WWE: Allied Powers – The World’s Greatest Tag Teams – Disc Three
Released: 7/14/2009

Your hosts are John Morrison and The Miz.

Edge & Christian

• WWF World Tag Team Champions Edge & Christian vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz – TLC Match (SummerSlam 2000)

In its infancy, the TLC match concept was actually quite brilliant as all three teams got over using tables, ladders, and chairs. Since this match, at least one of the original six men in this match have competed in every TLC match in WWE. The Hardyz take everybody down to start using chairs. They try Poetry in Motion on Bubba, but he blocks that by throwing a chair at Jeff. Christian corner splashes D-Von by springing off a chair, then Edge trips D-Von face down onto the chair. CHAIRS! CHAIRS! CHAIRS! Here comes a ladder. Bubba avoids being splashed onto a ladder up against the ropes by bouncing the ladder back in Edge’s face. DDT to Christian. Bubba starts to make the first climb to the belts and takes a double-powerbomb to the canvas. Now we have two ladders set up under the belts. D-Von brawls to the top with Jeff and they both get brought down with a Russian legsweep by Edge. Christian tries to climb, but Bubba brings him down with a SUPER BUBBA BOMB! The see-saw ladder effect gets put into position as Matt eats the ladder. Such a NASTY spot. Jeff ducks a double chair swing from E&C, but then Bubba runs them all down with a ladder. Wassup Headbutt off the ladder to Edge! D-VON! GET THE TABLE! Christian takes a 3D through a table. With the Dudleyz in total control, they set up a double stack of tables in the aisleway. Edge blasts Bubba with a chair, but turns around into a TWIST OF FATE from Matt. He follows up with a flying legdrop off the ladder, leaving Jeff to follow *that* up with a leapfrog over the ladder flying legdrop. Edge gets sandwiched in a ladder by Matt and Christian tries to save by going up top, only to be slammed onto Edge to do further damage to his partner. On the outside, Jeff tries to recreate the SWANTON BOMB OFF THE LADDER THROUGH A TABLE spot he completed at WrestleMania 2000, but this time Bubba moves out of the way and Jeff crashes and burns. Christian brings Matt down off the ladder with a reverse DDT. Edge and D-Von hotshot each other off the ladder. That leaves Bubba Ray as the only man standing. He’s wobbly, but he makes the climb and gets all the way to the top when E&C get to their feet and turn the ladder over, sending Bubba Ray crashing through the double stack of tables! E&C head up the ladder, but here comes LITA to turn the ladder over the opposite way and crotch them on the top rope! Jeff has been wiped out, so Matt is the Hardyz only hope. He gets all the way up the ladder when D-Von flips the ladder as Matt falls BACKWARDS through a table over at the barricade! That’s just sick. Since Lita cost him his chance to win, Edge runs over and SPEARS Lita down on the floor. Her head looked like it cracked on a ladder too! Jeff and D-Von fight to the top of the ladder. They give up on clubbing each other as each man grabs a title belt! Edge comes in and turns the ladder over, leaving Jeff and D-Von hanging from the belts! Jeff manages to kick D-Von down as the crowd ERUPTS, but he can’t grab both belts. E&C take a ladder and jab it into Jeff’s side. And with that, he falls to the canvas as well. That’s it. E&C climb one of the 20 foot ladders and retrieve their belts for the win. (14:32) Nobody had seen anything like that match. Awesome stuff with everybody bumping like madmen. Plus, they did an excellent job by spreading out the spots among all three of the weapons to make them all seem a bit scarier than before. *****

The Rock N Roll Express

• NWA World Tag Team Champions Ivan Koloff & Khrusher Khruschev vs. The Rock N Roll Express – (World Wide Wrestling, 7/9/85)

