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In today’s world of Pro Wrestling, for
which I will admit to paying very little attention, I yearn for tag team
wrestling. The angle which got me hooked on wrestling to begin with in
1975 pitted the fascinating storyline of a brother tag team fighting to
regain the tag team championship. The bother team did so by one brother
sacrificing himself physically to allow his team to get the win. Or was
it actually that one brother sacrificed the other? It was all so
fascinating to me.
As long time Mid-Atlantic fans know, I am describing the “Supreme
Sacrifice” angle on Mid-Atlantic television in 1975, when the Anderson
Brothers regained the titles from Paul Jones and Wahoo McDaniel.
Tag team wrestling, when presented thoughtfully, has always been the
most entertaining type of wrestling for me. There are endless
opportunities for dramatic and compelling storylines. I was delighted
when Steve Johnson told me a few years back that he and Greg Oliver were
doing research for a book on the greatest tag teams in wrestling
history.
“The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams” was
recently published by ECW Press, and has largely received very positive
reviews. It is a highly entertaining romp through tag-team wrestling
history over the last several decades. The book both educates the
reader, while allowing for a great deal of reminiscing about the great
teams they grew up watching. It is a thorough, fascinating, well written
book.
Trying to rate wrestlers or wrestling tag teams is a futile endeavor
because more than any other form of sports or entertainment, what
appeals to the fan is highly subjective, and also largely influenced by
the style of wrestling a person first discovered and fell in love with.
The ranking of tag teams makes the book more marketable I suppose,
because it stirs controversy and discussion. I couldn’t disagree more
with the rankings in this book, but put any 20 of us in a room and ask
us to rank tag teams and you will surely get 20 very different lists.
I’ll give them credit; they confront these barriers and explain clearly
their criteria and stick to it by and large. And they make sound
arguments.
I love the way the book is organized, ranking their assessment of the
top teams, then giving detail to different eras and categories (for
example, brother teams, foreign teams, the golden era, the traditional
era.) It is well researched and sourced. Excellent photos also abound.
I can’t say enough good things about the book and how much I learned
reading it, and how much I enjoyed reading it as well. The only negative
I can come up with is the choice of the cover photo selected, which is a
photo from a scaffold match between the Midnight Express and the Rock
and Roll Express. Scaffold matches? Please. They represent the worst in
wrestling matches, where guys literally can’t do anything resembling tag
team wrestling. You just wait for someone to fall. That’s just one guys
opinion, too, I know. But I would have loved to see a classic photo of
one of the great teams, posed in the ring, wearing the belts.
But within the covers? This is a terrific book, recommended to anyone
who wants to know more about an art form largely lost in today’s pro
wrestling.
"Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame; The Tag Teams” by
Greg Oliver and Steve Johnson. ECW Press, 293 pages.
Order this book here.
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