Hi there, I’m everyone who’s ever written a list about tag team matches in WWE.
Here’s some of my favourites. TLC2, Triple H & Austin vs Benoit and Jericho, Edge & Mysterio vs Angle & Benoit, The Wyatts vs The Shield, The Calgary Stampede Gigantic Tag, The Rhodes vs The Shield, DIY vs The Revival 2 out of 3 Falls.
All of these matches are great of course, no complaints there, but the internet can be a small place, with the same topics repeating over and over and why click on a list if not to either learn something new, or remember something that’s sat in your memory covered in more dust and cobwebs than the concept of tag team wrestling in modern day main roster WWE.
Seriously guys, why are there no teams please. Let’s look at some forgotten classics and remind ourselves of some good times, also hey if you haven’t actually forgotten any these matches and feel like mentioning that in the comments, please instead channel that energy into walking into the sea.
10. The Brain Busters vs The Rockers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dheaLcJ3IB4)
Let’s start with some good old wrasslin, with The Revival’s dads taking on the Young Bucks’ dads in Madison Square Garden in 1989 in a match that’s every bit as good as a match involving these four men should be.
Tasked with taking The Rockers and making them look like the hottest of s**t, Anderson and Blanchard, during their brief vacation away from their true home of WCW, bump their t**s off for Michaels and Jannetty, including a double superkick spot that genuinely wouldn’t look out of place 30 years later.
One of the best things about this match is that it’s a showcase for the fact that sometimes the most important narrative tool in a tag match isn’t any of the wrestlers, but rather the referee, and more specifically, where the referee’s attention is. The Brain Busters use the ref like a Shakespeare uses a massive f**king feather, laying on distraction after distraction, making both the rules and the breaking of the rules clear as day to the rapt audience.
It’s a subdued but wonderful match and surreal to see such staunchy southern wrestling in WWF’s home New York venue.
9. HBK & Steve Austin vs Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5vpzko)
Shawn Michaels was really good at two things. Wrestling and hair. And goddamn here’s a sumptuous helping of both.
Returning to active wrestling for the first time since embarking on a four-month journey to find his smile, Shawn instead found Stone Cold Steve Austin, which is the opposite.
1997 was truly the year that the WWF began to make strides in pulling itself out of the financially disastrous mid-90s and in this match are most of the reasons why. Owen’s as good as he ever is, Davey Boy’s a brickhouse dumping Michaels onto the top rope in a hilarious spot, Austin is hot fire and still super nippy because he hadn’t busted his neck yet, and Michaels is a miracle showcase of timing and being a big springy f**ker considering he hadn’t wrestled in four months.
Not only are the tag straps on the line, but the rest of the Hart Foundation, including the WWF Champ Bret Hart are looming like wolves at ringside. Everyone’s got their working boots on, the crowd LOVE it, and the WWF manage to resist ramming it full of interference. Really great stuff.
8. The British Bulldogs vs The Hart Foundation (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2fjtrj)
Not sure if you know this, but tag team 2 out of 3 Falls matches are f**king brilliant, and the Hart Foundation are f**king brilliant at 2 out of 3 Falls matches.
They’ve put on 2 out of 3 falls clinics with the Rockers, in a match that WWF infamously retconned because the ring ropes broke, against Demolition at SummerSlam 1990, in the best match Crush ever had, and this oft-overlooked gem from all the way back in 1987, making it the only match on this list that’s older than me.
It took place at Saturday Night’s Main Event 11, and saw the Hart Foundation working heel, defending their titles against the British Bulldogs, Davey Boy Smith and the Dynamite Kid. First of all, Matilda attacked Jimmy Hart before the match and I enjoyed that, second, holy hell the crowd enjoyed this match.
