I only did a Top 40 list. Briscoes would have been #41 as I enjoyed their work but maybe wasn’t as invested in them as other Tag Teams over the years.

I had the Briscoes at #30. They were the first post-Attitude/non-WWE tag team to register on my radar screen aside from maybe Los Maximos? But then Briscoes proved to have that longevity and aura. Had the had even just cups of coffee in TNA and WWE they would've ranked even higher for me probably.

Dream match is of course Briscoes vs. Briscos.

An Apter Mag in 95 or 96 featured a Tracy Smothers blurb that always stuck with me. It compared Smothers in SMW to a guy who really liked working at this one particular donut shop. Whether the donut shop grew in size to become the next Dunkin Donuts or stayed small time was irrelevant to this guy. He was always going to be there doing his thing at the theoretical donut shop just as Tracy Smothers would remain in SMW for as long as it existed. Which brings me to... 

29. Briscoes in ROH is the modern equivalent of Smothers in SMW or that guy in the donut shop. They absolutely deserve to be on the list for the reasons Shootist listed. But I couldn't rate them too high simply because the overwhelming majority of their career has been spent in the relatively small time confines of ROH. Just one successful run outside the comfort zone of their home promotion would have done wonders for their overall legacy imo.

Still, few teams can match Jay & Mark Briscoe when it comes to longevity. 20 years is a loooong time. They've also proven their versatility by changing up their style over the years, having successful runs as both faces and heels, and being equally capable of good stuff whether in 'regular' matches or in brawls.

They started out as teenage wrestling prodigies having wild and crazy actionfests with other hungry young teams all over Eastern US. The ones that still stick with me all these years later are their series with AJ Styles & Amazing Red in 2003 ROH. Check 'em out if you can find them. Jay became the "Michaels" of the team through a surprisingly good feud with Samoa Joe. But, unlike most cases where that happens, the Briscoes remained a team. They didn't have much of a gimmick in those days beyond "good wrestler guys." 

Then they took a year and a half break, which marks the only time they've been absent from ROH since the promotion began, only to come back as DEM BOYS. Now they had characters to go along with the wrestling ability. At some point they also became good on the mic with a distinctive style that I can honestly say is all their own.

They feuded with just about every team that came through ROH over the years and held the tag titles 11 times for about 3 and a half years in total. Which is actually underwhelming! I assumed they were more like 22 time ROH Tag Team Champions with overall reigns lasting more like 7 years. 

As they aged Jay became more of a hard nosed brawler who projected an intensity few could match in the 2010s. He came across as legit. Also came off as a guy who would stab a man just to watch him die. He was the most consistently good act in the company when I started watching it semi-regularly again in 2014-15. Mark incorporated more comedy and Foley tribute spots as he aged while also coming across as a guy who would stab a man....if only he could remember where he left the knife.

I'll also add the Briscoes have a great connection with ROH crowds. They were either the most over act or 2nd most over act (behind the Young Bucks) when I attended two ROH shows in 2014, and the most over act in the company when I went to an ROH show in 2020. They were involved in the best match on the 2020 show as well. The ROH fans were also covered in Briscoe Bros merch at all those shows.

The Revival are awesome and probably also one of the biggest cases of current WWE just not knowing or caring what the fuck they are even doing at this point.

Revival vs American Alpha in NXT was the peak of my fandom for that promotion and was the only reason I even seeked it out , I thought it was the best tag feud we've seen in a long time and the match quality was constantly top notch. Hell that entire division down there was amazing and consistently the best part of the show on a weekly basis IMO.

Then they get called to the main roster and everything just dies. They were a tag team in every sense of the word but the fact that Vince clearly doesn't care means they just floated around. You could have easily called them and American Alpha up and built an an entire division around them on the main roster and brought something else to your roster and watched it grow. Between call ups and potential they already had sitting on the roster I don't even think it would have taken that much work.

It's infuriating as someone who is a big fan of tag teams and tag team wrestling.

At the end of the day though - I just had a hard time ranking them with fear of it being more recency bias than anything. I don't know they belong in the Top 40 at this point but I could be wrong. They certainly have or had the potential to be one of the best.

