Better Tag Team #3
 

The Road Warriors are on a roll. Can they defeat today's challenger? Yo ass betta call somebodyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

The Road Warriors
<img src="http://i3.iofferphoto.com/img/item/669/516/31/h8H2vaC1AN9SxaM.jpg">

vs.

The New Age Outlaws
<img src="http://www.roaddogg.net/images/newageoutlawspromo008.jpg">


<select><option selected="selected">Better Tag Team History</option><option>Road Warriors v. Steiners (33-3)</option><option>Road Warriors v. Rockers 27-7</option></select>

<select><option selected="selected">Better Tag Team Hall of Fame</option></select>

NAO were awesome. Not as awesome as LOD though :p

The Outlaws were great for what they were, but did they do anything legendary? No.

Couldn't say it better myself, bravo. :y:

They were the top tag team and a big draw in one of the biggest eras, if not the biggest era, in the history of the industry. What is your criteria for legendary?

I also must add, they're pretty legendary among fans and people from that time period who were but no longer are fans.
They were also not only huge as a tag team, but made it as singles stars and were part of a legendary stable.

The problem is, they're not in the good graces of Vince McMahon and his son in law. This prevents their legacy from being promoted. The WWE controls a lot of that. It can live amongst fans like us, but they don't get the dvd sets and what not, when they clearly are worthy if it weren't for the hotwater they're in.
Also, if the NAO returned to WWE tomorrow they'd be over as fuck the second their music hit.

Also to be noted. They were only together for two years, during which there was even a breakup for a few months.
This goes both ways for the argument....
In many ways, their short time together limited their legacy. I must say, they don't have the lengthy legacy of some other legendary teams. Some would find it hard to view a short-lived team as legendary because of the way they define legendary.

However, during it was a huge run and made them one of the most over tag teams of all time. It deserves merit for accomplishing that in such a short timeframe, rather than being discriminated against because longevity is usually associated with legends. Making that splash is making that splash.
Stone Cold and The Rock are huge legends from the same time period, and their legacies lasted a short time compared to the old school names they're compared to.
The business moves faster now, and works against the old way of business.

You bring up some good points Jerry, but c'mon. The Outlaws were great, but you can't seriously think they're on par with the legendary status of Road Warriors. LOD dominated the tag scene for well over a decade, with stints in Georgia, Japan, AWA, NWA and WCW.

Two things.

a) I didn't vote yet, nor did I say they're above or on par with the legendary status of the LOD. I simply was responding to your conclusion that "Did they do anything legendary? No"
I think that's incorrect.

b) You say they had a 10 year run all over the globe, which had multiple large promotions. That's true, they did dominate for a decade and have stints all over the industry. That's not a fair counter-argument though since I was pointing that out. It's not NAO's fault that the industry was different, and they were both getting over as singles personalities. The LOD only existed as a unit, which is a quality I look for in admire in a tag team, but a difference between LOD and NAO nonetheless.

I just think that's all unfair to hold against NAO, since if they could have been kept together and stayed under the tent of major promotions they would have been big for years. The problem is a forced split-up, the falling out with WWE, and the lack of other bankable promotions to go to in their time period were all things they didn't have that LOD did.

I like to discuss all aspects of a discussion Juan, and judge things fairly and get some ideas out of it all.
I also like to think NAO is legendary. Even if they're less legendary, that doesn't mean they're not legendary. They are in their own right and credit should be given where due.
I see it as unfair to write it off that simply, even if the bottom line is LOD is the more legendary team. There are factors.


It also upsets me that a guy like Randy Savage, or a team like the New Age Outlaws have massive legacies from their time, and who were more over than anyone on the current roster, that are buried by the WWE which controls everything that reaches new audiences and mainstream audiences, and even the living rooms of many hardcore fans.

I think it's even visible to see them being forgotten or at the very least subdued by it, and fading in legacy.

And it's all because of grudges and bad blood. It's annoying.

Again, you bring up some valid points, but even if the Outlaws were still around as a team and they wouldn't have been forced break up, LOD would still be miles ahead of them imo.

Then again, I would put Hulk Hogan above Stone Cold, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair and Bret Hart on a Top 10 list any day (even though he's obviously not the better wrestler), based solely on what his contributions were to the business as a whole.

The Outlaws were on top of their game during one of the best periods of wrestling, but that doesn't change the fact that LOD contributed to the wrestling business more than they did. NAO did their part, don't get me wrong, but like I said, it fails in comparison to LOD's accomplishments, regardless of whether or not Vince McMahon holds a grudge against NAO or not.

You're right, NAO are legendary in their own right, but imo nowhere near and legendary as LOD, which was my point.

Once again, you're still missing the point.

I STILL haven't said they're above LOD. That was never the question here.

I'm saying it's unfair to say they're not even close to legendary.
You're dealing in black and white here and missing everyhing I'm saying man.

Okay. Now you're eye to eye with me.
I respect your opinion. I sorta even agree with it here.

