1.
2.
3. The Young Bucks
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. The Wild Samoans
12.
13. The Briscoes
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20. The Minnesota Wrecking Crew
21.
22. The Revival
23.
24. The Usos
25.
26. The Hollywood Blonds
27.
28. The World's Greatest Tag Team
29.
30. The Bushwhackers
31.
32. The Holy Demon Army
33. The Acolyte Protection Agency
34.
35.
36. The Eliminators
37. Miracle Violence Connection
38.
39.
40.
41. The Crusher & Dick The Bruiser
42. Brothers of Destruction
43. The Funks
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49. Beer Money
50.


I'm not gonna act like my list is anything that people should listen to (look where I put The Funks), but I am gonna say this: if you had The Young Bucks outside your top 20, you're wrong.

Let's ignore their many, many championships from many, many promotions, and look at some other facts. They got over everywhere they worked. They have been fan favourites (or the most hated heels in the game) many times spanning two decades. They've climbed to the top of their division more than once and stayed there. And they did all this at a time when the biggest company on the planet was actively trying to ruin tag team wrestling.

They were the founders of a company that has legitimately competed with the WWE in just two short years, and likely have convinced Daniel Bryan to leave the WWE, and encouraged CM Punk to return to wrestling.

They turned down millions of dollars from the WWE when their NJPW contracts were up to do that, btw. So did Kenny Omega.

If you dismiss them as worthless spot monkeys that don't deserve to be in the conversation for greatest tag team of all time, you're living in the past and that's ok. There's nothing wrong with that. We all do it (I hate pretty much all music written after 1993). But the Bucks deserve to at least be in the conversation.

My own personal take is that #19 is too low, but they made the top 20 and from here on out it feels like kind of a crap shoot, so I'm ok with where they placed....even if it's wrong.

I had the Young Bucks as my #2, and it's all PW's 2020 Poster of the Year Big Pete's fault. What a troll job!

Aug 10, 2021 23:17:26 GMT Shootist said:

41. The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson)- 97 points

I had to concede as well and tried to be unbiased as possible. They did make a mark, I even see the odd Young Bucks shirt in public. When using their powers for good can work well and have outstanding athleticism but I still had to dock them for some of the dumb shit they do. I also can't deny them the longevity in a world of 6 month tag teams and they scored plenty of titles. They soundly waxed their competition as the only team of the last 15 years to make my top 50.

Now I need to take a shower, just seeing some of the other teams they placed ahead of on my list (including a ranking that would make Kilgore 's blood boil, not to mention placing 21 spots ahead of the Eliminators and ahead of the Blonds) oy vey.

Just realized I had the Briscoes at 32, can't win 'em all.

The Bucks a sure fire top 20 team? Looking at the teams on my list nope, those teams came from an era when people gave a damn about pro wrestling, can't do it.

Aug 11, 2021 0:01:55 GMT 🤯 said:

I had the Young Bucks as my #2, and it's all PW's 2020 Poster of the Year Big Pete 's fault. What a troll job!

We can only remain friends if you had the Midnight Express or Quebecers at #1. 

Aug 11, 2021 0:04:52 GMT Shootist said:

Aug 10, 2021 23:17:26 GMT Shootist said:

41. The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson)- 97 points

I had to concede as well and tried to be unbiased as possible. They did make a mark, I even see the odd Young Bucks shirt in public. When using their powers for good can work well and have outstanding athleticism but I still had to dock them for some of the dumb shit they do. I also can't deny them the longevity in a world of 6 month tag teams and they scored plenty of titles. They soundly waxed their competition as the only team of the last 15 years to make my top 50.

Now I need to take a shower, just seeing some of the other teams they placed ahead of on my list (including a ranking that would make Kilgore 's blood boil, not to mention placing 21 spots ahead of the Eliminators and ahead of the Blonds) oy vey.

Just realized I had the Briscoes at 32, can't win 'em all.

The Bucks a sure fire top 20 team? Looking at the teams on my list nope, those teams came from an era when people gave a damn about pro wrestling, can't do it.

