag teams, but it was actually because Eadie had developed an allergy to shellfish (which he attributed to his frequent trips to Japan) which hospitalized him, and WWF owner and head booker Vince McMahon wanted to add a third member to the team just in case the illness put Eadie out of action for an extended period of time.

Crush soon took a more active role, teaming with Smash while Ax faded into the background, becoming more of a manager. At this time Demolition used the "Freebird rule" to allow any two members to wrestle the matches. Smash and Crush defended the titles in the summer of 1990. On the July 28 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Smash and Crush defeated The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty) to retain the titles after Ax interfered on their behalf and attacked Michaels. The next month at SummerSlam, however, Demolition lost the titles to Hart Foundation in a two out of three falls match. In that match, Smash & Crush started, but Ax secretly came down later on to substitute himself into the match behind the referee's back. Ultimately, the Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal), who had signed with the WWF a month earlier, interfered and snuffed out the deception. Demolition never recaptured the titles after this loss.

Soon after, due to the Legion of Doom (L.O.D.) now being on the WWF roster, Demolition's popularity began to decline, despite regaining the managerial services of Mr. Fuji in the fall of 1990. As a result of the interference by LOD, Demolition began feuding with the Ultimate Warrior and LOD. On the October 13 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Ax, Smash, and Crush lost to the Ultimate Warrior and LOD. At Survivor Series, The Perfect Team (Demolition and Mr. Perfect) was defeated by The Ultimate Warriors (the Ultimate Warrior, the Texas Tornado, and the Legion of Doom). Shortly after, Ax left the WWF, with the on-air explanation being an order from kayfabe WWF President Jack Tunney that there could only be two members of Demolition. Smash and Crush were the two remaining members, and went on to primarily lose to teams such as the Rockers and the Legion of Doom. The team lost a match to Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao at WrestleMania VII. The team's next match was at WWF/SWS Wrestlefest on March 30, 1991 where they defeated Shunji Takano & Shinichi Nakano. Following this match, Demolition would continue to wrestle in both the WWF and the SWS throughout the summer usually on the losing end of matches. The team's final match occurred on September 18, 1991 in a losing effort to George Takano and Shunji Takano. Afterwards, they eventually broke up and the members went their separate ways. Crush went on a leave of absence from the WWF, while Smash wrestled in singles matches (usually on the losing end) for a brief time before becoming Repo Man, a sneaky thief claiming to be a repossessor, in the fall of 1991. Crush would return in the spring of 1992 as a face, beginning a run as the popular "Kona Crush" (a surfer type). The two ended up facing off at SummerSlam 1992, with Crush getting the victory. Crush would later turn heel on Randy Savage and rehire Mr. Fuji as his manager in 1993, once again painting his face, only in a different pattern from his Demolition days.

After leaving the WWF, Eadie began using the name Axis the Demolisher on the independent circuit and took in original "Smash" gimmick owner Randy Colley as well as Carmine Azzato under the name of Demolition Blast in an attempt to resurrect the Demolition name and gimmick. They were sent a cease and desist letter by the WWF once they found out.

In the mid-1990s, Bill Eadie filed a lawsuit against the WWF for the rights of the "Demolition" name and gimmick but lost. Ax, Smash and Crush inked a deal with Jakks Pacific to make Demolition Classic Superstars action figures. Ax and Smash were together in a 2-pack for Toys R Us, each had a singles figure from series #14, and were packaged and repainted with Crush in a 3-pack for Walmart.

On April 1, 2007, Darsow and Eadie reunited for the first time in 16 years at a "Meet the Legends" event in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

On August 13, 2007, Brian Adams was found unconscious in his Tampa, Florida home. Adams' wife found him not breathing in his bed, and summoned paramedics. The wrestler could not be revived, and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police could not immediately determine a cause of death, but noted no signs of injury.

On September 29, 2007, Darsow and Eadie reunited as the tag team Demolition for the first time in 16 years in Orlando, Florida at a United States Xtreme Wrestling event. They once again became tag team champions, defeating the Christopher Street Connection (Buff-E and Mace) to win the UXW Tag Team Championship.

On Friday, February 22, 2008, both Ax & Smash were re-united and inducted into the XWF Hall of Fame by Jack Blaze who also inducted both New Jack & Shark Boy in the same night. Later that year, XWF became LPW (Legends Pro Wrestling) where Demolition are still honored as LPW Hall of Fame Inductees- Class 2008.

Demolition teamed with One Man Gang in the 28-team King of Trios tournament held by Chikara during the weekend of February 29 and March 1 and 2, 2008 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While losing the three-man tournament they did win the Tag Team gauntlet.

On November 13, 2010, Demolition appeared at WrestleRage VIII in Villa Park, Illinois with POWW Entertainment. They beat the team of Picture Perfect for the POWW Tag Team titles, but quickly lost them after the first match to the team of Trevor Blanchard and Black Iron.

On May 21, 2011, Demolition reunited at Full Impact Pro's debut iPPV In Full Force. Their match against Tony DeVito and Ralph Mosco went to a no contest when local commentator and manager Larry Dallas came out and said his men wanted revenge. The ring was stormed by Manu, Sami Callihan, Blain Rage and Joey Attel. Demolition, Devito and Mosco managed to clear the ring and beat Dallas to end the show.

On September 16, 2012, Demolition returned to Chikara, taking part in the tag team gauntlet match at the 2012 King of Trios tournament, from which they were eliminated by their old WWF rivals, The Powers of Pain.

In 2013, Demolition are set to perform for the eastern Canadian independent promotion XWA. The former champions are scheduled to make appearances in Saint John (June 6), Fredericton (June 7), Miramichi (June 8), and Bathurst (June 9).

In November 2013, their finishing move was rated the 7th greatest Tag Team Finisher of All time.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

8. The Midnight Rockers/The Rockers

Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels first met and struck up a friendship when they both competed for the National Wrestling Alliance's Central States Wrestling territory in Kansas City in 1985. Initially they would only travel together (along with Dave "D.J." Peterson) since Jannetty was either teaming with Tommy Rogers (better known as Tommy Lane of the Rock 'n' Roll RPMs) as the Uptown Boys, or he was teaming with Central States booker ”Bulldog” Bob Brown. After the team of Jannetty and Brown broke up Michaels and Jannetty started teaming up, although they were not given a team name. On May 15, 1985 Michaels and Jannetty defeated The Batten Twins (Brad & Bart) to win the NWA Central States Tag Team Championship. Their first title reign was short-lived as the Batten Twins regained the title only a week later on May 22, 1985. Shortly after the team lost the CSW tag team title, Michaels left Kansas City and returned to his homestate of Texas to work for Texas All-Star Wrestling. In TASW Shawn began teaming with Paul Diamond as ”American Force” and the team of Jannetty and Michaels seemed like it was never meant to be a permanent thing.

In early 1986, both Jannetty and Michaels were signed by the American Wrestling Association (AWA) as they needed young talent to replace the wrestlers that had switched to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as it was expanding towards becoming a national company. The two were paired up by the AWA bookers, Greg Gagne (son of the owner and one of the bookers) suggested the name ”The Country Rockers”, another idea for a name was the "U.S. Express" (as told by Marty during an interview on AWA television that aired in 1986) not keen on the idea the two of them came up with the name The Midnight Rockers inspired by Judas Priest’s ”Living after Midnight”. AWA owner Verne Gagne did not seem to understand the idea, (in fact he is quoted as wondering if fans might confuse the name with rocking chairs) but let the team go ahead and use the name.

The two started wearing identical outfits and develop the ”Fun loving pretty boy” gimmick they would be known for throughout their time together. After wrestling on the lower end of the card to get the fans familiar with the team the Midnight Rockers soon moved onto a feud with the team of Doug Somers and Buddy Rose who at the time were one of the top teams in the promotion. Their initial outing with Somers and Rose at the WrestleRock stadium show on April 20, 1986 did not go well for Jannetty and Michaels who lost in front of 22,000 fans. When Somers and Rose beat Scott Hall and Curt Hennig for the AWA World Tag Team Championship the Midnight Rockers suddenly found themselves chasing the main tag team title of the promotion. The Midnight Rockers teamed up with Curt Hennig to defeat Somer, Rose and Alexis Smirnoff at ”Battle by the Bay” on June 28, 1986 to prove that they were indeed capable of beating the champions. The Midnight Rockers would repeatedly challenge Somers throughout the rest of 1986 but never quite be able to get the win when the title was on the line. Finally near the end of that year, Jannetty and Michaels defeated the champions in a ”non-title” Steel cage match on December 25, 1986 on the AWA’s ”Brawl in St. Paul” show. Finally on January 27, 1987 the Midnight Rockers defeated Rose and Somers for the AWA Tag Team title. Jannetty and Michaels realized that the AWA was a promotion in decline, in fact it would shut down completely by 1990, and they decided that their best bet was to work for the WWF. The Midnight Rockers got an offer from Vince McMahon while holding the AWA Tag Title. The Midnight Rockers even signed with the WWF while still holding the gold, necessitating the quick title change to the unproven duo of Boris Zhukov and Soldat Ustinov on May 25, 1987.

The team made their first WWF appearance only five days after dropping the AWA Tag Team titles at a house show in St. Paul, Minnesota where they challenged the then WWF World Tag Team Champions The Hart Foundation for a title match. Four days later the Midnight Rockers wrestled at their first TV taping for the show WWF Wrestling Challenge defeating the team of Jose Estrada, Sr. and Jimmy Jack Funk. This match was their one and only taped appearance for the WWF as they were fired after only a few short weeks with the federation. The team was fired because of excessive partying and not enough focusing on their in ring work.

After being fired by the WWF, they went down to Continental Wrestling around Alabama and Pensacola, Florida. According to the Heartbreak and Triumph DVD, Michaels was unhappy there. When Bob Armstrong took over the booking, they gave them two weeks notice that they were no longer needed and he was bringing in another tag team.

After the way they had left the AWA Michaels and Jannetty could not just return like nothing had happened, instead the Midnight Rockers started working for the AWA affiliated Championship Wrestling Association (CWA) in Memphis, Tennessee. The team had made a couple of appearances in the CWA in the past as part of their working agreement with the AWA but now they were in Memphis full-time. Their first feud in Memphis was against a recently formed team known as The Nasty Boys (Jerry Sags and Brian Knobs) whom they faced in several brutal matches all over the CWA territory. After The Nasty Boys, The Rockers got involved in a feud with “The Nightmares” (Danny Davis and Ken Wayne). During their time in the CWA Shawn and Marty turned heel (bad guys) for the first time in both of their careers as they attacked the team of Rock 'n' Roll RPMs (Tommy Lane and Mike Davis.) Their heel personas were that of self-obsessed, glory seeking ”superstars”, the same persona Michaels would later adopt as ”The Hearbreak Kid”. Their feud with the RPMs saw the Midnight Rockers defeat Lane and Davis to win the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship on October 26, 1987. Jannetty and Michaels lost then regained the Southern Tag Team title as the Midnight Rockers / RPMs feud raged on.

With their success in Memphis, the AWA started to book them as well, having the Midnight Rockers split their time between Memphis and the AWA territory – in Memphis the Midnight Rockers were heels but in the AWA they were faces (good guys), something which was possible before the advent of national television deals and easy internet access. On December 27, 1987 The Midnight Rockers defeated The Original Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose) for the AWA World Tag Team title. Since they had won the AWA World Tag Team titles, Jannetty and Michaels were forced to vacate the AWA Southern Tag Team titles in January 1988. While in the CWA, they had a brief feud with The Rock 'n' Roll Express over the AWA World Tag Team titles. After a short while in the AWA Jannetty and Michaels began asking for more money and a guaranteed contract from owner Verne Gagne. When this request was denied the Midnight Rockers quit the AWA without having found another promotion for which to work. Before they left the promotion, they lost the AWA Tag Team Championship on March 19 to Badd Company (Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond).

Shortly after leaving the AWA, Jannetty and Michaels were contacted by WWF owner Vince McMahon informing them that he was willing to bring them back if they were able to be more professional this time round. By the end of May the team was working for the WWF under the shortened name The Rockers. They officially made their television debut on the June 18, 1988 edition of WWF Superstars of Wrestling in a squash match. The Rockers made their pay-per-view (PPV) debut at Survivor Series in 1988 as part of the 10 team tag match. They eliminated The Bolsheviks from the match before being eliminated by a double-disqualification in a brawl with the Brain Busters. The brawl between The Rockers and The Brain Busters led to a match taped for WWF Superstars of Wrestling where both teams were disqualified once again, this time before the match could really start. This led to a series of house show matches between the two teams, a series of matches that drew rave reviews from the fans. One match in particular on January 23, 1989 was rated as one of the 50 greatest matches in the PWI 10th year anniversary issue. The Brain Busters narrowly defeated The Rockers, as Anderson held down Marty Jannetty's leg as Blanchard pinned him. The feud continued to rage on as they clashed at Saturday's Night Main Event in a match that saw both teams counted out for brawling on the floor.

They competed against The Twin Towers, Akeem and Big Boss Man, at WrestleMania V. According to Michaels' autobiography, he was nursing a severe hangover in the hours before this match. In spring 1989, The Rockers started a storyline with The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers that kicked off with an underhanded attack on Michaels during a match. The Rougeaus assaulted Michaels with manager Jimmy Hart’s megaphone and drew blood. This storyline put The Rockers' issues with The Brain Busters on the back burners while The Rockers and the Rougeaus fought. The issue between The Rockers and Rougeaus was the storyline reason for introducing the “Iron Man match” to the WWF. Despite wrestling 5 Iron Man matches against each other none of the matches were ever televised or released on a commercial tape. On August 28, 1989, the Rockers/Rougeau feud made it to PPV as the Rougeaus teamed with Rick Martel to defeat The Rockers and Tito Santana at SummerSlam.

In late 1989, The Rockers and The Brain Busters resumed their feud after The Brain Busters lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to Demolition. On November 23, The Rockers faced Arn Anderson as part of the 4-on-4 elimination matches at Survivor Series. Prior to the match, Tully Blanchard had failed a drug test and was fired, forcing manager Bobby Heenan to wrestle in his place. The Rockers and The Brain Busters had one last match at Saturday Night's Main Event where they defeated The Brain Busters 2 falls to 1. After the match, Bobby Heenan fired the team in a backstage segment to explain why the team disappeared from the WWF.

