The Wrestling 101: Tag Team Perfection

There are periods of wrestling history where tag team wrestling as a concept has been deemphasised; treated as a diversion for midcarders or used only for the purpose of a breakup feud. Every time that happens in a promotion though it’s a mistake. Tag team wrestling is deeply woven into the tradition of the medium, and has produced some of the apices of the form. When a tag team match hits, four wrestlers all executing at their peak in perfect harmony with one another, there’s truly nothing better. Here are five of the best. – Robin Reid

Match #82
Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio & Edge
WWE No Mercy

Watch: WWE Network / Peacock
Testimonial by Griffin Peltier

The SmackDown! Six were six wrestlers who defined the in-ring identity of the WWE’s SmackDown! brand following the roster split in the early 2000s. Much like it has been over the years, at the time SmackDown! was viewed as the secondary show compared to RAW, which featured most of the company’s top stars. So to differentiate itself, SmackDown! leaned heavily on Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero, Edge, and Rey Mysterio to deliver fast-paced and technically sound matches. With these six, WWE created an alternative to the more entertainment-heavy presentation that defined RAW, offering fans a version of wrestling that felt fresher, faster, and more athletic.

What made the SmackDown! Six so important was the freedom they were given to showcase their strengths. Rather than being restricted to short undercard bouts, they were routinely put in matches that went long enough to tell a story and capture the audience’s attention. Their focus on building up the tag team division and the mid-card made SmackDown! stand out during a time when WWE had not placed much emphasis on “workrate” matches. With Brock Lesnar, the Undertaker, and the Big Show dominating the main event scene, the SmackDown! Six ensured that the rest of the card was just as engaging. For many fans, the undercard on Thursday nights became must-see TV, more exciting than the main events themselves.

The Tag Team title match at No Mercy 2002 between Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit against Edge and Rey Mysterio is the crown jewel of the SmackDown! Six. History was being made in the tournament finals to crown the first WWE Tag Team champions and all four men blended their styles into a seamless non-stop showcase of wrestling at its finest. Angle and Benoit brought intensity, sheer physicality, and submissions, which contrasted well with Edge and Mysterio’s energy and speed. The atmosphere was electric, with fans reacting to every hot tag and near fall as though history was unfolding before their eyes.

Angle and Benoit were reluctant partners, constantly at odds despite their shared goal of winning gold, and they would be suspended without pay for a year if they started fighting. Their bickering gave the match an edge of unpredictability, as it always felt like they could implode at any moment. On the other side, Edge and Mysterio had natural chemistry and played their roles perfectly as underdog heroes. When Angle finally forced Edge to submit to the Ankle Lock, it capped off a bout that had already established itself as an instant classic.

What is the most remarkable thing about this match is how well it has stood the test of time. More than twenty years later, it is still one of WWE’s greatest tag team matches because of its crisp execution and pacing. It proved that there is room for tag team wrestling in the spotlight of an American television product. With the right performers like Angle, Benoit, and Mysterio, tag wrestling could main event big-time shows. This one match symbolized everything the SmackDown! Six represented: athleticism, in-ring storytelling, and the ability to give fans something they could not get anywhere else on US television at that time.

Further Viewing

Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle – Just a month prior, one side of this match were tearing each other apart
Edge & Mysterio vs. Benoit & Angle vs. Los Guerreros – The following month, the full six all in action in a single match
Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit – It didn’t take long for Benoit and Angle to be back at one another’s throats, and it resulted in one of the most heralded contests in company history.

Match #83
Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu
AJPW New Year Wars Super Battle

Watch: YouTube
Testimonial by Robin Reid

Before the Four Pillars of Heaven were erected, a foundation had to be laid for the structure to stand strong. Jumbo Tsuruta. Genichiro Tenryu. Riki Choshu. Yoshiaki Yatsu. They were the men who laid that foundation.

Riki Choshu and his stable, Ishin Gundan, were still relatively new arrivals in All Japan at the point of this match, having jumped (albeit slightly circuitously) from promotional rival New Japan at the end of 1983, and immediately entered into a long-term program with the two homegrown top stars in Jumbo and Tenryu. The interesting wrinkle however was that quite quickly crowds began reacting favourably to the invader stable, and the promotion subsequently leaned in with Jumbo in particular happily playing the role of the bully.

What makes this match, and more generally the rivalry, so special is that it is a key evolutionary step in the way wrestling was performed in the promotion. Compare this match to any main event in the years prior and the difference will be immediately apparent: pace has been injected. Ishin Gundan arrived in All Japan, and took the style that was already being worked hit the fast forward button. There’s a freneticism and an energy that simply isn’t there in the same form prior. All Japan’s Royal Road style in the years that followed would be famous for its escalation. Well it was Riki Choshu who installed the escalator.