The only thing I disagreed with was that they never did anything legendary. You gave a flat out "No" to your own rhetorical question of, "did they do anything legendary?"
I had to disagree with you there. Just saw that as extraordinarily unfair, even if they're not in LOD territory.
But you seem to have become a bit less polarized

No, I see what you're saying,I even agreed with you that they ARE legendary, in their own right. I can see how you would think how other people might dismiss their accomplishments though. they were a great team during a period where it was great to be a wrestling fan.

Yeah I kinda went off the deep end with my original post.

That's all good. I can also admit I have a soft spot for the NAO. That's why I haven't voted here yet.

My brain knows LOD deserves the vote technically, although I think NAO deserves some credit and my heart wants to give it to a favorite of mine that probably needs the vote more here.

I also can't believe NAO and LOD are both in the mix already at round 3.

Those damn Outlaws
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:D

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I also love the outlaws because they were a completely dead end tag team pairing and total patchwork.
That early video just reminds me of that.

They just threw two guys who were floundering together in a random ass tag team, and sent them out there to the wolves. They were likely sure it wouldn't work and were just doing it to buy time until their "future endeavors".

Yet, they went out there and made it work and against all odds got OVER AS FUCK as a completely random pairing of jobbers. So much so that HBM and HHH took notice and wanted in on some of it.
They pretty much broke the glass ceiling and made a huge impact on the industry in a huge time, where more people were watching than ever. Not only did they get their asses off the firing squad and into a bankable team, but even were over enough to get singles pushes and IC title runs. If Road Dogg didn't have such substance abuse problems he may have even gotten a bigger push.
Gotta respect that.

Those videos are also an interesting time to bring up in this discussion. It was a time period where the LOD wasn't cutting it and the Outlaws were what the fans wanted.
Of course thats indicitave of just that time period and not the whole picture.

Very true.

lol at that Raw. That's the night where Bret confronted HBM in the ring and just ranted and raved as the show went off the air. Shawn tried to reconcile, and Bret wasn't having it. He was sitting there, not able to get over his anger for Shawn as HBM just sat there taking it all in shaking his head.

The whole thing might as well have been a shoot on real life. Whoever booked it must have had a crystal ball

lol at them getting in the car after the match

Trying to find that vid where the Outlaws reunited out of nowhere in fall 99. It was on Smackdown and they beat The Rock and Sock Connection for the titles.
They had a brief run as faces again until DX reformed because HHH was floundering as champ. (I love HHH and think hes one of the best champs but this is true)

Markout moment.

Going with the Outlaws. LOD may have done more for the business, but nothing made me mark out more when I was a kid than the "OH YOU DIDN'T KNOW" (The whole thing, with the introduction Road Dogg would make in the ring).

Was this when Bret was in a wheel chair and HBM ended up superkicking him?

At that time, before the DX reunion, the tag division consisted of...
The newly reunited NAO
Kane and Xpac
Edge and Christian as a team outside of the Brood
The Hardys during their makeover and the new brood
The newly signed Dudley Boys
The Acolytes
The Rock and Sock Connection

Serious high point for Tag Team wresting

Too Cool even debuted that fall

That wasn't the outlaws face reunion, but the DX heel one a month or so later. Not what I was looking for but still good stuff

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I loved that whole DX/HBM/Corporation subplot going on during the main Austin/McMahon storyline

rofl at bottled water being viewed as snobby

Well after reading all Jeritron's and Juan's post. I can say 3 things for sure.

1- You guys just made it 100% harder to pick, but as much as I love NAO. I just can't vote for them.

2- NAO did start tagging together right after Billy released from WWE. So it's not like they're really broken up.Heck they just had a macth two weeks ago.

3- They're for some reason still really over in Japan.

LOD. The Outlaws were a damn good team, but they don't touch the LOD.

As for the Outlaws standing as legendary or not. The Outlaws are legendary. But had they not been in the righ place at the right time I don't think they would be. They lucked out and just happend to be the prodaminant tag team during the boom. They didn't cause the boom, but because they were the tag team of that one year their exposure was taken to the max. And not because of anyhting they were doing.

So do I think they desrve to be legendary? No. But they are regardless. Were they a good team? Definitly. But they are overrated.

Outlaws were a great team, no doubt, and will always be the face of tag team wrestling during the Attitude era. But like most are saying, LOD cannot be touched. Yes, the Outlaws were in a different time period, a period where teams were lucky in they lasted 2 years together. The Outlaws were great mic workers and they will probably go down as one of the greatest heel teams the WWE ever saw come though.

Road Warrios revolutionized the industry and they dominated for such a long period. very tough team to beat in this whole thing.

Wrestling is and has become different, but not different enough for me to vote for the New Age Outlaws. I'm even in a similar position to Jeritron I think, I was first watching wrestling when DX and the Outlaws were huge and didn't ever get to see much action from the Road Warriors. Still, though.

Road Warriors, shouldn't even go into question

Gotta go with LOD (as I would have done in the last 2 rounds).

NAO out of sheer markdom