In December 1989, The Rockers feuded with The Powers of Pain until February 1990.

In April 1990, The Rockers faced new competition in the form of Pat Tanaka and Akio Sato, the newly signed team known as The Orient Express. The two teams kicked off a prolonged feud that started at WrestleMania VI and continued off and on for well over a year. When Sato decided leave the American wrestling scene in December 1990, the WWF decided team Tanaka up with his former partner Paul Diamond under a mask. Tanaka and Diamond had previously teamed as Badd Company and won the AWA Tag Team Championship from The Rockers. The Rockers and The Orient Express had a high profile, high flying match at the Royal Rumble.

By current WWE records, The Rockers never officially held the WWF Tag Team Championship but on October 30, 1990 Jannetty and Michaels did actually defeat the reigning champions The Hart Foundation in a two out of three falls match in Fort Wayne, Indiana to seemingly win the title. The WWE (WWF) has never officially recognized The Rockers' champion status. During the match the top rope broke by accident making the match a disjointed affair that would require serious clean up before it could be shown on TV. The Rockers defended the WWF Tag Team title against Power and Glory (Paul Roma and Hercules) on November 3, 1990. Shortly after November 3 it was decided to not air the title change and that the title would revert to the Hart Foundation. In his book Michaels claims that the Hart Foundation had politicked to keep the title. Michaels claim is contradicted by other claims that the WWF had actually fired Jim Neidhart forcing the title change but after the match the two sides came to an agreement and Neidhart was brought back. The Rockers were never officially credited with a title win but footage from the match was shown prior to Jannetty’s WWF return in 1995. The match can be seen in its entirety on the DVD The Shawn Michaels Story: Heartbreak & Triumph. Because it never aired, the match was not clipped and thus is shown in full with no commentary; the only edit being after the second fall when a ring crew arrived to reattach the broken rope.

After teaming together since 1985, The Rockers split up in December 1991 after backstage disputes. The exact nature of the dispute has not been confirmed by the WWF other than it was a monetary issue that lead to Jannetty quitting the WWF on behalf of both Rockers. According to Michaels's book, Jannetty had claimed that World Championship Wrestling were willing to give them a very high guaranteed contract but when Michaels inquired about it turned out to be an exaggeration. Jannetty disputes this saying that Michaels was the driving force suggesting to quit the WWF, but had Jannetty do the phone call to ask for a release from their contract. When Vince McMahon actually agreed to let them go Michaels appeared shocked according to him, and later went to McMahon unbeknownst to him to explain this was Jannetty´s idea only and that he had no intention of leaving the WWF himself. After cooler heads prevailed it was decided that The Rockers should split with Michaels turning heel to feud with Jannetty. Jannetty was not happy about the team splitting, while Michaels could not wait to work as a singles wrestler.

On screen there was no mention of what went on backstage, instead Michaels and Jannetty started to show signs of dissension. During a singles match between Michaels and Ric Flair, Jannetty rolled Shawn into the ring to get pinned. Michaels took this as Jannetty costing him the match instead of helping out (though this was a storyline). At the 1991 Survivor Series Jannetty caused Michaels to be eliminated by accidentally slamming one of the Nasty Boys into him after which The Rockers argued. After the build up, The Rockers wrestled one last match on television, a title shot at The Legion of Doom which The Rockers lost after which Jannetty and Michaels argued over who was to blame.

A DVD extra on Heartbreak And Triumph, and in Michaels's autobiography of the same, titled The Rockers "Fight" reveals that they got into a legit fight on an in May 1991 that was instigated by Roddy Piper. The incident according to Michaels happened as the boys were intoxicated, Piper, also drunk started talking about how Michaels would be an even greater competitor in the business, that he would even be the future of the business. Piper stated, that " Michaels had had a great future in the business and that Michaels had all this talent". Jannetty, believing that to be an insult to him challenged Shawn to a fight to which Shawn declined. Marty however, would not take no for answer and attacked Michaels which started the fight. Piper pulled the two apart, and Michaels passed out right after, and wouldn't come to until the next day. The story, told by Jannetty, reveals that police were called to the scene and arrested Jannetty. As they were arresting him though, Randy Savage stepped in and prevented him from going to jail by telling the police that it was all part of a storyline even though in reality he did not know the cause of the fight in the first place. Michaels almost quit the WWF over the incident, and Jannetty believes that this incident was one of the factors in the WWF's decision to break up The Rockers.

The final split came on Brutus Beefcake’s "Barbershop" (taped on December 2, 1991, and shown on January 12, 1992) where Beefcake interviewed The Rockers about their recent problems. After seemingly working their problems out Michaels suddenly blasted Jannetty with a Super kick and then threw him through the glass window on the set. Michaels also proceeded to rip a full page picture of the group in half, signifying the separation. The turn had the desired effect of making Michaels a hated heel especially since the WWF agreed to let Jannetty "blade" (make himself bleed) after being thrown through the window, something which was not very prevalent in 1991. It also prevented Jannetty from entering the Royal Rumble in 1992.

Michaels and Jannetty were supposed to feud following the breakup, but Jannetty left the federation for personal reasons after being suspended by the WWF, due to an incident outside a Tampa night club that occurred on January 25, 1992. He was arrested with charges of resisting arrest with force, cocaine possession and possession of drug paraphernalia, forcing the feud to be abandoned at least temporarily. While Jannetty was away, Michaels began developing his “Heartbreak Kid” heel persona including getting Sherri Martel as his manager. Michaels also won the WWF Intercontinental Championship from The British Bulldog. On the October 31, 1992 (taped October 12, 1992 in Saskatoon Saskatchewan) edition of WWF Superstars, Michaels was in the ring posing before a match, admiring himself in a mirror that Sherri brought to the ring. To everyone’s surprise, Jannetty came down through the crowd and entered the ring. Jannetty attacked Michaels, grabbed the mirror and tried to hit Michaels with it. But instead Michaels pulled Sherri in front of himself so that she got hit with the mirror instead. This led to Sherri being hospitalized from the glass shards (only in storyline terms) when Sherri returned from her “recovery” she turned on Michaels and actually backed Jannetty in his unsuccessful attempt to take the Intercontinental title away from Michaels at the 1993 Royal Rumble. After the loss, Jannetty once again left the WWF.

During an episode of Monday Night Raw on May 17, 1993, Jannetty returned to the WWF during an impromptu challenge. Jannetty defeated Shawn Michaels to win the title (with the help of Mr. Perfect). Three weeks later Jannetty lost the title back to Michaels in an untelevised house show thanks to the interference of Michaels’ new bodyguard Diesel. After losing the title the Michaels/Jannetty feud petered out with Michaels focusing on other title challengers while Jannetty wrestled on the mid-card.

In the years following Jannetty's 1996 departure, Michaels became a born-again Christian in real life. This helped the two to patch up their above mentioned off-screen differences once and for all when Michaels shared his faith and aided Jannetty in becoming a Christian. On the SmackDown! shown on March 10, 2005 (taped two days earlier) Kurt Angle announced that as part of his preparation for his WrestleMania 21 match against Michaels he would face Michaels old partner Jannetty on the following SmackDown. The following Monday (March 14, 2005) Jannetty made a surprise appearance on WWE Raw and, for one night, The Rockers reunited to take on La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier and Rob Conway). Jannetty got the win with the "Rocker Dropper" after Michaels hit ”Sweet Chin Music” on Grenier. Three days later on SmackDown Angle had promised to make Jannetty ”tap out”, just like he was going to make Michaels tap out at WrestleMania 21. On the night Angle made good on his promise and forced Jannetty to submit to his ankle lock submission hold, but only after a nearly twenty minute match and an impressive showing for Jannetty which saw him nearly pin the Olympic champion. After two good showings on Raw and SmackDown to convince WWE that he was still a very talented performer, they signed him to a contract. Due to a domestic incident, Jannetty was arrested and thus unable to meet the commitments of his WWE contract, which lead to him being released from his contract by July 6, 2005.

On the February 20, 2006 edition of Raw, Michaels was pitted against four of the five members of the Spirit Squad in their in-ring debut. After he had connected with "Sweet Chin Music", Michaels was attacked by all five members until an unknown man came storming in to the ring to defend Michaels. During the melee, it was revealed that it was Jannetty coming to defend his former tag team partner. Later on Raw, Vince McMahon came out to mention that he would offer Jannetty a full-time contract. However, Mr. McMahon added a stipulation - Jannetty had to join Mr. McMahon's "Kiss My Ass Club" the following week on Raw. On Raw Jannetty refused to kiss Mr. McMahon’s ass. McMahon instead offered Jannetty the possibility of breaking Chris Masters' signature submission hold, the Master Lock. Jannetty appeared to almost break the hold, but Mr. McMahon (who was officiating) delivered a low blow, and Jannetty was never able to break it, only being released when Michaels ran in to save him. Shortly after Michaels had saved Jannetty, Shane McMahon ran in the ring with a steel chair and knocked out Michaels. The former Rockers were supposed to continue a program with the McMahons, but Jannetty was absent from the next edition of Raw which meant that they had to rewrite the angle leaving Jannetty out of it.

In December 2007, Michaels began feuding with Mr. Kennedy. Kennedy was set to face off against Jannetty at the Raw 15th Anniversary Spectacular. Kennedy won the match, but continued beating down Jannetty. Michaels then came out to save his former partner from a beating. Before Michaels had a chance to get in the first punch, Kennedy quickly recognized Michaels and started an assault on him. Until Triple H, Shawn's D-X partner, came out and Kennedy escaped.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

7. The British Bulldogs

In the 1970s, Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith both began their careers in England, teaming up because of their family relations. The two were soon invited to join Stampede Wrestling by talent scout Bruce Hart. During their time in Stampede, Dynamite and Davey Boy began a heated feud as Dynamite provoked Smith by saying he was a test-tube baby.

The Dynamite / Davey Boy feud would continue in New Japan Pro Wrestling, where they became involved in a three way feud that also involved The Cobra over the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.[2] After they settled the feud, the two started to team as the British Bulldogs both in NJPW and Stampede Wrestling. In March 1984, the Bulldogs would win the Stampede International Tag Team Championship for the first time. In 1984, the Bulldogs left NJPW to go to its bitter rival All Japan Pro Wrestling, effectively severing all ties to New Japan to this day.

In 1984, Vince McMahon bought out Stampede Wrestling. The buyout meant that the British Bulldogs joined the World Wrestling Federation along with Smith’s brother-in-law Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart (The Hart Foundation).[3] Initially the Bulldogs still toured with AJPW, but soon after they became WWF-exclusive.

The British Bulldogs' first and probably most well known feud was with the Hart Foundation, whom they knew well from their Stampede days, and thus were able to produce a series of outstanding matches that helped elevate both teams in the WWF. The Bulldogs next major feud was with the then-WWF World Tag Team Champions, "The Dream Team" of Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake. The Bulldogs wrestled Valentine and Beefcake for close to a year, coming close to but never winning the tag titles. The stage was set for a "final" tag title match at WrestleMania 2. With "Captain" Lou Albano and Ozzy Osbourne in their corner, the duo won the WWF World Tag-Team titles.

The Bulldogs continued their feud with the Dream Team and also defended regularly against the former championship team of The Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff. In December 1986, Dynamite Kid suffered a serious back injury during a match in Hamilton, Ontario, forcing him out of the ring for a longer period of time (during this period Davey Boy Smith would defend the titles with various replacement partners). On January 26, 1987, the British Bulldogs lost the titles to the Hart Foundation in a match that saw Dynamite Kid so debilitated that he was carried to the ring by Davey Boy Smith and saw little physical action. The match would air on February 7 on WWF Superstars of Wrestling.

After being given time off to recuperate, the Bulldogs returned to the ring to continue their feud with the Hart Foundation and “Evil Referee” Danny Davis (who, in the storyline, cheated to help the Hart Foundation win the title). The teams met at WrestleMania III, where the Bulldogs teamed with Tito Santana to take on the trio.

When the Bulldogs returned, they were given a live bulldog named Matilda, who would accompany them to the ring. She was central to the Bulldogs' feud with The Islanders when they “dognapped” her. The Bulldogs' last pay-per-view was the 1988 Survivor Series. They wrestled in a ten-man tag team elimination match where Mr. Fuji attacked Demolition and joined The Powers of Pain, who won the match by eliminating the heel team Los Conquistadores. The Bulldogs left the WWF after backstage pranks and altercations with The Rougeau Brothers led to Jacques Rougeau knocking several of Dynamite's teeth out with a suckerpunch.

After leaving the WWF, the Bulldogs returned to their old “home” in Stampede Wrestling and also resumed touring with All Japan Pro Wrestling, where they had moderate success as a tag team, but it was not as magical seeing these two wrestle there, as years of steroid abuse made them too large, physique-wise, and Dynamite Kid’s back injury from years prior had made his previously exciting moveset more limited. They had feuds with the Cuban Commandos and Karachi Vice in Stampede and won the Stampede International Tag-Team titles for the second time on December 12, 1988.

After losing the titles to Karachi Vice on December 30, 1988, Dynamite Kid turned heel by re-igniting the feud with Davey Boy Smith, joining forces with his former manager J.R. Foley and his future British Bruisers partner Johnny Smith. Despite the split in Stampede, The British Bulldogs remained as a tag team in AJPW, at the request of Giant Baba.

In September 1990, Davey Boy Smith abruptly withdrew the Bulldogs from AJPW's annual World's Strongest Tag Determination League by returning to the WWF, and fabricating to the All-Japan office that Dynamite was in a serious car accident and couldn't compete. Since Davey Boy Smith had trademarked the term "The British Bulldog" during the Bulldogs' previous run in the WWF, he decided to return to the WWF as The British Bulldog and would send people to the United Kingdom to warn the promoter every time a flyer was distributed promoting Dynamite Kid as a "British Bulldog." As a result of these actions, Dynamite passionately despised Smith for a long time. Johnny Smith would end up taking Davey Boy Smith's spot in the World's Strongest Tag Determination League, and the duo (known as The British Bruisers) continued to compete in All-Japan Pro Wrestling. The duo managed to capture the AJPW All-Asia Tag Team Championship, but the partnership was short-lived; the years of steroid abuse, working a high-impact style and cocaine usage caught up with "the Dynamite Kid" Thomas Billington as he suddenly announced his retirement on December 6, 1991.

