Top 10 Tag Team Specialists of all time.

There are an ample amount of greatest professional wrestlers of all time lists. Whether it be by generation, federation, or an overall evaluation of professional wrestling as a whole, the lists of greatest singles competitors is plentiful. Nearly every professional wrestling website has made one, if not more, and nearly every fan has at least one of their own.


The same is true for the greatest tag teams in professional wrestling. Teams like The Road Warriors/Legion of Doom, Demolition, The Hart Foundation and Harlem Heat often make the list.

Yet what about the professional wrestlers who as individuals were phenomenal tag team specialist? Workers who could be pared with about anybody and make the team work. Make the team get over? Who are these wrestlers?

This list isn't a compilation of the greatest tag teams of all time, but rather a list of the greatest tag team individuals of all time. Individuals who specialized in tag team wrestling and here they are.

10. Mr. Fuji 

The devious one may be remembered most for his time as one of the greatest heel managers of all time, but his in ring work, especially as a tag team specialist should be noted as well. While he was never much of a singles wrestler, he shined in the tag team ranks. Throughout various independents in the 60's and 70's Fuji held a numerous amount of tag team championships with many wrestlers. His most accomplished credentials in the WWE were during the times he teamed with Professor Tanaka and with Mr. Saito, where between the two Fuji held the WWE tag team titles on five occasions.

9. Kane 

You may not think of Kane as a tag team specialist when you first give his illustrious and storied career thought. You should. While Kane accomplished many things as a singles wrestler, his best moments were when he was in a team. Even before he became the big red machine, the talents and skills that eventually led him to a WWE contract were most prevalent during his tag team days with Al Snow in Smokey Mountain. While in WWE they put Kane in every makeshift tag team combination possible and there was only one that didn't work.  The New Razor and New Diesel tag didn't get over, but every other one did.  Kane was teamed with Mankind, X-Pac, The Undertaker, The Hurricane, RVD and Daniel Bryan. Each team was so popular that they all held the tag titles at least once for Kane to end his professional wrestling career as an 11 time co-holder of the WWE tag team championship.

8. Ron Simmons 

Ron Simmons will forever be cemented in history as the first black champion of a major American promotion. While his WCW world's title is epic and should be remembered for the historical monument that it is, it should also be noted in how good of a tag team wrestler Ron Simmons was. Butch Reed in many ways is one of the best wrestlers to never hold a WWE belt, and if it weren't for Simmons he never would have held a WCW title either.  While in WWE he helped to propel JBL from a mid-carder into one of their top talents.  While JBL was always a good solid worker, it wasn't until he teamed with Ron Simmons winning three tag team championships, that he really began to shine.

7. Earthquake 

One of the most underrated superstars of all time, Earthquake is also severely underrated as a tag team specialist. His chemistry and timing in the ring with Dino Bravo worked well enough to where the two could have been one of the hottest heel teams in the WWE. Yet the late 80's, with every team looking the same in look and stature, the makeshift team didn't fit in.  Years later, it seemed the WWE came to the realization of how good of a tag team wrestler Earthquake was as they teamed him with Typhoon to form the Natural Disasters. While the team was over as both faces and heels, a short run with the tag team titles is all they would get. After returning to the WWE after a long absence, Quake continued to show his expertise in tag team wrestling when as one fourth of the Oddities he was easily the most popular and beloved one.

6. Mike Rotunda 

Rotunda is remembered in the professional wrestling world for two reasons. The first is having the most ridiculous gimmicks. The second is for being one of the greatest tag team wrestlers of all time.  While Rotunda never did much as a singles competitor, he flourished in the teams. During his time in the NWA, he shined brightest with Steve Williams as a member of The Varsity Club. In the WWE he held the tag team championships on five occasions, twice with Barry Windham as one half of the U.S. Express and three times with Ted Dibiase as Money Inc.