I am somebody who holds the, not uncommon, opinion that the Pillars tags of mid 90s All Japan are the peak of pro wrestling as a medium. We simply do not get those matches without these four men pushing the tag team artform forward. Is the match perfect, especially when viewed by eyes who have seen what was to come? Absolutely not. They’re yet to refined the balance between pace and impact. There’s moments for example where the Ishin Gundan side will throw out a spike piledriver only for it to be treated like a wrist lock, immediately forgotten and completely unsold as they rush to the next move. What it is however is a crucial step on the road to perfection, and deserves to be appreciated as such.

Further Viewing

The Funks vs. Baba & Jumbo – Get a feel for what the house style was before this match so you can feel the difference.
Jumbo, Tenry & Ishikawa vs. Choshu, Yatsu & Teranishi – The start of the invasion a year earlier, and you can already notice the crowd rooting for the promotional invaders
Jumbo & Yatsu vs. Hara & Tenryu – Riki Choshu might move on, but the pace remained.

Match #84
The Briscoes vs. FTR
ROH Final Battle

Watch: YouTube
Testimonial by Sean Sedor

The future of the Briscoes (along with everyone else on the ROH roster) was very much up in the air as the company went into Final Battle 2021, the last event under the ownership of Sinclair Broadcast Group and (what appeared at the time to be) the promotion’s last hurrah. After capturing the ROH World Tag Team Titles for an unprecedented twelfth time on that show, a big post-match confrontation between the Briscoes and FTR gave all of us hope that Jay and Mark would not only get showcase what made them so great on a larger stage, but that they would get to have this dream match with Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler. Once Tony Khan announced the purchase of Ring Of Honor in early 2022, that dream would become a reality, and what followed was one of the greatest trilogy of tag team matches in the history of pro-wrestling. One team had proven themselves as one of the greatest tag teams in the history of the sport, both in terms of longevity and the sheer volume of their incredible work, and was the defining tag team of ROH through the promotion’s entire history. The other team, through their work during the peak years of WWE’s NXT brand, had helped to bring more attention back to tag team wrestling in North America, and were looking to further that cause after making the jump to AEW.

ROH’s inaugural PPV event under the owner of Tony Khan, the 2022 edition of Supercard Of Honor, saw the first clash between The Briscoes and FTR. When the dust settled, they managed to blow away even the highest of expectations, as they delivered an instant classic that was not only the best match of that year’s WrestleMania Weekend, but an easy Match of the Year Contender that was going to be hard for anyone to top. They followed that up with a rematch a few months later at ROH’s Death Before Dishonor PPV which was contested as a 2/3 Falls Match, a stipulation that The Briscoes had mastered during their outstanding ROH World Tag Team Title reign in 2007. While Jay and Mark did score the victory in that first fall, FTR ultimately got the win, making them 2-0 against The Briscoes. In need of that elusive victory over FTR, a challenge was later made by Jay and Mark for a Dog Collar Match at Final Battle 2022 to complete the trilogy.

While the first two clashes between FTR and The Briscoes featured some of the best tag team wrestling that you’ll ever see, their third clash at Final Battle took their feud to new heights with a level of brutality and bloody violence that was nothing short of spectacular. It was a match so vicious that even one of the referees got busted open. In their final promo building up this Dog Collar Match, The Briscoes would compare themselves and FTR to Terry Funk and Bret Hart respectively, in that while Hart would usually have the edge in a straight wrestling match, Funk would always have the advantage in any type of hardcore setting. That’s pretty much how things played out at Final Battle. In the first two matches, as fantastic as The Briscoes were, FTR was able to outlast them, but when The Briscoes brought FTR into their environment they had the advantage. Even though they took a ton of damage along the way, with Jay bleeding buckets and Mark taking some of the wildest bumps you’ll ever see, they were able to outlast FTR and become the ROH World Tag Team Champions for a 13th time. Tony Khan had already given new life to the Dog Collar match in the greater AEW universe with matches like Brodie Lee versus Cody Rhodes and CM Punk versus MJF, but this one topped them all. The Briscoes and FTR capped off one of the greatest trilogies of all-time with, quite possibly, the greatest Dog Collar match of all-time.

The match took on a whole new meaning when Jay Briscoe tragically lost his life in a horrific car accident a month or so later. Unbeknownst to all of us, the Dog Collar Match with FTR was the last hurrah for one of the greatest tag teams in the history of wrestling. A tag team that became so synonymous with the letters R-O-H went out on such a legendary high note. Over twenty years of blood, sweat, and tears culminated with a match and a series that nobody will soon forget. The Dog Collar match at Final Battle is an absolute must-watch; across their series both The Briscoes and FTR showed that tag team wrestling is truly alive and well.

Further Viewing

The Briscoes vs. MCMG – The Briscoes in the Gabe era of ROH, delivering one of the best tag matches of the period
The Briscoes vs. Kings of Wrestling – The Briscoes in the HDNet era of ROH, delivering one of the best tag matches of the period
The Briscoes vs. Rush & Dragon Lee – The Briscoes in the Sinclair era of ROH, and guess what they’re still delivering one of the best tag matches of the period

Match #85
Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki
AJW Dream Rush

Watch: YouTube
Testimonial by Kevin Hare

The point of this project is to showcase different types of importance. Some matches were violent. Some were trendsetters. Some changed wrestling forever. And some, some are just transcendingly great. 11/26/92 is transcendingly great.

