Wrestling Six Packs: WWE Tag Teams I Want to See

Is there a reunion in order?
Photo Credit: WWE.com

So, WWE wants to build a tag team division, eh? It seems like they're heading in that direction, giving the Tag Team Championships to the team of Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston. Meanwhile, The Miz and R-Truth seem to have sprouted up an alliance. There are other teams they can put together to build a good division along with the Nexus, the Usos and any team that's incoming, whether it be Los Aviadores, the Rotundo Boys, the Kings of Wrestling or whoever is coming in as a team. Here are six teams I'd like to see, using the current roster.

1. Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins

Is it cheating to put these two together? Who cares? We're talking tag teams, so why not reunite the Edgeheads and start off ahead of the curve? Yeah, Ryder's kind of a good guy, and Hawkins, back when he was actually seen on TV last, was a heel, but hey, I'm sure Hawkins would get residual cheers just being associated with his broski.

2. Tyson Kidd and Skip Sheffield

They had a good idea by putting Kidd with a big dude as a "bodyguard", but the execution of it was terrible. Jackson Andrews? Really? Skip Sheffield, when he finally fully heals, is a hoss who is actually really good and won't end up getting shipped off within two weeks. Kidd playing cat and mouse, taunting the babyfaces only to have them run into the meaty hambone of a fist of Sheffield.

3. Drew McIntyre and Jack Swagger, f/ Vickie Guerrero

They're clearly building tension between Swagger and Dolph Ziggler after RAW, but why not build a stable? Let Ziggler run as a singles guy, and have Swagger team with McIntyre. Here you have a team where you have a guy in Swagger who is awesome at the nuts and bolts of wrestling in the ring and a guy in McIntyre who's a master at using the ring itself as a weapon. It's a dual threat villain tag team.

4. Ezekiel Jackson and Yoshi Tatsu

The tried and true good guy tag team formula rests with the Rock 'n Roll Express. You have a Ricky Morton taking massive amounts of damage and then he tags in Robert Gibson who cleans house. So yeah, it's obvious that you have Yoshi making hot tags to Big Zeke, and the Guyanese Goliath comes and bodyslams the shit out of the bad guys. Of course, Yoshi is no slack himself with his big kicks. I'd imagine their finisher to have Zeke putting the victim in the torture rack and Yoshi rocking his dome with a big kick.

5. William Regal and Dean Ambrose

Is this cheating if I use a guy from FCW? Again, it's my blog, so fuck you. Regal has been gushing about the former Jon Moxley in the FCW broadcast booth, so why not have him be the devious mentor for the diabolical mastermind in the bigs? I imagine the beatings would be a brutal combo of mental and physical, and it would be entertaining as fuck.

6. Ricardo Rodriguez and Primo Colon

Again, Rodriguez is in developmental, but he is in WWE's family. I'd rather stick another Mexican under Alberto del Rio, but who else is on the roster who'd fit? Unless you wanted to split Los Aviadores or turn Sin Cara heel. Neither one is as appealing to me, and Primo's a really, really good worker. Would it ruin part of del Rio's mystique if Rodriguez actually wrestled? Nah, I don't think so, especially since del Rio needs to evolve. Having Ricardo split off and do more than just announce for del Rio would be a start.

Follow Friday: The Last Five Guests I Had on the Podcast

I was going to tell you to follow William Regal today, but in all honesty, you don't need me to prod you to follow Regal, because you probably already are. From here on out, I'm probably just going to feature wrestlers you don't know or folks in the Twitterati/blogosphere who are cool and deserve your follows. Why? Because WWE really doesn't need my help getting the Twitter word out there, and they get behind everyone, from the cool guys (Regal, John Cena, Zack Ryder, CM Punk, etc.) to the utter tools (Goldust, Michael Cole etc.). So, yeah, to start the newly refreshed view on this, here are the last five guests on The Wrestling Podcast, all of whom are cool in their own way:

• Jeff Paternostro (@jeffpaternostro) - Jeff is the latest and longest-winded guest to date. When he's talkin' baseball and 'rasslin' on the Podcast, he's writing about baseball at Amazin' Avenue, the SB Nation blog about the New York Mets. His favorite things, aside from rooting for a team that crushes his very soul, are Toryumon-influenced puroresu, hipster music and the San Francisco 49ers.