Revival I liked a lot in NXT, but on the main roster the injury that sidelined them really killed their aura for me.

Should also be noted they have one of the best entrance themes ever.

I GO HARD~!

Jul 25, 2021 14:58:32 GMT UT said:

Should also be noted they have one of the best entrance themes ever.

I GO HARD~!

I really miss that theme.

SAY YEAH

I still watch their debut against New Day from time to time. They got a good pop, Corey Graves lost his mind, New Day sold it well...then poof.

I had them in the 20s. Probably a little high but I love them and the fact they are a modern day resurgence of old school tag team wrestling gets them bonus points imo.

...

I had The Briscoes way up at 13. They've been consistently good spanning 2 decades in a time when tag teams were an afterthought. If we're going to give The Young Bucks a ton of recognition then The Briscoes deserve some too.

Happy to see The Nasties get some love after the latest revelations in the Superstars thread. I think they are great and were such a huge part of the golden era of tag wrestling but my memory seems to deceive me some. They only competed in two PPV's as a two man team (maybe three) but man where they so memorable as characters along with Jimmy Hart. The name and the entire aesthetic just lent itself perfectly to mouth breathing gross , brawling heels.

I knew it in the back of my mind but it still throws me off a bit to realize they had most of their success in terms of titles , card placement and even match quality outside of the WWF and instead in WCW. Like they are a WWF act through and through in my mind but thats wrong.

Their match where they beat Hart Foundation for the titles at Mania will forever be etched in my mind. I hated them so bad for that and watched that VHS and match 34 times as a youngster because apparently I liked to be pissed off even back then.


Also reason I posted em is because I think they again would make a fun rivalry with the team mentioned before them in Revival. What an awesome brawl these four guys could put on in their primes.

If you're only exposure to them was their association with Hogan and Bisch in TNA, yeah this is questionable. But looking at them overall I can see it.

If your only exposure to them was in TNA then you need to leave the History of Wrestling forum and never look back.

Jul 25, 2021 14:51:21 GMT UT said:

The Revival are awesome and probably also one of the biggest cases of current WWE just not knowing or caring what the fuck they are even doing at this point.

Revival vs American Alpha in NXT was the peak of my fandom for that promotion and was the only reason I even seeked it out , I thought it was the best tag feud we've seen in a long time and the match quality was constantly top notch. Hell that entire division down there was amazing and consistently the best part of the show on a weekly basis IMO.

Then they get called to the main roster and everything just dies. They were a tag team in every sense of the word but the fact that Vince clearly doesn't care means they just floated around. You could have easily called them and American Alpha up and built an an entire division around them on the main roster and brought something else to your roster and watched it grow. Between call ups and potential they already had sitting on the roster I don't even think it would have taken that much work.

It's infuriating as someone who is a big fan of tag teams and tag team wrestling.

At the end of the day though - I just had a hard time ranking them with fear of it being more recency bias than anything. I don't know they belong in the Top 40 at this point but I could be wrong. They certainly have or had the potential to be one of the best.

Jul 25, 2021 15:34:57 GMT RT said:

Jul 25, 2021 14:58:32 GMT UT said:

Should also be noted they have one of the best entrance themes ever.

I GO HARD~!

I really miss that theme.

SAY YEAH

I still watch their debut against New Day from time to time. They got a good pop, Corey Graves lost his mind, New Day sold it well...then poof.

I had them in the 20s. Probably a little high but I love them and the fact they are a modern day resurgence of old school tag team wrestling gets them bonus points imo.

...

I had The Briscoes way up at 13. They've been consistently good spanning 2 decades in a time when tag teams were an afterthought. If we're going to give The Young Bucks a ton of recognition then The Briscoes deserve some too.

15. The Revival

I loved, loved, loved The Revival.  Admittedly, I haven't seen much of their AEW stuff, but an awesome tag team that as RT said represented the resurgence of old school tag team wrestling.  Guys like Edge & Christian and Bret Hart heaped praise on these guys.  Their feud with AA in NXT was some of the best Tag Team Wrestling I've seen.  Very sad that both those teams were wasted on the main roster.  I shouldn't have liked them, but I did.  Everything about them.  

