Tag team wrestling has always been a part of World Championship Wrestling, and during its 13-year existence, the company can boast a number of legendary duos who have the distinction of calling themselves WCW World Tag Team Champions. This illustrious group includes Harlem Heat (10 times!), The Steiner Brothers, The Outsiders, and more, along with some misfires like The Harris Brothers and the random pairing of Kenny Kaos and Rick Steiner.
Obviously, not every champion is an all-time great, but there are also some challengers that fans might not consider worthy of a title shot. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the worst teams to have a chance to win tag team gold in WCW.
10 Bunkhouse Buck & Mike Enos
Formerly known as Blake Beverly of The Beverly Brothers in WWE, Mike Enos was a solid wrestler, but one who really failed to catch on with fans. As a result, Enos often worked as a jobber on WCW television, randomly getting title opportunities every now and again. In 1997, he was teaming with brawler Bunkhouse Buck and managed to score a Tag Title shot against The Outsiders (Kevin Nash & Scott Hall) on the 3/17 episode of Nitro.
9 The Insane Clown Posse
ICP has become a punchline and a meme over the past decade, but Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J were a rap duo so popular that they could appear on pro wrestling TV for the sake of star power. They’re also huge wrestling fans and took part in the action, challenging Juventud Guerrera and Rey Mysterio Jr. for the WCW Tag Team Titles. ICP proved to be entertaining on-screen characters, but few fans would complement their wrestling skills.
8 High Voltage
More talented than they get credit for, Kenny Kaos and Robbie Rage were High Voltage, a tag team that mostly spent its 1996-1998 existence in WCW functioning as jobbers, though they did manage to score a respectable number of wins on minor shows like Pro and Worldwide every now and again.
Despite sticking around for a few years as a duo, High Voltage only ever got one tag title shot, unsuccessfully challenging Public Enemy for the belts on a September 1996 episode of Saturday Night.
7 Lenny Lane & Lodi
In mid-1999, Chris Jericho's sidekick (and surprise Cruiserweight Champion) Lenny Lane, and Raven's sidekick Lodi -- both fairly likeable personalities and considered serviceable wrestlers -- formed the gay panic tag team West Hollywood Blondes, only to be quickly taken off of television when controversy arose. They got repackaged a few times (Standards & Practices, XS), but never quite seemed like a team that was going to get over. Either way, they managed to get three tag title shots against The Mamalukes in February of 2000, and lost every single time.
6 Rough ‘n’ Ready
Yet another Mike Enos tag-team project, Rough ‘n’ Ready teamed Enos with midcard brawler and former Stud Stable member “Dirty” Dick Slater for about four months in 1996. Over this period of time, Rough ‘n’ Ready had five title shots, each of them against Harlem Heat over the summer. One of those is a decent effort on the 7/15 Monday Nitro, where Slater and Enos lasted nearly eight minutes before being put away by Booker T and Stevie Ray.
5 PG-13
A staple of Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler’s Memphis-based United States Wrestling Association in the early to mid-'90s, PG-13 -- JC Ice and Wolfie D -- are 15-time USWA Tag Team Champions and ECW alumni. In 1999 and 2000, the duo found themselves in WCW, often losing matches on every possible show in the company. The endless string of losses didn’t stop the pair from challenging for the tag titles twice, losing to The Mamalukes both times on WCW Saturday Night.
4 Horace & Vincent
Pairing Horace Hogan and Vincent is a great idea, as they were both hanger-on characters in WCW. The only way it was a bad idea, honestly, is if either of them expected to win a match, let alone tag titles.
Somehow, Horace and Vincent did have a Tag Title shot, on the 5/20/1999 episode of WCW Thunder, unsuccessfully taking on Perry Saturn and Raven in a No DQ Match.
3 Kenny Kaos & Prince Iaukea
After High Voltage split up, Kenny Kaos found brief success by holding (but not personally winning) the Tag Titles alongside Rick Steiner in 1998, but an injury on Steiner’s part forced the pair to vacate. He’d take another stab at the Tag Team Division yet again in 1999, challenging Barry and Kendall Windham alongside perennial WCW midcarder Prince Iaukea on the 8/30 episode of Nitro. That would prove to be Kaos’ second-to-last match ever, as he’d end up released a few months later and then retire.
2 The First Family
Manager extraordinaire, "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart, had a couple of stables called the First Family over the course of his career, the first being a huge group in the Continental Wrestling Association in the late 1970s through the 1980s. In 1999, Hart once again resurrected the concept as a short-lived stable in WCW, which included Brian Knobbs, Hugh Morrus, Jerry Flynn, and The Barbarian. It seemed like a group meant to thrive on Saturday Night and Saturday Night only, but they actually got a tag title shot, as Knobbs and Morrus challenged for the belts in a three-way match at Halloween Havoc ‘99.
1 The State Patrol
Lt. James Earl Wright & Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker was State Patrol, a tag team ludicrously themed after highway patrolmen and, as one might expect, mostly used as jobbers in WCW. Despite losing pretty much all the time, State Patrol somehow scored three unsuccessful tag title shots: once against Stars and Stripes, once against American Males, and once against Harlem Heat. To their credit, however, in their first televised WCW match, they scored a win over The Ding Dongs.