This is the Crockett debut of the RNR Express as they had just left the Mid-South territory. David, Tony, and Magnum are commentary. Just in case you’re unaware, Khrusher Khruschev is Barry Darsow – best known as Demolition Smash, but bald and Russian. The Freebird rule is in effect here as Ivan & Nikita technically won the belts together back in March from Dusty & Manny. Morton and Khruschev start us off as Ricky tries to stick and move all over Khruschev because of the size difference. One big slam from Khruschev and Morton has to tag out. The RNR Express screw around with Koloff’s arm when he dares to challenge them individually to a test of strength. Khrusher gives Morton a big press slam for two. Morton survives through a chinlock and flips out of a back suplex to take Khrusher down with a dropkick. However, Khrusher tags Koloff and still manages to prevent a tag to the fresh Robert Gibson. Koloff works the neck and earns a few nearfalls as we go to break. AND WE’RE BACK! Morton is still getting brutalized. He can’t get past the much bigger Khrusher to make the tag, but he is able to punch Koloff back and make the leaping HOT TAG TO GIBSON! The RNR Express do the double wishbone roll to knock Khruschev off the apron a couple times just to piss him off. They stick to working over Koloff’s knee for a while until Gibson misses a charge and runs shoulder-first into the ringpost. Now Gibson plays Ricky Morton and gets neutralized in the Russians corner obviously having his arm worked over HARD. Another commercial break. More of the same, but there’s nothing wrong with it. Koloff misses a Flying Knee Drop, but Khrusher cuts off the tag and grabs a stepover armbar. He keeps Gibson WAY too close to the RNR corner, but that’s only so he can blast Morton off the apron whenever he’s too preoccupied with getting a tag. That brings Morton into the ring and causes some double-team damage to Gibson. Ivan goes for his Knee Drop Bulldog from the top rope and Gibson flips him off to the canvas. Gibson tries to fight out of the corner to make a tag, but once again Khrusher cuts off a tag! Double back elbow to Gibson and a knee drop from Koloff gets two. A splash from Koloff hits knees, setting up the…NO! Khrusher nails Morton off the apron again. Gibson ducks a clothesline and answers back with one of his own. This time Koloff cuts off the tag and hits Gibson with the Bossman straddle for 1-2-NO! The Russians go back to the arm – Khrusher with the stepover armbar, Koloff with the hammerlocks. I know it’s a moot point, but they are REALLY building up that hot tag. FINALLY, Gibson catches Khrusher with a high knee and collapses into the HOT TAG TO MORTON! Dropkicks all around. Khrusher catches Morton when he tries a crossbody out of the corner. They try a double backdrop, but Morton counters with a sunset flip on Koloff for 1-2-NO! With the ref busy with Khrusher and Gibson on the floor, Koloff tosses Morton over the top rope, which was a DQ. The Russians look to put Gibson away, but Morton comes in for the last-second save and victory rolls Koloff for the 1-2-3! (29:50) New NWA world tag champs! I’ve seen people giving this match five stars. Don’t get me wrong – it’s certainly a great match with a super hot (literally…no A/C in the Shelby Rec Center) crowd behind it all the way, but matches like this happened pretty regularly back then in the NWA. Unless you’re a fan of the styles of the ’80s, I could see a lot of people skipping over this match after about 10-15 minutes into it. Still a fantastic title change. ****¼

The New Age Outlaws

• WWF World Tag Team Champions Rock N Sock Connection vs. The New Age Outlaws – (Armageddon 1999)

The NAO are a perfect example of the difference of a shtick getting over and a tag team getting over. Once the shtick became extremely tired and they finally stopped doing it, the NAO were no longer over as a tag team because they weren’t very entertaining singles wrestlers outside of their shtick. Now the Rock N Sock Connection are completely different – two very entertaining wrestlers on their own put together to create a super strong “blockbuster” tag team. Mankind goes back and forth with the Outlaws to start. Basic headlock stuff there. Tag to the Rock, and the crowd EXPLODES. It’s ridiculous how over he was. Gunn starts to take his shirt off and gets beaten down by the Rock. I mean, duh. Back over to Mankind, he interrupts Shake Rattle and Roll with the MANDIBLE CLAW! Gunn breaks it up to trigger a pier-six brawl to the floor. Back inside, the Rock is the legal man even though there was no tag. He fights out of the Outlaws corner and lays the Smackdown on Billy Gunn. Gunn catches Rock with a cutter. That gets two. Tag to Road Dogg, he tosses out Rock to allow Billy Gunn to take back from barricade action he suffered earlier. Back in, Road Dogg beats down the Rock and crotch chops him, so Rock explodes out of the corner with a clothesline. Road Dogg goes for the ANAL RAPEAGE PUMPHANDLE SLAM when Rock’s trick knee acts up. Billy Gunn catches Rock with a knee off the apron and tags in for a chinlock. Rock punches out and hits the Hurricane DDT for a HOT TAG TO MANKIND! Running knees in the corner on the Outlaws! Mankind busts out the Shake Rattle and Roll on Road Dogg just for giggles. Road Dogg ducks the final punch and the ref gets nailed, but then he gets nailed with the Pull-Up Piledriver. Cover, but no ref. Rock takes Billy Gunn to the floor while in the ring, Mankind hits Road Dogg with the DOUBLE-ARM DDT! Here comes Mr. Socko. Road Dogg eats the MANDIBLE CLAW until Al Snow runs in and breaks it up with a Head shot. Cover by Road Dogg, 1-2-NO! Rock pulls the ref out and goes after Al Snow to beat him up over at the Armageddon set. In the ring, Gunn blasts Mankind with the ring bell. Ref Jimmy Koderas returns to the ring and counts 1-2-NO! Gunn hits a piledriver on Mankind for 1-2-NO! Mankind backdrops out of a second piledriver and trips up into Road Dogg, who happens to be up top and gets crotched. HOT TAG TO ROCK! Samoan Drop to Gunn! Spinebuster to Road Dogg! Gunn tries to stop the PEOPLE’S ELBOW and runs right into the ROCK BOTTOM! Al Snow jumps in on the Rock to break up the count for the DQ. (16:09) This was supposed to bring Al Snow off the mid-card treadmill with a feud with the Rock, but it never really came about. **¼

