The Contentious Ten 12.07.09: The Top Ten SuperTeams

I would be remiss not to mention the death of Eddie “Umaga” Fatu. There has already been a lot written about this sad occurrence, and I’d like to add my name to the list of people who would like to send their condolences to his friends and family.

It’s very likely that for the first time in a very long time that the main event of a WWE pay per view will be a Tag Team Championship Match, as D-Generation X will be facing off against Chris Jericho and The Big Show. This means that it is entirely possible that Triple H and Shawn Michaels, two of the most decorated wrestlers in WWE history could finally win the WWE Tag Team Titles as a duo. They would make for a very formidable team as both are former world champions and have amassed quite an impressive number of tag team victories. Of course both Jericho and Big Show are former world champions too, and have been really successful. This fact got me thinking about “super tag teams” like the Mega Powers, The Rock n’ Sock Connection, and The Brothers of Destruction. This in turn got me thinking about the most successful of these pairings, and thus they are the subjects of this list.

Let me explain what I mean by “Super Tag Teams” as I have some pretty specific requirements that the teams in question have to meet in order to qualify for this list.

First: Both members of the team have to have held a world championship. For the purpose of this list the titles I’m counting as “World Titles” are: WWE, World Heavyweight (NWA to WCW to WWE lineage only), and TNA (NWA to TNA). I’m not counting: ECW, AWA or the NWA after 1993 and any time the belt was outside of another major promotion (because without the backing of a major promotion the NWA Title is now basically just an important Indy-belt).

Second: The team has to have won a tag team championship, because, after all, it doesn’t matter how good a team is if they can’t win tag team gold. This automatically disqualifies teams like the Mega Powers, D-X, and a team like The Outsiders gets disqualified because Scott Hall was never a world champion. The tag titles I’m counting are: WWE (World, WWE, and Unified), WCW (NWA to WCW), and TNA.

Third: The team has to have won the tag team titles after both members already won their respective world championship. This means teams like Diesel and Shawn Michaels, and Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels aren’t eligible because, at the time they won their tag titles one member on the team had yet to win a world title.

You might think that this doesn’t leave much in the way of choices so here is just a sample of the list of teams in no particular order that could didn’t make the honorable mention cut:

DDP and Kevin Nash
John Cena and Batista
The Rock and The Undertaker
Sting and Kevin Nash
Sting and The Giant
Booker T and Scott Steiner
Chris Jericho and Edge

Ranking these teams was really difficult, because there are so many things to consider. It is pretty standard for these super teams to have fairly short reigns, so my rankings emphasize length of time the team held the titles, and what I perceive to be the star power of the team. However, there is also an intangible factor (my opinion) that accounts for the teams presence and ranking on the list. There’s no formula I am applying to this.

Also, I swore to myself I wouldn’t do this, but it’s been a few months so: This week’s article discusses Chris Benoit. Just because I don’t say anything bad about him in the article does not mean I approve of what he did, or that I even enjoy watching his matches. He is in this weeks list because I tried to be as objective as possible. If you don’t want to read about Benoit please skip the section on him.

The Top Ten “Super Teams”

Honorable Mention

Big Show and Kane These two had quite a successful run as World Tag Team Champions, however, I don’t think they felt like a “Super Team,” because neither man had done anything of main event caliber in a really long time. It seemed more like they were just two big guys teaming up.

Kurt Angle and Sting This was an impressive team, and the storyline surrounding Karen Angle was interesting and a good setup for their impending World Title match, but they lost the titles to Ron Killings and “Pacman” Jones. So, how “super” could they have been?

Bret Hart and Bill Goldberg These two were another team who were on a collision course over the World Title, but they put aside their differences long enough to win the WCW Tag Team Titles. They could have been a great melding of power and technical prowess, but they lost the titles to the Outsiders just six days after they won them.

