Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to yet another terrific edition of The Master’s Dojo!! Today I will be continuing the series of Terrific Tag Teams. Let’s start it up!!

Today I will begin with a famous Tag Team, Demolition. The team was created by Ax and Smash in 1987, and they competed in their first match on an edition of WWF Superstars. They quickly became known for their very aggressive in-ring styles. Demolition’s first feud came with Ken Patera and Billy Jack Haynes. After that they began to have feuds with established face Tag Teams, such as the Can-Am Connection, The British Bulldogs and more. Also, around this time, they switched their manager to Mr. Fuji. Demolition won their first Tag Team titles at WrestleMania IV against Strike Force, and then went on to defeat other established teams to retain the titles, most notably The British Bulldogs and The Hart Foundation. The biggest test for Demolition came early, when Mr. Fuji turned on Demolition and joined forces with the Powers of Pain, and Demolition subsequently turned face. Ax and Smash then won a Handicap match against The Powers of Pain and Mr. Fuji at WrestleMania V to retain the World Tag Team Championships. Eventually, after holding the Tag Team titles for 478 days, the broke the record for length of reign, previously held by The Valiant Brothers. They didn’t lose the titles until they faced the Brain Busters in a 2 out of 3 Falls match on Saturday Night’s Main Event.  Demolition would win the titles back on the November 4 edition of Superstars. On December 30^th, Demolition lost the titles to Andre the Giant and Haku, members of the Heenan Family. Demolition, however, would win the belts once again at WrestleMania. This would be the final time that Demolition won the World Tag Team Championships. Soon after WrestleMania, Crush debuted in WWF and joined Demolition as the third member. Crush would go on to compete with Smash more and more, as Ax faded more into the background of the team, not competing as often. At Summerslam 1990, in a famous 2 out of 3 Falls match, Demolition lost the titles to The Hart Foundation due to interference from WWF’s newest Tag Team, Legion of Doom (L.O.D.). With L.O.D. no in the picture, the popularity of Demolition gradually decreased. Demolition went on the have various feuds, but then Ax left WWF, and eventually Smash and Crush went their separate ways. After their reign in WWF, Demolition went on to compete in the Independent Circuit for years. They will always be remembered for being one of WWF’s greatest Tag Teams.

Another famous Tag Team, and the start of Shawn Michaels’s legendary career, was The Rockers (also known as the Midnight Rockers). The duo started out as friends and partners in AWA in 1986, in order to replace wrestlers who had left to go to the WWF. They had several feuds with several people/groups, and eventually proved themselves worthy of the Tag Team Championships in AWA. Finally in early 1987, The Midnight Rockers won the titles, but then soon jumped ship to the WWF while still being champions. Early on in WWF, they challenged the Hart Foundation for the Tag Team titles and faced several other teams, but they were soon fired by Vince McMahon. Later that year, after spending a short time in CWF, The Midnight Rockers returned to AWA. It was during this time that Shawn Michaels started using the nickname The Heartbreak Kid. They continued to have various feuds, but then returned to WWF in 1988 simply as “The Rockers”. Their first feud back in WWF was with the Brain Busters. Many of their matches took place at house shows, and fans seemed to love it, and love The Rockers. This feud spilled over into 1989, and this included a massive brawl between the two teams. The Rockers fought at WrestleMania in a 2 on 3 handicap match. Their next feud was with The Fabulous Rougeaus, and this (according to Shawn Michaels) began when The Rougeaus attacked HBK. This feud included the debut of The Ironman Match. The teams wrestled in 5 Ironman matches, however none of them were ever televised. At Summerslam, the Rockers and Tito Santana lost to The Fabulous Rougeaus and Rick Martel. Late in the year, The Rockers and the Brain Busters restarted their previous feud. At one point, Bobby Heenan (the manager) wrestled in place of Tully Blanchard, because Blanchard had failed a drug test. After a match between the two teams on Saturday Night’s Main Event, the team faded from public view, and this was explained by Heenan “firing” the team. At WrestleMania VI The Rockers began a long feud with WWF’s new Tag Team, The Orient Express. This feud lasted over a year, and included high-flying, exciting match at Royal Rumble 1991. On October 30^th, 1990, The Rockers defeated champions The Hart Foundation. However, during the match the top rope of the ring snapped, and that would of required major…stuff…before it could be aired on TV. The Rockers defended the titles once, but that match was not aired and the title change was never made official. At the end of this debacle, the titles were given back to the Hart Foundation. In late 1991, due to issues backstage, The Rockers split. They originally feuded with each other, Marty Jannety as the face and Shawn Michaels as the heel. Their feud continued for a while, but eventually petered out. However, Jannety reformed The Rockers (known as The New Rockers) with Leif Cassidy in place of Shawn Michaels (Leif Cassidy = Al Snow).  The original Rockers had a couple “reunions” in WWE< including ones in 2005, 2006 and 2007. The Rockers will be another Tag Team that will be remembered for a long time in WWE.

