by Alfonso Castillo
Showdown.net/OnlineOnslaught.com

Since experiencing ECW in the Elks Lodge in Queens, I always take the term “jam packed” with a grain of salt. I've seen the true meaning of the term first hand.

Fans would stand on windowsills, sit on top of the house piano and double up on each folding chair to get a glimpse of the ring. Often they would do this in 95-degree temperatures with no air conditioning inside. New York’s ECW fans weren’t just loyal, they were downright fanatical.

But since Extreme Championship Wrestling faded away last year, the volume of the “E-C-Dub!” chants at arenas when a particularly hardcore spot takes place have been reduced to just a handful. The WWF has become the only game in town, and fans seem to have accepted that and stored away their memories of ECW for good.

That was until last week when a quartet of ECW’s most cherished alumni entered the ring just a few miles away from the Elks Lodge and just across the street of the Hammerstein Ballroom where the company held some of its last shows. They reminded fans what extreme was all about.

In the end, fans not only were rewarded with a trip down hardcore-memory lane, but a championship victory for two of ECW’s favorite sons.

They are the new World Wrestling Federation Tag Team Champions: Tazz & Spike Dudley.

The Title Victory

Tazz & Spike had battled the WWF Tag Team Champions, The Dudley Boyz, twice in the weeks leading up to the first RAW of the year in Madison Square Garden on January 7, with each team claiming a victory. In the rubber match, the two teams faced off the in the locker room area before the match.

Tazz astutely pointed out that despite their numerous championship reigns, the Dudleys still had chips on their shoulders. Buh Buh Ray Dudley responded by telling Tazz he “forgot where he came from.” Tazz told the champions he and his partner were about to take the champions back to where they all came from in the front of the loudest remaining ECW disciples this side of Philadelphia.

Tazz lived up to his promise by helping deliver a hardcore-rules championship match that had “Heyman” written all over it. The teams brawled from the start, with D-Von and Tazz exchanging blows on the inside and Buh Buh ramming his half brother Spike into the steel steps on the outside.

Tazz went outside and was pummeled with a trash can lid by Buh Buh. D-Von continued the ringside assault as Buh Buh returned to the ring to battle Spike. Buh Buh tried to nail him with a fire extinguisher but Spike gave him a shot to the gut, then went for a sunset flip, but ate a face full of CO2 for his troubles.

Tazz returned to the ring and slugged it out with Buh Buh, but the champ nailed him with the lid then, with the assist of his partner, hit the former “Whassah!” drop. Buh Buh called for a table. The champs went after Spike, but he managed to escape their offense and attempt a Dudley Dog on D-Von through the table, but Buh Buh pulled it out of the way.

As Buh Buh went after Tazz, Spike nailed him with a stop sign. Tazz, meanwhile, slapped on the Tazzmission on D-Von and Spike once again tried for a Dudley Dog through a table, this time on Buh Buh. The champ blocked it and tried to toss Spike through the table, but Tazz was there to move it out of the way.

Tazz connected with a massive clothesline on Buh Buh, then repositioned the table, but was distracted by the Duchess of Dudleyville, Stacy Keibler, who tried to beguile Tazz with her assets from the apron. As Buh Buh ran over to attack Tazz, it was he who was captivated by Keibler, and Tazz took advantage of the situation with a big suplex onto the table that bent the tables leg, but did not break it.

Spike capitalized with a Dudley Dog onto the table as Tazz pummeled D-Von in the corner. Spike covered and the ref counted 1, 2, 3.

The post-match celebration saw the new champions holding their gold belts aloft to a massive crowd response, and then finally embracing on the rampway before exiting through the curtains. For a few minutes that night, Extreme Championship Wrestling was alive and well.

The Championship Reign

Tazz & Spike were back in the Garden the very next night for a Tuesday SmackDown! Taping. They faced off with the Canadian team of Lance Storm and European Champion Christian in their first Tag Team Title defense.

All four mean brawled in the ring in the opening moments. Spike sent Christian out of the ring with a big backdrop as Storm stunned Tazz with a super kick. Storm went to the outside and was caught with a high cross body off the top rope by Spike. Christian rammed Spike into the steel steps.

Back on the inside, Christian delivered a gut buster to Spike, then tagged his partner. Storm pounded on Spike, then got him up in a fireman’s carry and dumped him on his back. Christian tagged back in and continued the assault with a knee to the midsection, and then the challengers doubled teamed Spike in their corner as the ref was distracted.

Spike feebly attempted a comeback with a small package on the Storm, but it was soon all Christian/Storm again, until Storm charged at Spike in the corner and the champion rammed his head into Storm’s midsection. Spike got the hot tag and Tazz cleaned house with Tazzplexes for each of the challengers and a clothesline on Storm that sent him out of the ring.  

Spike attempted a Dudley Dog on Christian, but he escaped and tried to finish Spike with a reverse DDT, but Tazz snuck up on Christian and slapped on the Tazzmission for the tap-put victory.

The champions would have little time to celebrate their successful title defense as the former champions, the Dudleys were soon in the ring pummeling Tazz & Spike. But champions were able to get the last laugh with some offense of their own.

