WCW United States Tag Team Championship
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For other uses, see NWA United States Tag Team Championship.
| NWA United States Tag Team Championship | |||||||||||
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 Scott Steiner, along with his older brother Rick, held the NWA United States Tag Team Championship last before WCW established its own version of the title. |
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| Details | |||||||||||
| Promotion | National Wrestling Alliance (1986–1990) World Championship Wrestling (1991–1992) |
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| Date established | September 28, 1986 | ||||||||||
| Date retired | July 31, 1992 | ||||||||||
| Other name(s) | NWA United States Tag Team Championship | ||||||||||
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The WCW United States Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling tag team championship contested for in the United States-based National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promotions. The title was only contestable by male tag teams and in tag team matches. Being a professional wrestling championship, it was not won legitimately; it was instead won via a scripted ending to a match or awarded to a wrestler because of a storyline. In 1986, NWA President and JCP owner Jim Crockett, Jr.[1] introduced the championship (under the name "NWA United States Tag Team Championship") by announcing a tournament for the newly created title, which was won by Krusher Khruschev and Ivan Koloff on September 28, 1986. Since its establishment, JCP was a subsidiary of the NWA, and as a result, most title defenses occurred under JCP-promoted events.[1]
In 1988, Crockett sold JCP to Ted Turner, who established WCW as its successor;[1] however, the title continued to be defended under the NWA name until January 1991, when WCW withdrew as a subsidiary to the NWA. The final champions under the NWA name were The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott). Following WCW's withdrawal, the title was renamed the "WCW United States Tag Team Championship", and The Steiner Brothers were recognized as the first champions as a result of never losing the original NWA United States Tag Team Title. On July 31, 1992, WCW stripped the final champions, The Barbarian and Dick Slater, of their titles and retired the championship for unknown reasons.
Overall, there were 19 reigns among 15 tag teams, all of which occurred in the United States. Twelve reigns occurred under the NWA's version of the championship, while eight occurred under WCW's version.[Note 1] From the information known, The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane)'s first reign was the longest in the title's history at 346 days, while The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers)' second reign was the shortest, at 19 days. The Midnight Express also held the most reigns overall as a tag team and individually, with three.
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[edit] Title history
- Key
| Symbol | Meaning |
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| # | The overall championship reign |
| Wrestler name (#) | The number within parenthesis represents the number of individual reigns by that specific wrestler. |
| Reign | The reign number for the specific tag team listed |
| Event | The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title changed hands |
| N/A | The specific information is not known or applicable . |
| — | Used for vacated reigns so as not to count it as an official reign |
[edit] NWA United States Tag Team Championship
| # | Wrestler(s) (Tag team name) |
Reigns | Date | Days held | Location | Event | Notes |
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Won the titles in a tournament final against the Kansas Jayhawks (Dutch Mantel and Bobby Jaggers) |
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Murdoch was suspended from in-ring competition by the NWA after performing a brainbuster on Nikita Koloff on a concrete floor, and as a result, Ivan Koloff and Murdoch were stripped of the titles. |
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(The Midnight Express) |
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Won the titles in a tournament final by defeating Ron Garvin and Barry Windham |
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(The Fantastics) |
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(The Midnight Express) |
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The NWA vacated the titles after Eaton and Lane won the NWA World Tag Team Championship |
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(The Fantastics) |
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Won the titles in a tournament final by defeating Eddie Gilbert and Ron Simmons |
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The NWA vacated the title for unknown reasons |
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Won the titles in a tournament final by defeating Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin (The Fabulous Freebirds) |
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(The Midnight Express) |
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(The Steiner Brothers) |
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In January 1991, WCW withdrew from the NWA as a subsidiary, which resulted in the creation of WCW's version of the United States Tag Team Championship. Rick and Scott Steiner were the final wrestlers to hold the NWA's version of the championship. |
[edit] WCW United States Tag Team Championship
- Key
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| # (#) | The overall championship reign is listed without parenthesis, while the reign number under the specific name of the championship is enclosed in parenthesis. |