Blockbuster Tag Teams: The Rock N Sock Connection, Lex Luger & Sting, The Mega Powers, D-Generation X (Shawn Michaels & Triple H), and Rated RKO.

• D-Generation X vs. Rated RKO – Special Ref: Eric Bischoff (Cyber Sunday, 11/5/06)

Shawn makes Edge look foolish to start by owning him and pulling his tights down off a sunset flip. Triple H tags in and continues dominating until Edge pokes H in the eye and tags in Orton, who isn’t allowed hardly any offense. Edge finally gets a blind tag and comes in for a double-team dropkick on Triple H. Edge-O-Matic gets two. So far, Bischoff has called it fair and square. Triple H makes his comeback as he catches Edge leaping off the middle rope and gives him a DDT. HOT TAG TO SHAWN! He cleans house on Edge and Orton, giving them his usual stuff. He heads up top and connects with the elbow on Edge. He sets up for SWEET CHIN MUSIC, but Orton trips him up and crotches him into the ringpost. Triple H complains to Bischoff, but he says he didn’t see it. Edge gets a two out of that and then tags in Orton. Orton punishes Shawn with knee drops and tags in Edge for a double-team beatdown that gets two. Shawn backdrops out of a front facelock once he’s inches away from tagging in Triple H, but gets rolled up before he can make the tag for two. Shawn pops back up, but gets booted back down by Edge for another two. Orton tags in to do his overzealous chinlock spot, which gets several near falls. Shawn punches out, but then runs into a stretch backbreaker, complete with the floppy fish sell! Edge tags in and sets up for the SPEAR! Here he comes! Shawn avoids it and Edge SPEARS Bischoff instead! Edge turns around and goes down to an enziguri. HOT TAG TO TRIPLE H! Running high knee to Orton! Facebuster/clothesline combo to Edge! Spinebuster to Orton! He goes for the PEDIGREE on Orton, but Edge comes by and SPEARS Triple H instead. Shawn dumps Edge out to the floor and follows him out with a pescado. Now Orton is poised and ready for the RKO on Triple H and he delivers! Another referee runs in to count, but it only gets two. That should’ve been the finish right there, but this is DX we’re talking about here. Triple H shoves off another RKO from Orton into SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Triple H covers, but Bischoff pulls the ref out at two and cleans his clock! Shawn goes out to confront Bischoff about what he had just done. Out of nowhere, Edge comes from around the corner and NAILS Shawn with a steel chair! Edge gets back in the ring and goes to nail Triple H, but he blocks and goes for a PEDIGREE. Orton takes the chair and nails Triple H in the back with it, then gives him an RKO on the chair for the three-count. (18:12) Solid match, even though the finish was WAY overbooked. It’s as though no man alive can beat DX unless they use a weapon. ***

The World’s Greatest Tag Team

• Los Guerreros vs. The World’s Greatest Tag Team – (Smackdown, 12/11/03)

Most recently, Chavo has been getting tired of Eddie stealing his chances to win matches, so Los Guerreros are on pretty shaky ground at this point. Eddie starts off with Haas. He brings Eddie over into his corner and tags Benjamin. They do a test of strength, which Eddie escapes with a rana. Los Guerreros do an illegal switch because that’s what they do. Benjamin nails Eddie with an armbreaker DDT and takes him to the floor to slam the hood of Eddie’s low rider down on his sore arm. Eddie avoids all that, but gets run into the ringpost as we go to break. AND WE’RE BACK! TWGTT continue to isolate Eddie on their side of town. Once Eddie breaks loose and makes it over his corner, Haas does all he can to prevent the tag. AND THEN HE JUST LETS CHAVO TAG EDDIE! He’s a huge house of fire though and gets two on Haas off a springboard senton. Benjamin stops Chavo by sneaking in a superkick on the knee! OUCH. Haas and Benjamin begin to go to work. Meanwhile, Eddie slides the tag rope over to the middle of the apron to try and get the easy tag. Ref sees what happened and ties the rope back to the turnbuckle. Haas runs in and distracts the ref to prevent a legal tag. Chavo reaches Eddie a second time and he gets pulled off the apron by Benjamin. On a third attempt at a tag, Chavo kicks away a double-team and dives over Haas to make the tag to Eddie. Not sure that was a mistake or not, but nevertheless Eddie seems to make it work. He delivers lucha armdrags to TWGTT and monkey flips Benjamin into Haas. Back suplex connects on Benjamin, but Haas breaks up the FROG SPLASH attempt with a superplex. That sets up Eddie for the double-team Leapfrog Guillotine. Cover, 1-2-NO! Chavo makes the save. Eddie hits the Three Amigos on Benjamin. When Eddie would normally go for the FROG SPLASH, Chavo interrupts by tagging Eddie and giving Benjamin the FROG SPLASH himself. Cover, 1-2-NO! Haas dropkicks Chavo into Eddie, which apparently constitutes a legit tag. Haas inverted atomic drops Chavo and holds him in place for a superkick from Benjamin. Cover, but the ref says Eddie is legal. While the ref tries to get rid of Haas and Chavo, Eddie grabs the air filter off his car and BLASTS Shelton in the face! Cover, 1-2-3. (12:14 shown) Good match and all, but it seemed like a better example of showcasing Los Guerreros than a highlight match for The World’s Greatest Tag Team, which is what it was supposed to be. Not to mention there were better TWGTT/Guerreros matches than this one too. ***¼

