The Master's Dojo: Terrific Tag Teams Part 4

Hello ladies and gentlemen to another awesome edition of The Master’s Dojo!! I hope you all had a great Halloween and are ready to read more about some of Professional Wrestling’s greatest Tag Teams. I won’t keep y’all waiting any longer, let’s get it on!!

I’ll start today with a team from somewhere I never, ever talk about, and that is the Latin American Xchange from TNA, better known as LAX. The team is made up of Homicide and Hernandez. They started working together in 2005. Now, a stable known as 4Live Kru had just broken up after some problems amongst its members. After they slit, the father of one of their members (Bullet Bill Armstrong) approached Konnan, a former member of the Kru, and tried to convince them to join together again. However, Konnan, Homicide and Apolo assaulted Armstrong and formed LAX.  The first feud LAX was involved with was against the James Gang, made up of Kip James and B.G. James (formerly known as The New Age Outlaws).  There feud went through 2005 and into 2006. Early on in 2006, however, Apolo was released from TNA, so Konnan had to find a new partner for Homicide, and he was Machete. Machete’s stay in the stable was short lived however, because after Homicide and Machete lost a Tag Team match, he was attacked by Konnan and subsequently removed from the stable. Following Machete, Hernandez was brought into the picture as the new member of LAX. After Hernandez arrived, LAX began not wrestling in matches, with the explanation being that Latinos were being discriminated against. This also included Konnan making a border around the Spanish announcers table and announcing matches in Spanish (and quite often using the term Gringo). However, despite LAX not wanting to compete, Jim Cornette announced that if LAX didn’t compete, they wouldn’t get paid. LAX eventually started to wrestle, but only if Spanish Commentator Jack Melendez would give them a special introduction. Soon after, Konnan invited Ron Killings (now known as R-Truth in WWE) to become part of LAX, which he turned down. He was subsequently beaten down. Following that, Sonjay Dutt was going to be assaulted like Killngs was, but instead, Ron came in and saved Dutt. This set up a big Tag Team match for TNA’s Victory Road PPV, between LAX and Dutt/Killings. LAX came out victorious.  The next major storyline for LAX came when they answered an open challenge for the NWA World Tag Team Championships, which at the time were held by AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels (this is when TNA and NWA were still affiliated). LAX assaulted the champions, so much that they bled in fact, and then signed the contract for the title opportunity in the blood of the champions.  Eventually, LAX became NWA World Tag Team Champions when they defeated Styles and Daniels in a Border Brawl. However, Styles and Daniels won the titles back in an Ultimate X Tag Team match. The titles switched hands again when LAX defeated the champions in a Six Sides of Steel match at Bound for Glory. LAX’s next big feud was with America’s Most Wanted (aka AMW), which started in a brawl between the two teams. The brawl ended when AMW’s manager, Gail Kim, was attacked by Hernandez. About a month later (in November), LAX tried to (and nearly succeeded) burn the American Flag. However, Petey Williams was able to stop them (wait, isn’t he Canadian?). Then at Genesis, after defeating AMW, Konnan told Homicide to take out Gail Kim, but again Petey Williams saved the day. Jim Cornette then ordered LAX to relinquish their titles. Surprisingly, even though LAX was taking militant, thuggish stands and were hostile towards Americans, the crowd was angry at Cornette. They love LAX. LAX countered Cornette with a lawyer and an accusation (violation of the First Amendment)  and Jim stepped down. However, Cornette made LAX defend their belts again Kurt Angle and Petey Williams. However, LAX attacked Williams before the match, so they seemingly had the advantage. That was until Samoa Joe came down to be Angle’s partner. Angle and Joe easily won, but LAX’s lawyers arrived (oh yay, lawyers) and they said that since Samoa Joe wasn’t an official member of the match (unofficial replacement for Williams I guess) Angle was disqualified and LAX could retain. They two teams then competed in a flag match, which was one by LAX (first non-Americans in America to do so). In mid-December, the teams faced off one more time in a Titles vs. Career match, which was won by LAX after Chris Harris was hit with a beer bottle by his teammate, James Storm. LAX started 2007 with a feud against Team 3D (the Dudleyz). They fought several times, but LAX made it personal when they attacked people close to 3D, including Brother Runt (Spike Dudley). LAX also brought back Machete (as a bodyguard) and Konnan (who had been injured and had surgery) to manage LAX. They also formed an alliance with Alex Shelley at this time. The two teams took one another in a Leather Lumberjack match (lumberjacks were armed with leather straps). Team 3D won when a star from the Sopranos interfered. The teams then fought in a Ghetto Brawl, won by LAX again. LAX and 3D were set to face off in a Six Sides of Steel match at Lockdown, with an added stipulation: the cage was electrified. Badass, eh? Bubba and D-Von (well, since it’s TNA I guess it’s Brother Ray and Brother Devon, but it’s the same people either way) won the match as well as the NWA World Tag Team Championships, which LAX had held for many months. They were also unsuccessful in their rematch, which was a Triple Threat Tag Team match. Their next feud was with Voodoo Kin Mafia (another reincarnation of The New Age Outlaws). In a match between the two teams at Hard Justice, the Mafia seemed to have won, but the match was restarted when it was seen that a substance was used to win, LAX came back and won. On May 11th of 2008, LAX won the vacant TNA Tag Team titles in a tournament final against former rivals Team 3D. After the match, the feud actually restarted when 3D attacked Hector Guerrero, the manager for LAX. This second wind of the feud was short lived however, because LAX was able to retain their titles. Following that, LAX started feuding with Beer Money Inc. At Hard Justice, Beer Money Inc. was able to defeat LAX and win the TNA Tag Team titles. After losing the belts, LAX have gone through some major events. They have performed not only for TNA, but also for ROH and International Wrestling Association. Homicide and Hernandez also recently competed in the Feast or Fired match, with Hernandez earning a World Championship opportunity and Homicide earning an X Division title shot. Recently, Homicide turned on Hernandez, and the team has disbanded. Hopefully they will eventually come together and fight again.