The fact that people didn't give a damn and they still had this much of an impact should put them even higher!!!! YOUR LOGIC IS FLAWED, OLD MAN

Aug 11, 2021 0:06:31 GMT RT said:

Aug 11, 2021 0:04:52 GMT Shootist said:

Just realized I had the Briscoes at 32, can't win 'em all.

The Bucks a sure fire top 20 team? Looking at the teams on my list nope, those teams came from an era when people gave a damn about pro wrestling, can't do it.

The fact that people didn't give a damn and they still had this much of an impact should put them even higher!!!! YOUR LOGIC IS FLAWED, OLD MAN

Well for starters I even had the Outsiders outside my top 20, you can't have much bigger impact than them.

Aug 11, 2021 0:06:02 GMT Baker said:

Aug 11, 2021 0:01:55 GMT 🤯 said:

I had the Young Bucks as my #2, and it's all PW's 2020 Poster of the Year Big Pete 's fault. What a troll job!

We can only remain friends if you had the Midnight Express or Quebecers at #1. 

Fuck. My #1 was New Breed.

Aug 11, 2021 0:31:58 GMT 🤯 said:

Aug 11, 2021 0:06:02 GMT Baker said:

We can only remain friends if you had the Midnight Express or Quebecers at #1. 

Fuck. My #1 was New Breed.

What have you done, Pdubya?!

#27 The Young Bucks

Psyche! The only mistake I made is that they should be lower. I forgot the OG Brisco Brothers but that's ok we all make mistakes.

Look when it's all said and done the Young Bucks could climb higher but even in the own company that they book they're mid-card lackeys. Their biggest claim to fame is causing a stir in PWG sat at maximum 400 people and still operated on a DVD business model well into the 2010s. How many people watched that stuff? 5,000? 10,000? The only exposure they would have got was through GIFs posted on social media.

Otherwise they've always been mid-card acts usually serving as lackeys for a bigger star whether that be AJ or Kenny.

Still they have the longevity and when it comes to their time period they're among the best at the style. I just don't think they've quite as big in the grand scheme compared to other tag teams.

The Young Bucks OR as I like to call them:

SANITATIONS #1 TEAM~!

Aug 11, 2021 14:52:59 GMT KING KID said:

The Young Bucks OR as I like to call them:

SANITATIONS #1 TEAM~!

LOOK AT THAT HIGH FLYING GARBAGE~!

Actually I should bring up the Bucks merchandising and social media. If anything that's probably been their biggest strength and they effectively connected with a younger audience by turning Pro Wrestling into content creation. You're not getting worked by the Bucks for money, you're not a mark, you're a supporter and you're helping a fellow fan realise their dream. Also have you been playing Raid Shadow Legends?

Very few if any teams have made a bigger impact than The Outsiders have on wrestling , both good and bad FWIW and I give them credit for that and being the catalysts for a truly amazing era in professional wrestling.

So based on that they would be in the Top 10 but when I start dinging them for other things like the fact they didn't have many particularly memorable matches as a pure team aside from BATB and they were really sporadic at times I just kept dropping them.

Also dropped them quite a few spots because they were a pseudo thrown together team. Not saying it DQ's them but they seem to get a past despite both guys having pretty big careers before ever joining forces in WCW and especially in Nash's case... went on to have a bunch of success as a singles guy afterwards. Again not enough to say they don't belong but enough for me to drop them a few extra spots. I think I ended up with them at 24 so I'm not going to crush the ranking and they deserve the recognition for their contributions to that era.

Okay the Rockers are one of the prime examples of WWE production. Like I seriously could not tell you if they were good or if I've been... influenced.

Rockers were awesome and one of my first favorite teams , granted much of my experience with wrestling around then surrounding the WMVII and Royal Rumble 91 VHS tapes I always rented and the RR one especially featured them in a great match against The Orient Express and I also loved their little guy vs monster match against Haku and Barbarian. I watched those matches probably every weekend for eternity. As I've grown older and discovered some of their other work against the Brainbusters , Hart Foundation I realized just why they are still regarded so highly despite never really being the top team in the division. They were always over , they were always delivering and they were one of the type of acts that ESPECIALLY back in the day just didn't need the belts.

Also have the definitive tag team break up of all time and that should count for something in the iconic moments department.