5. The Barbarian 

It's not often that you can look back on the glory years of both WWE and WCW and find where both companies dropped the ball on an idea, but in the case of the Barbarian, they both did it twice. As to his runs with the Warlord as the Powers of Pain in WWE and as the Super Assassins in WCW, the explanation as to why they weren't pushed harder is quite weak. They were seen as Road Warrior rip offs and with Demolition already in the WWE with a similar gimmick, they were quickly disbanded and sent their separate ways as singles competitors.  Neither the Warlord or the Barbarian ever did as well separately as they did when teaming.

The same can be said for the Barbarian's team with Haku. Why it wasn't better utilized in WWE, is once again explained in the fact that with few exceptions McMahon didn't want makeshift tag teams. Why they weren't better used in WCW, is a real mystery.  Labeled The Faces of Fear, they could have easily boosted WCW's tag team scene to new heights if they had been used properly as the great heel team they were.

4. Billy Gunn 

Billy Gunn spent eight years swimming around the independents as a singles wrestler that nobody knew or cared about. Trying his luck as a tag team wrestler, it didn't take long before Billy Gunn was a household name. While Gunn has had some respectable success in singles competition, it pales in comparison to what he did as a tag team wrestler.  While with Bart Gunn as the Smoking Gunns, he held the WWE tag team championship on two occasions as one of the New Generation Era's most popular teams. After splitting up with Bart, WWE tried Billy Gunn as a singles competitor in a series of gimmicks that were not getting over with the fans. It seemed that Gunn's career was on a fast track to nowhere.

Then out of no where Gunn was teamed with The Road Dogg Jesse James and if Brian James is an honest person, then he knows he owes every ounce of gratitude for why he's the most well known and famous of his family to Billy Gunn. Not only were the two the hottest tag team in the WWE during the Attitude Era, they helped to define it.

Why WWE decided to once again split them up and try Gunn out as a singles competitor is beyond comprehension.  Again, this time as Mr. Ass and then as The One, Billy Gunn as a singles wrestler was nothing compared to him as a tag.

WWE then teamed Gunn with Chuck Palumbo in a controversial homosexual gimmick that despite not being anywhere near as popular as The New Age Outlaw, the team still got over.  Trying a few other times to get over on their own, both Gunn and Road Dogg realized that they're best when together and the two reunited. To this day, they'll still a draw wherever they go.

3. Paul Roma 

Much like Earthquake, Paul Roma is an underrated and underappreciated talent in the world of professional wrestling. While a strong and solid singles competitor, it was in the tag team division that Roma showed off how good of a worker he really was. Even when his partner didn't want the team to work, which was the case with both Jim Powers in the WWE as The Young Stallions and with Arn Anderson in WCW, Roma was still able to put aside personal differences and make the team get over.

When you put him with someone who wanted to make the team work, few teams were any better.  With Hercules in the WWE, known as Power and Glory, the two are easily one of the top three teams ever in the history of the company to not hold the tag team championship. They were red hot as heels and could have easily feuded with any team drawing all sorts of money all over the country.  Yet, they weren't used to their full potential and it was most likely due to the fact that McMahon had recently obtained the Road Warriors (Legion of Doom) and he didn't want any of their competition to look as big and bad as they were. According to Roma in a shoot interview, their squash match at Wrestlemania VII had more to do with both he and Hercules being injured, but one still can't help but think it was McMahon's way of showing just how superior LOD was to other teams.

In WCW, Ric Flair likes to claim that Roma was the worst thing to happen to the Four Horsemen.  Maybe so, but without any dispute whatsoever, Paul Roma was the best thing to ever happen to Paul Orndorff. After a career that was cut short in WWE, it seemed that Orndorff was near the end of his run on top as his WCW television title reign came to an end.  He was 44 years old, and some would say too old to accomplish much more as a professional wrestler. If it hadn't been for teaming with Paul Roma, that may have been true.

Known as Pretty Wonderful, Roma and Orndorff were one of the best WCW tag teams of all time, perhaps only second or third to Harlem Heat and The Outsiders. The two would hold the tag team titles on two occasions.

2. Owen Hart 

There's nothing Owen Hart couldn't do. No matter what situation you put him in, he could do it and make it work. Tag Team wrestling was no exception.  While some of the tag teams he was in, worked better than others, all of them illustrated the tag team specialist that Hart was.  While with Neidhart, Hart showed his brilliance for tag team maneuvers, that would have also been shown with Koko B Ware if it weren't for McMahon insisting that they job to every tag team on the planet.  His team with brother Bret would have worked if it hadn't been for the fact that Bret was already established as WWE's top singles wrestlers.