The champions would make their next appearance live from WWF New York on Sunday night Heat last night, where they challenged the Dudleys to a rematch at the Royal Rumble.

On RAW the next night, Spike scored a victory against Buh Buh when D-Von’s interference backfired and the smaller sibling rolled up Buh Buh for the pin.

The Dudleys-Tazz/Spike feud seems to just have gotten started and fans can look forward to some great tag team wrestling from the two teams.

The Breakdown

Wrestling fans often get down on Vince McMahon and the WWF for their misuse of established main event talent from other promotions. It ticked off whatever WCW fans remained when the WWF bought the company to see some of its former stars relegated to mid card roles. But for ECW fans, the prospect of its former stars being used as jobbers was simply unacceptable.

But while it is true that the WWF’s reasons for not pushing former WCW and ECW stars are often bogus, there are cases where they are valid. Tazz & Spike may be two examples of that.

Like it or not, in its best day, ECW only drew a small fraction of the viewers that the WWF drew at the same time and I’m guessing McMahon was not among the company’s most loyal viewers. So when the opportunity came to sign ECW’s stars, McMahon was aware they had a following and could be some useful hands on the roster, but he also noticed their size. And out of the context of ECW’s unique booking style, some were simply not that impressive.

Undoubtedly, Tazz was one of the biggest, if not thee biggest star ever in ECW. As a main event star in the company, Tazz carried ECW through numerous pay per views and made fans passionate about the product with an intensity in his interviews, his feuds and his matches that was unrivaled. Some would argue he was playing the role of the anti-hero baby face before the concept became mainstream.

But like it or not, in the land of giants that is the WWF, Tazz is undersized. In a perfect world, that should not be enough to keep him from main eventing in the WWF -- and it may not be in the long run --  but it is enough to make the concept of pushing him through the roof right out of the starting gate hard to justify. So the WWF took a wait-and-see approach with Tazz, and apparently that was not good enough for the man from red Hook. Stories circulated about Tazz being a malcontent in the locker room, who was too worried about other wrestlers using his trademark moves and wearing his trademark colors than he was about impressing the right people in management.

The loud pop was always there for Tazz, who just knows how to emit that bad ass charisma that fans love, but WWF management had already cooled on him and it would take a while for them to warm up again. He was relegated to a B-team announcer who would sometimes wrestle, and more times that not do the job, often in just seconds.

Spike Dudley would be an even harder sell to management. Not only was Spike small for a wrestler, he was just small, period. There was no way he would be booked in serious feuds against a full-sized wrestler, much less win any matches without announcers screaming “upset!” And the truth is, while the WWF actively pursued Tazz while ECW was still doing strong business, they took Spike after the company folded and likely as a favor to Paul Heyman.

On their own, both wrestlers rode shifting waves in their WWF careers. WWF would tease fans by involving Tazz in an apparently big angle against some big name players, only to have him get squashed in a few seconds or just pulling the plug on the angle altogether. Spike would get some considerable TV time during his on-screen romance with Molly Holly, his family feud with the established Dudley Boyz, and his comedy tag team with the Big Show, but in the end he was always a sideshow act with no apparent potential for big success in the WWF.

So how did two underutilized and undersized low-mid carders find themselves wearing tag team gold? It may have less to do with what they did offer than what the WWF tag team roster did not.

Amazingly, in a year’s time the WWF tag team scene went from the hottest in any time in history to a complete atrocity lacking even one fresh and exciting duo. The Hardyz and Edge and Christian split up so wrestlers could pursue  singles careers (none of which have exactly taken off). The Dudley Boyz, who shared the spotlight with those two teams during the tag team golden age, had lost their luster and become stale, despite various attempts by the booking staff to keep their act fresh.

The WWF correctly thought the answer was to create new teams, but the teams they created were a joke. Stale mid card wrestlers with no chemistry were randomly thrown together and shoved down fans throats to lukewarm responses. What the WWF failed to realize was that it was not just the teams of 2000 and 2001 that made the division so hot, it was the style of wrestling they offered.

Intentional or not, the WWF stumbled on a fantastic strategy to get over tag team wrestling in the late 90s and early 00s. With four men in the ring, matches could feature more daring insane spots than a singles match because there would not be as much down time in watching wrestlers set the spots up. You would always have a couple other wrestlers there to keep the action going. The Hardyz, Dudleys and E&C were the perfect wrestlers to pioneer this new style of tag team wrestling because of their agility, dare devil tendencies and willingness to take incredible bumps. Also with four men, the variations on high spots were limitless.

Fans loved the tables, ladders and chairs for almost two years, but rather than slowly milk the excitement, the WWF quickly burnt out the concepts with overkill. The three teams fought each other over and over and over again in similar matches for almost two years until the style became passé. What’s more, no new teams were permitted in the tag team triangle, so fans never got to see what other duos would do with some of the innovative concepts.

 But in Spike &Tazz, the WWF has found the perfect team to help bring tag team wresting back to life. With his small size, incredible agility and a willingness to take remarkable bumps, Spike is ideally suited for gimmick matches. Tazz, who was synonymous with hardcore during his days in ECW, knows all about making fans shout “Holy Sh*t!” with violent and innovative  spots.