An entire term arose from the breakup. The Jannetty.

Aug 12, 2021 0:29:08 GMT @ness said:

An entire term arose from the breakup. The Jannetty.

Honestly that term is probably the most influential thing to ever come of or the tag team division in any promotion.

11. Outsiders- UT nailed it. They score low in longevity and match quality, but more than make up for it with extremely high marks in importance and kayfabe success. Sold a ton of t-shirts. Influenced a later act or two that also sold a ton of t-shirts. For better or worse, popularized the concept of the cool heel. Were a driving force behind peak WCW and a major reason why that promotion, in that era, is the only fed in the last 35 years to get one up on WWF. 

22. The Outsiders (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash)- 121.50 points

I agree with everyone else that has commented, the Outsiders had a huge impact but they just aren't as synonymous with tag team wrestling as say the next team that came up today. I gave them strong marks in kayfabe success for their never-ending title reign and of course for impact. They really helped turn the tide for WCW and wrestling in general.

20. The Rockers (Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels) 122 points

Not a case of WWE brainwashing (*cough*DX*cough) the Rockers truly were an outstanding team. Their series of matches with Buddy Rose and Doug Somers from their AWA days still hold up. When they came to the WWF they became instant favorites with their series of double teams. If I remember correctly from that fabulous top 10 favs by year thread, they were one of my top 10 acts in all of wrestling in around 1989/90. They could have great matches with similar quick teams or the big hosses. For better or worse they influenced teams like the Young Bucks so big marks for them. Also as mentioned they started the Jannetty trend with their explosive break-up. They left a strong mark during the WWF's golden years of tag team wrestling.

Aug 12, 2021 0:24:07 GMT @ness said:

Okay the Rockers are one of the prime examples of WWE production. Like I seriously could not tell you if they were good or if I've been... influenced.

23. Rockers- I've definitely been influenced. Rockers are a bit like the Hollywood Blondes in that decades of hype probably bumped them up 20 spots on my list. It's not just WWE in the Rockers case though, but the internet as a whole... 

I was the opposite of UT & Shootist growing up. Didn't see the Rockers as anything special. They were just another athletic, pretty boy, midcard, fan favorite tag team. The Young Stallions with longevity. Or a Killer Bees without even the mask gimmick to give them a hook. Like those teams, the Rockers never managed to win the WWF tag titles. They were most famous for their breakup, and even that didn't become this huge, legendary deal until years later....at least not for me.

I guess the first time I encountered the "Rockers = all time great tag team narrative!" was in a WWF Magazine article which had them towards the bottom of a Top 10 tag team list. But even 1996 me didn't put much stock into WWF Magazine lists. They were even more biased than I was! I mean, they once listed Hulk Hogan as something like the 10th greatest champion in WWF history. Now I was one of the most hardcore WWF fanboys who ever lived, and I gleefully gulped down most of their kool aid, but even I drew the line at such blatant trolling. I figured it was the same deal with The Rockers. OF COURSE they can't put WCW guys on the list. I get it. I even agreed to some extent. Hence throwing a bone to the Rockers- both of whom were under WWF contract, including World Champ Shawn Michaels.

Then I get online in 1998 where all these people are calling the Z Man of tag teams "one of the greatest ever." I was soooo confused. These randoms didn't have an agenda to push the way WWF did. Lots of times I couldn't tell if the IWC was sincere or if hundreds of people had secretly conspired to troll me. This was a wild place where New Generation WWF and gimmick wrestlers were bad, but Fit Finlay was good, and every bland, undersized Good Wrestler Guy should be a World Champion....A place where Lex Luger wasn't considered a big deal, but the Marty Jannetty of the British Bulldogs was considered one of the greatest ever... And a place where the Rockers were in the running for GOAT tag team. It was Bizarro World.

Anyway, I guess decades of constantly being bombarded by pro-Rockers propaganda finally got through to me. #23 isn't a bad placement. They also earned credit for their AWA run, where they actually were tag team champs, had a legendary feud with the duo of Buddy Rose & Doug Somers, and another highly regarded one with Badd Company.

