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Where would you rank Hall and Nash's WCW Tag-Team Title run? I always
felt it was one of the most disastrous runs in the history of
Wrestling. From early on it was clear they would only drop the belts
to the Steiners and even that took forever? They rarely defended
them, treated their defenses like a joke and at the end WCW Tag-Team
Division was destroyed.
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Yeah but they were the top stars so they should have been the champions, end of discussion. It would have done way more damage to the division if you had Nash and Hall running around above everyone else while some geeks were the champs.
" It would have done way more damage to the division if you had Nash and
ReplyDeleteHall running around above everyone else while some geeks were the
champs. "
LOL, subtle.
Why don't they just hand Alberto Del Rio the U.S. Championship already.
ReplyDeleteWhy book them as a tag team outside of the 6 man that started the angle.
ReplyDeleteWWF Triple Crown Diesel and perennial IC champ Razor Ramon. I understand Hogan is the champ with full creative control, but why book them as a tag? They couldnt work the US/TV titles?
Might've felt the US/TV titles were beneath them, as they were 'main eventers' now. At least with the tag titles it gave them an easy hook for matches against the Steiners or a superteam like Luger & Giant.
ReplyDeleteWhat was ridiculous about Hall and Nash's reign wasn't that they held the belts or how long they held them, it was that
ReplyDeletea) the Steiners never got the proper blowoff when they got the belts back (defeating Syxx as a sub),
b) they overdid the teases on the Steiners GETTING the blowoff...so it didn't seem like the big deal it should have when they finally did win the belts
c) WCW didn't succeed at putting anyone else over as a threat during the interim.
I think they wanted to keep the US/TV titles open so they could use it to push up and comin........
ReplyDeleteHahahaha....I was so close to actually typing it this time too.
Speaking of awesome tag teams
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfylZ-4cH04
yes i am a new breed mark.
its not his destiny.
ReplyDeleteIf they had blown it off properly (Souled Out 97 I believe) it would've been fine. Then they took away the Steiners win. And then it devolved to singles matches for the tag team title.
ReplyDeleteThe WCW talent roster in the main event was so stacked that they could've used the Outsiders to build the tag title up to that status, let them take on other superteams. Instead, as with most WCW things, it turned to shit.
Man, Scott's been loving the word "geeks" lately
ReplyDeleteI remember they did this god-awful version of the Dusty-finish A LOT where The Outsiders would lose the titles to whoever on the ppv (Steiners, Luger/Big Show), then the next night on Nitro Bischoff would come up with a reason why that win didn't count and hand the belts back to them.
ReplyDeleteI think Meltzer's go to word has rubbed off on Scott.
ReplyDeleteI think that was a shoot comment that was supposed to be a shoot comment.
ReplyDelete"You keep using that word, jabroni? It's AWESOME!"
ReplyDeleteThey killed the whole tag team division and hardly ever even carried the belts around with them. They should have just both been big singles stars that fought the main eventers and occasionally teamed together. If the nWo needed the tag titles that bad, Vicious & Delicious should have had them and actually defended them.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's clearly fake. Everyone knows Ultra Magnus was an Autobot.
ReplyDeleteHa, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
ReplyDeleteI know every year or so a bunch of different sites will always vote on the greatest wrestler or tag team of all time. What pisses me off is when The Outsiders even make the list. They were a shitty tag team and directly responsible for the death of tag team wrestling. Who did they beat, really? Harlem Heat, who were never that great and near the end of their run as a useful tag team; the Faces of Fear, who were always a joke despite at least looking imposing; and I think the American Males, who were never a team in serious contention for anything other than worst gimmick ever. Outside of those matches all their wins were against indy job guys or guys still hanging around from the territory days. They never really got definitive wins over "good" teams like the Steiners or super teams like Luger and Giant, it was either a nWo wank-fest with a shit-ton of interference or they lost and then got handed the titles back on technicalities.
ReplyDeleteIt kills me when people put a team like The Outsiders above the MXE or Rockers or any legitimately good tag team that actually meant some to tag team wrestling. The Outsiders were two singles guys who got stuck together because they didn't have anything else to do since Hogan was the top guy. Even when they were a tag team, outside of the Steiners feud, they were mostly stuck in singles feuds with guys like the Giant.
It's only a matter of time before he adds the "pencil-necked" prefix. That's what age does to you...
ReplyDeleteThe Outsiders held the belts 6 times.
