The booking of tag team wrestling will always see random pairings getting involved at some point. Many of the best teams ran out of challengers to defend the tag titles against and that was the case for WCW. Fans think of duos like Harlem Heat and the Steiner Brothers as WCW’s best duos.
The forgotten teams to come together for the rare tag title shot found differing results in their matches. Wrestlers tried their best to make it work even though they weren’t active tag partners who had a history of working together. Find out which names were placed in the position of unexpected unity. The following odd teams challenged for the WCW Tag Team Championship.
10 Ric Flair & Roddy Piper
The friendship between Ric Flair and Roddy Piper led to them having fun working together as a team in WCW. Both legendary wrestlers had issues with the New World Order leading to them challenging Kevin Nash and Scott Hall for the WCW Tag Team Championship.
Two title shots ended with Flair and Piper missing out on winning the tag titles. One match saw them winning by DQ on Nitro, but the Great American Bash 1997 match saw The Outsiders winning to retain the titles.
9 Brian Knobbs & Hugh Morrus
WCW paired together Brian Knobbs and Hugh Morrus for a short time in the later years in the First Family group. Jimmy Hart managed both wrestlers in singles roles leading to them teaming on a few occasions.
The pair of Knobbs and Morrus challenged for the WCW Tag Team Championship twice leading to lackluster results. Harlem Heat won both matches with the belts on the line to keep the titles away from Hart’s team.
8 Lex Luger & The Giant
The makeshift tag team of The Giant and Lex Luger led to them becoming a duo to take on mutual enemies in the New World Order. Luger and Giant defeated Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to win the WCW Tag Team Championship at SuperBrawl 1997.
Eric Bischoff stripped the face team of the titles due to Luger not being medically cleared to wrestle during an injury. The duo teamed up in the occasional big matches against the nWo a couple of times over the next few months.
7 Chris Kanyon & Bam Bam Bigelow
WCW placed Bam Bam Bigelow and Chris Kanyon with Diamond Dallas Page in the Jersey Triad faction. Despite all three wrestlers having claim to the WCW Tag Team Championship with Freebird Rules, DDP was typically in the tag matches with one of the other two.
There were a handful of scenarios when Bigelow and Kanyon teamed up with the tag titles on the line from both sides. The chemistry wasn’t as strong without Page, but they had to make it work on nights he had other matches.
6 Barry Windham & Brian Pillman
The short run of Brian Pillman and Barry Windham as a team featured two promising singles talents trying to get on the same page. Starrcade 1992 gave the duo their one shot at the WCW Tag Team Championship.
Another makeshift tag team of Shane Douglas and Ricky Steamboat found more success when defeating Windham and Pillman to retain the titles. Pillman and Windham split up shortly afterward to get singles runs like they preferred.
5 Sting & The Giant
WCW paired together Sting and The Giant in a unique storyline involving the faction war between the Wolfpac and Hollywood versions of the New World Order. The Giant and Sting defeated The Outsiders to win the WCW Tag Team Championship when Scott Hall turned on Kevin Nash.
Things got more confusing when Giant turned heel to become part of the nWo Hollywood factions. The reign even ended in a unique manner when Sting joined the Wolfpac leading to the partners hating each other. Sting defeated Giant in a singles match to win ownership of the tag titles getting to choose his own partner.
4 Cactus Jack & Kevin Sullivan
Mick Foley delivered some underrated matches of his career in WCW during his time as Cactus Jack. The hardcore style was already part of his identity when another brawler Kevin Sullivan became a short-term partner.
Cactus and Sullivan won the WCW Tag Team Championship by defeating The Nasty Boys. The unlikely team had about two months with the gold before dropping the belts to Paul Roma and Paul Orndorff and heading in different directions.
3 Buff Bagwell & Lex Luger
The final few months of WCW featured Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell becoming a tag team known as Totally Buffed. Both wrestlers were delivering some of the worst work of their careers playing generic heel characters.
Totally Buffed received a handful of shots at the WCW Tag Team Championship. The Natural Born Thrillers faction members of Chuck Palumbo and Sean O’Haire successfully retained the titles over the two established stars each time in lackluster matches.
2 Steve Williams & Steve Austin
WCW placed Steve Austin and Steve Williams together for one match to challenge the WCW Tag Team Championship. The duo of heels teamed up to face Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes at Halloween Havoc 1992.
All four wrestlers did a good job to have a strong match in the 30-minute time limit draw. Austin and Williams could not win the titles in a draw and never challenged for the belts again. Brian Pillman ended up becoming the long-term partner of Austin in the Hollywood Blondes.
1 Sting & Road Warrior Hawk
The similarities of playing babyface characters wearing face paint led to Sting becoming associated with the Road Warriors in WCW. Sting ended up replacing an injured Road Warrior Animal to team with Road Warrior Hawk at Starrcade 1993.
The duo challenged the Nasty Boys for the WCW Tag Team Championship. There was chemistry there as Sting and Hawk looked good in the DQ victory. WCW didn’t want to put the titles on them since the plans were not to have them as a team in the long run.