X

Steve Austin and The Undertaker

The Undertaker won the WWF Title on November 27, 1991
Steve Austin won the WWF Title on March 29, 1998
The duo won the WWF Tag Team Titles on July 26, 1998

The 1998 King of the Ring featured a Hell in a Cell match between the Undertaker and Mankind, and a First Blood match between Steve Austin and Kane. On the surface these matches didn’t have much to do with each other, but both Mankind and the Undertaker interfered in Austin and Kane’s match, which led to Kane’s victory. Austin would win the WWF Title back the next night on Raw, but the Undertaker’s interference on behalf of his brother started the two on a collision course for SummerSlam. However, both men still had some baggage left over from King of the Ring in Kane and Mankind who, a few weeks after the event, defeated the New Age Outlaws for the WWF Tag Team Titles. Despite the fact that their SummerSlam match was already scheduled Austin and Undertaker teamed up to challenge Kane and Mankind for the Tag Titles at Fully Loaded. The unlikely pair captured the belts after Undertaker Tombstoned Kane.

The next night on Raw Undertaker and Austin defeated the New Age Outlaws in a title match, but the week after they were pitted against the New Age Outlaws, The Rock and D’lo Brown, and Kane and Mankind. In the end Kane pinned the Undertaker and won the titles for his team. Without the tag team gold holding them together Undertaker and Austin were free to continue to build to their SummerSlam match for the WWF Title.

IX

Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit

Chris Benoit won the WCW Title on January 16, 2000
Kurt Angle won the WWF Title on October 22, 2000
The duo won the WWE Tag Team Titles on October 20, 2002

This team makes on the list almost due to a technicality. Chris Benoit won the vacant WCW Title in a match against Sid at Souled Out on his last night with the company. In the storyline they explained that Sid’s foot had been under the bottom rope, so his submission didn’t count. Therefore, I’m not sure if WCW really ever counted Benoit as a former champion. Regardless, he was declared champion that night, so I feel that qualifies him. Kurt Angle on the other hand had been WWF Champion twice prior to the two teaming up. After the brand extension in 2002 a rivalry between SmackDown and Raw started. The Stephanie McMahon led SmackDown scored a major coup when they signed then Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar to an exclusive contract (up until that point the Champion wrestled on both brands). As a result the Eric Bischoff led Raw locked down all of its championships including the WWE Tag Team Titles and renamed them the World Tag Team Titles. In retaliation McMahon declared that SmackDown would have it’s own WWE Tag Team Titles, and set up a tournament to crown the first champions. McMahon wanted the best competition she could find for the tournament and paired Angle and Benoit who were bitter rivals. She forced this alliance be threatening to fire them if they couldn’t get along while they were in the tournament. At No Mercy 2002 the duo defeated Edge and Rey Mysterio to capture the new titles.

Although they were champions they still had a difficult time getting along and almost came to blows several times. Then, just over two weeks after they won the belts they lost them to Edge and Rey Mysterio in a two out of three falls match on an episode of SmackDown. The duo wasn’t quite finished teaming yet and participated in a triple threat match (also involving Los Guerreros) for the titles at Survivor Series. After failing to recapture the titles the team completely fell apart and Angle and Benoit continued to feud. The reason they make this list over some longer reigning and perhaps seemingly more qualified teams is because they got the new tag team championship off to a great start and during the tournament and in subsequent matches they put together some of the best matches of the year.

VIII

Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales

Pedro Morales won the WWWF Title on January 18, 1971
Bob Backlund won the WWWF Title on February 20, 1978
The duo won the WWF Tag Team Titles on August 9, 1980