Its going to take some real confidence and patience by the WWF to transform “Tazz & Spike: the singles wrestlers who team together” into “Tazz & Spike: The Tag Team” but the time is right to do it. With WrestleMania just weeks away, the WWF needs to have a strong tag team championship match up its sleeve and with Tazz & Spike enjoying a dominant title reign, half that formula is already in place.

Championship Grade: A-

Its still too early to give them anything higher, but they’ve looked incredibly impressive thus far and seem to be the only new tag team in the Fed with any real potential.

The Outlook

Despite a strong push on TV in recent weeks and numerous victories, I’m still skeptical about whether the WWF’s latest push of Spike & Tazz is sincere. We’ve seen it too many times before: A small-sized wrestler gets a few weeks in the spotlight only to be brought back down to reality within weeks. The WWF would really be doing a disservice to itself and to fans by not staying the course with the new team’s push, but I anticipate this will be just a temporary deal.

With Tazz keeping his announcing duties, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to go on the road full time to defend the title. And Spike has pigeon holed as the ideal squash jobber that can make his opponents looks awesome by taking crazy bumps. They will likely lose the titles sooner that later – maybe at the Rumble – and be essentially disbanded, except for the occasional Heat match.

Championship Options

In the two-year plus history of this column, this may be the first time “none” seems like a legitimate option.

In all seriousness, the WWF tag team title scene is bone dry without a single team, including the current champions, qualifying as a real superstar tandem.

The Dudley Boyz are always the go-to team because they are the only duo with any real sense of unity and consistency. But the WWF’ s over-reliance on them could be doing more harm to the so-called “greatest tag team of all time” that good. If Triple H’s return proved anything it’s that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Maybe the Duds should be the victims of “serious injuries” at the hands of another heel duo. They could rest for a while, heal some nagging injuries, and come back as sympathetic heroes with all their old signature babyface spots back and some new ones too.

The Hardy Boyz have been off of TV for a few weeks now, in part because management was disappointed with their one-on-one match at Vengeance and in part because the team either together or on their own had become quite stale. The two reportedly still team together on the occasional house show, but reuniting them on TV after their brief split would not be the solution to the divisions problem. Their style, once exciting, has become predictable. Yet, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jeff and Matt back on TV sooner than later. Desperate bookers do desperate things.

The Federation seems to be investing a lot of time into the new team of Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo. For the record, I think each wrestler is quite talented, especially Gunn who I consider the most underrated performer in the company. But this team is destined to fail. They have zero chemistry, a God-awful ambiguously gay duo gimmick that is not even good for an occasional laugh, and just a horrible look. Perhaps repackaged they wouldn’t be so bad. They are both in good shape and if they played their parts more seriously, got themselves a spokesman (Arn Anderson is not doing anything) and got some new haircuts and tights, perhaps fans would bite. Sadly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they won the belts with their current gimmicks in the near future. There simply aren’t that many options.

The Zoo Crew is only a decent name if you’re a morning radio team. Scotty Too Hotty and Albert are another pair of mismatched wrestlers in a team seemingly thrown together with little forethought. From reading various interviews, Matt Bloom was already disheartened by the lame Albert moniker, now he gets the Hip-Hop Hippo nickname to go with it. He suffers from a disease known as Kurrgan-itis, or the desire by the WWF writing crew to make an incredibly intimidating specimen look ridiculous. Albert should be pummeling wrestlers within inches of their lives, not giving Scotty horsy-back rides. But who knows, the WWF may roll the dice on them too.

Are the Acolytes still around? Faarooq is about the oldest wrestler on the roster and Bradshaw has potential, but is a bit too lumbering to consistently entertain. They certainly wouldn’t work well in gimmick matches, unless there was a six pack hanging from above the ladder.

The WWF caught lightning in a bottle with Tazz & Spike and should analyze the formula for their success and look to recreate it. Find a couple of talented, agile, and hardworking wrestlers in the company who are willing to take crazy bumps, have a significant following and are being underutilized and pair them up. There are dozens of wrestlers who fit the bill Tajiri, Lance Storm, the Hurricane, Saturn, and Kanyon just to name a few. A couple of forgotten names, The Holly Cousins and Kaientai, may be worth an investment also. Storm and Christian have teamed together recently, but despite their skills the duo does not click. An Impact Players reunion with Storm and Justin Credible would be much better.

For Tazz and Spike, a spot in the tag team division may not have been exactly what they had in mind upon entering the WWF, but it’s a heck of a lot better than what they had. The tag titles will mean important matches on some important cards and a vehicle to show WWF management why they were so popular in their old stomping grounds of ECW. Besides, consider the alternatives: Chuck and Billy vs. The Zoo Crew at WrestleMania. The SkyDome will never have been so quiet.

E-MAIL FONZO
BROWSE THE TITLE WAVE ARCHIVES

Alfonso Castillo, 24, is has been a wrestling fan since he was six-years old.
He has been writing the "Fonzo's Title Wave" column since 1999. The host of
the Showdown radio audio program on www.Showdown.net currently lives in
Queens, NY and works as a reporter for a New York metropolitan area newspaper.

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