One other team I’d like to talk about is a more recent team…Cryme Tyme. The members of Cryme Tyme are Shad and JTG. The two debuted as the Gang Stars (and as individuals, Shad Gaspard and the Neighborhoodie) in OVW in 2006. In their first match together, they won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championships against Roadkill and Kasey James. Eventually in late 2006, Cryme Tyme was promoted to the main RAW roster. For the most part, Cryme Tyme only wrestled in house shows and Dark Matches, until October 16, 2006, when they debuted on RAW and took on the Spirit Squad. A common theme with early Cryme Tyme (and still on occasion) was that things were stolen everywhere they went. At Cyber Sunday the made their PPV debut in a victory in a Fatal Four Way Tornado Tag Match. Early in 2007 the suffered their first loss, to the hands of The World’s Greatest Tag Team. Following the loss, Cryme Tyme stopped appearing in matches on RAW, but only in backstage segments; the appeared in matches on the now defunct Heat. In July of 2007, Shad and JTG returned to OVW and won the Southern Tag Team titles again, however they were gone from OVW soon after and the titles were returned. On their return to RAW, Cryme Tyme started a trend of taking other wrestler’s possessions and selling them off to the audience (most famously with Lita’s possessions and…“goods”). They started a feud with Cade and Murdoch, but were released from WWE before anything came of it. However, in 2008 they returned to WWE, once again as Cryme Tyme, and soon began working with John Cena (forming in unofficial stable called Cryme Tyme Cenation, or CTC) against JBL. Since that point, Cryme Tyme has challenged for all of the WWE Tag Team Championships. In this year’s draft, Shad and JTG were brought to SmackDown for the first time, and enlisted Eve as their manager. They were supposed to be on Team SmackDown at Bragging Rights, but due to the fact that Shad had Swine Flu, they were prevented from competing (in fact the whole team was overhauled). Personally, I hope that in the future, Shad and JTG will win a title and really make a name for themselves.

Well everyone, so concludes another phenomenal edition of the ‘Dojo. Thanks for reading this week, and remember to do the same next week when we go over more Terrific Tag Teams. Until then, I am The Master of Puppets, the Dojo is closed and I AM OUT!!

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