This is the first of three legendary matches between these two teams (and, interestingly, the only one Dave Meltzer did not give five stars – he didn’t rate this one). Ozaki and Kansai were the outside invading team, facing Toyota and Yamada on their own court.

Within minutes, you see what the match is about. Kansai delivering body rocking strikes and punches. Toyota and Ozaki running around the ring like bats out of hell. It never lets up for the entirety of all three falls.

All Japan’s Four Pillars 6/6/95 is seen by many (myself included) as the greatest match of all time. It’s hard not to draw comparisons here. Both are long, epic tag matches highlighted by transcendent heel performances. Mayumi Ozaki, much like Toshiaki Kawada, does an incredible job of being a stone cold prick, never cheating but taking every liberty and shortcut possible to torture her opponents.

There isn’t much else I can say to describe this one. It’s got athleticism and fast, impactful moves. But most importantly, it is seeping with heart, emotion, fire, and an atomic crowd. Just set aside 40 minutes, pull up on the couch, and settle in for one of the most enjoyable wrestling experiences you will ever have.

Further Viewing

Match #86
Hangman Page & Kenny Omega vs. Young Bucks
AEW Revolution

Watch: YouTube
Testimonial by Liam Jones

Revolution is as interesting in retrospect as it was triumphant at the time. In 2020 this was hailed as one of AEW’s strongest PPVs. It had Jon Moxley’s crowning moment at the top of the company winning the AEW World Heavyweight championship from Chris Jericho, Cody helping make future AEW star MJF on the midcard, and the breakout performance for one of AEW’s future lynchpin performers in Orange Cassidy.

It also featured one of the greatest tag matches of all-time.

Kenny Omega & Hangman Adam Page versus The Young Bucks. This match, these performers, specifically Omega and Hangman. Remind you why this company is named All ELITE Wrestling whenever they are put in the big spots.

I understand why people don’t like the Elite story; it dragged on at times and often delved into realms of comedy and melodrama. It committed all of the cardinal sins against what a more stringent pro-wrestling purist might want from their pro-wrestling storytelling. I am however not so precious.

Obviously there can be segments that fall flat on the road of a multi year, multi promotion storyline like this, and melodrama in wrestling can go completely over the top and lose sense of authenticity. When it hits though, it’s like adrenaline hitting the bloodstream.

February 29th, 2020 had me running through walls.

If you’ve ever listened to me talk about pro-wrestling before you will have heard me stumble through why I think pro-wrestling works in a way completely unique from other artforms. To me, it’s the combination of Art, Sports and Reality that make pro wrestling a different type of artform. I bring this up because I believe that the greatest moments and matches in the history of this business have stemmed from these elements. This tag team match is no exception.

How I define Art in this example comes down to the storytelling being delivered on the television show. The week to week storytelling of Hangman’s angst at not being a true top guy. His inferiority complex at not being Kenny Omega, and how Matt Jackson would needle him into doubting himself further. And of course, the match itself and their particular blend of athleticism and aforementioned Elite style melodrama surrounding Omega’s willingness to commit to Hangman Page and go all out against his best friends.

This leads into the Reality. The real life circumstances that lead into making something in pro-wrestling special. This match is full of it. From the Bucks and Omega reuniting in Japan, to Bullet Club’s rise in popularity in America leading to Hangman’s breakout but also to the formation of the promotion they helped found. There’s a million reasons and ways why none of this should have happened, but despite it all, it did.

To the Sport, the stakes behind this match. The World Tag Team Titles and the idea that these teams can make them championships that are more than a midcard accessory. AEW has gone back and forth on this principle in subsequent years but there’s no denying that at this time they were fighting to prove that tag team wrestling could be a main event act in the modern US.

It’s the combination of these elements that truly make a match memorable to me. I’ll admit, at the time this match took place I was as invested as anyone could have been. I wanted AEW to succeed. I had grown up in the WWE dominated sports entertainment styled wastelands and had never, truly, felt what it was like to have a top tier challenger U.S. promotion. The success of this match, in a broader sense, felt like the indication of the success of AEW as a whole.

Further Viewing

Golden Lovers vs. Young Bucks – Three of the four men of this match had a similarly acclaimed match as the main event of one of New Japan’s US shows a few years prior
Steiner Brothers vs. Lex Luger & Sting – The main character of the company teaming with another big star ally against an infamous Brother tag team in WCW, AEW’s spiritual successor
Golden Elite vs. Bandido, Fenix & Mysterio – The main event of the original All In, the event which led to the birth of AEW

The Wrestling 101

The Wrestling 101 is a Voices of Wrestling group project headed up by Kevin Hare and Robin Reid. You can discuss the series with them on twitter @stan__hansen (Kevin) and @TheRDouble (Robin) or join the conversation over in the Voices of Wrestling Discord.