Soon after that late 90s internet mind screw I watched Rockers vs. Orient Express from Royal Rumble 91. It was great. They also had good matches with the Brainbusters, various hoss teams, and a fun feud with the Rougeaus.

As many of you have mentioned, they also had the most famous breakup in tag team history which lead to The Jannetty becoming a thing.

They get high marks in influence as well. with the Hardys and Young Bucks carrying on their legacy just as the Rockers carried on the legacy of the Rock & Roll Express and other teams of that ilk. 

New Rockers were still more entertaining though.

1.
2.
3. The Young Bucks
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. The Wild Samoans
12. The Von Erichs
13. The Briscoes
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20. The Minnesota Wrecking Crew
21.
22. The Revival
23.
24. The Usos
25.
26. The Hollywood Blonds
27. The Outsiders
28. The World's Greatest Tag Team
29.
30. The Bushwhackers
31.
32. The Holy Demon Army
33. The Acolyte Protection Agency
34. The Rockers
35.
36. The Eliminators
37. Miracle Violence Connection
38.
39.
40.
41. The Crusher & Dick The Bruiser
42. Brothers of Destruction
43. The Funks
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49. Beer Money
50.

Nothing to add, really...this is about where I expected to see these teams show up.

29. The Von Erichs (Kerry, Kevin and David)- 112.50 points

They basically made my list due to their rockstar status in Dallas. Their 6 man matches with The Freebirds are some of the most exciting tag matches of the 80's and was a guarantee draw. Also having a world champion and a sure fire potential one in David in the mix gave them some bonus points.

Harlem Heat for me is the team that is most synonymous with WCW , and I'd imagine the most decorated team in company history and deserved to get recognized for that.

I remember them being pretty eye grabbing when I was little and flipping channels and watching some WCW Saturday Night or whatever that show was called. Their whole aesthetic was cool with Stevie being the giant badass and Booker the young showoff with incredible athletic ability. The Houston Hangover definitely was a move that also made them standout. I don't remember a ton about them around that time but I wasn't a WCW fanatic either and would only catch it when it was on and I had nothing to do.

My memory of Harlem Heat must be very selective because when I was referencing lists, they were always like in the top 10 or close to it. I looked them up on wiki and couldn't believe how much shit they won in the 90s. They were way, way more successful than I remember them being, but I didn't really pay attention to WCW during their run. Booker T was already a singles guy when I started watching regularly. Completely missed the boat on them.

1.
2.
3. The Young Bucks
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. The Wild Samoans
12. The Von Erichs
13. The Briscoes
14.
15.
16.
17.
18. Harlem Heat
19.
20. The Minnesota Wrecking Crew
21.
22. The Revival
23.
24. The Usos
25.
26. The Hollywood Blonds
27. The Outsiders
28. The World's Greatest Tag Team
29.
30. The Bushwhackers
31.
32. The Holy Demon Army
33. The Acolyte Protection Agency
34. The Rockers
35.
36. The Eliminators
37. Miracle Violence Connection
38.
39.
40.
41. The Crusher & Dick The Bruiser
42. Brothers of Destruction
43. The Funks
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49. Beer Money
50.

25. Von Erichs- Wanna hear a pop? Watch a Von Erichs entrance on The Cock or The Tube. Preferably with them coming out to Rush's Tom Sawyer. Speaking of pops, they popped the World Class territory in the 80s. Sold a lot of tickets. Made a lot of money. Had a legendary feud with the Freebirds and another highly regarded one with the Dynamic Duo. 

I'm not the biggest World Class/Von Erichs expert, but I highly recommend one of their July 4th street fights with the Freebirds. It was basically a gang war in a wrestling ring. 

Aug 13, 2021 0:33:14 GMT Baker said:

25. Von Erichs- Wanna hear a pop? Watch a Von Erichs entrance on The Cock or The Tube. Preferably with them coming out to Rush's Tom Sawyer. Speaking of pops, they popped the World Class territory in the 80s. Sold a lot of tickets. Made a lot of money. Had a legendary feud with the Freebirds and another highly regarded one with the Dynamic Duo. 

I'm not the biggest World Class/Von Erichs expert, but I highly recommend one of their July 4th street fights with the Freebirds. It was basically a gang war in a wrestling ring. 