When he was teamed with Yokozuna, it at first appeared like an odd combination, but the two not only worked, they won the tag team championship on their first night together!  Owen's most successful run in the tag team division though was with brother-in-law The British Bulldog, where the two won the tag team titles from The Smoking Gunns.  While not as strong of a tag team as he was with the Bulldog, Hart would also win the tag team titles with Jeff Jarrett before a tragic accident ended his life in May of 1999.  Some wonder if Hart had lived if he would have eventually held the WWE world's title. He was certainly good enough to have. No doubt though, that as good as he was as a a tag team wrestler, that at least a couple more reigns as champion would have been added to his list of impressive credentials.

1. Marcus Bagwell 

When it comes to tag team wrestling, there is no name in professional wrestling that says, "tag team" better than Marcus Bagwell.  Regardless of how 2 Cold Scorpio may feel about Bagwell in real life, he should take a step back and realize that the world may not even know or care who he is if it wasn't for Bagwell.  The same can be said about Scotty Riggs.  Marcus Bagwell is who got both of them over.

Hell the same can even be said about Scott Norton, at least for his run in the United States. As a singles competitor he was nothing special and most don't even recall his team with Ice Train.  Yet many do remember his NWO run, in particularly as a member of Vicious and Delicious with Bagwell.

The Patriot was a strong singles wrestler, one who helped the GWF during their glory years, and one who if it weren't for injuries, personal problems and a difference of opinion would have been a top draw in the WWE.  Even so, his best days in the business were with Bagwell as one half of Stars and Stripes, who held the WCW tag team titles on two occasions.

His teams with Shane Douglas and Lex Luger weren't quite as good as ones prior, but even they showcased why Marcus Bagwell is the greatest tag team wrestler of all time.  While he struggled when he was on his own, once in a tag team he excelled to every level.  He got himself over, the team over and his partner over and that's why nearly ever tag team he was ever in worked as well as it did.
There were certainly better tag teams. You can put every team that Bagwell was ever in together, and even combined, they couldn't match the Road Warriors or Demolition or the Rockers.  Yet, looking at it strictly from an individual as a tag team specialist, no one can touch Bagwell. He was the greatest.

Is Hollywood About to Ruled by a King? In particularly A Stephen King?

It's been a mere matter of days and already Andy Muschietti's adaptation of Stephen King's 1986 best selling novel  IT has already shattered a numerous amount of records. Having already made $51 million dollars, IT has set a record for the biggest opening ever for a horror film. It is also the biggest opener ever in the beginning of September.  If that isn't enough IT has also surpassed Deadpool as being the biggest Friday ever for an R rated film.  Seeing that Paranormal Activity currently holds the record for the biggest overall weekend for a horror film ever at $52.6 million dollars, look for the papers to read that IT tore that record to shreds early Monday morning.


With all of these records being broken and set, it can't help but make one wonder if we're in for an era of Stephen King remakes. The truest fact about Hollywood is that its bottom line is the almighty dollar and what ever makes the most Benjamin's is what we'll see the most of on the silver screen. If Stephen King adaptations, remakes and reimaginings are what Hollywood thinks we the paying public want to see, then Stephen King is what we're going to get.

STAND BY ME, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE GREEN MILE and THE MIST are all King adaptations that most love and feel were made right the first time.  Yet for the majority of King adaptations the general consensus is that they all had an excellent premise that failed to deliver in execution. Fans look back on these films and imagine with great enthusiasm what they could have been but recollect with bitterness as to what they actually were. With the success of IT we could be in for a feast of King movies so rich in quality and value that by the time we're done we're stuffed with satisfaction and delight.

We already know that IT: Chapter Two is in our future. It has also been confirmed that PET SEMATARY has been confirmed for a reimagining as well. What other King adaptations would we like to see?