Nasty Boys I never cared for.  I get their presence on this list, but I was never a fan.  

I really like the idea of the Revival and they have a great look. Making their hay in the WWE farm league and AEW ultimately hurt them in the end though, shame they got so misused.

39. The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobs and Jerry Sags)-  97.90 points

Another traditional team that made their mark in the classic big 3 of AWA, WCW and WWF. They are quietly one of the more successful teams in WCW history with 3 world tag team titles to their name. Also scooping up a WWF title during their run was also a big feather in their cap. For better or worse they were the top heel/face team in WCW from 1993-1995 and really given their style overachieved when it came to classic matches. Their feuds with Maxx Payne, Cactus Jack, Kevin Sullivan and Harlem Heat were some of the best either the WWF or WCW were churning out in that era. They also gave the Steiners and LOD some of their best matches so they came up big in high profile matches as well. Coming from such a deep pool of teams though their legacy is a bit muddled which dropped them a bit in my ranking, I'm surprised the consensus rated them a bit higher than me, well done PW!

The thing is - people would never consider them workers or give them credit for it and probably even scoff at the idea but as you said … they gave a handful of teams their best matches. Along with the match that Knobbs had with UW and the few other random matches I’ve seen I’m pretty sure The Nasties are vastly underrated in the ring because of their style , their body type and the fact they are known as Hogan lackies. Dudes deserve credit.

Revival- Were originally on my list for being one of the top teams of the modern era before ending up a late cut after Shootist shamed me into including more olde timey teams. They ultimately finished in the 50s on my list.

I've only seen maybe half a dozen Revival matches but I liked what I saw. They're like a love letter to all the great tag teams I grew up on. The bald one (Dawson?) in particular is a tremendous Arn Anderson cosplayer. Thought their match with American Alpha at one of the NXT Takeovers was legit great. Would almost certainly be one of my favorite acts in modern wrestling if I watched more of it. Finding out their main roster run sucked has me feeling a little less guilty about cutting them late in the game.

36. Nasty Boys- I was actually a Nasty Boys hater. Couldn't stand 'em whether they were face or heel, WWF or WCW. But I had to give them their due. They had a pretty strong, and, yes, underrated career. 

Score well in longevity since they teamed together for a pretty long time. Were over in both WWF & WCW as both faces and heels. Also won tag titles in both promotions, including multiple WCW Tag Title reigns. Had memorable feuds with Cactus & Friends, Harlem Heat, and Public Enemy. Also have a surprisingly strong "Best Matches" list. Like I'd take the Nasties Top 5 matches over a whole lot of other teams 5 best matches. You can even expand it to a strong Top 10 if you're higher than me on the Public Enemy & Harlem Heat matches, as I know many are. I have long considered them the blueprint for ECW's tag division. Their matches with Cactus & Partner are among the best ECW tag matches ever, and they didn't even take place in ECW!

Looks like I had the Nasty Boys at #43.

Like Baker-man, I was a Nasties hater for the longest time regardless of their promotion or face/heel alignment.

But my recent WrestleMania WatchThru and now joining UT on this Superstars adventure, I'm realizing the error of my blind hatred.

The Nasties were talented indeed and excellent in their roles. I agree they get overlooked because of Hogan cronyism and perhaps their look... And also because of course fans are going to mostly root for teams with movez!~ like Harlem Heat or an epic look like Legion of Doom. But goddamn if the Nasties don't nail exactly what they need to nail.

Honestly, now, my biggest gripe is that Knobbs has an extra b and Sags doesn't have an extra g. Either both have an extra letter, or neither have an extra letter. Mismatch shit like that bothers me to no end!

Can't believe Skinner and that half assed color commentator are making our list. I don't know a ton about The Fabulous Ones other than I'm pretty sure they were running a porn gimmick way back then because most of their pictures online from promo's or vignettes seem to be them half naked seductively.

Couldn't find a ton of their biggest or best matches either.

Jul 26, 2021 14:49:07 GMT UT said:

Can't believe Skinner and that half assed color commentator are making our list. I don't know a ton about The Fabulous Ones other than I'm pretty sure they were running a porn gimmick way back then because most of their pictures online from promo's or vignettes seem to be them half naked seductively.