It’s a WWF match so it’s more bells and whistles than some people might like. Danny Davis and Tito Santana are at ringside and that’s a sentence that’s rarely said with enthusiasm, but this is a grand showcase of the two most athletically and psychologically accomplished teams in WWF’s golden era of tag wrestling, and the pop when the Bulldogs win after a rare two straight falls is so loud that the building shakes, and it f**ks the audio mix all to hell.
7. The Hardy Boyz vs Edge & Christian
Unforgiven 2000 is a real sleeper hit of a PPV in a year full of them. Not only did Steve Austin return giving Shane McMahon two of the greatest stunners ever committed to film, bloody LOOK AT THAT, Raven debuted, and the card had a whole bunch of fun matches.
Funnest of them was a steel cage match pitting the Hardyz against the champs Edge and Christian. What makes the match so great, to me anyway, is that it’s booked so well.
Clear, simple beats, one step leading to the next, in a match layout that’s exciting and makes total sense. Edge and Christian have attacked Lita before the match so she’s missing, they dump Jeff out of the cage, leaving Matt trapped in a double team situation, which they really milk for all the heat they can.
Jeff uses a ladder to get back in because he’s a Hardy and he was raised by ladders, Jeff does a crazy thing to get back in the cage, damn Jeff you crazy, Christian is taken out by a returning Lita, Hardyz flip the script and double team edge, Hardyz win a huge feel-good victory.
It’s rare to see a story play out so logically and satisfactorily in the WWE, but this is one that just clicks all the way down the line.
6. HBK & John Cena vs Batista & The Undertaker (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3qxh9i)
This is “can they co-exist”: the musical.
WWE was heading into WrestleMania 23 with both main events set in stone with almost two months to spare. Unheard of.
For the PPV before Mania, No Way Out 2007, WWE pitted both pairs of champion and challenger against each other. CAN THEY COEXIST.
Psychologically, this match isn’t exactly as sound as the others on this list, but it does have two pretty huge bullets in the chamber. It’s a match featuring the four biggest names in wrestling at the time, in front of a white hot crowd.
There’s a stretch in this match that Cena in his prime vs Taker in his prime and treasure it because you’ll never get it again. While some might sniff at the idea of a PPV being main-evented by a tag match that, on paper, should be main-eventing an episode of Raw, rest assured that all the lads give it socks and it’s more than worthy of your time.
Also just bloody look at the names in this match, jeez. JEEZ.
5. HBK and Diesel vs Razor and 123 (https://watch.wwe.com/program/Shawn-Michaels-Hits-from-the-Heartbreak-Kid-12268?startPoint=827)
Action Zone was a short-lived hour-long WWF show that aired in addition to raw for less than two years in the mid-90s.
While it eventually became just a Raw recap show before its cancellation, WWF initially tried to launch it with some blockbuster matches.
The main event of episode one was WWF Champion Bret Hart vs Owen Hart. The main event of episode two, Shawn Michaels and Diesel defending their tag titles against Razor Ramon and the 123 Kid, an all-kliq supershow which saw the four best friends go out there and sell like they literally refused to do for anyone else.
The action is so fast, Shawn is EVERYWHERE (also look at that hair great googly moogly), the 123 kid is throwing more spin kicks than a glitchy copy of Street Fighter 2, Razor’s throwing the 123 kid INTO Shawn Michaels and even Diesel moves faster than three miles per hour which is F**KING SAYING SOMETHING.
The crowd are molten hot and crazy loud for the whole thing, making it an absolute treat to watch even if it’s a total pain in the arse to track down.
4. The Usos vs Luke Harper and Erick Rowan
Ah yes, 2 out of 3 Falls tag team wrestling being absolutely exceptional again.
Not all of his WWE years were great, but 2014 was a sensational year for the late, great Luke Harper.
The Wyatts vs The Shield at Elimination Chamber, winning the IC title, being part of Team Cena vs Team Authority at Survivor Series, the ladder match against Ziggler at TLC, and then there’s this, The Usos defending their tag straps against Harper and Rowan at Battleground, and what a showcase for Harper.