It was cool when they came out to Ted Nugent's Stranglehold as well. I forgot about their feud with Adams and Hernandez, the Dynamic Duo was another  team that just missed my top 50.

34. Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray)- 102.25 points

Harlem Heat became the anchors of the WCW tag division once the Steiners left as the belts always seemed to return to them for a good 3 year period. I will admit that I haven't seen a minute of their early days as the Ebony Experience in GWF (maybe Baker can shed some light?) but I was on board the train from the off once they got to WCW.  As seen in the gif thread they had a dynamic move set and seemed to come up with new finishers every week. They could brawl it up with the best of them as in the oft mentioned Nasty Boys feud, they did have convincing looking strikes and kicks. They were hurt though by being second class citizens to Hogan and friends + the NWO. Plus not a lot of people are familiar with them so their drawing power and legacy got dinged a bit.  Still though their other matches with The Road Warriors, Sting and Luger and The Steiners are worth checking out. They are firmly a top 15 favorite team for me they were a definite bright spot during a bit of a lag in the division from 1993-1995.

27. Harlem Heat- Score well in longevity and extremely well in kayfabe success. They held the WCW tag titles more than any other team and are either 2nd or 3rd in cumulative days as WCW tag champs depending on how you choose to score the Outsiders reigns. Also had a good look, catchy theme, a nice arsenal of Midnight Expresses as shown by Shootist in the gif thread, and I was a mark for Booker's Harlem Hangover even when I went off boring, non-flippy, top rope leg drops. Always wished the Bookman had used it more in WWE.

With that being said, I must confess to largely sleeping on Harlem Heat in real time, and spent a good two decades thinking they were just the Smoking Gunns of WCW. Both teams had a reverse Rockers thing going on. The Rockers never won the tag titles in a stacked WWF tag division, whereas the Gunns & Heat dominated depleted divisions. Mid 90s me viewed them both as the best of a bad lot, with neither comparing favorably to the great teams of yesteryear when both WWF & NWA/WCW had stacked tag divisions. Let's look at the many similarities in an attempt to explain why I thought the way I did...

Both actually had some cool Midnight Expresses. Both started in mid 93. Both took about a year and a half to finally win tag team gold, during which time I casually dismissed both as "midcard teams" since neither promotion's tag division was setting the world on fire during their respective title droughts. One were Floridians playing Texans. The other were Texans playing New Yorkers. Both teams became the aces of their respective divisions in '95, not that there was much competition. Both teams saw the smaller, more athletic guy have much more long term success than the powerhouse.

Whew! That's A LOT of similarities. For the record, I had the Heat a comfortable 13 spots above the Gunns due to a little more kayfabe success, and a much stronger reputation today.

Harlem Heat was also hurt by their rise coming during WCW's dork age when I would literally only watch Worldwide if Regal/Blue Bloods were advertised. My main memory of their 1995 ace run is that endless feud with the stupid Nasty Boys. That and the equally endless DDP/JBB feud were the "lol WCW" examples of the day to my friends and I. Losing the tag titles to total jabroni acts like Team Methuselah (Slater & Bunkhouse Buck) and the American Males also did them no favors in my eyes.

Just checked and over half of their 470 days as tag champs came during this dork age, while over 2/3 of their time as champs came when WCW had a weak tag division. So, yeah, I can see why I thought the way I did. However, it's also worth noting they did hold the tag titles for basically 4 months (including a few stupid quickie title swaps) when WCW's tag division got stacked in 1996 with the Steiners, Outsiders, etc. coming in. So that's a feather in their cap.

-Sorry, Shoot. Don't remember them in GWF. I remember very little GWF as a whole. Basically just the Patriot, Eddie Gilbert, John Tatum, and Jeff Gaylord. There's a chance the Ebony Experience weren't even there yet when I'd catch the occasional episode.