Davey Boy Smith died on 18 May 2002, and Dynamite Kid now uses a wheelchair.

The British Bulldogs were made into action figures, first in 1986 during the LJN WWF Wrestling Superstars line and in the mid 2000s Classic Superstars line by Jakks Pacific. They were available separate as well as packaged together. The Classic Superstars double pack even included their bulldog mascot, Matilda. Both versions are highly sought after by collectors and prices can be well over hundreds of dollars in mint condition especially for Billington, as figures of him were not produced as much as Smith, who gained fame in both WWF and WCW after the Bulldogs' split while Billington wrestled primarily overseas, most notably in Japan and whos career was cut short due to injuries. Many collectors who have obtained the figures consider them among their most prized pieces.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

6. The Hart Foundation

The original Hart Foundation began in 1985, when Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, already managed by Jimmy Hart, who joined up with his brother-in-law Bret "Hitman" Hart to form a villainous tag team. According to Bret, the tag team originated after he turned down the "Cowboy" Bret Hart gimmick he was given, claiming that he did not really take a liking to it. He then suggested to WWF management that he would much prefer to be teamed up with Jim Neidhart. Management first laughed at the idea, but months later just as Bret was about to quit, he was given what he wanted: he was allowed to become a villain and was partnered up with Neidhart and Jimmy to form the Hart Foundation. The name Hart Foundation was already used to refer to the stable of wrestlers managed by Jimmy Hart, and in early matches the Neidhart/Hart team would be introduced as "members of the Hart Foundation". With the success of the new tag team, however, "The Hart Foundation" came to be associated solely with the Neidhart/Hart team and their manager, who all had Hart in their family names.

The Hart Foundation made its pay-per-view debut at WrestleMania 2 in 1986 as participants of a 20-man battle royal which also included NFL stars. The duo were the final two men whom André the Giant eliminated to win the battle royal. The Harts gained their status as a mid-card team when feuding with The Killer Bees (Jim Brunzell and B. Brian Blair). At Saturday Night's Main Event, the Foundation faced Brunzell and Blair in a tag team match, which the Killer Bees won. The Hart Foundation continued to feud with the Killer Bees for the better part of 1986.

The Hart Foundation began a feud with Tag Team Champions The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid) in early 1987 over the title. On the February 7 edition of Superstars, in Tampa, Florida, the Harts defeated Bulldogs for their first WWF Tag Team Championship when the referee of the match, "Dangerous" Danny Davis helped the Harts to win the match. On the March 14 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, the Harts made their first title defense against Tito Santana and Dan Spivey and retained the title after Danny Davis hit Santana with Jimmy Hart's megaphone. Santana began to feud with Davis as a result of this action and at this point, he joined the British Bulldogs in their feud with the Hart Foundation. The rivalry culminated in a six-man tag team match at WrestleMania III where the Foundation teamed up with Davis against the British Bulldogs and Santana. Davis hit Davey Boy Smith with Jimmy Hart's megaphone and pinned him to get the victory for the Hart Foundation. On the May 2 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, the Foundation defended their tag title against the British Bulldogs in a Two out of three falls match. In the first fall, they got disqualified because of illegal double-teaming and in the second fall Neidhart was pinned by Smith. However, the Hart Foundation retained the title due to the disqualification result.

On the October 27 edition of Superstars, the Hart Foundation dropped their title to Strike Force (Rick Martel and Tito Santana) after Neidhart submitted to a Boston crab applied by Martel, ending their 10 month reign. The two teams faced each other at Survivor Series in a 10-team Survivor Series elimination match. Strike Force captained a team of fan favorites while the Hart Foundation captained a team of villains. Strike Force was eliminated by the Hart Foundation, but the Hart Foundation also got eliminated and in the end, the fan favorite team won the match. The feud culminated in a match for the WWF Tag Team Championship on the February 5 edition of The Main Event, as the Hart Foundation challenged Strike Force for the title but lost the match.

In late spring/early summer of 1988, Jimmy Hart signed the Hart Foundation's rivals The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers who, in the storyline, claimed 25 percent of Bret Hart's and Jim Neidhart's payment. After Jimmy's betrayal of the team, and the loss of their tag team championship, the Hart Foundation were pushed as fan favorites, though Bret started a slow face turn at WrestleMania IV a few months prior. Hart and Bad News Brown were the last 2 competitors in a 20 man Battle Royal and looked to be co-existing heels but Brown then attacked and eliminated Hart to win. Immediately after being declared the winner and being awarded a huge trophy, Hart attacked Brown and smashed up the trophy starting his face turn. In the summer of 1988, the Hart Foundation began a feud with WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition for the title. At SummerSlam 88, they challenged Demolition for the WWF Tag Team Championship but ended up losing the match after Ax hit Hart with Jimmy Hart's megaphone leaving Smash to get the pinfall. Jimmy Hart had "managed" Demolition alongside their regular manager Mr. Fuji for the match as part of the ongoing Hart Foundation split.[14] On the October 29 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, they faced Demolition in a rematch for the title but lost due to outside interference by The Rougeaus. The Hart Foundation continued their feud with The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, and formed an alliance with Jim Duggan. At Royal Rumble in early 1989, Duggan and the Hart Foundation defeated Dino Bravo and the Rougeaus in a two out of three falls match to end the feud.

The Hart Foundation continued to feud with wrestlers managed by Jimmy Hart through 1989. at Wrestlemania V they defeated The Honky Tonk Man and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine with the use of Hart's megaphone. At SummerSlam 89 they faced the Tag-Team Champions the Brain Busters in a non-title match. When the match was made, the Busters, managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, were not champions. The Hart Foundation lost the match pushing them further away from regaining their titles. In late 1989, the Hart Foundation split for a while and wrestled in other teams but reunited in early 1990. On the April 28 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, they faced The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty) in a tag team match, which resulted in a double disqualification after WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition interfered. As a result of the interference, Demolition feuded with both the Rockers and the Hart Foundation. At SummerSlam 90, the Hart Foundation faced Demolition in a two out of three falls match for the tag title, by this time Bill Eadie who played Demolition Ax was suffering from health problems so a third member of Demolition (Crush) was introduced, the Hart foundation didn't know which two members they would face until Demolition entered the arena. The two chosen were Crush and Smash.

In the first fall Hart was pinned by Crush but the Hart Foundation won the second fall by disqualification after Crush attacked the referee. Ax then made his way to the ring and interfered in the third fall until the Legion of Doom came to ringside and attacked Demolition, the distraction allowed Hart to pin Crush and the Hart Foundation won. As a result, the Hart Foundation got their second WWF Tag Team Championship (despite the second fall being decided by disqualification). The Hart Foundation's second title reign lasted until WrestleMania VII when they were defeated by The Nasty Boys (Jerry Sags and Brian Knobs), when Knobs nailed Neidhart over the head with Jimmy Hart's helmet (Jimmy Hart managed the Nasty Boys at the time). The Hart Foundation split after WrestleMania VII, and Bret then focused on his singles career

[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
15. Harlem Heat
14. The Rock N Roll Express
13. Team Hell No
12. The Fabulous Freebirds
11. The Midnight Express
10. The New Age Outlaws
9. Demolition
8. The Midnight Rockers/The Rockers
7. The British Bulldogs
6. The Hart Foundation

Clues to the final five tag teams

* Five second pose

* Get the tables

* Two brothers from the University of Michigan

* What a rush

* Xtreme

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

5. The Steiner Brothers

At Starrcade '88 and Chi-Town Rumble, Scott Steiner started to accompany his brother Rick in his matches. Not long after, the brothers started to team up in January 1989.

With Missy Hyatt in their corner, the Steiner Brothers were an up-and-coming tag team, mixing technique, power, speed, and agility. They later added Robin Green to the group. With their tremendous win-loss record, they earned a shot at the NWA World Tag Team Championship, held by the Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin). On September 12, 1989, at Clash of the Champions, the Steiners lost when Green tripped Scott, causing him to get DDT'd and pinned by Hayes. Green would transform into Woman, and brought a tag team called Doom to wrestle the Steiners at Halloween Havoc, in which the Steiners lost.

On November 1, 1989, in Atlanta, Georgia, the Steiners defeated the Freebirds for the NWA World Tag Team titles; the title change would air on the November 18 episode of World Championship Wrestling. They held the titles until May 19, 1990, when they were defeated by Doom in Washington, D.C. at Capital Combat.

The Steiners defeated The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) for the NWA United States Tag Team Championship on August 24, 1990 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. During their title reign, World Championship Wrestling withdrew from the National Wrestling Alliance, and the title was renamed the WCW United States Tag Team Championship. Upon winning the WCW World Tag Team Championship on February 18, 1991 (the title change aired on the March 9 episode of WCW Pro Wrestling), the Steiners vacated the WCW United States Tag Team Championship on February 20, 1991. They were the second team ever to hold both the WCW World and United States Tag Team titles at once (The Midnight Express tandem of Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane were the first team to accomplish that feat in September 1988). After the Steiners won the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki on March 21, 1991, WCW announcers began referring to them as "Triple Crown Champions".

At the same time, Scott was being groomed as a singles performer. On WCW's weekend TBS shows (WCW Power Hour, WCW Saturday Night, and WCW Main Event). There was a special "gauntlet" match segment where a performer was picked to wrestle a top star on each show on that weekend, winning the sum of $15,000 USD (kayfabe) if they defeated all three. Scott was the second to run the gauntlet, with his second opponent being Ric Flair. Because the Four Horsemen clumsily interfered, Steiner beat Flair by pinfall. He would then get a title match against Flair at Clash of the Champions XIV: Dixie Dynamite on January 30, 1991, which ended in a time limit draw. Scott would go on to win the WCW World Television Championship from Ricky Steamboat on September 29, 1992, and began teasing a heel turn, which was aborted upon the Steiner Brothers leaving WCW for the World Wrestling Federation after being lowballed on their contract renewal by then-WCW head Bill Watts.

The Steiners left WCW in November 1992, with Scott vacating the WCW World Television Championship. They quickly signed contracts with the World Wrestling Federation, making their televised debut as babyfaces in an interview on the December 21, 1992, edition of WWF Prime Time Wrestling. During their WWF run, emphasis would be placed on their accomplishments at the University of Michigan, including using Michigan's fight song The Victors as their entrance music and wearing Michigan-themed ring attire. They appeared on the debut episode of Monday Night Raw on January 11, 1993. They made their WWF pay-per-view debut on January 24, 1993 at the 1993 Royal Rumble, defeating the Beverly Brothers (Blake and Beau). At WrestleMania IX on April 4, 1993, the Steiner Brothers defeated The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu).

Following WrestleMania IX, the Steiners began feuding with Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster). At King of the Ring 1993 on June 13, 1993, the Steiners and The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart) defeated The Headshrinkers and Money, Inc. The following evening, at the June 14, 1993 television taping, the Steiners defeated Money, Inc. for the WWF Tag Team Championship in Columbus, Ohio. (The Steiners were still babyfaces in the match despite Columbus being home to Michigan's archrival, Ohio State.) Money, Inc. regained the titles on June 16, 1993 at a house show in Rockford, Illinois, but lost the titles to the Steiners once again at another house show on June 19, 1993 in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Steiners successfully defended their titles against the Heavenly Bodies (Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray) on August 30, 1993 at SummerSlam 1993. On the September 13, 1993 episode of Raw in New York City, New York, the Steiners defended their titles against The Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre) in a "Province of Quebec rules" match, wherein titles can change hands via disqualification. The match ended when the manager of The Quebecers, Johnny Polo, threw a hockey stick into the ring, which was caught by Scott. When the referee saw Scott holding the illegal weapon, he disqualified the Steiner Brothers, thus awarding the title to The Quebecers. Scott gained a measure of revenge by defeating Pierre in a singles match the following week on Raw.

At the 1993 Survivor Series on November 24, 1993, the Steiners teamed with Lex Luger and The Undertaker as "The All-Americans". The All-Americans defeated their opponents, "The Foreign Fanatics" (Yokozuna, Crush, Ludvig Borga and Jacques), although Luger was the sole survivor.

On January 22, 1994, both Steiners entered the 1994 Royal Rumble, with Scott entering at number one. After Rick entered at number three, the brothers cooperated until being eliminated by Owen Hart and Diesel respectively. The Steiners appeared very sparingly after that and they eventually left the promotion in mid-1994. One of Scott's last TV appearances was a King of the Ring qualifier loss to IRS.

The Steiners debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling on July 28, 1995 in the Orange County Fairgrounds in Middletown, New York, defeating Dudley Dudley and Vampire Warrior. They next appeared with ECW in The Flagstaff on August 4, 1995 in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, defeating Dudley Dudley and 2 Cold Scorpio. The Steiner Brothers made their debut in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ECW Arena on August 5, 1995 at WrestlePalooza 1995, teaming with Eddie Guerrero in a loss to Scorpio, Dean Malenko and Cactus Jack.[13] On August 25, 1995 in Jim Thorpe they defeated Scorpio and Malenko, and they went on to defeat Scorpio and Chris Benoit the following evening. On August 28, 1995, they defeated Dudley Dudley and Dances With Dudley in the Big Apple Dinner Theater in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

At Gangstas' Paradise on September 16, 1995, the Steiners joined forces with Taz in a loss to The Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn) and Jason. On September 23, 1995 in Middletown, they defeated Raven and Stevie Richards. Scott made one more appearance (teaming with Taz in a losing effort against The Eliminators on October 28, 1995) before the brothers departed from ECW.

