Smark Out Moment

The tag team division in WWE is always going through ups and downs, but just recently we had the return of one of the greatest teams of all time, The Dudley Boyz, as well as the announcement of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Tournament.

Since that's in the current climate, our latest edition of TOP ROPE LIST revolves around us picking our favorite teams from pro wrestling's past and present, whether it be duos that won numerous championships, one-night affairs that made a memorable impression, or stables of more than two wrestlers.

As explained before, sometimes we bump this up to a top 50/25/10/5, but the true focal point of the list revolves around the top 3 which are designated the Bottom Rope (essentially the bronze medal), Middle Rope (silver medal) and Top Rope (gold medal). Let's get down to it!


[HONORABLE MENTIONS x4]

The Godwinns: Back in the day, I liked this team a lot. When I view old pay-per-views, I still think that they were a pretty fun gimmick. Sure, they weren't the best in-ring performers in the company, and I actually hate farming stuff and country music and all that, but that actually is one of the reasons why I like to point them out as being something special. Despite having everything working against them, I still ended up enjoying them during their time. Threatening people with slop was something I got a chuckle out of as a kid and I have fond memories of watching them.

Beer Money Inc: This was the best thing TNA had going for it for a long, long time. Bobby Roode in general is one of the only guys that I felt was too good for that company and he helped take James Storm to a level that I could appreciate as well, even though I'm not the biggest fan of his in general. Beer Money had a good run as babyfaces but they also were able to pull off being heels rather well. This team just clicked and it's a shame it didn't happen in WWE where more good would have come out of it.

The Shield: The impact this trio made on the roster and WWE in general over the past few years is outrageous. Sometimes, I think people lose sight of just how much has revolved around Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. These guys came into the main event directly from developmental and since then have dominated the tag team division, the midcard, and the main event in different capacities. Can you imagine the roster right now without them? They are all three very talented, they had a cool entrance, a good look, fun performances in the ring and were just bad asses.

The New Day: If you've followed Smark Out Moment for the past year, you would know that I've been on board with The New Day ever since Xavier Woods first cut that heel promo that would go nowhere for months. When they ran vignettes for New Day, I was so pumped. Since then, they've consistently been my favorite tag team in the division by far and I just love the act. It's so over the top and ridiculous! I gave a lot of consideration to putting them in my top 10, but I just felt as though I need a little bit more time for them to sit in comparison to the others that are listed below. I don't see myself getting tired of the gimmick, but WWE could always screw it up down the line and make me have to reflect more negatively on them. Hopefully, they continue to be hilarious on the mic as well as entertaining in the ring, and if they do, they'll be making their way onto my top 10 of all time for sure.

10. John Morrison and The Miz

I can't quite put my finger on why I liked this duo so much. Granted, it might just have to do with how I'm a fan of both of them and they were in an environment where the competition was low, but something worked well with them playing off each other. The Miz was more entertaining on the mic and Morrison was more entertaining in the ring, but they helped elevate the other's weaker side.

It's a shame this team was never really given a solid team name, but this was also during a time frame when WWE hated that. Why? I have no idea.

9. The Legion of Doom / Road Warriors

I might not be able to go back and watch their matches and have my eyes glued to the screen every second, but there's no denying the Road Warriors are so influential as a tag team that they of course hooked into me at one point. Their act was simple, but effective: two cool looking ass kickers that went out and had a fun catch phrase and then fucked people up. Awesome, right?

8. The Hardy Boyz (with Lita) aka Team Xtreme

The best thing Matt Hardy's ever done was tag with Jeff and become an incredibly fun staple of the tag team division. Team Xtreme was as marketable as you could get at the time and even though they represented a type of style that I never subscribed to (you won't see any pics of me wearing mesh and fluorescent colors and studs and whatnot...I wasn't a Hot Topic kid), it still ended up resonating well overall. Lita provided the sex appeal, Matt and Jeff were daredevils that were easy to get excited to see, and the combination of all three of them just worked so well.

7. Money Inc.

Talk about simple and effective, look at how much mileage WWE got out of "Ted DiBiase + people" during the 90s, and it worked every damn time! I.R.S. was so ridiculous, but in that era, it was forgivable and he was a genuine heel. When DiBiase would bring in the latest craze, it was always cool to see that person and his stooges team up on other people, whether it was The Supreme Fighting Machine Kama or someone like King Kong Bundy, I always dug it.

6. Edge and Christian

Do I even need to explain why these two are on the list?

5. The Nation of Domination

There were a few incarnations of this stable and some of them unfortunately kind of sucked, but the best by far was the one with Faarooq, The Rock, Mark Henry, D-Lo Brown and Kama Mustafa. Without this stable, there's no Rock...think about that. Their theme song kicked ass, they had a variety of different styles and hierarchy levels to play around with, and the promos were always so passionate. There's a reason why this stable is brought up so often when people talk about wanting to see a new version of it, like what was rumored with The New Day.

4. The Hart Foundation

I liked the tandem of Owen Hart and British Bulldog enough to almost put them on this list by themselves, but I figured I'd combine things to make them much simpler. Bret Hart as the leader of The Hart Foundation with the two of them and the outsiders of Jim Neidhart and Brian Pillman was a fantastic stable that could have gone to even greater heights had the Montreal Screwjob not happened. Individually, I liked Bret Hart best as a babyface, but everyone else was better as heels and when The Hitman was brought into the mix, he seemed to work well as a heel, too. This was a group of super talented people that had a lot of chemistry working together due to their familial connection and that even continued later on (although to a lesser extent) with the trio of Tyson Kidd, Natalya and David Hart Smith.

*BOTTOM ROPE: 3. nWo / The Outsiders

I can't quite decide what I like best between The Outsiders, The Outsiders + Hulk Hogan, or "holy shit everybody in the company is part of nWo Hollywood or nWo Wolfpac" but it all boils down to The New World Order kicking ass. You couldn't be a fan of wrestling in the mid-90s without being a fan of this stable in some fashion and that wasn't just because everyone was involved in it, but because it was flat out cool. Like mentioned in some examples above, you had good characters and an identity that made a great connection with the audience. Awesome theme music? Check. Cool beat downs? Check. Intriguing storylines? Check. It eventually went crazy, but before it did, nWo was on fire.

* MIDDLE ROPE: 2. D-Generation X

Shawn Michaels is my favorite wrestler of all time and when he started the DX stable with Triple H, Chyna, and Rick Rude, that was some of the craziest shit that I had ever seen at that point. As a kid, I fucking LOVED this stable so much and looking back, I still feel the same way. Things were just as awesome without HBK, oddly enough, as the version of the faction led by Triple H with X-Pac, The New Age Outlaws and Chyna was a shit ton of fun, too, but in a different way. Both as heels and babyfaces, this act was just hitting it out of the park every week. Great matches, fantastic promos, awesome feuds with a bunch of different people, and a gimmick that had such longevity that people are even willing to forgive the toned down years for the sophomoric humor that wasn't quite up to par. DX had cool merchandise, one of my favorite theme songs of all time...I could just keep going and going...

* TOP ROPE: 1. The New Age Outlaws

I separated these two because I think there's a distinction between them in a lot of ways. Before Road Dogg and Billy Gunn were part of DX, they were still so entertaining as The New Age Outlaws to the point where they've maintained a sort of separation and were able to do their shtick as a bubble inside the DX stable. It's almost as if they were in some kind of weird Venn diagram type of scenario where they functioned as core members of DX, but were their own entity just the same, like how Pepsi owns Taco Bell and Pizza Hut but they're free to do their own thing. In 2014/2015, they proved that it's still fun to chant along with "Oh you didn't know?"