Crockett Cup

• Tully Blanchard & Lex Luger (w/JJ Dillon) vs. Dusty Rhodes & Nikita Koloff – Crockett Cup Finals (Crockett Cup ’87)

I probably would have rather seen the Crockett Cup ’88 finals instead, but I guess this was their way of getting a Dusty Rhodes match on the DVD. Before the match, Magnum TA makes his first big public appearance since the motorcycle accident as Dusty and Nikita embrace their friend. Nikita is wearing a neck brace to sell a brainbuster on the concrete floor courtesy of Dick Murdoch. Nevertheless, that might be the dumbest thing you could do in a match. Tully bumps around for Dusty to start. Next up, we see a test of strength struggle between Luger and Nikita. Blanchard comes back in to face Nikita and charges into a bearhug. Luger delivers a double-sledge to break up the hold. Blanchard tries his SLINGSHOT SUPLEX, but Nikita flips out and hits SICKLES on everybody. SICKLE puts both Koloff and Blanchard on the floor. JJ rips off the neck brace and Luger sends Nikita into the guardrail before putting back in the ring. The Horsemen isolate Koloff for a good couple minutes while working on the neck as Dusty paces on the apron and cheers on the Soviet. Uh oh, JJ takes off one of his shoes and nails Koloff with it. Back in, Nikita catches Blanchard coming down from the top and makes the HOT TAG TO BIG DUST! Bionic elbows abound! Dusty gets dumped, but Luger gets posted. While Tully tries to give Koloff a piledriver to put an end to him, Dusty stops all that noise with a flying crossbody and boy that would put even the Jolly Green Giant down for a three-count. (17:10) FAHGETABOUT IT! Dusty books himself to become a half-millionaire! No more blue-collar common man days for him! Match was pretty standard formula stuff. **¾

The Road Warriors

• The Legion of Doom (w/Paul Ellering & Rocco) vs. Money Inc. (w/Jimmy Hart) – (SummerSlam 1992)

This was the end of LOD’s first run in the WWF. Can’t say I blame them when they get stuck with a ventriloquist dummy as their inspiration. Still, they were VERY over in Japan and apparently London England. Hawk left the WWF right after this match for Japan while Animal stayed and teamed up with Crush for about a month until he had to step away from wrestling for a while because of a back injury. LOD control to start, but then Hawk misses a flying clothesline on IRS and he becomes our face-in-peril. DiBiase and IRS do all the dirty heel tag-team tricks like adding extra leverage in the chinlock, dumping Hawk out for a beating, and even a false tag spot. Animal finally gets the hot tag and hits all his usual stuff. They go for the DOOMSDAY DEVICE on DiBiase, but IRS saves (or assists in a electric chair drop on his partner, whichever way you want to look at it) with a dropkick. Animal doesn’t let that keep him from winning and gives DiBiase a Powerslam for the 1-2-3. (12:02) Major pop from this HUMONGOUS crowd. *½

Final Thoughts: Some even more odd choices on disc three. The first two matches were the definite highlights of the disc as both teams showcased looked real strong. Of course, any HBK/HHH tag match is going to make them look strong. Overall with the entire NINE HOUR set, I liked the fact that I finally got to see some matches here and there that were edited down to nothing in full on other releases, but you would really have to be a fan of tag team wrestling to really sit down and enjoy everything here. Like I said, there’s plenty of odd choices, but still enough good here to be worth your money. And with that, I will stick with my “mild thumbs up” recommendation. Very mild, indeed.