The Steiners re-signed with WCW in 1996. They initially feuded with the Road Warriors and had several matches with then champions Sting and Lex Luger. They would eventually win the WCW World Tag Team Championship from Harlem Heat on July 24, 1996, but Harlem Heat would regain the title just three days later and the title changes were never mentioned on TV. A short time later, Scott was sidelined with an injury and Rick had several singles matches until Scott returned to the ring the following January. Following the formation of the New World Order (nWo), the Steiners began feuding with The Outsiders, who had won the WCW World Tag Team Championship from Harlem Heat. The Steiners spent the entirety of 1997 and into 1998 feuding with the duo of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.

The beginning of Scott's heel turn began in late 1997/early 1998 when he, now with increased muscle mass, having cut his signature mullet, and sporting a goatee, started a feud with Buff Bagwell over who had the better physique, as well as developing a short fuse with his temper. Scott and Rick began having problems teaming up, as Scott would often not tag his brother into matches. The team entered 1998 as the tag team champions, but the dissention caused them to lose the belts. It was not the end of the team's troubles, as Scott would often wrestle a whole match by himself, refuse to tag Rick when he would need to leave the ring, and would often keep the referee distracted with his own antics. On the February 2, 1998 edition of Nitro, things appeared to come to a head when Scott scored the victory in a tag team match against Nash and Bagwell by pinning Bagwell without making a tag to Rick, and Rick screamed and yelled at his brother for his actions. One week later, however, the duo won the WCW World Tag Team Championship again.

The final straw came at SuperBrawl VIII on February 22, 1998 when the brothers would face The Outsiders again. Midway through the match, Rick knocked both Hall and Nash out of the ring while both attempted to attack him behind the referee's back and celebrated by running around the ring barking while Scott entered the ring to celebrate with him. Scott then attacked Rick by hitting him in the back and then powerbombed him. Scott then abandoned his brother to be taken out by Hall and Nash and signified that he was joining the nWo by personally handing Hall and Nash the championship belts himself. The next night on Monday Nitro, he adopted a new gimmick that was somewhat reminiscent of "Superstar" Billy Graham, dyeing his hair and beard blond and increasing in muscle mass even further, damaging his agility.

The two brothers had a feud that also involved Scott's new partner Buff Bagwell, while Rick teamed with a variety of partners including Kenny Kaos, Lex Luger and Bagwell's mother Judy.

Shortly before WCW's demise, the Steiners reunited, not so much as a tag team but they were both heels who watched each other's backs. When WCW closed, the two went their separate ways again.

The Steiner Brothers are highly regarded as one of the greatest tag teams of all time in professional wrestling.

The brothers reunited for the United Wrestling Federation in Wilson, North Carolina to defeat the Matt Bentley and Frankie Kazarian. They also defeated Team 3D the next night in Wilmington, North Carolina. On December 9, 2006, the Steiners won the NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship.

At the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling pay-per-view Sacrifice 2007, Scott Steiner teamed with Tomko in a Triple Threat Tag Team match. They lost the match and the miscommunication between Steiner and Tomko led Tomko to attack Steiner following the match. Rick Steiner made his return and fought off Tomko, thus reuniting the Steiner Brothers. They were set to face Team 3D at Slammiversary 2007 for their World Tag Team Championship. An injury to Scott's trachea in Puerto Rico, however, put the match in question, until he was replaced by longtime rival Road Warrior Animal. While Scott was out for his injury, Team 3D developed into arrogant heel characters, demanding his return and teasing his near-death injury. The duo then appeared and attacked Team 3D at Victory Road, costing them their World Tag Team titles. The return of the Steiner Brothers involved Scott and Rick becoming faces, completing a full circle of development for the team. At Hard Justice, the Steiner Brothers defeated Team 3D. On the August 16 episode of Impact!, the Steiner brothers lost in a Handicap match to Kurt Angle after interference from Team 3D, heating up their feud. At Bound for Glory the Steiner brothers defeated Team 3D in a two out of three falls table match. The following month at Genesis, the Steiners received a tag team title shot against A.J. Styles and Tomko, but were unsuccessful in winning the titles. In 2008 however, Rick was released from TNA due to budget cuts while Scott continued to wrestle, breaking up the Steiners once again.

On June 23, 2013, The Steiner Brothers defeated Homicide and Eddie Kingston at a House of Hardcore event.

On September 21, 2013 The Steiner Brothers reunited at the American Pro Wrestling Alliance defeating Viper and Bulldozer in Shinnston, WV for Frontier Days. They would return to the American Pro Wrestling Alliance again on January 11, 2014 to face former NFL Atlanta Falcon, Moose and APWA World Heavyweight Champion, "The Black Superman" ONYX. The Steiners were already confirmed for three APWA shows in 2014

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

4. The Hardy Boyz

Real-life brothers Matt and Jeff Hardy formed a tag team in 1993 after Jeff's debut in the Trampoline Wrestling Federation (TWF). The promotion went by several names, and in 1997, it was modernized as the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts (OMEGA). The duo worked in several North Carolinian independent promotions holding the OMEGA Tag Team Championship and NWA 2000 Tag Team Championship.

Originally the brothers competed as teenagers in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as jobbers—wrestlers who consistently lose to make their opponents look stronger—both in singles and tag team competition. After being signed to a contract in 1998, they were trained by Dory Funk, Jr. in his Funkin' Dojo.

The Hardy Boyz started their run as a popular tag team with a win over Kaientai (Men's Teioh and Shoichi Funaki) on the September 27, 1998 episode of Sunday Night Heat. Soon after their Sunday Night Heat win, they built up a fan base following through their high-flying tag team tactics. They started to become serious contenders for the Tag Team Championship after they became managed by Michael Hayes, formerly a member of The Fabulous Freebirds. On the June 29, 1999, episode of Raw is War (aired July 5), they defeated The Acolytes (Farooq and Bradshaw) to win their first WWF Tag Team Championship, but they lost the title back to The Acolytes a little less than a month later at Fully Loaded.

They eventually dumped Hayes as their manager in August 1999, becoming villains and briefly associating themselves with Gangrel as part of The New Brood. After winning a series of matches against the team of Edge and Christian—dubbed the "Terri Invitational Tournament"—they won the services of Terri Runnels as their manager by winning the first ever tag team ladder match at No Mercy, and then dumped Gangrel the next night becoming faces. The fans also gave both teams a standing ovation the next night on Raw is War. This began an over two year rivalry between the Hardy Boyz and the team of Edge and Christian. During this time, they also gained notoriety as a faction with Lita.

With the addition of Lita, Matt and Jeff comprised the trio dubbed Team Xtreme, their name serving as a reflection of their "extreme" high-flying moves. In 2000, they were involved in feuds with Edge and Christian and the Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) in many ladder matches and TLC matches.

They faced Edge and Christian and the Dudley Boyz at WrestleMania 2000 in a triple threat tag team ladder match. The Dudley Boyz started the match as the champions, and Edge and Christian won the title. The Hardyz faced Edge and Christian for the title at Insurrextion and defeated them by disqualification, which meant that Edge and Christian retained the title. At King of the Ring, the Hardy Boyz squared off in a Four Corners Elimination match for the Tag Team Championship which included the champions Too Cool (Brian Christopher and Scotty 2 Hotty), T & A (Test and Albert) and Edge and Christian. The Hardyz were able to eliminate T & A before getting eliminated themselves by Edge and Christian.

At SummerSlam, the Hardy Boyz were defeated in the first ever TLC match for the Tag Team Championship, which Edge and Christian won, and in which the Dudley Boyz also competed. At Unforgiven, however, the Hardy Boyz defeated Edge and Christian in a steel cage match to win the Tag Team Championship for a second time. They lost the title back to Edge and Christian (who were dressed as Los Conquistadores) at No Mercy, but they won the titles back the next night on Raw for a third time. During the match, the Hardy Boyz were dressed as Los Conquistadores, but tore off their masks after the match, revealing themselves. The team lost the title less than a month later to Right to Censor (Bull Buchanan and The Goodfather) on the November 6 episode of Raw is War, when Edge and Christian came out and assaulted the Hardyz, allowing Right to Censor to pick up the win and the title.

The Hardyz became involved in a feud with both Edge and Christian and Right to Censor. At Survivor Series, the Hardyz along with the Dudleyz defeated Edge and Christian and Right to Censor in a Survivor Series elimination match. At Rebellion, the Hardy Boyz faced Right to Censor in a rematch for the titles but were unable to win the titles when Val Venis interfered. On the December 4 episode of Raw is War, Dean Malenko defeated the Hardy Boyz' valet Lita to retain the Light Heavyweight Championship and earn himself a date with her three days later on SmackDown!. On the December 7 episode of SmackDown!, however, when Malenko took Lita on a date, he received a beating from the Hardyz. The Hardyz began feuding with Malenko and his friends, The Radicalz (Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Malenko and Perry Saturn). The two teams faced each other in several tag team and singles matches on Raw and SmackDown!. The two teams also squared off against each other at Armageddon with Guerrero, Malenko and Saturn taking on the Hardyz and Lita. The Radicalz won the match.

On March 5, 2001, on Raw the Hardy Boyz captured their fourth Tag Team Championship when they defeated The Dudley Boyz, after interference from Christian, only to lose the titles to Edge and Christian two weeks later on Raw. The next month at WrestleMania X-Seven, the Hardy Boyz competed in another TLC match against Edge and Christian and the Dudley Boyz. Just as in the first TLC match, Edge and Christian were victorious thanks to help from Rhyno.

On the October 8 episode of Raw, the Hardy Boyz won the WCW Tag Team Championship from Booker T and Test. They lost the title to the Dudley Boyz two weeks later. On the November 12 episode of Raw, they beat Booker T and Test again, but this time for the WWF Tag Team Championship. At Survivor Series, they lost the title to the Dudleys in a Steel Cage title unification match.

At No Way Out, the Hardy Boyz participated in a Tag Team Turmoil match which was won by the A.P.A. At WrestleMania X8, along with the A.P.A. and the Dudley Boyz, the Hardyz challenged Billy and Chuck for the Tag Team Championship in a Four Corners elimination match. The A.P.A. were eliminated by the Dudleyz, whom the Hardy Boyz managed to eliminate. In the end, however, they were pinned by the champions, thus losing the opportunity. They then began a feud with the newcomer Brock Lesnar and his manager Paul Heyman. At Judgment Day, the Hardy Boyz lost to Lesnar and Heyman in a tag team match.

The duo split up afterward, as Jeff began a storyline with The Undertaker, while Matt was relegated to working on Heat. In the storyline, Matt then attacked Jeff, because Jeff had a match for the Intercontinental Championship. Matt was then moved to the SmackDown! brand, where he dubbed himself "Matt Hardy Version 1" and the "Sensei of Mattitude", and picked up real-life friend Shannon Moore and briefly Crash Holly as followers. He later won the Cruiserweight Championship from Billy Kidman at the No Way Out pay-per-view in 2003. Jeff was released from WWE on April 22, 2003, for erratic behavior, drug use, refusal to go to rehab, and deteriorating ring performance, as well as constant tardiness and no-showing events.

Following his release from WWE, Jeff debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in mid-2004. After no-showing several events, he was suspended in 2006 before leaving the company soon afterward. On August 4, 2006, he rejoined WWE on its Raw brand. Meanwhile, in April 2005, Matt was released from WWE due to real-life issues with Lita. He was rehired, however, just a few months later and was eventually sent to the SmackDown brand.

In November 2006, it was announced on WWE.com that Matt and Jeff would team up for the first time together in over four years as members of Team DX at the Survivor Series. The Hardys, as they were now known, were first given a "warm up match" on ECW on Sci Fi, defeating the Full Blooded Italians (Little Guido Maritato and Tony Mamaluke). At Survivor Series, Team DX defeated Team Rated-RKO in a clean sweep.

On the November 27 episode of Raw, The Hardys had their first shot at Tag Team gold in five years. They took on World Tag Team Champions Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton), but came up short when Edge hit Jeff in the back with a belt to get himself and Orton deliberately disqualified to retain the title. That same day, The Hardys posed an open challenge to any team for ECW December to Dismember which was immediately accepted by a reuniting MNM (Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury). After a run in on the intervening ECW on Sci Fi, The Hardys defeated MNM at the pay-per-view, starting a feud between all four men that spanned both brands. The Hardys got their first chance to gain the WWE Tag Team Championship at Armageddon, where the original tag team match was changed to a four team ladder match involving The Hardys, MNM, Dave Taylor and William Regal, and Paul London and Brian Kendrick. Despite coming up short, The Hardys sparked another feud with MNM when Mercury was legitimately injured. While Jeff and Nitro continued battling over the Intercontinental Championship on Raw, Matt and Mercury feuded on SmackDown!. Mercury and Nitro tried injuring both Hardys' faces as payback for what happened at Armageddon, claiming that The Hardys had ruined Mercury's 'Hollywood good looks'. The Hardys settled their feud with MNM at the Royal Rumble when they defeated them for the second time. Matt and Mercury continued feuding, however, which was finally settled at No Way Out.

On the April 2, 2007, episode of Raw, the Hardys won the World Tag Team Championship for the sixth time in their career after winning a ten team battle royal. After losing singles bouts to both Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, The Hardys retained their World Tag Team Championship at both Backlash and Judgment Day against the team of Cade and Murdoch. At One Night Stand, Hardyz retained the titles against The World's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin) in a ladder match. The next night on Raw, however, the Hardys lost their championship to Cade and Murdoch, when Jeff missed a Swanton Bomb and was pinned by Cade after Murdoch pushed his foot off of the bottom rope of the ring. Cade and Murdoch attacked the Hardys with the championship belts after the match. The Hardys got a rematch at Vengeance, but lost after Jeff was hit with a sitout spinebuster from Cade.

The Hardys once again returned to WWE on the November 13, 2007 episode of ECW on Sci Fi to face Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) and Mr. Kennedy, a match that was originally scheduled for the November 16 episode of SmackDown!. The Hardys were unsuccessful in their return as Porter pinned Jeff for the win. The Hardys, announced and referred to once again as the Hardy Boyz, reunited once again in 2008, on the June 23 episode of Raw in a losing effort to John Morrison and The Miz. The match occurred after Jeff was drafted to the SmackDown brand (the same brand as Matt). This loss, however, caused Matt to be drafted to the ECW brand. On the July 15 episode of ECW, The Hardys reunited in their home state of North Carolina, defeating Morrison and Miz. The Hardys then teamed up on the October 31 episode of SmackDown and on November 3, on Raw, winning both matches.