ReplyDelete1. Beat Harlem Heat at Halloween Havoc
2. Titles returned to them
3. Titles returned to them
4. Beat the Steiners on Nitro (Steiners beat Hall and Syxx for the belts)
5. Beat the Steiners on Nitro
6. Beat Bret and Goldberg on Nitro
In total, the Steiners got ONE win over them that actually counted, only to lose the belts back 13 days later.
They suuuucked in the ring. Sucked real bad. But they were easily the two most over guys in wcw so that's something right?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I never minded the concept -- a big-time super team that dominates the division for awhile. Never having The Steiner's (or another team) get a real title win over them at a big show made the whole thing so pointless though. The Dusty finishes just killed all of the mileage they could have got out of it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I'd go so far to say they were the cause of the downfall of tag team wrestling -- it was living on life support as early as 1993/1994 in both organizations.
They were a good idea that was poorly executed like so many other things WCW was doing at the time.
ReplyDeleteI would still pay money to see the Outlaws vs the Outsiders. That match could have headlined any ppv in 1998.
ReplyDeleteWell, there is this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3vTZOnEtl0
"Yeah but they were the top stars so they should have been the champions,
ReplyDeleteend of discussion. It would have done way more damage to the division
if you had Nash and Hall running around above everyone else while some
geeks were the champs."
So it would have been the DX reunion tour ten years early.
As far as dominating super groups go bulldog and Owen running the tag team division in 96/97 was my favorite and it lead to the classic blowoff match with hbk and austin
ReplyDeleteHow many times did Hogan and the Outsiders defend their respective titles on PPV in their big 1996-1997 runs?
ReplyDeleteLike, 6 times each, or some nonsensically low number like that, right?
It makes me envision Primo and Epico in the locker room playing Magic: the Gathering.
ReplyDeleteYeah it's like they needed to have some countdown clock to a point in time at which Bischoff couldn't overturn the decision in order for the fans to know they could feel secure in popping for it.
ReplyDeleteI liked WCW's tag team division prior to the nWo arrival. They had the Road Warriors (briefly), Nasty Boys, Public Enemy, Steiner Brothers, Harlem Heat, and Faces of Fear...plus brief teams like Rough N'Ready and Fire and Ice. Not that they were great teams, but they were actual teams. The Quebecers and American Males were around then to. There really didn't seem to be any point in the Outsiders winning the belts. It killed the division, they rarely defended them, they were portrayed as being bigger than the division...I don't know if it was because the feud never seemed to end or what but I couldn't stand the Steiners at this point. I was just tired of them because they were constantly facing some combination of the Outsiders.
ReplyDeleteSounds pretty close to me -- let's see:
ReplyDeleteHogan 1996-1997:
vs Savage at Halloween Havoc 1996
vs Giant at Souled Out
vs Piper at Superbrawl VII
vs Piper at Halloween Havoc
vs Sting at Starrcade
So five times out of a possible 14 shows where he could have defended it.
I think it was a dumb move for the tag titles, because they really didn't sell the importance of those matches when they did happen.
The world title I'm not so sure about though in this case though -- clearly some of it was politics, but if you're going to give someone like Hogan a long title-run that late in his career, I think less is more.
The buyrates for most of those shows were very high and I think it built a sense of anticipation for those matches to make it a bit more of a rarity despite that fact that you were almost guaranteed a poor quality match in terms of wrestling. He was pretty bad in the ring by this point, so I don't know that you could have done the long reign deal without people getting sick of it if he was in singles matches every month. The tag-team and Wargames matches helped spread the work around and keep his ring-work from being overexposed while allowing for the feuds to continue to develop.
Yeah they were definitely 'teams' but as you said, not great ones. I kinda liked Fire and Ice though as well as the Faces of Fear. I could not stand The Nasty Boys, Public Enemy, or Harlem Heat though, it was an endless parade of terrible matches. The Steiners were definitely losing their appeal too.
ReplyDeleteAll good points. I'm trying to remember if Hogan wrestled on most of those non-title defense PPVs, or whether he was just off the card like Goldberg was when he was champ.
ReplyDeleteGood question. I know he usually took a vacation in the spring and usually didn't do the Slamboree/GAB PPVs.
ReplyDeleteLet's see, for PPVs between August 1996 and December 1997 (17 PPVs) he was on the card for 12 wrestling matches (mostly specialty matches as part of a team or group) If you want to count hyped non-wrestling appearances, add in World War III 1996, which was the contract signing between him and Piper.
For 1998, he was on the card for 8 out of the 12. If you want to count hyped non-wrestling appearances, add in Souled Out 1998 which was the Sting/Hogan stripping of the title and announcement of the match at Superbrawl.