wrestling / Columns

Shining a Spotlight 10.05.12: Odd Couples

October 5, 2012 | Posted by Michael Weyer

For the last few weeks, one of the bright spots of RAW has been the relationship of Kane and Daniel Bryan. After weeks of feuding, the two have now formed a tag team to win the titles and entering into whacky skits of them as partners. To many, it’s merely another bit in a long line of “whacky tag partners who can’t stand each other” but it’s actually much more historical than you think. Because while some may believe that this bit came to be in the ‘90’s, the truth is that these “odd couples” have been around for a while and manage to keep a fun idea going for some time.

It’s a simple concept but one that so many people (including myself) are suckers for: Two guys who can’t stand one another forced to work together as a team. Some may sniff at it sardonically with how it’s too played out but it’s still a fun concept to play with. What makes it work is that so often, it’s top guys involved, guys who click well together and often, the very tension between them makes for a more exciting team. It’s interesting seeing the various versions of it over the years and how fans always respond to it, a clear reason promoters keep going back to it year after year.

One of the first major examples was in 1984 in Memphis, a place that did its best to break the mold from the classic face vs heel stuff of the time. Hometown hero Jerry Lawler had been in a feud for some time with Jimmy Hart and his “family,” especially Rick Rude and King Kong Bundy. During an attack, Randy Savage raced out and surprised everyone by helping Lawler as he also had issues with Hart and his guys. A great promo by the two had them both openly stating that as much as they didn’t like each other, they hated Hart and his guys even more and were putting their differences aside to take on the heels. This led to some great tag matches, Savage really showing his stuff as a face for the first time and while it would lead to he and Lawler breaking up for a feud of their own, it was a good turn for the fans in a time when the wrestling world was so black-and-white.

BattleBowl: When you look at the rules of BattleBowl, you wonder if Vince Russo got into wrestling a few years early. Here’s the deal: Twenty teams selected into random pairings would go at it in a tournament. The winning teams would then fight it out in a two-ring battle royal where the object was to throw a guy from one ring into the other, then out of that second ring to eliminate him. The last two guys would go at it until a winner. It was the entire card for Starrcade ’91 and while it was already crazy, it was the pairings that made it a mess. They really weren’t random but you can be forgiven for thinking they were for crazy pairings like Larry Zysbsko and El Gigante, Bill Kazamier and Jushin Liger, Rick Steiner and Nightstalker and Scott Steiner and Firebreaker Chip. There were some intriguing pairings like Sting and Abdullah the Butcher who had been feuding for a while and the inspired idea of Steve Austin and Rick Rude. But it was mostly a mess of matches, showing that just random pairings weren’t quite enough, you needed guys who could click well in order to make such an odd team work.

1995 Survivor Series: 1995 was not a very good year for WWF with Diesel’s title run a flop and the decision to bring Bill Watts in for a run as booker not going over well. So for this PPV, WWF decided to spice things up with a “Wild Card” match that mixed heels and faces on each team. On one side where Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, the British Bulldog and Sid. On the other were Yokozuna, Owen Hart, Razor Ramona and Dean Douglas, the latter two feuding for the IC title. It made for a pretty interesting bout as each team was barely getting along, Bulldog and Owen doing their best going at each other while Ramon and Michaels got back in their old rhythym. A great bit had Sid holding Ramon, Michaels going for Sweet Chin Music, Ramon ducking so Shawn hit Sid and Shawn giving a hysterical “Oh, well,” shrug as Ramon pinned Sid. Sid laid out Shawn and Razor was pinned by Bulldog before Ahmed slammed and pinned Yoko to win an interesting battle of mixed workers.

Stone Cold partners: In 1997, as he began taking off big-time with fans, Steve Austin found himself with a pair of unique partners for tag title runs. First, he and Shawn Michaels, both of whom were feuding with the Hart Foundation, teamed to beat Bulldog and Owen for the belts but had issues with each other, leading to a one-on-one battle at King of the Ring. Michaels had to give the belts up due to injury in July with Austin facing Owen and Bulldog alone. In mid-match, out came Mick Foley, debuting his character of Dude Love to win the belts and the fun dynamic of Love acting like they were a great team while Austin made it clear he hated the partnership. It ended due to Austin’s neck injury but still fun seeing the Rattlesnake having to put up with a partner.

The Rock and Sock Connection: You can’t do a list like this without this pairing. As the Rock took off with fans in 1999, he was threatening for some title belts against Kane and X-Pac (an interesting pairing in their own right). Enter Mankind who went on and on about how “the people” not just wanted but needed to have them together. The Rock was obviously not happy but put up with it as they would win the tag titles. The beauty of it was them in promos as Mankind would steal the Rock’s catchphrases, much to the Rock’s annoyance and Rock kept saying he couldn’t stand this but Mick would ignore it. It led to classic bits like the “this is your life” segment that earned monster ratings and shot both guys to major fan favorite status. They would lose and regain and lose the belts before splitting up but keep pairing over the years at times and just so wonderful to see the dynamic shift to friendship between two truly charismatic stars.