Aug 13, 2021 3:21:46 GMT Baker said:

27. Harlem Heat- Score well in longevity and extremely well in kayfabe success. They held the WCW tag titles more than any other team and are either 2nd or 3rd in cumulative days as WCW tag champs depending on how you choose to score the Outsiders reigns. Also had a good look, catchy theme, a nice arsenal of Midnight Expresses as shown by Shootist in the gif thread, and I was a mark for Booker's Harlem Hangover even when I went off boring, non-flippy, top rope leg drops. Always wished the Bookman had used it more in WWE.

With that being said, I must confess to largely sleeping on Harlem Heat in real time, and spent a good two decades thinking they were just the Smoking Gunns of WCW. Both teams had a reverse Rockers thing going on. The Rockers never won the tag titles in a stacked WWF tag division, whereas the Gunns & Heat dominated depleted divisions. Mid 90s me viewed them both as the best of a bad lot, with neither comparing favorably to the great teams of yesteryear when both WWF & NWA/WCW had stacked tag divisions. Let's look at the many similarities in an attempt to explain why I thought the way I did...

Both actually had some cool Midnight Expresses. Both started in mid 93. Both took about a year and a half to finally win tag team gold, during which time I casually dismissed both as "midcard teams" since neither promotion's tag division was setting the world on fire during their respective title droughts. One were Floridians playing Texans. The other were Texans playing New Yorkers. Both teams became the aces of their respective divisions in '95, not that there was much competition. Both teams saw the smaller, more athletic guy have much more long term success than the powerhouse.

Whew! That's A LOT of similarities. For the record, I had the Heat a comfortable 13 spots above the Gunns due to a little more kayfabe success, and a much stronger overall legacy.

Harlem Heat was also hurt by their rise coming during WCW's dork age when I would literally only watch Worldwide if Regal/Blue Bloods were advertised. My main memory of their 1995 ace run is that endless feud with the stupid Nasty Boys. That and the equally endless DDP/JBB feud were the "lol WCW" examples of the day to my friends and I. Losing the tag titles to total jabroni acts like Team Methuselah (Slater & Bunkhouse Buck) and the American Males also did them no favors in my eyes.

Just checked and over half of their 470 days as tag champs came during this dork age. So, yeah, I can see why I thought the way I did. However, it's also worth noting they did hold the tag titles for basically 4 months (including a few stupid quickie title swaps) when WCW's tag division got stacked in 1996 with the Steiners, Outsiders, etc. coming in. So that's a feather in their cap.

-Sorry, Shoot. Don't remember them in GWF. I remember very little GWF as a whole. Basically just the Patriot, Eddie Gilbert, John Tatum, and Jeff Gaylord. There's a chance the Ebony Experience weren't even there yet when I'd catch the occasional episode.

Your the only guy here who somewhat consistently mentions GWF, I thought I would toss you a bone.

I thought the Smoking Gunns were legit brothers when they broke in (and twins at that!) I definitely didn't see the small guy/big guy complex and I didn't have a Jannetty/Michaels epiphany like I did when I was first watching The Rockers.

Aug 13, 2021 3:28:32 GMT Shootist said:

Your the only guy here who somewhat consistently mentions GWF, I thought I would toss you a bone.

I thought the Smoking Gunns were legit brothers when they broke in (and twins at that!) I definitely didn't see the small guy/big guy complex and I didn't have a Jannetty/Michaels epiphany like I did when I was first watching The Rockers.

Thanks for the bone. Wish I could have made better use of it. And some of that "GWF" stuff I remembered may have actually been USWA Texas. I always get them confused.

Some of those Heat/Gunns comparisons came later on. I generally had no idea who were real brothers or where people really came from until late 95-96 at the absolute earliest. During their heyday I just assumed the Gunns were brothers from Texas and the Heat were brothers from Harlem. 

I'm guilty of the Heat-Gunns association as well but similarly to Baker-man buffered the ranking by putting over 10 spots between them. I think Heat is helped by being held in a similar regard as Steiners for being WCW's most prolific team, as well as by Booker's singles successes. Meanwhile, Gunns were hurt by Billy's WOAT KOTR crowning, Bart's Brawl For All Butterbean KO, and but mostly Billy having two far better tag teams.

On the GWF note, I just had an idea... I'm going to start referencing an old obscure fed CONSISTENTLY in as many posts as possible, whether or not said fed ever actually existed. -_-