I wouldn’t go so far as to claim that Backlund and Morales were the first “super team” (under my rules at least) because I’m sure someone would prove me wrong. However, they are the earliest team on this list. Morales was a great WWWF Champion that carried the promotion for the nearly three year period between Bruno Sammartino’s two epic title reigns. Backlund was the man who took up Sammartino’s charge after Bruno decided to lighten his schedule a little bit. Both men were tremendous fan favorites (although neither came close to Bruno’s level of popularity) and given the fact that up until that point they were two of the only seven men to ever be (officially recognized) WWWF Champion they were a “Dream Team” in almost every sense of the word. It wasn’t very common during that period to see two stars of their caliber team up to challenge for the World Tag Team Titles, but the WWF was putting together a “supercard” known as The Showdown at Shea Stadium, and wanted to feature major marquee matches. The card was headlined by a steel cage match between Bruno Sammartino and his turncoat protoge Larry Zbysko, and the undercard consisted of a Junior Heavyweight Title Match, Antonio Inoki defending his WWF Martial Arts Championship, Ken Patera defending the Intercontinental Title, Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, and WWF Champion Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales vs. the WWF Tag Team Champions The Wild Samoans in a two out of three falls match. As fierce as The Wild Samoans were, they were no match for the two great champions and Morales and Backlund easily won the titles two falls to none in under fifteen minuets with Morales rolling up Afa for the first fall and then Backlund pinning Afa after a dropkick. Perhaps Morales and Backlund would be ranked higher, but the two were almost immediately stripped of their newly won titles, as it was ruled that a wrestler could not hold two championships at one time (a rule they ignored before this and gratuitously ignored after). They make this list because they were unquestionably the “Super Team” for their era.

VII

Rated-RKO

Randy Orton won the World Heavyweight Title on August 15, 2004
Edge won the WWE Title on January 8, 2006
The duo won the World Tag Team Titles on November 13, 2006

In the fall of 2006 a reunited D-Generation X had squashed just about everyone who stood in their way including the Spirit Squad, the McMahons, and The Big Show, when D-X cost Edge his final chance at John Cena’s WWE Title he approached Randy Orton with the proposition that they join forces to put an end to D-X’s resurgence. The feud started in earnest when Edge and Orton turned the tables on D-X and came down to the ring dressed as Triple H and Shawn Michaels mocking them.

A match was scheduled between the two teams at Cyber Sunday, and thanks to Eric Bischoff’s controversial officiating Edge and Orton, now calling themselves Rated-RKO got the victory, and handed D-X their first major loss all year. On the same show the Spirit Squad lost the World Tag Team Titles to Ric Flair and Roddy Piper. The next night Rated-RKO challenged the new champions for the belts, but lost following interference from D-X. However, the week after the duo got another shot at the titles, but took out Roddy Piper as he made his ring entrance and then easily defeated Flair to win the World Tag Team Titles. The champions (along with Johnny Nitro, Gregory Helms, and Mike Knox) came out on the losing end of their Survivor Series Match against D-X, the Hardys, and CM Punk, but raised the stakes of their feud with D-X a few weeks later when they decimated Ric Flair after D-X had left the building. This set up a title match between the two teams at New Year’s Revolution. The match quickly deteriorated into a wild brawl, and ended in a no contest. However D-X brutalized Rated-RKO and left them laying bloody in the ring. More important was the fact that Triple H tore his right quadriceps and would be out of action for several months. This left Shawn Michaels without a partner. Rated-RKO wouldn’t last that much longer either, and by the end on the month they lost their titles. After that, internal dissension set Edge and Orton on a collision course that never fully materialized. Every now and then the duo team up, most notably on the 15th anniversary of Raw where they teamed with Umaga to battle Evolution.

VI

John Cena and Shawn Michaels

Shawn Michaels won the WWF Title on March 31, 1996
John Cena won the WWE Title on April 3, 2005
The duo won the World Tag Team Titles on January 29, 2007

After the fall out of the aforementioned DX/Rated-RKO feud Shawn Michaels was left without a partner to battle the World Tag Team Champions, but that didn’t stop him from continuing the fight against the duo. Nevertheless, without Triple H, Michaels put the focus back on his singles career and was the last man eliminated from the 2007 Royal Rumble. After coming so close to earning a WrestleMania title shot Michaels publicly mulled over the idea in the ring the next night on Raw. This drew out WWE Champion John Cena who seemed more than ready to accept Michaels’s challenge, but before the two could settle anything they were teamed up and scheduled to face Rated-RKO for the World Tag Team Titles. Later that night Michaels and Cena defeated the champions and captured the titles.

