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While there are many great tag teams in wrestling, there are more than a dozen awful ones. This is a sad truth of wrestling. And among all the tag teams in the history of the WWF, there are plenty that are just plain forgotten. And since we’re Exploder, we like to look at these forgotten tag teams of yesteryear. So…let’s do that.

Tekno Team 2000

Travis & Troy (Chad Fortune & post WCW Erik Watts) were touted by the WWF as the tag team of the future. If it were an apocalyptic future where tag teams were decimated by some sort of talent bomb, then they’d be right. But since that future didn’t happen, we got Tekno Team 2000. What are they known for? Uh….pass. But they sure were shiny. They had that going for them.

Well Dunn

Well Dunn was a lower-tier tag team comprised of Timothy Well and Steven Dunn. Get it? Well Dunn?…Anyway, the team was supposed to be some kind of Chippenadale male stripper like gimmick with guys who wore man thongs on the outside of their singlets because wrestling.

They didn’t last long and both would find their way to the USWA where Dunn would go by Steve Doll and Well would be…Rex King? What?

The Heavenly Bodies

The Heavenly Bodies was a transplant from Smoky Mountain Wrestling who made their way to the WWF at a time where basically anything went. And did. The gimmick was….ya got me. Jimmy Del Ray was given the nicknamed “Giglio” and Tom Prichard was “The Doctor of Love”. They were managed by Jim Cornette, but the team didn’t last long. Del Ray would end up in WCW as Jimmy Graffiti and Prichard would see even greater heights as Zip of the Bodydonnas alongside Skip and Sunny. They won the tag titles, so that was something.

The New Foundation/High Energy

In this entry, I’m combining two tag teams because they existed so close to each other with each other and basically had the same gimmick.

The New Foundation was a team that filled two roles: it gave Jim Neidhart something to do after Bret Hart left for a singles career and it helped highlight a new star in the company, a toe-headed Canadian named Owen Hart. The team lasted for a few short months until Neidhart left the WWF. That led to…

After the departure of Neidhart, the future King of Harts would have a short singles run before teaming with Koko B. Ware to form High Energy. Which was different from the New Foundation because this team was called High Energy. See? Totally different. Besides wearing clothes that were awful even by early 90s standards, this team didn’t accomplish much either and broke up when Hart injured his knee.

The Allied Powers

Nothing demonstrates Lex Luger’s fall from grace quite like the Allied Powers. Luger would begin 1993 as a Narcissist staring at himself in a mirror (just like in real life), bodyslam Yokozuna on a battleship, travel the country in the world’s most patriotic bus, celebrate a countout like he won the big one, then go to 1994 where he co-won the Royal Rumble, then failed to win the WWF Title for the second time. After this, it was pretty much downhill. The end of this hill was his seeming random teaming with the British Bulldog, another talent that was in a bit of a slump around this time. The Allied Powers was a team that, despite being comprised of big, upper tier talents, didn’t do much.

Don’t believe me? At WrestleMania X, Lex Luger lost the first WWF title match against Yokozuna due to a perfectly bad ref, Mr. Perfect. A year later at WrestleMania XI, The Allied Powers would wrestle in the first match and defeat Jacob and Eli Blu in what can comfortably be called “a match”. Is there any surprise Luger was on Nitro 5 months later?

1-2-3 Kid and Bob Holly

This is another case of two similar tag teams taking one spot on the list. It’s my list and I’ll do what I want. Anyway, the early to mid 90s was a weird time for WWF tag teams. In addition to the Smoking Gunns, pig farmin’ Godwin boys, and the New Rockers (a true success story), there were the combinations of the 1-2-3 Kid and (insert name here). One such partner was fellow long-haired babyface Bob “Spark Plug” Holly, with whom the kid won the tag team titles.

The most significant part of their run was being the team that defeated Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow at the 95 Royal Rumble, which resulted in Bam Bam shoving Lawerence Taylor and leading to their match at WrestleMania XI. They didn’t even go into that WrestleMania as champions.

This is very similar to the 1-2-3 Kid’s other generic babyface partner Marty Jannetty, with whom…he won…the tag team titles. Wait a minute….

Blu Brothers

Quick, name your favorite Ron and Don Harris match. Unless you’re a special kind of psycho who answers “all of them”, you probably can’t. But, despite their inability to be memorable, these twin brothers have worked everywhere from WCW to ECW to even a couple stints in the WWF. They would arguably find their greatest success as Skull & 8-Ball as part of the totally not racist at all Disciples of Apocalypse alongside Crush and cousin Brian “Chainz” Lee, but their first foray into New York was as Jacob and Eli Blu, the harry hillbillies pictured above. Managed by Uncle Zebekiah (Zeb Colter before the creation of FOX News), the twins would be another in a long list of gimmicky tag teams in a time where tag teams weren’t the focus.

Their biggest match was the aforementioned WrestleMania XI opener against the Allied Powers and, before they knew it, they were in ECW as the Bruise Brothers.

Men on a Mission

Look at this picture and tell me it doesn’t scream “New Generation”. Unconventional body types? Check. Bright colors that give High Energy a run for their money? Check. A rapping manager? Double check. Men on a Mission was comprised of Mabel, their manager Oscar, and Mo (MOM, get it?). They’re basically what would happen if you split “Make a Difference” Fatu in three and gave one of them an eating disorder. They were way more over than they had any right to be, but after the departure of Oscar to pursue rapping outside of brightly colored clothing, the team was never the same. They turned heel with Mabel winning the 1995 King of the Ring, injuring wrestlers left and right by being 500 pounds and legitimately sitting on them alongside his lackey, Sir Mo. Mabel would prove to be one of the worst Kings of the Ring ever and would soon disappear, taking Mo with him.

Mabel would get numerous chances/gimmicks after this, from the gothic guy wearing a trash bag Viscera to the world’s largest love machine to a pair of manboobs with suspenders trying their best, but his start was part of Men on a Mission.

The Quebecers

Closing out the list is a rather unique entry, the Quebecers. Following the retirement of his brother Ray, Jacques Rougeau was in need of a new gimmick. He returned to the ring as The Mountie, who was…a Mountie. They had repo men, Indian chiefs, and garbage men, so is a mountie really that far off? Exactly. This gimmick would eventually include a partner, Pierre, and a manager, a spoiled rich kid named Johnny Polo (who looks an awful lot like Raven).

Due to pressure from the actual Mounties, which are a real Canadian law enforcement branch, remember, The team would not go by The Mounties, instead choosing The Quebecers. They even went as far as to include the line “we’re not the Mounties” in their theme song.

The team would actually have quite a bit of success, winning the tag team titles 3 times. Of course, this was the New Generation era, but 3 times is 3 times. Jacques and Pierre, sans Polo, who would end up doing something in Philadelphia or something, I don’t know, would remain as a team, albeit by different names until 1998, but their greatest success was during their time as the Quebecers.