PWI Weekly for September 16, 2024
PWI Weekly for September 16, 2024
Tag Team Turmoil: The ABC, Saito Brothers, Skyscrapers, The Unholy Union
There’s an art to tag team wrestling that cannot be found in singles competition. Being a successful tag team means having a bond (spoken and unspoken) with your partner and working fluidly, as one, toward a shared goal.
Ahead of work beginning on our annual “Tag Team 100” issue of PWI, this edition of the Weekly is all about tandems catching our attention lately. So, grab a friend—or partner, as it were—and read on.
TAG TEAM OF THE WEEK
TNA has a storied history of quality tag teams: America’s Most Wanted and The Naturals; The Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money; and both generations of LAX. These are just some of the lauded teams who, for a time, were considered some of the very best in the business. Although it’s easy to put on one’s rose-tinted glasses and say the tag team scene in TNA isn’t what it once was, to do so would be a disservice to teams like The ABC.
In the wake of Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley departing the promotion, it seems as though Ace Austin & Chris Bey have now assumed the crowns as the tag team of TNA. And that’s not merely because they are World tag team champions.
Being the team in TNA means more than that. It involves taking the mantle as the duo trusted to put on quality matches on every show. And it means being entrusted to carry on the legacy of those teams who came before. Thus far, ABC have been doing a fine job in that role. Given time, Austin and Bey will add a compelling new chapter to TNA’s storied history of quality tag teams.
A QUICK WORD ABOUT …
In recent years, possibly no tag team has been more consistent in all of Japanese wrestling than Jun & Rei Saito. For the sumo-turned-professional wrestlers, success in All Japan Pro Wrestling has been plentiful. The duo has captured the AJPW World tag team championship twice. Considering they only made their debut in 2021, this is nothing to be sniffed at.
If you haven’t yet seen the Saito Brothers in action, do yourself a solid and check them out. Much like The ABC in TNA, Jun & Rei are adding their own stamps to a long list of greats who have held tag team gold in Japan.
MUSINGS (w/ MATT BROCK)
I have some good memories of attending wrestling shows in Baltimore. One of my favorites is the 1989 Great American Bash. On that night, Ric Flair and Terry Funk had a riotous main event matchup that’s still remembered fondly today. That’s not my lasting memory of that evening, though. The thing I will always remember most about that night is standing backstage talking with Theodore R. Long and being introduced to his latest charges. To say I was intimidated would be an understatement.
The hulking team seemed even bigger than their near-seven-foot-tall heights. To make matters worse, neither of them cracked the faintest hint of a smile the entire time I was in their company. Not even winning $50,000 apiece in a battle royal earlier in the night was enough to break those stoic expressions. As you may have already surmised, this was my first meeting with The Skyscrapers.
I was familiar with one member of the team. Dan Spivey had been around the business for a good few years. But that night at the Baltimore Arena was my first encounter with Sid Vicious. Spivey was quiet but had the aura of a man not to be messed with. His presence was mere child’s play compared to that of Sid.
The Arkansas native seemed to burn with intensity. Although he was less than two years into his career, he walked liked a man who ruled the world. Of course, someday—for a time—he would.
That night, the charismatic Long did all the talking while his tag team paced the hallway. Teddy waxed lyrical about how his team was going to be the most dominant of the 1990s; that they were the blueprint for what a modern team would be. Looking back all these years later, it’s easy to scoff at Long’s prediction. But let me tell you: Standing in that backstage hall in the summer of 1989, I believed his every word.
The Skyscrapers never truly “made it” in WCW. Thanks to injuries, Spivey’s career began to wind down as the new decade dawned. For, Sid Vicious, however, things were only just getting started. The big man would go on to have a career that would be the envy of most. His tenures in WCW, ECW, and the World Wrestling Federation are remembered fondly by fans. Since his recent passing, I’ve found myself thinking about them a lot. Despite the intimidating presence that he often displayed, Sid was really a decent man … and someone who the wrestling business was better for having in it.
FROM THE VAULT
Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn (later christened The Unholy Union) celebrate with the NXT Women’s tag title belts after their victory at Stand & Deliver 2023. About 14 months later, the pair would win a triple-threat bout at Clash at the Castle, claiming the WWE Women’s tag team championship in the process.