Through the years, WCW produced some great tag teams. While WWE had spurts where they had a lot of tag teams on the scene at one time, WCW was consistently producing top tag talents, from the early days when Crockett Promotions morphed into the worldwide WCW to the later days when they even had their own Cruiserweight tag team titles.
Many of those teams tried their hand in WWE as well. From The Brainbusters and Steiner Brothers to The Road Warriors and even the Nasty Boys, many WCW tag teams also found success in WWE. However, many tag teams never had a chance to hold the gold in WWE. Here is a look at 10 of the best tag teams in WCW history to never hold the tag titles in WWE.
10 Harlem Heat
Harlem Heat made it into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019 which was impressive since Stevie Ray never wrestled in WWE. His brother Booker T did sign with WWE and ended up as a two-time WWE world champion as well as a four-time tag team champion with Test twice and Goldust and Rob Van Dam once each.
However, as a tag team, Harlem Heat never competed in WWE. That was disappointing as they were the most accomplished team in WCW history. The brothers held the WCW tag team titles 10 times while also holding the GWF tag titles three teams and the Reality of Wrestling titles once.
9 The Outsiders
Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were both successful in WWE before they signed with WCW. However, they were never bigger than when they invaded WCW and started the nWo angle as The Outsiders. While Hulk Hogan was focusing on the world title, Hall and Nash decimated the tag teams in WCW and won the tag team titles six times.
The duo, despite being part of the Kliq, never won the WWE tag team titles as a team. Nash was a two-time WWE tag team champion with Shawn Michaels when he was known as Diesel. Crazily, Scott Hall only held the IC title in WWE when he was Razor Ramon.
8 Doom
Both members of Doom worked in WWE, and one of them is even a WWE Hall of Fame superstar. As a tag team, Doom debuted in WWE in 1989 when Woman debuted them as two large, tough wrestlers wearing masks. Doom was Ron Simmons and Hacksaw Butch Reed. Later, future SmackDown Live general manager Teddy Long took over as their manager.
As a team, Doom was the first-ever WCW world tag team champions, holding the titles after WCW broke off from the NWA and their NWA tag team titles became the WCW tag titles. In WWE, Reed was known as The Natural and never held a title. Simmons moved over as Farooq and won the WWE tag titles three times with JBL.
7 The Midnight Express
The Midnight Express was one of the greatest technical tag teams of all-time in the NWA with Jim Cornette initially managing Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton and then later replacing Condrey with Stan Lane, formerly of the Fabulous Ones. There was even another team with Paul Heyman as manager when Condrey teamed with his original partner Randy Rose as the Original Midnight Express.
All the team's title reigns came pre-WCW when they were still in Crockett Promotions, with all the iterations of the team holding numerous titles throughout the NWA. WWE tried to revive the Midnight Express with Bart Gunn and Bob Holly, but that failed.
6 The Rock 'N' Roll Express
The Rock 'N' Roll Express is considered the greatest babyface tag team of all-time. They even made it to the WWE Hall of Fame, with a 2017 induction, despite only appearing in WWE for a small handful of matches in 1998 during the failed NWA invasion angle.
However, in the NWA, there was no one better when it came to the babyface tag teams of that era. Ricky and Robert were four-time NWA world tag team champions. Neither Ricky nor Robert had a chance in WWE, although they did get a chance to compete at WrestleMania XIV and had an NWA tag title match at Unforgiven in 1998.
5 Sting And Lex Luger
Sting and Lex Luger were best friends as much as they were enemies in WCW. The due had the strangest relationship with Sting seeming to trust Luger at all times, even when The Total Package was clearly displaying heel tendencies. However, this did lead the two men to win the WCW tag team titles in 1996.
Sting is the one man from WCW to refuse to sign with WWE, and he held onto his refusal until many years after Lex Luger was forced to retire from professional wrestling. Luger did make the jump to WWE in the '90s, but that ended up as a failure, and he was back in WCW by the time Monday Nitro debuted.
4 The Hollywood Blondes
Possibly the biggest name in WWE history was Stone Cold Steve Austin. However, years before he made his mark as Stone Cold, he was Stunning Steve Austin and was thrown into a makeshift tag team with Flyin' Brian Pillman as The Hollywood Blondes. Something crazy happened when the duo got over with the fans, despite WCW not wanting to push them.
They ended up as both the NWA world tag team champions and then the WCW world tag team champions. Since WCW didn't have plans for them, they split them up. Austin went on to major success in WWE and Pillman was big too until his death. The two even feuded in WWE, playing off their old friendship, but never teamed together in WWE.
3 Kronik
KroniK was pushed hard in WCW in its later years, and they did a good job of getting over with the fans. Brian Adams and Bryan Clark were both huge muscular guys who could move, and the fans seemed to enjoy them coming in and beating up their opponents. They ended up getting over and won the WCW tag team titles twice.
They worked for WCW when the company went under, and WWE purchased the promotion. They even remained a tag team with Stevie Richards using them in a feud with Undertaker. WWE released Clark after only a couple of months, and Adams asked for his release a short time later.
2 The Miracle Violence Connection
The most violent and destructive tag team in WCW history was only there for a short time. Dr. Death Steve Williams and Terry Bam Bam Gordy teamed for the first time in 1987 in Crockett Promotions and then reunited three years later when they started wrestling together in Japan.
Both men were veterans of tag team wrestling, Dr. Death as a former partner of Ted DiBiase in Mid-South Wrestling and Gordy as one of the Fabulous Freebirds. The two men were former NWA and WCW world tag team champions and also held the All-Japan tag titles five times. They never teamed in WWE.
1 The Freebirds
The Fabulous Freebirds were considered one of the greatest factions in professional wrestling history. When one thinks of the Von Erich family in Texas, it is hard not to also remember their feud with the Freebirds as every babyface needs a great antagonist to lead them to greatness.
The faction held tag team titles in Georgia, Mid-South, the GWF, WCW, and World Class Championship Wrestling. They teamed very briefly in WWE in 1984 but left after only a short stint and returned to the AWA and then World Class. WWE inducted them into the Hall of Fame in 2016.