Travicity
01-28-2011, 05:51 AM
The Twilight View- Part VI
The Twilight View- Part VI
By Greg H
Since I had such an early start to watching wrestling it took me a while to figure out tag-team wrestling and how it worked and what the goal was. But when I did I was hooked and really got into it. Back in those days in the 50′s and 60′s there were lots of tag-teams. Often they were a team that primarily worked together. Other times they would take a couple of very over good guys or bad guys and team them together for one match or even a couple matches against a regular team or another makeshift tag-team. The most prominent tag-team of the 50′s and 60′s were the Fabulous Kangeroos who came in their Aussie gear with boomerangs and they usually had a manager. They were never around too long as they were always in demand and wanted everywhere in the wide world of wrestling but when they were in my homeland the Northeast they almost always headlined the card. Other early prominent tag-teams in the Northeast included the brutal team of Skull Murphy and Brute Bernard, the equally dastardly Graham brothers(Dr. Jerry, Eddie and Crazy Luke) The Nazi team – the Von Hesses and the Tolos Brothers. Some of the makeshift teams included the team of the very popular Argentina Rocca and Argentina Apollo both who wrestled barefoot and were revered high flyers of the day and the team of Handsome Johny Barends and the Magnificent Maurice both who had great singles pushes against the champion Bruno. There were many other tag-teams and no card was ever lacking a a couple of tag-team matches and sometimes more than a couple.
My point here is that tag-team wrestling was treated with great respect for decades and often well-promoted tag-team feuds main evented cards sometimes taking precedent over singles title matches. That happened more than you would think especially away from the Northeast where Bruno was king and so singles wrestling was usually on the the top of the card. The NWA was so vast covering the majority of states in the country that the singles world champion could not be on every card so he had a selective presence. Great tag-team matches thus were often presented as main events and were a favorite of the fans. There were so many regular tag-teams in the 60, 70′s, and 80′s.. A 60′s and 70′s sample included The Mongols, The Assassins, The Medics, the Mendoza Brothers, The Guerreros, Black Gordman and Goliath, Tanaka and Arakawa, Tanaka and Fufi, The Executioners, the Valiants, The Moondoogs, The Funks, the Briscos, Bruiser and Crusher, the Blackjacks, Dusty Rhodes and winky Murdoch, Larry Henning and Harley Race, Pat Patterson and Ray Stevens and the Samoans. The 80′s included the Killer Bees, the Midnight Express, the Midnight Rockers, the Freebirds, the Roard Warriors, the Von Ehrichs, Baba and Tsuruta, Steamboat and Youngblood, Windham and Rotunda, etc. There were a hundred more. The field of quality tag-teams was robust and formed the basis of many exciting matches. The Tag- team titles were virtually on par with the single titles in those days. I dare say that there were even times when the tag-team title holders were the biggest thing going with the Road Warriors as the best example of that. Every promotion wanted them on their card and every fan wanted to see them. Some of the more modern popular 80′s and 90′s tag-teams included the Hart Foundation, the British Bulldogs, Blanchard and Anderson, the Powers of Pain, Demolition, Michaels with Diesel/HHH, Lawler and Dundee, the Megapowers an on and on. The worst thing that happened to wrestling in the last 20 years was when ignorance triumphed and one of the worst business decisions was ever made. Allegedly this was attributed to Eric Bischoff and that was that the philosophy of “Why pay double for tag-team matches”. Wrestling is a business that depends entirely on keeping its fans entertained and interested and that has been a challenge for decades. Tag-team wrestling was and is an important part of booking that helped promoters meet the challenge of offering a fresh product. So although I understand the economics of the Bischoff view I feel that it was shortsighted if the result costs the promotion fans. Thus tag-teams were de-emphasized in the WCW. Then the financially strapped WWE in the 90′s went the same route and in my opinion wrestling has taken a hit that it has never recovered from – the loss of 35% of its product. It is no wonder that the WWE has to struggle to keep the fans interested and going as far as to keep the same headliners way too long to make up for this missing attraction. The modern day wrestling fan doesn’t know how awesome tag-team wrestling can be since they have never been presented with a well supported tag-team division. Take it from me that tag-team wrestling when done right rocks.
Interestingly enough ROH with its own challenges most of which start with the weaker wrestling enviroment for the last decade has marvelously used tag-team wrestling to keep its product fresh and that’s a big reason why this promotion is completing its first decade as the pre-eminent independent promotion in the country. From the earliest days to now tag-team wrestling has been huge for ROH. From the days of the Natural Born Sinners and Prophecy to Generation Next and the Briscoes and Embassy to the American Wolves and the magnificent Kings of Wrestling tag-team wrestling has always been featured prominently on ROH cards. ROH treats tag-team wrestling with respect and dignity and that strategy has helped make ROH shows very strong from top to bottom. Although TNA has its own issues it has gotten behind tag-team wrestling. Why the WWE has refused to embrace tag-teams as an attraction I don’t get and it is dumb in my view. But I feel fortunate that I can always get a welcome dosage of quality tag-team wrestling from an ROH show. I am happy that at least ROH fans can understand the value of tag-team wrestling.