Heading into the 2009 Royal Rumble pay-per-view, Matt was attempting to regain the ECW Championship from Jack Swagger, while Jeff held the WWE Championship. After Matt lost to Swagger, he interfered in Jeff's match with Edge, hitting Jeff with a steel chair, and allowing Edge to win the WWE Championship. On the January 30, 2009 episode of SmackDown, due to the events at the Royal Rumble, Matt announced the permanent disbandment of the tag team, and that he no longer considered Jeff as his partner or brother. Matt moved to the SmackDown brand, and began a scripted rivalry with Jeff. The pair faced each other in an "Extreme Rules" match at WrestleMania XXV, which Matt won. They later faced each other in a stretcher match, in which Matt gained his second win over Jeff. As part of the 2009 WWE Draft, Matt was drafted to the Raw brand on the April 13 episode of Raw. Despite this, the brothers faced each other in an "I Quit" match at the Backlash pay-per-view, which Jeff won. Matt also interfered in Jeff's World Heavyweight Championship match at Judgment Day, preventing him from winning the championship.

On the August 21 episode of SmackDown, the Hardys reunited and teamed with John Morrison in a six-man tag team match to defeat CM Punk and The Hart Dynasty. The following week, Jeff lost a "Loser Leaves the WWE" steel cage match to CM Punk, resulting in him leaving the company. Over a year later, on October 15, 2010, WWE announced that Matt had been released from his contract, with Matt later stating that his release had been in effect two weeks before WWE made the announcement.

Jeff made his TNA return on the January 4, 2010 episode of Impact!, and went on to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Bound for Glory in October. On January 9, 2011, at TNA's pay-per-view Genesis, Matt made his TNA debut as a surprise member of the Immortal faction, and defeated Rob Van Dam. Jeff, who was also a member of Immortal, went on to lose the TNA World Heavyweight Championship to Mr. Anderson later that night. On the January 13 episode of Impact! the Hardy Brothers reunited and defeated Van Dam and Anderson. Following the Victory Road pay-per-view, Immortal severed their ties with Jeff.[85] On August 20, Matt was released from TNA after being arrested for driving while intoxicated.

On April 26, 2014, The Hardys defeated The Briscoe Brothers at Chaos in Cameron.

The Hardys appeared on the February 7, 1999 episode of That '70s Show entitled "That Wrestling Show", as uncredited wrestlers.[87] Jeff and Matt, along with Lita, also appeared on Tough Enough in early 2001, talking and wrestling with the contestants.[88] They both appeared on the February 25, 2002 episode of Fear Factor competing against four other WWF wrestlers.[89] Jeff was eliminated in the first round, but Matt became the eventual winner, winning $50,000 for the American Cancer Society.[89]

In 2001, the Hardys and Lita appeared in Rolling Stone magazine's 2001 Sports Hall of Fame issue. In 2003, Jeff and Matt, with the help of Michael Krugman, wrote and published their autobiography The Hardy Boyz: Exist 2 Inspire. As part of WWE, the Hardys appeared in the DVD, The Hardy Boyz: Leap of Faith in 2001. On April 29, 2008, WWE released Twist of Fate: The Matt and Jeff Hardy Story. The DVD features footage of the brothers in OMEGA and WWE, and it also briefly mentions Jeff's initial stint in TNA. The brothers also appear on The Hardy Show, an internet web show which features the Hardys, Shannon Moore, and many of their friends.

[RI Richmark]

My list updated:

1. The Mega-Powers (31)

2. The British Bulldogs (7)

3. The Brothers of Destruction (36)

4.

5. The Rock n' Sock Connection (18)

6. Demolition (9)

7.

8. The Hardy Boys (4)

9. John Morrison & The Miz (22)

10. The New Age Outlaws (10)

11. Jeri-Show (29)

12. Money Inc. (34)

13. Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns (23)

14. Steve Austin & Dude Love (54)

15. The APA (16)

16. The Rockers (8)

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

18. Team Hell No (13)

19. The Hart Foundation (6)

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]

3. The Legion of Doom/The Road Warriors

In the early 1980s, in NWA's Georgia Championship Wrestling, Paul Ellering introduced a stable called "The Legion of Doom" that consisted of the Road Warriors, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, The Spoiler, Matt Borne, King Kong Bundy, Arn Anderson, The Iron Sheik and the original Sheik. Animal had briefly competed as the Road Warrior before Ellering paired him up with fellow Chicagoan Hawk to form the Road Warriors. The stable was short lived and the name "Legion of Doom" soon referred only to the Road Warriors and Ellering with either name used interchangeably throughout their career. Animal reveals in the "Road Warriors: The Life and Death of the Most Dominant Tag-Team in Wrestling History (2005)" DVD set that the name "Legion of Doom" was taken from the Super Friends cartoon.

The Road Warriors’ high impact power style and unique attire quickly got them noticed by fans and dreaded by opponents, so much so that some wrestlers would grab their bag and leave the arena when they saw they were scheduled to face the Road Warriors. In Georgia, the team quickly rose to the top despite being very young and without the traditional “paying dues” period just because they were so believable in their role as power monsters. They gained a reputation for being very stiff and not selling simply because they could and as a result most of their matches ended quickly. It took them less than 6 months from their debut to win the NWA National Tag Team Championship, a title they would win three more times while in Georgia.

In 1984, the Road Warriors moved on to Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA) along with their manager Paul Ellering. On August 25, 1984, they defeated The Crusher and Baron Von Raschke for the AWA World Tag Team Championship. The Road Warriors were brought in by Gagne to work as heels, but their squash matches soon won over fans. They became the AWA's top draw throughout 1984 and 1985, feuding primarily with The Fabulous Ones and later the Fabulous Freebirds. The Warriors then began splitting their time between the AWA and NWA where they started feuding with NWA World tag team champions The Russians, all while still holding the AWA belts. Hawk and Animal eventually lost the AWA title to Jimmy Garvin and "Mr. Electricity" Steve Regal on September 29, 1985, due to the interference of the Freebirds. The Road Warriors' last appearance in the AWA was on April 20, 1986 at WrestleRock where they defeated the team of Garvin and Michael Hayes in a steel cage match.

In March 1985, the Road Warriors began touring Japan, mainly with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) where they made an immediate impact squashing the monster team of Killer Khan and Animal Hamaguchi in under 4 minutes. This and subsequent dominant victories garnered the Road Warriors a lot of Japanese wrestling media headlines and front page stories. Their tours with AJPW in 1985 and 1986 made the Road Warriors such legends in Japan that they toured the country whenever they were “between contracts” of the big three.

The Road Warriors won the NWA International Tag Team Championship on March 12, 1987 from Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu and would hold them for 15 months before losing them to PWF World Tag Team champions Jumbo Tsuruta and Yoshiaki Yatsu to unify the titles as the AJPW World Tag Team titles, making the Road Warriors the last defending champions of the NWA International Tag Team titles. Their last match in Japan was on July 22, 1990, for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), losing to Masahiro Chono and Keiji Mutoh by disqualification.

In the middle of 1986, The Road Warriors moved to National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) exclusively, winning the inaugural Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament by beating Ron Garvin and Magnum T.A. in the finals. Building upon their rapid push, Hawk and Animal were featured attractions of the Great American Bash tour where they were matched against Ivan and Nikita Koloff as well as the Midnight Express. At Starrcade '86, the Road Warriors were featured in a Scaffold Match, defeating the Midnight Express.

The Warriors joined forces with Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff in a bloody feud with the Four Horsemen. During the 1987 Great American Bash, the rival sides faced off in the first ever WarGames match. The Road Warriors were on the winning side of War Games both matches that summer taking their feud with the Horsemen to Starrcade '87, where they lost by disqualification to Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson. The Road Warriors also picked up the NWA Six-Man tag team titles twice alongside Dusty Rhodes. The Warriors engaged in a violent feud with The Powers of Pain (The Barbarian and The Warlord) where the Road Warriors finally met their equal physically, but the angle ended when the Powers of Pain left the NWA after finding out they were booked against the Road Warriors in a series of Scaffold Matches that they were supposed to lose.

In 1988, Hawk and Animal turned heel, beating the Midnight Express for the NWA World Tag Team Championship on October 29, 1988 in New Orleans, Louisiana.[4] In November of that year the Road Warriors played a role in ending Dusty Rhodes' tenure as head booker for the promotion. During the November 26 episode of World Championship Wrestling, which was under strict instructions from TBS television executives prohibiting blading, the Road Warriors attacked Rhodes, removed a spike from their shoulder pads, and attempted to gouge his eye out. Rhodes was fired for that episode shortly after Starrcade '88. Before Rhodes was fired, Animal beat him at the Clash of the Champions, so the Road Warriors were allowed to pick a new partner to hold the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team titles; they picked AJPW superstar Genichiro Tenryu but the titles were quickly abandoned.

The Road Warriors quickly turned face yet again due to overwhelming fan support no matter how brutal or violent they were. Their World Tag Team title reign came to an end when they faced The Varsity Club (Mike Rotunda and Steve Williams) on April 2, 1989. The title change was a controversial one as referee Teddy Long performed an excessively fast count. Long would be fired from his job due to the count but the titles were not returned to the Road Warriors. Hawk and Animal would spend the rest of their tenure in the NWA feuding with teams like The Samoan Swat Team and The Skyscrapers. Their last big wins in the NWA came when they defeated three other teams (including the red hot Steiner Brothers) to win the Ironman Tag Team Tournament at Starrcade 1989 “Future Shock” (The Steiners actually defeated the Warriors by pinfall in their match, but the Warriors won the round robin style tournament on a point system basis.) and over The Skyscrapers in a Chicago Street Fight at WrestleWar '90: Wild Thing.

The Road Warriors made their last WCW pay-per-view appearance on May 19, 1990 at Capital Combat where they teamed with Norman “The Lunatic” against Kevin Sullivan, Cactus Jack and Bam Bam Bigelow in a match that was cut from the commercial tape of the event. They left WCW in June 1990 due to heat with then-WCW head Jim Herd according to Animal on their WWE produced DVD.

During their NWA/WCW stint, the group became well known for using the Black Sabbath song "Iron Man" as their entrance theme.

When Hawk and Animal signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in June 1990, Vince McMahon retired the Road Warriors moniker. They both made their TV debuts on the July 15, 1990 episode of Wrestling Challenge. In the WWF the team would be known only as the "Legion of Doom". To their opponents and detractors (such as Bobby Heenan), they were referred to as Legion of Dummies. Hawk and Animal immediately entered into a feud with Demolition, the team McMahon had supposedly created in their likeness three years earlier, which led into a televised six-man tag-team match where Hawk and Animal teamed up with Ultimate Warrior against all three members of Demolition. Ax was having health issues and an agreement was made to phase him out and eventually replace him with Crush. Ax was moved into a role as manager for the team with the hope of taking a front office position, which eventually fell through. The Legion of Doom / Demolition feud did not have the expected intensity because of the change and LOD soon set their sights on the tag team titles. At SummerSlam 1991, the Legion of Doom defeated The Nasty Boys to win the World Tag Team Championship, becoming the only team to win world tag titles in all three of the top promotions of the 1980s. Hawk and Animal would eventually lose the titles to Money Inc. on February 7, 1992 after which they briefly left the promotion.

LOD would return a short time later with original manager Paul Ellering. The team incorporated a ventriloquist dummy called "Rocco" (Originally introduced as "Freckles" in front of a live crowd at a WWF TV Taping, the segment bombed so bad that it never aired) which served as their “inspiration”, but this gimmick was short-lived. Hegstrand left the company in disgust with the Rocco gimmick immediately after SummerSlam 1992, going AWOL in London after the event with John Nord and missing the flight back to the US, while Laurinaitis stuck around, finishing the team's contractual obligations with former Demolition member Crush (now repackaged as a face) replacing Hawk on house shows, before an injury to his back forced him into a lengthy hiatus.

When Hawk left the WWF after SummerSlam 1992 he traveled to Japan and started working for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) where he quickly teamed up with young mid-carder Kensuke Sasaki who was soon dubbed "Power Warrior" as he adopted the trademark Road Warrior face paint and spiked shoulder pads. The duo was dubbed "The Hell Raisers" and carried on the legacy of the Road Warriors in NJPW winning the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Tony Halme and Scott Norton in December 1992 and then again from the team of Scott Norton and Hercules (known as the Jurassic Powers) in January 1994. They also competed in both the 1993 and 1994 versions of the Super Grade Tag league making it to the semi finals of the 1994 tournament before losing to Masahiro Chono and Super Strong Machine.

Teaming with Hawk (or Hawk Warrior as he was called) helped elevate Kensuke Sasaki in the eyes of the fans, so much so that when the Hell Raisers broke up in the middle of 1995, Sasaki shed the Power Warrior gimmick and became a main eventer on the singles scene. On special occasions, Sasaki would break out the "Power Warrior" persona, similar to Keiji Mutoh and his "Great Muta" persona.

During this stint, they used the theme song "Hellraiser" by Ozzy Osbourne.

When Animal came back from his back injury, he joined the duo in Japan in 1996. The three were announced collectively as the Road Warriors, using "Iron Man" as their theme music.

When Laurinaitis’ back was finally healed enough for him to return to wrestling, the Road Warriors signed a contract with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in late 1995. Upon their return in January 1996, immediately started a feud with the returning Steiner Brothers, as well as Harlem Heat before moving on to challenging the WCW Tag Team Champions Sting and Lex Luger. The Road Warriors had several shots at the champions but failed to win the titles.

Hegstrand and Laurinaitis stayed with WCW for about six months, before leaving over a dispute with Eric Bischoff. The pair made claims that Bischoff promised them a second-highest paid contract, as well as a separate contract from Japan, something which he denies remembering.

