10 Classic (But Forgotten) WWE Tag Team Matches

3. Edge & Christian vs Dudleys – Royal Rumble 2001

I love this match SO MUCH.

It’s possible that everyone remembers this match because I yak on about it to death, but I also think its safe to assume that no one ever retains any information in any list I’ve ever written so here we go again.

Royal Rumble 2001 is one of the best PPVs WWE ever produced, during the hottest run of its life, and these are two of the most over teams in the company having one of the hottest PPV openers ever. Gosh the crowd are noisy.

The storytelling in the match is crystal clear, the Dudleys are working with concussions and Edge and Christian work over their heads exclusively, resulting in some real disconcertingly good selling from D-Von especially.

Aside from the same 10 moments on Raw that everyone presents when remembering the attitude era, this match (and indeed the whole PPV) is as clear and distilled a dose of nostalgia porn as you can find.

Everything is over. The story, the teams, the catchphrases, the finish, and there’s one or two achingly great falsies in here. I honestly don’t care if this is one of the first matches you think of when you think of great tag team wrestling, watch it again.

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2. Undisputed Era vs Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch

The Undisputed Era have a legacy of tag team excellence that surpasses possibly any tag team in the history of WWE.

Seriously, more than DIY, Revival, Hart Foundation, The Shield, New Day, it’s insane.

Their matches against Imperium, Moustache Mountain, the Broserweights, Authors of Pain, the Revival, all of them are classics, but one of my favourites is their opening match against Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch at TakeOver Chicago 2, for the journey, not of UE, but Lorcan and Burch, who go from a team that the crowd are actively unenthused about, to giving them a standing ovation when the match is done.

Heartwarming.

They enter as boring dudes in black trunks who strike unflattering comparisons to the Bashem Brothers and leave with a new hero’s legend as stiff as f**k lunatics who more than know their way around a ridiculously complicated spot.

Kyle O’Reilly continues to be one of the most enjoyable fighters to watch fight in a generation, Roddy Strong works his d**k off, Danny Burch smashes people with headbutts like only a Brit can and Oney Lorcan has one of the most entertaining hot tag runs ever where the crowd start by booing him because who the hell is this dude to cheering for him because wait, who THE HELL is this dude?

A total joy.

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1. TLC 4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mV5v_AhTz4)

Gosh a lot of things happen in this match. Golly.

There are 4 main TLC matches in WWE’s initial run, before they disappeared for half a decade.

Tlc 1 at SummerSlam 2000, TLC2 at ‘Mania 17 which floats high in most people lists of both the greatest tag matches and greatest WrestleMania matches of all time, TLC 3, on SmackDown two months later which took the same line-up and added Benoit and Jericho and then TLC 4 on Raw in October 2002.

It’s the least memorable of the 4, largely because it’s all less iconic teams, Bubba and Spike, Jericho and Christian, RVD and Jeff Hardy, Kane defending his tag titles by himself after Hurricane is attacked earlier in the show, but it’s still jaw dropping carnage.

JR calls the whole thing by himself which is damn miracle work, Jeff Hardy does Jeff Hardy stuff, Y2J takes one of the most horrible bumps I’ve ever seen over the top rope, there’s a goddamn Van Terminator, bodies fly like they’re being launched by f**king trebuchets, all on free TV.

The teams in it are a bit weird, it happened for a weird Raw Roulette gimmick and it would be the last TLC match for 4 years, making TLC 4 a bit of the odd stepchild of the TLC family, but still unbelievably fun wrestling.

What are your thoughts on the above story? Let us know in the comments on Twitter or Facebook.

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