Not long after their victory Michaels won a triple threat match against Edge and Orton for the right to face Cena for the WWE Title at WrestleMania 23. For the first time ever the co-holders of the tag team championship would battle each other for a world title at WrestleMania. Their impending confrontation and Michaels’s checkered past in regards to tag team partners put strains on their tag team relationship as Cena was always waiting for and expecting that Michaels was going to turn on him. This lack of trust was exploited by Rated-RKO who tried to drive a rift between the two by pointing out that Michaels couldn’t be trusted. Michaels promised to have Cena’s back until WrestleMania and the pair managed to defeat the Undertaker and Batista (after Batista turned on the Undertaker) at No Way Out. As the weeks to WrestleMania counted down Cena kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but Michaels stayed true to his word. The week before WrestleMania Cena felt secure in their partnership and the two had a rematch against Undertaker and Batista. The duo hit a tandem “Five Knuckle Shuffle,” and then out of nowhere Michaels leveled Cena with Sweet Chin Music. Cena went on to defeat his partner at WrestleMania. The night after WrestleMania Cena came out to discuss the match, but Michaels interrupted him. However, before things got too heated Jonathan Coachman informed them that they would be defending their Tag Team Titles in a Ten Team Battle Royal. Michaels and Cena managed to win that match, prompting Coachman to send out another ten teams. During this Battle Royal Michaels purposely threw Cena out of the ring, essentially forfeiting the titles and ending the team.

V

JeriShow

The Big Show (as The Giant) won the WCW Title on October 29, 1995
Chris Jericho won the WCW Title on October 21, 2001
The duo won the Unified WWE Tag Team Titles on July 26, 2009

It might seem a bit odd to place the current WWE Tag Team Champions on the this list, but since teaming up Chris Jericho and The Big Show have proven to be one of the most successful “Super Teams” of all time. They’ve been dominant, entertaining, and, by the nature of being able to wrestle on any show, have been two of WWE’s most valuable wrestlers of 2009. Initially this team started out as another “Super Team” consisting of Edge and Chris Jericho, who were surprise entrants in a Tag Team Title match between the Colons and Legacy at The Bash. The duo won the titles are started to go on a tear of the entire promotion, but then, Edge injured his Achilles’ tendon. However, instead of the titles being vacated Jericho was allowed to pick a replacement partner. He chose the big show and the rest is recent history. JeriShow as they have come to be know have earned victories over Legacy, Cryme Tyme, MVP and Mark Henry, and Batista and Rey Mysterio. However, they have their internal problems as they wrestled for different brands at Bragging Rights and had a habit of tuning on each other during their recent battles with the Undertaker. However, they don’t seem to have taken any of these things personally as they are more business associates than they are friends. We’ll see this Sunday if they have what it takes to keep their titles in their Tables, Ladders, and Chairs Match against DX.

IV

The Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection

The Rock won the WWF Title on November 15, 1998
Mankind won the WWF Title on December 29, 1998
The duo won the WWF Tag Team Titles on August 30, 1999

Popularity may be subjective, but if ratings can be considered to be an objective measure of popularity then the Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection is the most popular team on this list. The Rock and Mankind had been bitter rivals throughout the last months of 1998 and the early months of 1999 and had swapped the WWF Title several times. However, by the summer of 1999 the Rock was one of the most popular wrestlers in the WWF and had drawn the ire of the “Super Team” of the Undertaker and The Big Show who assaulted the Rock. A few days later the Rock challenged both of them, but Mick Foley convinced him that it would be crazy to go it alone, so the Rock reluctantly agreed to team with his goofy former rival. That night the pair defeated the Undertaker and Big Show to capture the Tag Team Titles when both men hit their versions of the People’s Elbow. Mankind and Rock quickly became the WWF’s resident odd couple as Foley was constantly bothering the Rock and came up with the name “Rock ‘n’ Sock (a reference to Socko of course) Connection.” The Rock really didn’t want anything to do with Foley and could barley stand to put up with him. Just over a week after winning the Tag Titles, the duo lost the belts back to the Undertaker and Big Show, in a Buried Alive Match. Shortly after winning the belts it was discovered that Undertaker would need a lengthy sabbatical from the ring and the Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection won the titles for a second time (Undertaker sent both Mideon and Viscera in his place). This reign would be even shorter than their first as they lost the titles the next night at a SmackDown taping to the New Age Outlaws.