After leaving WCW, the duo took various independent bookings both in the U.S. and Japan before signing with the WWF, making their surprise return on the February 24, 1997 edition of Monday Night Raw where they destroyed the Headbangers, despite both teams being counted out. The Legion of Doom would be heavily involved in the feud with the Hart Foundation siding with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock and Goldust at In Your House: Canadian Stampede. The Legion of Doom also became 2-time WWF tag team champions on October 7, 1997 when they defeated The Godwinns. In November 1997, the Legion of Doom faced the newly formed New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) and shockingly lost the titles to the upstart team.

The Legion of Doom would challenge the Outlaws several times in the next couple of months but could not win the gold. On February 23, 1998, the Legion of Doom disappeared from WWF television after the two men brawled on Raw, seemingly spelling their demise.

Hawk and Animal next appeared as Legion of Doom 2000, billed as an updated version of the Road Warriors “for the new millennium”, at WrestleMania XIV during a tag team Battle Royal. The duo sported a new look, including new shoulder pads and helmets (the helmets wouldn't last long, as Hawk got rid of his by throwing it to the crowd) and a new manager in Sunny. LOD 2000 won the battle royal and earned a shot at the tag team titles, but did not manage to win the gold.

Sunny soon left the team and Droz, then known as Puke, started to accompany them to the ring. At the same time, Paul Ellering returned, but sided with the Disciples of Apocalypse (DOA), whom LOD were feuding with at the time; Ellering and Animal explained on the DVD it was hard for them to rip on each other on promos. For the first time in the history of the Road Warriors they participated in a storyline where tension arose between the members, teasing a break up. In this storyline, Hawk was seen by his partner Animal as unfit to wrestle and Puke was tapped to take Hawk's place in the tag team as an official member. The angle played off Hegstrand’s real life alcohol and drug issues, going so far as to faking a suicide jump off the top of the TitanTron. After the angle bombed and both Hegstrand and Laurinaitis voiced their objections to it, the angle was dropped. The Legion of Doom made a very brief return, first on the March 22, 1999 Raw is War by attacking Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco in a backstage skit after the two impersonated LOD in a handicap match against Shane McMahon, on the March 15, 1999 Raw is War. Both LOD entered the pre-WrestleMania battle royal with the last two participants getting a tag team title shot later at WrestleMania XV but both came up short. They would make one final appearance on the March 29, 1999 Raw challenging Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett for the tag team titles but failed to win them; they left the WWF afterwards.

On June 22, 2002 International Wrestling Superstars, Road Warriors Animal & Hawk defeat the Headshrinkers for the World Tag-Team Championship. That victory also led to team USA winning the international tournament held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

After leaving the WWF, the Road Warriors would appear for various independent federations, including the i-Generation pay-per-view in July 2000 where they won the promotion's tag team titles. They performed both as a team and individually. Animal competed solo in WCW for a while as Hegstrand dealt with his personal issues. Hegstrand finally overcame his battle with addiction and became a born-again Christian appearing on Ted DiBiase's religion and wrestling shows in 2003. The Road Warriors also appeared very briefly in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) during the early days of the promotion, saving America's Most Wanted, and debuting to what Jeremy Borash quoted as "A 1985 Road Warrior Pop".

The Road Warriors' last TV appearance as a team occurred on the May 12, 2003 Raw episode in a tag team match against the WWE World Tag Team Champions, Rob Van Dam and Kane. The Road Warriors had hoped to get a full-time contract with WWE but nothing ever came of it. Hegstrand died five months later on October 19, 2003.

On April 2, 2011, The Road Warriors with Paul Ellering were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

The Road Warriors made appearances in the video games WCW Wrestling, WWF Wrestlefest, and Legends of Wrestling. Most recently, they've appeared in the THQ wrestling games WWE SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain, WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw, WWE Legends Of Wrestlemania, WWE '12 and WWE '13.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

2. The Dudley Boyz/Team 3D

The teaming of LoMonaco and Hughes was born from ECW's Dudley family, a team of comedic fan favorites that consisted of many illegitimate children of "Big Daddy" Dudley. LoMonaco's Buh Buh Ray Dudley at the time was a fat, stuttering hillbilly who entertained the fans by dancing and wrestled with several of his "half-brothers", including Hyson's "Little Spike Dudley", for the ECW Tag Team Championship several times. Hughes, as D-Von Dudley (the only black member of the family), debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 1996. All the members of the Dudley family chased for the ECW Tag Team Championship at that time. Little Spike Dudley also debuted in 1996 and teamed with Buh Buh Ray against the Full Blooded Italians.

Initially, D-Von was hostile toward his family, saying that "true Dudleys" were not comedians. Eventually, however, Buh Buh Ray and D-Von united and kicked all of the remaining Dudleys except for Big Dick Dudley and Sign Guy Dudley out of the family, becoming villains in the process. They became the most successful members of the Dudley family as they dominated the tag team division of ECW. They won their first ECW Tag Team Championship from The Eliminators (John Kronus and Perry Saturn) at Hostile City Showdown on March 15, 1997. This win resulted in a rivalry with the Eliminators, who won the title back at ECW's first pay-per-view event Barely Legal. On June 20, the Dudleys won their second ECW Tag Team Championship from Kronus in a handicap match due to Saturn being injured.

The Dudley Boyz began their next rivalry with The Gangstas (New Jack and Mustafa Saed), which began after Dudleys defeated the Gangstas to retain the tag titles at Orgy of Violence on June 28. The Dudleys, however, lost the tag titles to Gangstas in a steel cage weapons match at Heat Wave on July 19, 1997.[11] In less than a month, the Dudleys defeated the Gangstas at Hardcore Heaven to win their third ECW Tag Team Championship. After Mustafa and Saturn parted ways with ECW, New Jack and Kronus teamed up to form The Gangstanators and beat the Dudleys for the tag title at As Good as it Gets on September 20. At November to Remember, the Dudleys participated in a four way dance for the tag title, involving the champs The F.B.I. (Tracy Smothers and Little Guido), Gangstanators and The Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks (Balls Mahoney and Axl Rotten). F.B.I. won the match and retained the titles.

The Dudleys began a rivalry with Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman in the summer of 1998. At Wrestlepalooza, they lost to Dreamer and Sandman. Eventually, the Dudleys turned on Spike, who then became involved in the rivalry. At Heat Wave, however, the two Dudleys, along with Big Dick Dudley, lost to Dreamer, Sandman and Spike in a six man tag Street Fight, ending the feud. On October 24, 1998, the Dudleys defeated Sabu and Rob Van Dam to win their fourth ECW Tag Team Championship. At November to Remember, however, they lost the titles to Masato Tanaka and Balls Mahoney.

With the departure of The Sandman, the Dudley Boyz took advantage of Sabu's ban from competing in the US, and D-Von defeated Rob Van Dam in singles competition for their sixth ECW World Tag Team Title.[6] With a brewing feud between the Dudleys and the Impact Players, (Justin Credible and Lance Storm) Buh Buh Ray and D-Von still had their hands full with the new team of Spike Dudley and Balls Mahoney. It was at Heatwave in 1999 that Spike and Mahoney beat the Dudleys for the gold. The Dudleys, however, powerbombed both men through flaming tables—the first time such a thing had been seen on PPV. With the possibility of a Dudley Boyz jump to World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in late 1999, the Dudleys won their seventh ECW Tag Team Championship at a house show from Spike and Mahoney, only to lose them the next night at another house show. It was on the second airing of ECW on TNN that the Dudley Boyz won their record eighth ECW world Tag Team Titles from Spike and Mahoney. After a threat to take the titles with them to WWF, Tommy Dreamer and Raven won the belts from the Dudleys, sending them to the WWF title-less.

In 1999, Buh Buh Ray and D-Von joined the WWF. They requested a $1 raise above the WWF's offer to stay in ECW, but their request was denied because ECW owner Paul Heyman was working a deal with Vince McMahon to supply talent to the WWF. Upon entering the WWF, Buh Buh Ray was renamed "Bubba Ray Dudley" began stuttering his promos - returning to a character trait he had initially used early in his ECW tenure. D-Von would then slap Bubba in the back of the head to help him get his words out. After several weeks, most of the gimmick was dropped. They also dropped their classic tie-dye attire and begin wearing camouflage-like ring attire.

While part of the WWF, the Dudley Boyz's claim to fame was bringing the use of tables as weapons into the wrestling mainstream, often using their signature double-team move, the 3D, to put their opponents through one of these tables. They were initially villains and were known for Bubba Ray's penchant for driving women (including Terri, Trish Stratus, Tori, B.B., Lita, Torrie Wilson, Jazz, Stacy Keibler, Molly Holly and Mae Young) through tables however they became fan favorites in mid-2000 when they engaged in a feud with the then villainous D-Generation X stable which culminated in a tag team table dumpster match at King of the Ring 2000 in which Bubba drove Tori through a table. Throughout 2000 and 2001, the Dudley Boyz engaged in a three way feud for the WWF Tag Team Championship with the Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian. The feud incorporated two Tables, Ladders and Chairs (TLC) matches, the first at SummerSlam in 2000. The second was at WrestleMania X-Seven in April 2001, in which Spike Dudley (who had joined the WWF in early-2001) interfered to aid the Dudleys.

In mid-2001, the Dudley Boyz became villains again by joining The Alliance, a massive group of wrestlers mostly consisting of former ECW and WCW wrestlers led by Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley, who attempted to take over the WWF. During this time, the Dudleys acted as enforcers of the Alliance, interfering on the behalf of Alliance mid-carders and main eventers. Stacy Keibler became the Dudleys' manager during this time— dubbed the "Duchess of Dudleyville" by ECW manager Paul Heyman—but she later cost the Dudleys a tag team match, and they put her through a table. During the storyline, they became the first tag team to ever hold the WCW, ECW, and WWF Tag Team Championships. Later, The Dudleys beat the Hardy Boyz in a cage match at Survivor Series in 2001 to unify the WWF and WCW Tag Team Championships. As 2002 began, Spike feuded with his big brothers again, winning the WWF Tag Team Title from them with partner Tazz.

Following WrestleMania X8 in March 2002, the WWF was renamed "World Wrestling Entertainment" (WWE) and the roster was divided into two brands, Raw and SmackDown!. The Dudley Boyz were separated for a short time when Bubba Ray was drafted to Raw and D-Von to SmackDown!. Bubba became a fan favorite again by reuniting with Spike Dudley while D-Von, who was still a villain, went on to become the corrupt preacher character "Reverend D-Von" and gained a protege with Deacon Batista. At Judgment Day in 2002, Bubba Ray was in the corner of Raw's Trish Stratus, who was defending the WWE Women's Championship against Keibler; D-Von and Batista were in Stacy's corner as asked by Mr. McMahon. After Stratus retained her title, Bubba Ray and D-Von stood in the ring and shook hands before an altercation broke out between the three men where D-Von and Batista ended up driving Bubba through a table. As 2002 went along, Bubba Ray teamed with Spike on Raw to form a new version of the Dudley Boyz.

Bubba and D-Von reunited following the Survivor Series, when D-Von helped Bubba Ray in a match. From then on, he was back on Raw (as he was part of a package deal that would send The Big Show to SmackDown!). After the Dudley Boyz were back together they immersed themselves in the Raw tag team division over the next sixteen months. During this time, alternating between siding with and feuding with Raw General Manager, Eric Bischoff. They continued competing in the tag team division until all three Dudleys were drafted/traded over to SmackDown! in March 2004,[6] Bubba Ray and D-Von aligned with Paul Heyman and feuded with The Undertaker. They were also billed from New York City instead of Dudleyville. In June of that year, they won the SmackDown brand's WWE Tag Team Championship, making them the first team to hold both sets of tag team titles in WWE history. By July, the Dudleys were helping Spike win matches by interfering in his favor, which Spike seemed to dislike at first, only to reveal his hand as the "boss" of the outfit after they helped him take the WWE Cruiserweight Championship from Rey Mysterio. This was a very ironically fitting role, as while Spike is considered the "little brother" due to easily being the smallest of the three, he's actually the oldest in real life.

After a lengthy hiatus, Bubba, D-Von, and Spike made what would be their final appearance at a WWE sanctioned event, when they were a part of the original One Night Stand in June 2005. In July 2005, WWE opted not to continue contract renewal negotiations with the Dudley Boyz. In addition, there was a mass of wrestlers (including Spike) that were released by WWE for budgetary reasons. In August 2005, Bubba and D'Von were issued with legal notices instructing them not to use the (WWE trademarked) name "Dudley". This led to a degree of acrimony between the former Dudleys and their erstwhile employers, as they had used the names since 1996, several years before all ECW intellectual property was acquired by WWE as a result of bankruptcy proceedings. Both believed Paul Heyman had granted them the rights to the name.

On September 21, 2005, it was announced that Bubba and D-Von (now under the names Brother Ray and Brother Devon, respectively) had signed multi-year contracts with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), as Team 3D. Team 3D made their first appearance on the October 1 episode of TNA Impact!, helping save the 3Live Kru (Ron Killings, Konnan, and B.G. James) from Planet Jarrett and Team Canada. Team 3D's first rivalry in TNA was against America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris and James Storm) (AMW), which included a mock "funeral" for the careers of Team 3D. At the TNA's December pay-per-view Turning Point in 2005, Team 3D defeated AMW in a Tables match. At Final Resolution on January 15, 2006, Team 3D fought AMW again, but this time for the NWA World Tag Team Championship, which AMW held. They won the match, however, due to Team Canada's interference the referee awarded the match to AMW.

On the April 13 episode of Impact!, Spike Dudley, now referred to as "Brother Runt", debuted in TNA, helping Team 3D beat Team Canada. At TNA's April pay-per-view Lockdown, Team 3D defeated Team Canada in a Six Sides of Steel Anthem match. Ray and Devon then started a rivalry with The James Gang (B.G. James and Kip James), with the two teams meeting at TNA's June pay-per-view Slammiversary in a match which no one can be counted count or disqualified; Ray and Devon claimed victory in the match. After their brief absence, Ray and Devon made a return to TNA in October 2006 and went back on the tag title hunt. They first fought with The Naturals (Chase Stevens and Andy Douglas), who defeated Team 3D in their signature tables match.

