Ask the Editor ASK THE EDITOR: WWE excluded the Dudleys from Greatest Tag Team Ever - justified or not? Mar 15, 2008 - 2:47:54 PM

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By Wade Keller, Torch editor

PWTorch.com reader Nick Alba asks: I just finished reading the Greatest Tag Teams listed on WWE's "List This" column and I gotta wonder who the Dudley Boyz pissed off over there! I agree that the Road Warrio - that's right - not Legion of Doom are the greatest, but the Dudleys are nowhere to be found, not even as a Honorable Mention and Paul London & Brian Kendrick are! I hope you guys can either look into this or maybe explain how this happens.

WWE's list is as follows: (1) The Road Warriors; (2) The Hardy Boys; (3) The Hart Foundation; (4) Edge & Christian; (5) The Freebirds; (6) Demolition; (7) Harlem Heat; (8) The Samoans; (9) The Rockers; (10) The British Bulldogs. Honorable Mentions: APA, The Brain Busters, Strike Force, The Nasty Boys, Money Inc., Paul London & Brian Kendrick. (Link

The Dudleys (a/k/a Team 3D) absolutely should be listed. If Christian Cage, who works for TNA is listed, then so should Team 3D. If The Nasty Boys made the list, so should Team 3D. This is a case of someone at WWE.com not knowing their WWE history well, which is possible, it was an honest oversight, WWE is sensitive to listing a current top act from TNA, or there is more heat on the Dudleys than WWE wishes to acknowledge. No excuse is valid, though, because listing The Dudleys doesn't do anything to give TNA publicity. If someone knows about TNA, they know the Dudleys are still wrestling. If someone doesn't know about TNA, they won't find out by WWE.com acknowledging the Dudleys as a top tag team.

Politics did play into their list in other ways, such as the high inclusion of the Freebirds (who didn't do much for WWE, but Michael Hayes is a top writer for the company now) and the exclusion of the Steiners from even an honorable mention.

Based entirely and exclusively on what tag teams did while in WWE (thus the exclusion of the Freebirds and Harlem Heat from my list) in the WrestleMania years (since WWE.com excluded any teams from the pre-WrestleMania years in their list except for The Samoans), I would rank The Hart Foundation, British Bulldogs, Hardys, Dudleys, and Demolition as the top five (in no particular order). This is based on my totally subjective ratings of being good workers or having good matches, having a decent-length run, being prominently featured to the point of being historically relevant, having their best years in WWE, and being in memorable feuds.

My second tier of five would be: Edge & Christian, New Age Outlaws (excluded by WWE.com, also), The Rockers, The Road Warriors, and The Dream Team of Brutus Beefcake & Greg Valentine (also a gross exclusion from WWE's ranking).

The third tier would be: Strike Force, APA, The Brain Busters, Barry Windham & Mike Rotunda, and Money Inc.

The fourth tier of five would be: The Steiners, The Smoking Gunns, Can-Am Connection (Tom Zenk is on the persona non grata list, also, after his anti-WWE blog in the early 2000s), The Quebecers, and Paul London & Brian Kendrick (good team, but never pushed as a money act at all).

I admit this list would be different if I were asked a week ago, but I doubt anybody would jump more than one tier up or down. Any such list is subject even if I had all of their stats in terms of how long they teamed and how high on cards they were featured, but I think my list is a lot more reflective of a sensible criteria than WWE's.

Did I leave anyone off? Did I greatly overrank or underrank any team? If you want to compile a top five list of your own with a few sentences explaining each pick, plus a list of five or ten honorable mentions in quick order, send it to me well-formatted and edited for possible inclusion in the Torch Feedback section.

If you have a question you'd like me to answer or a subject you'd like to hear my opinion on, send it here.

Background on Torch editor Wade Keller: Torch editor Wade Keller founded Pro Wrestling Torch in September 1987. He has been interviewed as a wrestling expert by dozens of TV and radio stations across the country; he has also been quoted in dozens of major newspapers and magazines across the world. Media entities that have featured Keller in stories covering wrestling include National Public Radio, Fox News Channel, ESPN Magazine, the New York Post, Entertainment Weekly, the All-News Channel, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post. He also hosted his own weekly two hour wrestling talk show on KFAN sport radio in the '90s. Over the past 20 years Keller has also interviewed, one-on-one, wrestling's top names for in-depth "Torch Talks" and feature articles including powerbrokers such as Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, Jerry Jarrett, Bill Watts, Jim Cornette, Jim Crockett, Jim Herd, Paul Heyman, Ed Ferrara, Terry Taylor, Kevin Sullivan, Jim Ross, and Vince Russo; top wrestling stars such as The Rock, Steve Austin, Kevin Nash, Mick Foley, Matt & Jeff Hardy, Rick Steamboat, Jerry Lawler, Bill Goldberg, British Bulldog, Road Warrior Hawk, Jesse Ventura, and Hulk Hogan; and legends such as Lou Thesz, Gordon Solie, Bruno Sammartino, Roy Shires, Terry Funk, and Verne Gagne. He is also host of the nationally distributed Ultimate Insiders DVD series.