Tag team wrestling has ebbs and flows. In promotions like WWE, it is mostly used to build one of the tag wrestlers into a singles star. However, at other times, the tag team is so great that it ends up overshadowing either man's singles career later in life. At other times, the tag teams end up falling into the halls of wrestling history.
However, many of these forgotten teams are better than the tag teams that ended up with prolonged pushes. In WWE and WCW, tag teams deserved to get pushed to the moon, only to find the rug pulled out from under them, and the team never reached the level of success and fame that they deserved.
10 Heels - Doom
Doom will go down in history as the first-ever WCW World Tag Team Champions. Ron Simmons and Butch Reed started as a tag team of two masked wrestlers, with Woman managing them. Simmons was a relatively fresh face, and Reed a veteran in both WWE and the NWA.
They were the NWA tag champs when WCW broke away and remained champions after that. They eventually lost the titles to the Freebirds and broke up. Simmons went on to win the WCW World Championship later in his career.
9 Babyface - The Thrillseekers
The Thrillseekers was the first American success for two Canadian-trained superstars in the form of Lance Storm and Chris Jericho. The two had success in Canada, Mexico, and overseas, but Jim Cornette gave them their first taste of success in the U.S. in Smokey Mountain Wrestling.
They were a hugely exciting team, but were short-lived as Jericho moved on to WCW and became a mainstay of the cruiserweight division there, sticking to the singles career for much of his career.
8 Heels - The Hollywood Blonds
The Hollywood Blonds should have been the biggest tag team in WCW when they were on top. The fans were completely sold on Stunning Steve Austin and Brian Pillman, and the two ended up in a feud with the Four Horsemen.
On top of their masterful wrestling skills, the arrogance of Pillman and Austin made them a perfect tag team. WCW had other plans and never wanted them to succeed. Eventually, Austin left to become Stone Cold, and Pillman ended up with the Wildcard until his death.
7 Babyface - Owen Hart & Koko B. Ware
Owen Hart has been in several successful tag teams. When most people talk about him, they remember him teaming with either British Bulldog in the Hart Foundation or Yokozuna in Camp Cornette. There are also fans of a certain age that will always remember Hart and Jeff Jarrett.
However, what people forget, is his tag team High Energy with Koko B. Ware. The two were high-flyers who were exciting and massive fan favorites for a short time. It should be no surprise. While fans dismiss Koko, he was a great tag team wrestler in the territories before becoming the Bird Man in WWE.
6 Heels - The Miracle Violence Connection
Maybe calling The Miracle Violence Connection heels is not the right word, but they are the opposite of babyfaces by any definition. Dr. Death Steve Williams and Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy were long-time enemies in the territories before they teamed up in Japan and achieved monstrous success overseas.
They returned to WCW and won the tag titles there, but they never seemed to reach the same level of success with fans teaming in the U.S., as they did in Japan.
5 Babyface - The Headbangers
The Headbangers were a tag team that the fans bought into quickly, but it never seemed like Vince McMahon knew what to do with them in his promotion.
In a shoot interview since their retirement, the former WWE Tag Team Champions admitted as much, saying every time they got a break, they ended up de-pushed. They finally broke up after one tag team title reign, and WWE let them slip into obscurity, which was a shame, as the team was showing real potential.
4 Heels - Power And Glory
Power and Glory was a team of two underused and forgotten wrestlers who made the most of the situation they were in. Paul Roma was previously part of The Young Stallions with Jim Powers, and Hercules was a member of the Heenan Family for a long time.
The two started teaming in 1990 without a name, but they developed a connection and then created one of the greatest tag team finishers of the '90s with the Power Plex. Despite their success as a heel tag team, they never won the titles and broke up after just one year together.
3 Babyface - Kane & X-Pac
Kane has been in some great tag teams in his career, from The Brothers of Destruction to Team Hell No. While those two teams are among the best in WWE history, people seem to forget about another very entertaining and successful tag team for the monster.
He teamed with X-Pac in the '90s, and the two were very successful. X-Pac broke through to Kane and even got the monster to start talking. They won the tag titles twice before X-Pac betrayed him.
2 Heels - The Orient Express
The Orient Express had limited success in WWE, but it was nowhere near what the tag team deserved. Their biggest moments came when they feuded with The Rockers, which led to a WrestleMania match between the teams.
However, Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka had success before coming to WWE, working as Badd Company in the CWA and AWA, winning six tag team titles. They never won anything in WWE, and outside of their feud with The Rockers, they faded out quickly.
1 Babyface - Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas
Shane Douglas made his name as the firebrand who threw the NWA title in the trashcan and helped turn ECW into a major promotion. However, before this, he was in WCW.
Douglas was a part of Mid-South Wrestling when it ended and came to Crockett when the territory went under. He ended up in a terrible tag team with Johnny Ace, but he also had a great tag team partner in Ricky Steamboat. The two men won the tag team titles in 1992 and held them for 104 days.