At the beginning of 2007, Team 3D were announced as the number one contenders to the The Latin American Xchange's (LAX) NWA World Tag Team Championship and faced them at TNA's January pay-per-view Final Resolution. During the match, however, Runt was scripted to appear drunk, wearing a Santa Claus outfit, and interfere, causing Team 3D to get disqualified. They continued their rivalry with LAX at TNA's March pay-per-view Destination X in a match which neither team could be disqualified called a Ghetto Brawl by TNA, in which they lost after interference from Alex Shelley. At Lockdown in 2007, Team 3D defeated LAX in an Electrified Six Sides of Steel match to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship. In this match, the cage was electrified by electrical powerlines, to give the illusion when a wrestler touched the cage, they would be instantly electrocuted, in storyline.

On May 13, 2007, the Executive Director of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) announced Team 3D had been stripped of the NWA World Tag Team Championship due to the permanent discontinuation of the relationship between the NWA and TNA Wrestling. TNA continued to recognize Team 3D as their World Tag Team Champions and were then designated as the very first official TNA World Tag Team Champions, and the new TNA World Tag Team Championship belts were unveiled on their "TNA Today" webcast on May 16, 2007. On the broadcast they were awarded the new championship by authority figure Jim Cornette. Before the new championship was unveiled, Team 3D successfully defended their champion status at TNA's May pay-per-view Sacrifice in a standard tag team match involving three teams known as a 3-Way Dance, which also including the teams of Tomko (Travis Tomko) and Scott Steiner (Scott Rechsteiner) and LAX. After the match, Steiner's brother, Rick Steiner (Robert Rechsteiner), came out and attacked Team 3D which set up a match between the two teams at Slammiversary for the TNA World Tag Team Championship. Scott, however, could not compete due to a legitimate injury; instead Road Warrior Animal (Joseph Laurinaitis) took his place, but Team 3D retained the championship. On the June 21 episode of Impact!, Cornette announced a "Champions versus Champions" match for TNA's July pay-per-view Victory Road, in which the Tag Team Champions would face the World Champion and the X Division Champion. At Victory Road, Team 3D lost the championship to Samoa Joe after interference from the Steiner Brothers. On the following Impact!, they blamed the Steiner Brothers and the fans (who had actually been taking intervals to chant "3D sucks" for weeks at the time) for their loss. At Hard Justice and Bound for Glory, Team 3D lost to the Steiner Brothers, the latter defeat coming in a two out of three tables match after Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley, The Motor City Machine Guns, interfered on the Steiners' behalf.

On the October 18 Impact!, Team 3D assaulted the Machine Guns in the middle of their match, whipping them with studded belts and simultaneously powerbombimg then through two tables while Ray derided the supposedly terrible quality of the Guns' match. Team 3D continued on this path of attack and verbal putdown, directing it towards the Guns' fellow TNA X Division wrestlers. This led to a match against the Guns at Genesis, which Shelley and Sabin won. They later stole Jay Lethal's belt and kidnapped X-Division wrestler Johnny Devine, who subsequently turned on his fellow X Division wrestlers. While still referred to by most as Johnny, Ray and Devon called Devine "Brother Devine" and treated him as a member of Team 3D, though he did not share the half brother backstory. At Against All Odds, Team 3D and Johnny Devine fought The Motor City Machineguns and Jay Lethal in a Street Fight but lost. Per the match stipulation, Ray and Devon could not compete unless they weighed in at 275 lbs. or lower.

After Against All Odds, 3D were matched with Shark Boy and Curry Man on numerous occasions in tag matches, with either one or both of the brothers being unable to compete due to the weight restriction. The week before Destination X, a stipulation was added to the match between 3D and Shark Boy and Curry Man: if Ray and Devon did not each weigh in at under 275 pounds, they would be fired from TNA. Both Ray and Devon made weight, and as such never had to weigh in under 275 ever again. Shortly afterward, Devine returned to competing for the X-Division Title, his association with Team 3D being quietly phased out for a time, though it would soon return. As this went on, 3D, meanwhile, became part of several loose collectives of self-identified "bad guys" and "scumbags", aligning them at some point or another with almost every important villain on the TNA roster, including but not limited to Booker T and Kurt Angle. They would begin a feud with Christian Cage, Rhino and A.J. Styles attacking them on several occasions. Their feud ended at Hard Justice with Cage and Rhino defeating them in a "New Jersey Street Fight". They then began a feud with the team of "The Monster" Abyss and Matt Morgan, both teams competed at No Surrender with Abyss and Morgan picking up the victory.

Team 3D turned fan favorite when they joined the TNA Frontline after appearing to join Kurt Angle's Main Event Mafia, double crossing them and jumping them along with Frontline leaders Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles and Rhino. They also attempted to put Angle through a table. At Final Resolution in December, Team 3D along with Styles and Joe lost to the Main Event Mafia in an eight man tag team match. After Against All Odds 2009 Team 3D began a feud with Beer Money, Inc. (James Storm and Robert Roode) over the TNA World Tag Team Championship. They faced each other in an Off the wagon challenge match (where if 3D lost then the person who lost is kayfabe fired). Beer Money lost by countout. On April 19, 2009, at Lockdown, IWGP Tag Team Champions Team 3D defeated Beer Money, Inc. to win the TNA World Tag Team Championships in a match where both titles were on the line. This made Team 3D World Tag Team Champions for the 22nd time. On June 21, 2009, at Slammiversary, Beer Money, Inc. defeated Team 3D to become three-time TNA World Tag Team Champions after outside interference from The British Invasion of Brutus Magnus, Doug Williams and Rob Terry. Soon after, 3D then reignited their feud with the Main Event Mafia from late 2008 by becoming number 1 contenders to face Booker T and Scott Steiner for the TNA Tag Team Championships. After a failed attempt at the titles, they started a long feud with The British Invasion and other members of World Elite. Team 3D was attacked by World Elite on multiple occasions, until Beer Money Inc. intervened, leading to a loose partnership between the two teams.

On October 18, 2009, at Bound for Glory, Team 3D captured their 23rd tag team championship when they defeated Beer Money, the British Invasion, and The Main Event Mafia's Scott Steiner and Booker T in a Full Metal Mayhem Tag Team match. With both the IWGP and TNA Tag tiles on the line, they captured the IWGP titles, which the British Invasion had beaten them for, only for the Brits to take them out and win what at the time were Booker and Steiner's TNA tag championships moments later. During the following weeks Team 3D once again turned heel and aligned themselves with Rhino in a battle against the younger talent of the company. On the November 19 episode of Impact! Team 3D Academy of Professional Wrestling and Sports Entertainment graduate Jesse Neal joined Team 3D and Rhino and two weeks later Suicide joined Morgan, Hernandez and Dinero to level the playing field. At Final Resolution Morgan, Hernandez, Dinero and Suicide defeated Team 3D, Rhino and Neal in an eight-man elimination tag team match.

When Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff took over TNA at the beginning of 2010, Team 3D's angle with Rhino and Neal was discontinued and they reverted to being faces, while starting a feud with The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobs and Jerry Sags), who were a part of the new wave of wrestlers brought in by Hogan and Bischoff. At Against All Odds The Nasty Boys defeated Team 3D in a tag team match, when Jimmy Hart made his return to the company and interfered in the match on the Nasty Boys' behalf. Team 3D avenged their loss on the February 25 episode of Impact!, when Jesse Neal helped them defeat the Nasty Boys in a tables match. On the March 15 episode of Impact! Team 3D and Neal were scheduled to face the Nasty Boys and Hart in a six man tag team match, but prior to the match the Nasty Boys attacked Neal backstage and put him through a table. Team 3D found Neal a replacement in the returning Brother Runt, but were still defeated in the match by the Nastys and Hart. However, after the match Neal made the save for Team 3D and helped them put Sags through a table. On May 16 at Sacrifice Ray turned heel by attacking Jesse Neal and costing him and Shannon Moore their match for the TNA World Tag Team Championship, after feeling he had been disrespected by Neal. The following month at Slammiversary VIII Neal defeated Ray in a singles match after a distraction from the debuting Tommy Dreamer. The following month at Victory Road Ray and Devon faced Jesse Neal in a three-way match. During the match the members of Team 3D attacked each other, before Neal accidentally speared Devon and was then pinned by Ray.

On the following episode of Impact! Devon joined fellow ECW alumni Mick Foley, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Stevie Richards, Rhino, Pat Kenney and Al Snow and TNA World Heavyweight Champion Rob Van Dam in attacking Brother Ray, Abyss and the rest of the TNA locker room. The following week, Ray declined Devon's offer to join the ECW alumni, before TNA president Dixie Carter agreed to give the ECW alumni their own reunion pay–per–view event, Hardcore Justice: The Last Stand, as a celebration of hardcore wrestling and a final farewell to the company. However, on the July 29 episode of Impact! Ray turned face decided to join the ECW alumni and seemingly buried the hatchet with his brother. On August 8 at Hardcore Justice Team 3D, accompanied by Joel Gertner, defeated Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney, billed as Kahoneys, in a South Philadelphia Street Fight. After the match Ray and Devon were assaulted by the Gangstas. On the following episode of Impact!, the ECW alumni, known collectively as EV 2.0, were assaulted by A.J. Styles, Kazarian, Robert Roode, James Storm, Douglas Williams and Matt Morgan of Ric Flair's Fourtune stable, who thought they didn't deserve to be in TNA. This would mark Team 3D's final appearance on their old TNA contracts, which expired shortly thereafter. The two then entered negotiations over new contracts. Team 3D returned to TNA television two months later on the October 7 live edition of Impact!, promising a major announcement at Bound for Glory. At the pay-per-view Team 3D announced their retirement, but asked for a one final match against the TNA World Tag Team Champions, the Motor City Machine Guns. Their new multi–year contracts with TNA were confirmed shortly thereafter. At Turning Point the Motor City Machine Guns defeated Team 3D to retain the TNA World Tag Team Championship.

During Team 3D's retirement ceremony on the following episode of Impact!, Ray turned heel by attacking Devon, reigniting the feud between the two. The following week Ray claimed that Devon had gotten weak, since Sabin had managed to kick out of a 3D at Turning Point, calling him the Marty Jannetty and himself the Shawn Michaels of the team.

Following this the two entered into a feud that spanned several events and shows, after which both men established their characters in singles storylines. Ray would rechristen himself as Bully Ray, and as a member of Immortal even challenged for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and came second in the Bound for Glory Series, whereas Devon later entered a feud with D'Angelo Dinero regarding the allegiance of Devon's twin sons and later went on to win the TNA Television Championship.

During the late summer of 2012, both Devon's and Ray's contracts with TNA were set to expire. While Ray agreed to a new two-year extension with the promotion, Devon parted ways with TNA. However, Devon returned on October 14, 2012, at Bound for Glory, being revealed as a member (later identified as the Sergent at Arms) of the heel faction Aces & Eights after their victory against Sting and a now face Bully Ray.

Ray would spend the next few months becoming close to Hulk and Brooke Hogan while feuding with Devon and the Aces & Eights, and eventually was granted a match at Lockdown for Jeff Hardy's TNA World Heavyweight Championship. At Lockdown on March 10, 2013, Bully Ray turned heel by defeating Hardy for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship using a hammer provided by Devon, then revealed that he was the President of the Aces & Eights and had manipulated the Hogans all along. They then reunited as a tag team on numerous occasions during that time, including a tag team themed edition of TNA's One Night Only PPV series,[60] as well as house shows, and TV tapings. The team was forced to disband again on August 22, 2013, when Devon was pinned by AJ Styles (who was filling in for Kurt Angle due to legit DUI charges and rehab from alcohol and drug use) in a 5-on-5 bout between Aces & Eights and the reformed Main Event Mafia where the loser of the fall would be forced to leave TNA. Hours later, Devon's departure from TNA was confirmed as legitimate.

Aside from TNA, Team 3D has also participated in many All Japan Pro Wrestling and Hustle's shows after their WWE release. Team 3D held an unbeaten streak in All Japan, where they won All Japan's World's Strongest Tag Determination League in 2005. Team 3D has also won HUSTLE's tag title in 2006, which they held until the promotion folded in October 2009. Team 3D also appeared in the Pro Wrestling Alliance June show, defeating Booker T and Dawg in the main event. Team 3D has also participated in two of the January 4 Dome Show PPV events for New Japan Pro Wrestling. In 2008, they won a hardcore match against Togi Makabe and Toru Yano. They also performed in Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council, where Armando Estrada served as their manager. Team 3D wrestled Thunder and Lightning for the WWC World Tag Team Championship at Lockout 2008, but lost the match by disqualification. The following year, Team 3D were booked to face Makabe and Yano, at that time the IWGP Tag Team Champions, and the team of Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan in a three-way match for the Tag Team title, later with a Hardcore rules stipulation added. However, days before the event, the team of Kojima and Tenzan withdrew due to Tenzan sustaining a serious eye injury which required an operation. Team 3D won the resulting tag match against Makabe and Yano to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship, thus making them 22-time tag-team champions. On the July 30 episode of TNA Impact! The British Invasion of Brutus Magnus and Doug Williams defeated Team 3D in a tables match to win the tag titles. Team 3D would later regain the IWGP titles on October 18, 2009 at TNA Bound For Glory by defeating Beer Money, Booker T and Scott Steiner, and the British Invasion to capture their 24th Tag Team Championship. On January 4, 2010, at Wrestle Kingdom IV in Tokyo Dome Team 3D lost the IWGP Tag Team Title to No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro) in a three-way hardcore match, which also included Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson).