MISERY

Although Kathy Bates gave both an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning performance as Anne Wilkes, the rest of the film falls a bit flat. Not that it is a bad film, because it isn't. It simply could be better. Like Tim Curry as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, topping Bates or even coming close to her will be to the level of difficulty a nose-hair below impossible. Yet like Bill Skarsgard, whoever the actress is that would get the part, would bring it to life in her own unique way. Already one of King's personal favorites, a remake could be even better.

THE TOMMYKNOCKERS

Much like the 1990 made for television miniseries of IT, the 1993 made for television miniseries of THE TOMMYKNOCKERS suffers from the same problems. The films strengths are in its story, and strong performances of Jimmy Smits, E.G. Marshall, John Astin, Robert Carradine and Joanna Cassidy. Yet being made for television meant a smaller budget for special effects, thus forcing for more exposition than visual and an unbalanced hinge between drama and horror that left viewers top heavy on the drama and rather empty handed on the horror.

A remake here could take an already good adaptation and propel it to the same heights as the first chapter of the reimagining of IT.  A bigger budget for special effects and the freedom of an R rated film could balance the level of horror and drama to give us the experience that the story was meant to be.

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE/TRUCKS

There have already been two versions of Stephen King's TRUCKS.  First 1986's MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE and then 1997's made for television TRUCKS. Both films had their strengths but were mediocre in their own ways. Whereas MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE was over the top, silly and over-dramatic, TRUCKS is the polar opposite in being too serious, too mundane and having serious need for comic relief.  A happy medium between the two King variations would most likely result in a fun, successful box office hit.

SILVER BULLET

Even back in 1985, critic Felix Vasquez Jr referred to SILVER BULLET 's visual effects as outdated and critic Scott Weinberg thought the film while not bad seemed more like an after school special for teenagers than it did a horror film that belonged in theaters. Looking at it 32 years later, the special effects are quite silly and Nickelodeon's ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK produced more terrifying episodes.

This is a story that has great potential to be a great film and it would benefit from a remake. Better writing, mixed with better special effects could make for a mesmerizing story full of horror, excitement and heart that the 1985 film lacked.

CUJO 

This 1983 film adaptation of King's 1981 lacked the heart and soul of the novel. Whereas other King adaptations suffer from being heavy on the drama and light on the horror, this film did the opposite. It focused so strongly on making us afraid of a rabid St. Bernard that it forgets to pull us in with the mesmerizing and touching effect of King's story.  With greater focus on Cujo being a loyal, protective and loving dog who is driven crazy by the rabies, the audience could connect better with the story, thus leaving the theater with a mixture of lasting emotions, rather than simply feeling frightened for a few moments. Adding a perspective of the dog, as does the novel, to where when he is killing a human being, he believes he is killing the bat who gave him rabies, would add even greater effect.  This rather forgetful film could with the right writing and directing be one of King's best adaptations yet.

THE LANGOLIERS

This film had it all. It was written well, it was directed well, and it had an all star cast of well known and beloved actors. The mystery and suspense kept audiences glued to the screen for three hours in anticipation to see what happens. Then in a matter of minutes, it is all ruined by the most anti-climatic ending that a King adaptation has ever seen. (Some may argue that the giant spider in the second half of IT's 1990 miniseries was worse.)

It is sad that a rather good film is ruined by such a wretched ending. Poor special effects should not have that much emphasis on a film's reception, but this one did. A remake could easily fix that problem as well as condense the story down a bit to have a faster pace and a bit more energy along with its story.

CAT'S EYE 

Perhaps the film that could benefit the most from a remake/reimagining is 1985's CAT'S EYE which is essentially three stories meshed into one for the film. For those familiar with the film, there is little argument that the third story of the traveling cat is the most compelling. A remake, at least in the opinion of this blogger would be better suited to omit the first two stories altogether to give a stronger build and focus to the third. 85.5 million cats owned in the United States compared to 78 million owned dogs, gives testimony that cat lovers would flock to the theaters to see the one story of an heroic cat in the sea of what has been heroic dog movies.


Will King soon rule Hollywood with a series of remakes and reimaginings?  With the success of IT, the possibility is strong.