Although they were no longer the champions the team was on a roll, as the next week on Raw featured the two in one of the highest rated segments (an 8.4) of all time as Mick Foley presented the Rock with a “This is Your Life” show. Foley continued to pester the Rock for a few more weeks until the Rock told him he was sick of the team. Foley however convinced him to have one more match. That “last” match was for the Tag Team Titles and the duo was victorious. Once again, their reign would be short lived as Foley discovered the copy of his autobiography that he had given the Rock in the trash. Feeling very hurt, Foley refused to tag in to the match against the Holly Cousins and the duo lost the belts. It turned out, a few weeks later that it had been an angry Al Snow that had tossed the book and framed the Rock. Although the team was officially over, the pair reunited several times, most notably (and for the last time) at WrestleMania XX.

III

Sting and Lex Luger

Sting won the NWA Title on July 7, 1990
Lex Luger won the WCW Title on July 14, 1991
The duo won the WCW Tag Team Titles on January 22, 1996

While there are a few WCW “Super Teams” in the list of teams that didn’t make the cut this is the only WCW Team on the list. It seems like WWE is more willing to stick two main event guys together and have them win the tag titles than WCW was. However, Sting and Lex Luger made for one hell of a team. Sting and Luger had quite a history together, dating back to the Crockett Cup Tag Team Tournament of 1988, where the impromptu partners won the whole tournament. Then for many years Luger switched between being Sting’s friend and being his enemy, but when they were friends they frequently teamed up and challenged the tag team champions, but were never able to win them. In 1991 Luger turned heel and won the vacant WCW Title, it was Sting who defeated him over half a year later at SuperBrawl. Luger would leave for WWF (or the World Bodybuilding Federation) shortly after his loss. Luger would return to WCW in 1995 and rekindled his friendship with Sting. However, Luger didn’t care for some changes that had taken place during his time away, namely the rise of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in WCW. Luger eventually went against his friend Sting’s wishes and attacked Hogan and aligned himself with Jimmy Hart, but Luger and Sting continued to team despite the fact that Sing was a face and Luger was a heel. The duo finally captured the WCW Tag Team Titles in January 1996 from Harlem Heat after Luger cheated to win and had a very successful title reign.

The tag match starts around 7:00

The dichotomy between the two made for some interesting moments, as Luger would typically cheat while Sting wasn’t looking in order to retain the titles. Sting believed he could keep Luger from becoming completely corrupted, but Luger just wanted to keep the belts. The duo continued to feud with Harlem Heat, but the two teams developed a degree of mutual respect. They also had a brief feud with the Road Warriors. Luger and Sting lost the Tag Titles back to Harlem Heat six months after they had won it due in no small part from interference from the Outsiders. The two would continue to team up off and on until WCW went out of business.

II

The Brothers of Destruction

The Undertaker won the WWF Title on Novemver 27, 1991
Kane won the WWF Title on June 28, 1998
The duo won the WWF Tag Team Titles on April 17, 2001