| Wrestler name (#) | The number within parenthesis represents the number of individual reigns by that specific wrestler. |
| Reign | The reign number for the specific tag team listed |
| Event | The event promoted by the respective promotion in which the title changed hands |
| N/A | The specific information is not known or applicable. |
| — | Used for vacated reigns so as not to count it as an official reign |
| # | Wrestler(s) (Tag team name) |
Reigns | Date | Days held | Location | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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(The Steiner Brothers) |
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As a result of The Steiner Brothers being the final NWA United States Tag Team Champions, WCW recognized them as the first WCW United States Tag Team Champions. However, this reign is not considered to be a new reign overall in the title's history because The Steiner Brothers originally never lost the titles. |
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As a result of The Steiner Brothers winning the WCW World Tag Team Championship, WCW forced them to vacate the WCW United States Tag Team Title. |
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(The Fabulous Freebirds) |
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Won the titles in a tournament final by defeating The Young Pistols (Tracey Smothers and Steve Armstrong) |
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(The Patriots) |
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(The Young Pistols) |
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(The Fabulous Freebirds) |
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The Barbarian and Slater became the final champions under WCW when the company stripped them of the titles on July 31, 1992 and retired the championship afterwards for unknown reasons. |
[edit] Combined reigns by length
[edit] Team
| Symbol | Meaning |
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| ¤ | The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, so the shortest possible length is used. |
| Rank | Team | # of reigns | Combined days |
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(The Midnight Express) |
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(The Steiner Brothers) |
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(The Fabulous Freebirds) |
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(The Fantastics) |
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(The Patriots) |
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(The Young Pistols) |
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[Note 3] |
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[Note 2] |
[edit] Individual
- Key
| Symbol | Meaning |
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| #= | The equal sign next to a number means that entry is equal in length with the preceding and/or following entry |
| ¤ | The exact length of at least one title reign is uncertain, the shortest possible length is used. |
| Rank | Wrestler | # of reigns | Combined days |
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| 1= | Bobby Eaton | 3 | 505 |
| 1= | Stan Lane | 3 | 505 |
| 2 | Rick Steiner | 2 | 208¤ [Note 3] [Note 4] |
| 3 | Scott Steiner | 1 | 146¤ [Note 4] |
| 4= | Jimmy Garvin | 2 | 124 |
| 4= | Michael Hayes | 2 | 124 |
| 5= | Brian Pillman | 1 | 96 |
| 5= | The Z-Man | 1 | 96 |
| 6= | Ron Garvin | 1 | 95 |
| 6= | Barry Windham | 1 | 95 |
| 7= | Bobby Fulton | 2 | 94 |
| 7= | Tommy Rogers | 2 | 94 |
| 8= | Ivan Koloff | 2 | 90¤ [Note 2] |
| 8= | Terry Taylor | 1 | 90 |
| 8= | Greg Valentine | 1 | 90 |
| 9= | Todd Champion | 1 | 85 |
| 9= | Firebreaker Chip | 1 | 85 |
| 10 | Krusher Khruschev | 1 | 72 |
| 11= | Steve Armstrong | 1 | 70 |
| 11= | Tracy Smothers | 1 | 70 |
| 12= | Kevin Sullivan | 1 | 64 |
| 12= | "Dr. Death" Steve Williams | 1 | 64 |
| 13 | Eddie Gilbert | 1 | 62¤ [Note 3] |
| 14= | The Barbarian | 1 | 36 |
| 14= | Dick Slater | 1 | 36 |
| 15= | Big Josh | 1 | 34 |
| 15= | Ron Simmons | 1 | 34 |
| 16 | Dick Murdoch | 1 | 18¤ [Note 2] |
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Although there were actually 19 reigns, The Steiner Brothers' final NWA United States Tag Team Championship reign is recognized as the first WCW United States Tag Team Championship reign, which makes it seem as if there were 20 reigns. However, this reign is not considered to be a new reign in the title's history because The Steiner Brothers never originally lost the titles.
- ^ a b c d The exact date on which Koloff and Murdoch were stripped of the championship is not known, which means that their reign lasted between 18 and 47 days.
- ^ a b c d The exact date on which Eddie Gilbert and Rick Steiner lost the championship is not known, which means that their reign lasted between 62 and 91 days.
- ^ a b c d e The exact date on which The Steiner Brothers lost the champions is not known, which means that their reign lasted between 161 and 188 days.
[edit] References
- General
- Will, Gary; Royal Duncan (1994). "United States: 19th century & widely defended titles - NWA, WWF, AWA, IWA, ECW, NWA". Wrestling Title Histories (3 ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 23. ISBN 0969816111.
- "NWA United States Tag Team Championship Title History". Wrestling Title Histories by Gary Will and Royal Duncan. Solie.org. http://solie.org/titlehistories/usttnwa.html. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
- "WCW United States Tag Team Championship Title History". Wrestling Title Histories by Gary Will and Royal Duncan. Solie.org. http://solie.org/titlehistories/usttwcw.html. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
- Specific
- ^ a b c Beekman, Scott (2006). Ringside: a history of professional wrestling in America. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 129–132. ISBN 027598401X.
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