The Undertaker and Kane are two of the most powerful, two of the scariest, and two of the best wrestlers WWF/E has ever seen, and when they join forces they are basically unstoppable. The Brothers of Destruction, the team of The Undertaker and his “brother” Kane originally formed (somewhat) at Summerslam 1998, when The Undertaker faced Stone Cold Steve Austin. Kane abandoned Mankind in their Tag Team match in order to help The Undertaker. ‘Taker eventually sent him back, but the distraction allowed Stone Cold to win via the Stunner. The brothers showed unity at the next Pay-Per-View, when they simultaneously pinned Stone Cold in a Triple Threat Match. In 1999, after Undertaker’s Ministry of Darkness died out, he tried to reunite with Kane, but Kane stayed with his current partner, X-Pac, so Undertaker joined forces with The Big Show and formed The UnHoly Alliance, and the two teams began fighting. After The Undertaker recovered from his injury, he and Kane started to team together and went for Edge and Christian’s Tag Team titles on RAW, but were disqualified. In early 2000 the “brothers” began to feud again after Kane turned on The Undertaker. The duo reformed and got a Tag Team title match with E&C and The Dudleyz at No Way Out 2001, which they did not win, despite dominating nearly the whole match. The two started feuding with the Two Man Power Trip (Stone Cold and Triple H) after WrestleMania, and got a title match against the two for the Tag Team titles (previous to this, the B.O.D. had defeated Edge and Christian for the belts). HHH and Austin won. The Invasion started soon afterward, and The Undertaker and Kane, at Summerslam 2001, defeated DDP and Chris Kanyon to win the WWF Tag Team Championships and the WCW Tag Team Championships, effectively becoming the first Undisputed Tag Team Champions. The duo then began a feud with KroniK over the titles, and defeated the two at Unforgiven (now Breaking Point) 2001 to retain. However, the following episode of SmackDown included the Brothers of Destruction losing their titles to Booker T and Test. The duo were both in the Winner Takes All match at Survivor Series, both as part of the WWF. Immediately after Undertaker turned heel and Kane did not. From that point until 2006, the “brothers” only had a few interactions/encounters with each other, bust notably the time period from Survivor Series 2003 to WrestleMania XX. Undertaker, now a face, fought Vince McMahon in a Buried Alive Match, which Vince won after Kane nailed Undertaker and got him in the hole, and Vince buried him. Then at Royal Rumble The Undertaker’s gong sounded and the lights went out, but he didn’t appear, and a distracted Kane was eliminated by Booker T. They competed at WrestleMania XX in The Undertaker’s return (return to the ring and return to “The Deadman” instead of “Big Evil”) and Undertaker won. In 2006, The Brothers of Destruction had sporadic reformations, including taking down MVP and Mr. Kennedy, and then Miz and Morrison on ECW in England. Not only are The Brothers of Destruction one of WWF/E’s greatest Tag Teams, they are one of, if not the, most powerful and are to be remembered as one hell of a team.

Ladies and gentlemen thank you for reading this week, and remember to do so again next week when the series continues. Until then, I am The Master of Puppets, the dojo is closed and I AM OUT!!