The Undertaker and his half-brother Kane have a long and storied history, and are the very definition of a love-hate relationship. I’m not going to go deep into their past, but the two have switched from allies and enemies many times. The brothers challenged for the WWF Tag Team Titles for the first time at No Way Out, where they battled the Dudleys. They came up short after Rikishi and Haku interfered, however, a few months later, just as they were beginning their feud with the number one team on my list, they captured the WWF Tag Team Titles from Edge and Christian. Just a few weeks later though, the brothers lost the titles to Austin and Triple H at Backlash. The two then went after the Power Trip’s individual gold and Kane was successful in capturing the Intercontinental Title from Triple H. The brothers would be out of the tag team scene for a few months as the Undertaker was busy confronting his wife’s stalker Diamond Dallas Page. Then the WCW invasion hit the WWF and wrestlers representing both promotions closed ranks and only feuded with wrestlers from the opposing side. During this time Undertaker and Kane teamed up again and destroyed the Natural Born Thrillers, Chuck Palumbo and Sean O’Haire, taking the WCW Tag Team Titles in the process. Less than two weeks later the brothers battled DDP and Kanyon, who had won the WWF Tag Team Titles from the APA, at SummerSlam inside a steel cage. The brothers won easily and became the first team to unify the WWF and WCW Tag Team Titles. They would lose the WWF Tag Team Titles to the Dudleys a few weeks later when Kronik interfered. However, the brothers sent Kronick packing a short time later after a terrible match at Unforgiven. Less than a week after that victory they lost their WCW Titles to Booker T and Test. As a team the Undertaker and Kane have yet to win any more tag team championships, yet they continue to team (when their face and heel statuses line up) on “special occasions.” They’ve battled the teams of Snitsky and Heidenreich, MVP and Mr. Kennedy, Matt Hardy and MVP, and most recently Jericho and Big Show.

I

The Two-Man Power Trip

Steve Austin won the WWF Title on March 29, 1998
Triple H won the WWF Title on August 23,1999
The Duo won the WWF Tag Team Titles on April 29, 2001

Now this was an impressive tag team. On one side you had Triple H, a wrestler who was a four time WWF Champion, the first heel to walk out of a WrestleMania with the WWF Title, and who for the better part of two years was the top heel in the company. On the other side you had Steve Austin another four time WWF Champion, and one of the most successful and popular wrestlers in the history of the WWF. The Two-Man Power Trip unofficially started at WrestleMania X7 when Austin, with Vince McMahon’s help, defeated The Rock to capture the WWF Title for a fifth time. At first McMahon’s alliance with his former rival seemed to bother Triple H (who himself was allied with McMahon) due to his longstanding feud with Austin, but this dissention turned out to be a ruse. Later that night (the night after WrestleMania) Triple H ran down to the ring with a sledge hammer to presumably help the Rock, who was battling Austin in a steel cage match. However, Triple H attacked the Rock instead, officially forming The Two-Man Power Trip. The next night at the SmackDown tapings Triple H defeated Chris Jericho to capture the Intercontinental Championship, and the Power Trip was riding high with the top two singles titles in their grasps. The duo then decided to make an example of the Hardy Boyz, but the plan almost blew up in their face as Jeff Hardy managed to defeat Triple H for the Intercontinental Title at the April 10th SamckDown tapings. Triple H won it back on the next episode of Raw and handed the Hardys a severe beating. After that distraction The Power Trip set their sites on The Brothers of Distruction, Kane and the Undertaker. The Brothers were promised a shot at the Power Trip’s singles titles if they could defeat Edge and Christian for the WWF Tag Team Titles. The Undertaker and Kane won, despite The Power Trip’s interference, setting up a tag team match at Backlash where all three titles would be on the line (whoever lost the fall would lose their title). Triple H managed to hit Kane with a sledgehammer and won the WWF Tag Team Titles for his team, marking only the second in time in WWF history where one team controlled the Federation’s Triple Crown.

Their feud with the Brothers of Destruction wasn’t over and the Power Trip put their singles titles on the line at Judgment Day. Triple lost his Intercontinental Title to Kane in a Chain Match when Austin’s interference backfired. However, Triple H helped Austin retain his WWF Title. The next night on Raw The Two-Man Power Trip defended their Tag Titles against Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho. During the match Triple H tore his left quadriceps. Hobbling, Triple H was still able to go through with the finish and accidentally hit Austin with a sledgehammer that allowed Jericho and Benoit to win the Tag Team Titles. Triple H’s injury spelled an abrupt end to the incredibly impressive tag team.