ROH
The Twilight View- Part VI
By Greg H
Since I had such an early start to watching wrestling it took me a while to figure out tag-team wrestling and how it worked and what the goal was. But when I did I was hooked and really got into it. Back in those days in the 50′s and 60′s there were lots of tag-teams. Often they were a team that primarily worked together. Other times they would take a couple of very over good guys or bad guys and team them together for one match or even a couple matches against a regular team or another makeshift tag-team. The most prominent tag-team of the 50′s and 60′s were the Fabulous Kangeroos who came in their Aussie gear with boomerangs and they usually had a manager. They were never around too long as they were always in demand and wanted everywhere in the wide world of wrestling but when they were in my homeland the Northeast they almost always headlined the card. Other early prominent tag-teams in the Northeast included the brutal team of Skull Murphy and Brute Bernard, the equally dastardly Graham brothers(Dr. Jerry, Eddie and Crazy Luke) The Nazi team – the Von Hesses and the Tolos Brothers. Some of the makeshift teams included the team of the very popular Argentina Rocca and Argentina Apollo both who wrestled barefoot and were revered high flyers of the day and the team of Handsome Johny Barends and the Magnificent Maurice both who had great singles pushes against the champion Bruno. There were many other tag-teams and no card was ever lacking a a couple of tag-team matches and sometimes more than a couple.
My point here is that tag-team wrestling was treated with great respect for decades and often well-promoted tag-team feuds main evented cards sometimes taking precedent over singles title matches. That happened more than you would think especially away from the Northeast where Bruno was king and so singles wrestling was usually on the the top of the card. The NWA was so vast covering the majority of states in the country that the singles world champion could not be on every card so he had a selective presence. Great tag-team matches thus were often presented as main events and were a favorite of the fans. There were so many regular tag-teams in the 60, 70′s, and 80′s.. A 60′s and 70′s sample included The Mongols, The Assassins, The Medics, the Mendoza Brothers, The Guerreros, Black Gordman and Goliath, Tanaka and Arakawa, Tanaka and Fufi, The Executioners, the Valiants, The Moondoogs, The Funks, the Briscos, Bruiser and Crusher, the Blackjacks, Dusty Rhodes and winky Murdoch, Larry Henning and Harley Race, Pat Patterson and Ray Stevens and the Samoans. The 80′s included the Killer Bees, the Midnight Express, the Midnight Rockers, the Freebirds, the Roard Warriors, the Von Ehrichs, Baba and Tsuruta, Steamboat and Youngblood, Windham and Rotunda, etc. There were a hundred more. The field of quality tag-teams was robust and formed the basis of many exciting matches. The Tag- team titles were virtually on par with the single titles in those days. I dare say that there were even times when the tag-team title holders were the biggest thing going with the Road Warriors as the best example of that. Every promotion wanted them on their card and every fan wanted to see them. Some of the more modern popular 80′s and 90′s tag-teams included the Hart Foundation, the British Bulldogs, Blanchard and Anderson, the Powers of Pain, Demolition, Michaels with Diesel/HHH, Lawler and Dundee, the Megapowers an on and on. The worst thing that happened to wrestling in the last 20 years was when ignorance triumphed and one of the worst business decisions was ever made. Allegedly this was attributed to Eric Bischoff and that was that the philosophy of “Why pay double for tag-team matches”. Wrestling is a business that depends entirely on keeping its fans entertained and interested and that has been a challenge for decades. Tag-team wrestling was and is an important part of booking that helped promoters meet the challenge of offering a fresh product. So although I understand the economics of the Bischoff view I feel that it was shortsighted if the result costs the promotion fans. Thus tag-teams were de-emphasized in the WCW. Then the financially strapped WWE in the 90′s went the same route and in my opinion wrestling has taken a hit that it has never recovered from – the loss of 35% of its product. It is no wonder that the WWE has to struggle to keep the fans interested and going as far as to keep the same headliners way too long to make up for this missing attraction. The modern day wrestling fan doesn’t know how awesome tag-team wrestling can be since they have never been presented with a well supported tag-team division. Take it from me that tag-team wrestling when done right rocks.
Interestingly enough ROH with its own challenges most of which start with the weaker wrestling enviroment for the last decade has marvelously used tag-team wrestling to keep its product fresh and that’s a big reason why this promotion is completing its first decade as the pre-eminent independent promotion in the country. From the earliest days to now tag-team wrestling has been huge for ROH. From the days of the Natural Born Sinners and Prophecy to Generation Next and the Briscoes and Embassy to the American Wolves and the magnificent Kings of Wrestling tag-team wrestling has always been featured prominently on ROH cards. ROH treats tag-team wrestling with respect and dignity and that strategy has helped make ROH shows very strong from top to bottom. Although TNA has its own issues it has gotten behind tag-team wrestling. Why the WWE has refused to embrace tag-teams as an attraction I don’t get and it is dumb in my view. But I feel fortunate that I can always get a welcome dosage of quality tag-team wrestling from an ROH show. I am happy that at least ROH fans can understand the value of tag-team wrestling.
ROH