Couldn't find a ton of their biggest or best matches either.

The original Dicks and/or Heartthrobs.

Pretty much:









I guess maybe more American Males vibes. Just not what I was expecting whilst googling 80's tag teams. Interested to see why they belong on the list with more knowledgable historians because I just don't see it in their resume. 

I have NEVER even heard of these guys, but no, just no.  

UT 🤯 iron maiden I laughed. But now it's time to educate you jabronies on why the Fabulous Ones are deserving of a lofty placement on the esteemed PW Greatest Tag Team Countdown...

21. Fabulous Ones- Were this high on my list largely because they're one of the most important and influential tag teams of the 80s, which makes them one of the most important and influential tag teams of the past 40 years.

Do you like music videos in wrestling? Hype vignettes? If so, thank the Fabs. Fan of any pretty boy babyface tag teams? Again, thank the Fabs. Now I don't think they were necessarily the first recipient of these booking techniques, but they were the act who popularized them. Music videos and hype vignettes exploded after the Fabs, while every single territory suddenly had their own pretty boy babyface tag team.

And the crazy part is they were never supposed to be this popular. They started out as babyfaces in Memphis for the sole purpose of a feud with Jimmy Hart's hated heel team, the New York Dolls. The Fabs were introduced as the proteges of Memphis legend "The Fabulous" Jackie Fargo. Fargo was Jerry Lawler's predecessor when it came to being THE guy in Memphis.  The original plan was to turn have the Fabs turn heel on Fargo after winning the New York Dolls feud. There's even a chance those infamous (but important!) "gay porn" vignettes were intentionally over the top in order to make it easier for the fans to turn on them when the time came. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Fabs heel turn. For whatever reason the good people of Memphis LOVED these guys. It was just one of those weird "only in wrestling" things that you can't really explain. 

The Fabs went on to become the biggest and best drawing team in Memphis during the 80s, and probably the biggest and best drawing team in the history of the Memphis territory. Likely the most popular duo in the history of the territory as well. They rivaled even Jerry Lawler in popularity!

Their most famous matches/feuds were bloody wars against wild & crazy brawling teams The Moondogs and Sheepherders. This was another smart move by the Memphis bookers to get them over as 'tough guys' with the more discerning male fans who may not have been quite as receptive to, let's face it, gay porn stars as the female fans and younger fans would have been. It worked. And booking pretty boys in bloodbaths with wild and crazy brawling teams would be another trope involving the Fabs that soon spread to every single territory. The Fabs were also a peripheral player in one of the renewals of the legendary Lawler/Dundee forever feud.

Fwiw those "gay porn" vignettes and photo shoots were already a meme like 15 years ago. As laughable as they are to us today, they did work on the intended audience at the time. 

Their big run lasted 5 years, which is actually 2-3 years longer than I thought since I'm only familiar with their Memphis & (to a lesser extent) AWA runs. They eventually left Memphis, likely over a pay dispute since Steve "Skinner" Keirn has been confirmed as one of the ringleaders when a bunch of WWF wrestlers infamously took dumps in Jerry Lawler's crown soon after "The King" arrived in the fed as revenge for poor payoffs back in their Memphis days.

After Memphis they went to AWA where Verne allegedly had big plans for them until those plans were derailed by politics *coughRoadWarriorscough*. For a minute Verne had the Fabs, Road Warriors, and (I think) The Freebirds when they were 3 of the hottest acts in the country. Yet politics *coughRoadWarriorscough* killed the potential drawing power of these bonafide 80s dream feuds.

The big knock on the Fabs is they never worked WWF or NWA/WCW. AWA, which was the 3rd member of the Big 3 in those days, is as “big time" as the Fabs ever got. Lack of a WWF or even NWA/WCW run would explain why UT had a tough time finding info on one of the most important tag teams of the 80s. 

The Fabs briefly reunited in early 90s Memphis after Lane's Midnight Express run and before Keirn went to WWF to play Skinner. This time they finally got to be the heels they were supposed to be almost a decade earlier. They were even managed by Jim Cornette! Alas, the magic was gone. They only stuck around a few months. Then Lane went to start SMW with Corny and "pretty boy" Keirn went up north to become a swamp-dwelling alligator hunter, of all things.