Starting in late 2013, Bully Ray and Devon have been something of a fixture within Tommy Dreamer's House of Hardcore promotion. On November 9, 2013, at HoH 3, Bully Ray attacked Dreamer and Terry Funk following the main event, claiming that Dreamer offended him by not inviting him to the show, before challenging Dreamer to a falls-count-anywhere street fight at the TNA One Night Only pay-per-view event Old School. Spike Dudley came out to make the save only to be beaten by Bully as well, whereas Devon appeared to confront Bully—only to turn around and aid him as the two hit Dreamer with a 3D, then fended off an attempted save by the Sandman. Team 3D are also scheduled to officially team together against Bad Influence on June 7, 2014 at House of Hardcore 5.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

1. Edge & Christian

Adam Copeland and Jay Reso formed a tag team in the Canadian independent circuit after completing their training with Ron Hutchinson, primarily using the ring names of Sexton Hardcastle and Christian Cage respectively. Their tag team wrestled under several team names, such as "High Impact", "Suicide Blondes", "Revolution X", "Hard Impact" and "Canadian Rockers". They were part of a faction dubbed "Thug LiFe" in 1997. The stable consisted of Cage, Hardcastle, Joe E. Legend, Rhino Richards, Bloody Bill Skullion, Big Daddy Adams and Martin Kane.[6] In 1998, Sexton and Christian began teaming up in independent promotions such as Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW) and Southern States Wrestling (SSW).

The duo won the ICW Streetfight Tag Team Championship twice and SSW Tag Team Championship once during their time in the independent circuit.

On the June 22, 1998 episode of Raw is War, "Edge" (Copeland) debuted in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) against Jose Estrada, Jr.. He was a mysterious "loner" character, who would emerge from the crowd before his matches. Eventually, he started a feud with Gangrel. At In Your House: Breakdown, during a match pitting Edge against Owen Hart, an unknown person, looking similar to Edge, came out to the ring distracting him enough to allow Hart to get the win. It was later revealed that this person was "Christian" (Reso), Edge's storyline brother, and he was aligned with Gangrel as his vampire follower. After some confrontations between the two gothic brothers, Edge was convinced to 'come home' with Christian and Gangrel, and the three of them formed a stable known as "The Brood".

A small theory exists that Christianity may have had a hand in deciding Copeland and Reso's WWF/E ring names, as "Edge" is a term often used in Christian project names. This is somewhat supported by the fact that both men had frequently worn cross necklaces on TV for some time since beginning their WWF careers. However, this is complete coincidence - "Edge" was one of several names Copeland thought of and the one he saw fit to pitch for the character, and "Christian" was shorthand for Reso's indy name "Christian Cage".

At In Your House: Rock Bottom, the Brood defeated J.O.B. Squad (Al Snow, Bob Holly and Scorpio). The Brood briefly joined The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness faction, but left after Christian was flogged and almost sacrificed for revealing Stephanie McMahon's whereabouts to Ken Shamrock. Following a short feud with the Ministry, Gangrel turned on Edge and demanded that Christian do the same. He refused and both he and Edge broke with Gangrel turning them into fan favorites. From there, the gothic storyline enjoyed limited success, beginning their eventual tag team feud with The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy), who also briefly formed a new Brood with Gangrel before turning on him as well. At this point, the duo had rehashed Edge's pre-Brood gimmick as borderline gothic fan favorites most notable for a tendency to enter the ring through the audience.

The tag team feud with the Hardy Boyz intensified as Gangrel became Matt and Jeff's new manager, combining to form "The New Brood", in the summer of 1999. However, both teams were more interested in acquiring the managerial services of Terri Runnels for which (along with $100,000) they would compete in a best-of-five series of matches known as the Terri Invitational Tournament. Edge and Christian won the first two matches, putting the Hardyz in sudden jeopardy. The Hardyz went on to win the next two matches, however, leading to a rubber match at No Mercy to determine which team would earn the services of Runnels. The rubber match would be a ladder match, in which Gangrel tried to interfere, only to get ejected. Matt and Jeff Hardy went on to win the match and the Terri Invitational Tournament.

At this point, Gangrel was completely out of the picture, and the Hardyz inevitably turned face. So in order to keep up and continue their own progression as a tag team (as well as the feud in a natural course), Edge and Christian redefined themselves as a villainous duo of surfer/teen idols. The two engaged in various comedic antics including making fun of their opponents, using strange exclusive phrases (the most notable being "reek of awesomeness"), and dressing in outlandish costumes. Other trademarks of theirs included the "five-second pose" where, "for the benefit of those with flash photography", they would stand still in odd positions in the middle of the ring so fans could take pictures. These poses usually involved making fun of either their opponents or aspects of town pride (for instance, making fun of Elvis Presley during a show in Memphis, Tennessee or imitating Bill Buckner in the 1986 World Series at an event in Boston) to generate a negative reaction from the crowd.

Edge and Christian were involved in several tag team matches with Hardy Boyz at Survivor Series and No Way Out. At WrestleMania 2000, they defeated the defending champion Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) and the Hardy Boyz in a Triangle ladder match for their first WWF Tag Team Championship. At Backlash, the duo retained their titles against D-Generation X (X-Pac and Road Dogg). They began a feud with Too Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty, Grand Master Sexay and Rikishi). On May 29, 2000 edition of Raw is War, they dropped the titles to Scotty and Sexay. At the King of the Ring pay-per-view, the duo defeated Too Cool, Hardy Boyz and T & A (Test and Albert) in a Four Corners elimination match to win their second WWF Tag Team Championship.

At SummerSlam, they defended their titles successfully against Dudleyz and Hardyz in the first-ever Tables, Ladders and Chairs match (TLC match). Edge and Christian stated that instead of doing the "time-honored tradition" of shaking the hands of their opponents, they would instead do the time-honored tradition of mocking their opponents, and had four little people show up dressed as the Hardy Boyz and the Dudley Boyz, with toy ladders and tables, with a "37 second pose" when the fake Hardys and Dudleys bowed to Edge and Christian, who stood on the table. In addition, they also became known for using the "con-chair-to" (simultaneous chair shot).

After Edge and Christian lost the tag team championship to the Hardy Boyz at Unforgiven, they had a rematch on the September 25 edition of Raw is War in a ladder match which they lost. According to the pre-match stipulation, they could never again challenge for the tag team championship as long as the Hardy Boyz held them. Thus, they began competing under the masks of Los Conquistadores. On the October 16 edition of Raw Is War, they defeated Dudley Boyz, and on the October 19 edition of SmackDown!, they won a tag team battle royal to earn themselves a tag team title shot. They went on to defeat the Hardy Boyz at No Mercy to once again become the tag team champions .

Soon after, another team began competing as Los Conquistadores as well, and they soon challenged Edge and Christian for their tag team championship on the October 23 episode of Raw is War. "Los Conquistadores" defeated Edge and Christian before ripping off their masks and revealing themselves as the Hardy Boyz.

They eventually started to team with Kurt Angle, forming "Team ECK", a group that was later joined by Rhyno when he came in from Extreme Championship Wrestling in early 2001 to make "Team RECK".

At Armageddon, Edge and Christian competed in a Four Corners match which included the champions, Right to Censor (Bull Buchanan and The Goodfather), Dudley Boyz and the makeshift team of Road Dogg and K-Kwik. Edge and Christian went on to win the match and their fourth WWF Tag Team Championship. A week later, they lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to The Undertaker and The Rock but eventually regained them.

At the Royal Rumble, they lost the titles to the Dudley Boyz. They aided the Hardy Boyz in defeating the Dudley Boyz for the titles on March 5, 2001 edition of Raw is War and then two weeks later, they defeated the Hardy Boyz themselves for their sixth WWF Tag Team Championship. Later that night, they dropped the titles to the Dudley Boyz. At WrestleMania X-Seven, they defeated the then-champions the Dudley Boyz and the Hardy Boyz in the second TLC match for their seventh and final WWF Tag Team Championship, but with help from their teammate Rhyno. On the April 19 episode of SmackDown!, they lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to Brothers of Destruction (Undertaker and Kane).

Friction arose between the team (as well as the entire RECK faction) at King of the Ring when Edge won the 2001 King of the Ring tournament (all four members had made it to the semi finals). As a result, on the September 3 edition of Raw is War in their hometown of Toronto, Christian appeared to be jealous of his brother and insisted on carrying Edge's trophy to the ring. During the night, he assaulted Edge with a "one-man con-chair-to" turning into a major heel and joined The Alliance. The former partners went on to feud over the WWF Intercontinental Championship for several months, causing the team to split.

Edge and Christian had a one-night reunion at a SmackDown! live event on October 13, 2002 when they defeated Los Guerreros (Eddie and Chavo). They reunited again on November 15, 2004 edition of Raw but ended up losing to Chris Benoit and Shelton Benjamin. From there, they would become loosely united through Christian facing Edge's storyline rivals, leading to three more reunion tag team matches in 2005. These reunions, officially or otherwise, also included a brand new third party in the form of Christian's acting problem solver at the time, Tyson Tomko.

Christian left WWE on November 13, 2005. He debuted in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) at its Genesis pay-per-view under the ring name Christian Cage, which he used in Canadian independent circuit. Christian experienced immediate success in TNA, where he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship twice. Edge also achieved greater success in WWE after Christian's departure. He went on to win the first-ever Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 21 and cashed in his Money in the Bank contract at New Year's Revolution and won the WWE Championship, his first of eleven world championship reigns.

Between 2004 and 2005 Edge & Christian had a few tag matches on November 15, 2004 E&C's had their first match together in more than three years facing Chris Benoit and Shelton Benjamin in a losing effort after the match edge attacked Christian, On February 21 E&C teamed up facing Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton in another losing effort. On March 21st edition of raw Edge and Christian defeated Chris Jericho & Shelton Benjamin. On January 24, 2005 Edge & Christian teamed up with Tyson Tomko to face Shawn Michaels & Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit in a losing effort.

In 2009, Christian returned to WWE, and at Backlash, won the ECW Championship, his first world championship in WWE. Following his title win, and prior to Edge's ninth world title win that same night, the duo interacted on television for the first time since Christian's return, with Christian criticizing Edge for not being "fun" anymore. On the first SmackDown following the 2010 WWE Draft, Christian and Edge came face-to-face following Edge's goodbye speech, in which they referred to themselves simply as childhood friends rather than brothers. Christian would force Edge to reveal that he had manipulated the fans, challenging Edge to a match. Edge refused, leading to a brawl between the two, in which Christian got the upper hand. On Raw May 17, in their hometown of Toronto, Edge was scheduled for a "Pick Your Poison" match and his opponent turned out to be Christian. Edge eventually won the match with a spear, however moments later Randy Orton revealed that The Undertaker was in fact his real opponent. Though Edge got himself intentionally counted out, Christian got the last laugh by throwing Edge back into the ring to get chokeslammed by the Undertaker.

They reunited once again at the 2010 Slammy Awards, with Edge as a face again and on better terms. They presented the award for meltdown of the year, which was ironically won by Edge for destroying the laptop where the Raw brand General Manager sends his messages to. At the 2011 Royal Rumble, Edge paid homage to Christian when he applied a Killswitch to Dolph Ziggler and retained the World Heavyweight title. Christian returned at Elimination Chamber and came to the aid of Edge when he was being attacked by Alberto Del Rio right after his match. At the March 4th tapings of SmackDown, Christian saved Edge from Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez. The following week, Christian once again saved Edge from Alberto Del Rio and his WWE NXT rookie, Brodus Clay. The duo were beaten down however, which resulted in Teddy Long setting up a tag team match as the main event. Later that night, Edge and Christian officially reunited when they defeated Alberto Del Rio and Brodus Clay. A week later, Edge defeated Brodus Clay in a one on one match. Alberto attacked Edge afterwards but was stopped by Christian. The duo brawled until Teddy Long announced a steel cage match as the main event. Christian defeated Alberto. Afterwards, Edge attempted to destroy Alberto's Bentley. He was stopped though and given a con-chair-to. The following week, Teddy Long announced that if Edge or Alberto touched each other before WrestleMania XXVII, they would both be banned from it. The main event saw Christian face Del Rio once again. Christian won but Edge, who had accompanied him, nearly hit Alberto with a chair. Christian stopped him though and hit Alberto himself. On next week's episode of Raw, the duo once again faced Del Rio and Clay. They defeated them but afterwards Del Rio applied the cross armbreaker to Christian. Edge chased him off but was then attacked from behind by Del Rio.

At WrestleMania, Edge defeated Del Rio. Afterwards, with Christian's help he destroyed Alberto's car. On the following Smackdown, Alberto expressed his anger towards Edge and Christian and promised to make them pay. Edge came out with the car he destroyed at WrestleMania to taunt him. Alberto demanded a rematch but Edge said others deserved it more, like Christian who exited the towing truck. Before any fight erupted, Teddy scheduled a match between Christian and Del Rio to the determine the number-one contender that would face Edge in a ladder match for the title at the 2011 Extreme Rules. Del Rio defeated Christian after he got distracted by Edge spearing Brodus Clay.

On the April 15, 2011 edition of Raw, Edge announced his retirement from professional wrestling due to injury, vacating the World Heavyweight Championship in the process. Upon his retirement, Christian would gain a championship match for the vacated World Heavyweight Championship against Del Rio after winning a 20-Man Battle Royal. At Extreme Rules, after a distraction by Edge reversed the effects of interference from Clay, Christian defeated Del Rio for the vacated title. Edge and Christian celebrated the win and embraced in the ring one final time.

At Summerslam, Christian revealed that Edge would be at ringside for his match against Randy Orton. However, Edge berated Christian for his recent actions and left him to fight in a losing effort to Orton. On the September 16, 2011 edition of Smackdown, entitled 'Edge Appreciation Night', the duo once again came face to face backstage. They made up but argued again after Christian tried asking Edge to get him for another title shot. After the tapings, a tribute for Edge aired and the two did a five second pose in front of their hometown. In January 2012, it was announced that Edge will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. On the 31st of March 2012, Christian inducted Edge into the WWE Hall of Fame. At the end of Edge's speech, he did a five second pose to end the ceremony.

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

Final Countdown
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
15. Harlem Heat
14. The Rock N Roll Express
13. Team Hell No
12. The Fabulous Freebirds
11. The Midnight Express
10. The New Age Outlaws
9. Demolition
8. The Midnight Rockers/The Rockers
7. The British Bulldogs
6. The Hart Foundation
5. The Steiner Brothers
4. The Hardy Boyz
3. The Legion Of Doom/The Road Warriors
2. The Dudley Boyz/Team 3D
1. Edge & Christian

[AdamAFL was sooooo wrong]

Great countdown man, was really fun reading along. Thanks!