Erick Rowan’s great at what they use him for, brief bursts of explosive power, but the match hangs on Harper’s shoulders, spending 80% of the match as the legal man, and working as the base for most of the Usos’ intricate spots, and boy do those spots build.
Like many 2 out of 3 falls matches the first two falls are speedier than average, but the third is false finish city and they completely capture the crowd right up until the Uso retention, which arguably shouldn’t have happened but never mind.
It’s just a shame that the rest of show is so throwaway.
3. Edge & Christian vs Dudleys – Royal Rumble 2001
I love this match SO MUCH.
It’s possible that everyone remembers this match because I yak on about it to death, but I also think its safe to assume that no one ever retains any information in any list I’ve ever written so here we go again.
Royal Rumble 2001 is one of the best PPVs WWE ever produced, during the hottest run of its life, and these are two of the most over teams in the company having one of the hottest PPV openers ever. Gosh the crowd are noisy.
The storytelling in the match is crystal clear, the Dudleys are working with concussions and Edge and Christian work over their heads exclusively, resulting in some real disconcertingly good selling from D-Von especially.
Aside from the same 10 moments on Raw that everyone presents when remembering the attitude era, this match (and indeed the whole PPV) is as clear and distilled a dose of nostalgia porn as you can find.
Everything is over. The story, the teams, the catchphrases, the finish, and there’s one or two achingly great falsies in here. I honestly don’t care if this is one of the first matches you think of when you think of great tag team wrestling, watch it again.
2. Undisputed Era vs Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch
The Undisputed Era have a legacy of tag team excellence that surpasses possibly any tag team in the history of WWE.
Seriously, more than DIY, Revival, Hart Foundation, The Shield, New Day, it’s insane.
Their matches against Imperium, Moustache Mountain, the Broserweights, Authors of Pain, the Revival, all of them are classics, but one of my favourites is their opening match against Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch at TakeOver Chicago 2, for the journey, not of UE, but Lorcan and Burch, who go from a team that the crowd are actively unenthused about, to giving them a standing ovation when the match is done.
Heartwarming.
They enter as boring dudes in black trunks who strike unflattering comparisons to the Bashem Brothers and leave with a new hero’s legend as stiff as f**k lunatics who more than know their way around a ridiculously complicated spot.
Kyle O’Reilly continues to be one of the most enjoyable fighters to watch fight in a generation, Roddy Strong works his d**k off, Danny Burch smashes people with headbutts like only a Brit can and Oney Lorcan has one of the most entertaining hot tag runs ever where the crowd start by booing him because who the hell is this dude to cheering for him because wait, who THE HELL is this dude?
A total joy.
1. TLC 4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mV5v_AhTz4)
Gosh a lot of things happen in this match. Golly.
There are 4 main TLC matches in WWE’s initial run, before they disappeared for half a decade.
Tlc 1 at SummerSlam 2000, TLC2 at ‘Mania 17 which floats high in most people lists of both the greatest tag matches and greatest WrestleMania matches of all time, TLC 3, on SmackDown two months later which took the same line-up and added Benoit and Jericho and then TLC 4 on Raw in October 2002.
It’s the least memorable of the 4, largely because it’s all less iconic teams, Bubba and Spike, Jericho and Christian, RVD and Jeff Hardy, Kane defending his tag titles by himself after Hurricane is attacked earlier in the show, but it’s still jaw dropping carnage.
JR calls the whole thing by himself which is damn miracle work, Jeff Hardy does Jeff Hardy stuff, Y2J takes one of the most horrible bumps I’ve ever seen over the top rope, there’s a goddamn Van Terminator, bodies fly like they’re being launched by f**king trebuchets, all on free TV.
The teams in it are a bit weird, it happened for a weird Raw Roulette gimmick and it would be the last TLC match for 4 years, making TLC 4 a bit of the odd stepchild of the TLC family, but still unbelievably fun wrestling.
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