Raven and Tommy Dreamer: For ECW fans, it’s arguably the greatest feud in the company’s history. For two years, Tommy Dreamer and Raven went at it in a brutal and bloody feud with several notable matches, all culminating in Dreamer finally pinning Raven in his farewell bout in 1997. Jump to two years later, the first ECW show on TNN as the Dudleyz won the tag titles and threatened to take them right to WWF, monster heat for that. Dreamer stood alone against them, getting pummeled about but continuing to fight despite the odds. From out of nowhere, Raven suddenly slid into the ring, hit a DDT on Bubba-Ray and pinned him. The crowd was shocked even as they cheered and Joey Styles was stunned as he related that after all this time, Dreamer had finally won an ECW title but had to share it with his mortal enemy. Raven would cut a promo explaining that as much as he hated Dreamer, he was ECW all the way and wasn’t going to let the company’s belts be taken to WWF. Surprisingly, the two actually got along well as a team, fighting for ECW in its last year and giving their old relationship a unique new spin.

Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit: WWE’s own magazine summed it up best: “Never has a team with so much mutual disdain succeeded so well.” Pairing these two up was a no-brainer for ring work as each was brilliant at technical wrestling and thus able to make a great match. However, the two had been shown having issues with each considering himself the better wrestler, having some great battles on TV and house shows. So slapping them together seemed to push that feud but instead they ended up winning the tag team titles in a tournament. Their reign would be marked with promos of each snapping at the other but still pulling together in the ring for some highlights of the post-brand split “SmackDown.”

Booker T and Goldust: The other odd pairing of 2002 WWE, this one was more a true odd couple. You had the street-tough, trash-talking Booker and the bizarre Goldust, two guys with seemingly nothing in common. But that’s what made it work, their styles in the ring gelling well as they’d be a team through most of 2002, holding the tag titles a couple of times. The real beauty was in their promos and backstage skits as Booker would be driven crazy on a weekly basis by his partner’s antics, from dressing in goofy costumes to professing near-love for his partner, which just made Booker freak out and do a lot of “tell me you did not just say that” reactions. Yet there was real friendship at the end, the bond working well and showed how sometimes the odder pairings make for the better teams.

XXX/AMW: For the first two years of their existence, TNA had a great tag division with America’s Most Wanted, XXX and the Naturals tearing down the house and trading the belts around. In mid ’04, the Naturals were the tag champs and staged an ambush on AMW before a title match, injuring James Storm. The Naturals gloated about winning by forfeit but Dusty Rhodes said they’d face Chris Harris and a mystery partner. That partner was none other than Elix Skipper, wanting a piece of the Naturals after they beat on Christopher Daniels. Amazingly, this mixed pair of enemies won the belts. This led to a bit where Storm and Daniels were obviously not happy, the argument broken by Larry Zysbko who declared that the two mismatched teams would face off against each other. During the match, Skipper and Daniels argued and Storm hit Skipper with a superkick to pin him and let him and Daniels win the belts, all four sharing great “what the hell just happened?” looks. Daniels and Storm would drop the belts to Team Canada and it would turn out to reignite the AMW/XXX feud but in an interesting dimension.

MVP and Matt Hardy

A later entry, the dynamic between these two was pretty fun to watch. For months, U.S. champ MVP had been feuding with Matt Hardy, including challenging him to competitions like arm wrestling and push-ups, MVP winning by cheating or getting Evander Holyfield to step in for a boxing match. Matt got back at him at SummerSlam by challenging him to a drinking contest only to have Stone Cold Steve Austin come out to compete and stun MVP. We should have seen it coming when MVP bragged in August of 2007 that he could win the tag titles with anyone and Teddy Long said fine, the next person who entered the room would be his partner…and it was Matt. The two ended up winning the belts, Matt getting the pin but MVP taking the credit and for weeks, we’d see the two handle the matches while creating the dynamic of MVP as the “captain” and Matt soon playing up to it and even acting like a friend. It would end in a few months with Hardy having to take time off for injury to put their feud off but still cool seeing the brash and egotistical MVP and the daredevil Hardy gel in both ring and promos.

A few more example of course as ROH currently has Charlie Haas and Titus teaming together. It’s telling again how, when this is used, it’s between top guys and shows how well some gel together better than others. Indeed, two guys long feuding should know how the other works and thus be able to handle being a team. The Kane/Bryan partnership shows that, the two arguing constantly with each other but then handling their opponents with ease and showing a lot more comedy than I would have expected from either of them. Once more, you can’t really predict wrestling in a lot of ways as so often it’s the opposites that end up attracting well as a team and why the angle is used so much.

Note that we have a new comment section to work through. For this week, the spotlight is off.

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Michael Weyer

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