Stan Lane has to be one of the Top 5 tag wrestlers of the past 40 years. Midnight Express, Fabulous Ones, and Heavenly Bodies were all on my list, and hopefully all 3 teams make this countdown.

It sounds like Stan Lane was the OG Billy Gunn!

More Fabs stuff. Great vignettes or greatest vignettes? You be the judge...

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

I just CANNOT believe Keirn went from this to Skinner.

It breaks my brain!

Jul 26, 2021 18:50:45 GMT 🤯 said:

I just CANNOT believe Keirn went from this to Skinner.

It breaks my brain!

You're not the only one. What a transformation!

21. The Fabulous Ones (Stan Lane and Steve Keirn)- 121.75 points

Baker , pretty much covered all the bases. To go a step further Jackie Fargo who created them I think wanted to relive his glory days as he and his brother Don were the real pioneers of the heartthrob babyface team as the Fabulous Fargo Brothers (#44 on my list) back in the 1960's. The Fabs though really started the renaissance of those teams in the 80's so they got real strong marks in the impact/legacy category from me. They were huge in Memphis but again lack of big stage presence or general name appeal held back a few pegs on my list. One of the biggest trend setters of the last 40 years.  

Heh, Bake and I had them in the same spot, great minds....

Also Bake do you remember Bad Attitude, the hybrid Fabs/Midnight team from 1994 WCW Bobby Eaton and a clean shaven Steve Keirn? They did mostly jobs to the likes of Stars and Stripes, Sting/Steamboat, Dustin and Arn? etc.

Wait - so they were babyfaces? In the EIGHTIES? In the EIGHTIES in WRESTLING?! Color me shocked because from what I seen I would have bet dollars to donuts that they were heels. Memphis was a weird ass territory though - not in a bad way but just with some of the stuff they pulled off and I guess conditioned their fans well.

Those videos are epic though. Not even ironically - I can totally see a little bit why they might have gotten so over. They are pretty much movie montages and movie montages were a staple in that decade.

Jul 26, 2021 18:26:53 GMT Baker said:

More Fabs stuff. Great vignettes or greatest vignettes? You be the judge...

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

I just have to say...

1. Perfectly curated video order by Baker-man. They literally just keep getting better and better as you click down.

2. These videos probably just turned me into a hardcore Fabulous Ones fan. Suddenly #NWAPowerrr's silly vignettes seem all the more authentic to old school studio wrestling.

Jul 26, 2021 21:52:22 GMT UT said:

Wait - so they were babyfaces? In the EIGHTIES? In the EIGHTIES in WRESTLING?! Color me shocked because from what I seen I would have bet dollars to donuts that they were heels. Memphis was a weird ass territory though - not in a bad way but just with some of the stuff they pulled off and I guess conditioned their fans well.

Those videos are epic though. Not even ironically - I can totally see a little bit why they might have gotten so over. They are pretty much movie montages and movie montages were a staple in that decade.

Facial and chest hair made the ladies quiver back in the 80's, see Tom Selleck and dudes liked ZZ Top so it was a perfect combo.

Jul 27, 2021 0:17:59 GMT Shootist said:

Jul 26, 2021 21:52:22 GMT UT said:

Wait - so they were babyfaces? In the EIGHTIES? In the EIGHTIES in WRESTLING?! Color me shocked because from what I seen I would have bet dollars to donuts that they were heels. Memphis was a weird ass territory though - not in a bad way but just with some of the stuff they pulled off and I guess conditioned their fans well.

Those videos are epic though. Not even ironically - I can totally see a little bit why they might have gotten so over. They are pretty much movie montages and movie montages were a staple in that decade.

Facial and chest hair made the ladies quiver back in the 80's, see Tom Selleck and dudes liked ZZ Top so it was a perfect combo.

I think we need iron maiden & Rogue to confirm if this was an acceptable context to use "quiver".

It doesn't do a damn thing for me but I was a kid in the 80's. I liked John Taylor from Duran Duran and Han Solo/Indiana Jones.