• Trey Irby (@WrestlingTheory and @treyirby) - The former handle is for his wrestling related tweets and the latter is in general. Anyway, he writes the Tumblog Wrestling Theory as well as hosts a local Tuscaloosa radio show called The Long Tide. Like Paternostro, he loves his hipster music. Unlike Paternostro, he's still in school, so he's not too jaded... yet.


• Spencer Hall (@edsbs) - If you're not following the great and powerful Orson Swindle now, after all the times I've told you on here and on Twitter itself, then either you don't like college football or you're a monster who doesn't like to laugh. His blog, Every Day Should Be Saturday, is a must read for all wrestling fans, and he's great for a quirky, cracked-out-by-his-own-admission musings all year long. Today, he was getting the base riled up by posting punnish tweets with hashtags that rhyme with Internet-era portmanteau "humblebrag".


• The Great and Mysterious flubby (@flubby) - His real name redacted for professional reasons, the Flubster is one of now five members of the irreverent NFL bloggers at Kissing Suzy Kolber. While he may not post as much as his brethren there, he is worth following due to his witticisms from time to time. Plus, his Tumblr, the Sugar Sheet, and his Google Reader share-cache are really cool treasure troves of wacky .gifs and other random columns.


• Tom Kingsmill (@WetOREO)Finally, Tom is a really good real life friend of mine who lives horror, bad wrestling, television and '90s music. Visit his occasionally updated blog, Last Blog on Dead End Street, where he'll write about all kinds of stuff in the horror genre.

So there you go, your Follow Friday for this week. Follow all these people, or else I will hunt you down and maim you*

*- Not really, but follow these people anyway.

Thank You, Johnnies

Two of the best, ever
Photo Credit: Dirty Dirty Sheets

I'm very much an adventurous wrestling fan. I will sit through anything once, whether it's the most familiar of familiar styles like a WWE main event match between John Cena and Chris Jericho, or the most arcane and unusual of the lot, like an absurd match between Survival Tobita and Mojukin Ken. When it's middling or worse, I pass on it, but when it's good, when it's really good and eye opening, then I have no choice but to really heap praise on it. It's what I do when I find something I really like.

Until Saturday and Sunday, I had very limited exposure to what English mat wrestling₁ was all about. I had seen Johnny Saint before at my first ever indie show, and I had been exposed briefly to wrestling exchanges by Colt Cabana and Nigel McGuinness before as well. However, I'd never been exposed to the full breadth of what men like Saint and Johnny Kidd could do. I likened Saturday's match to a religious experience, because it was like my eyes were opened to a whole new world of what wrestling could be like. I already had faith in what the artform could be, but that faith was bolstered by both matches that these two English legends produced, the first night by themselves and the second with the help of Cabana and Mike Quackenbush. I saw the beauty in each wristlock. I saw purity in each reversal. Hell, I even found a place in my heart for the Lady of the Lake, even though it literally had nothing about what I normally enjoy about matches about it.

After the second match, both Quack and Saint got on the microphone to thank the Philadelphia crowd for being in their words, not mine₂, such a great crowd for wrestling. I appreciated the sentiment, but again, I don't think they should have been the ones thanking us, but vice versa. So, I will take this opportunity TO say thank you to all four men for awakening me to another world of potential for wrestling to take me as a fan and critical viewer. Thank you Colt Cabana, for your antics in the second match, making it a more fun experience than it would have been without your presence. Thank you Mike Quackenbush, for putting this match together and for wanting to expose your loyal fans to as many different styles of wrestling as possible.

And thank you most to Johnny Saint and Johnny Kidd. I was honored to have been there both nights to see you two legends ply your trade, for teaching me something new about wrestling, something that I've been missing out on for years and years now. It really was an engrossing experience, and it helped cap off what has been one of the most tremendous months in wrestling history.

1 - I erroneously used the term "chain wrestling" to describe the style used by Johnnies Saint and Kidd. I linked one William Regal to my Fair to Flair piece on the match, and he admonished me for using it. So, there's your knowledge for the day; it's not chain wrestling, it's mat wrestling or just plain ol' wrestling. On a side note, how f'n cool is it that Regal read one of my blogs? REALLY COOL is the correct answer.

2 - Just to head off the anonymous commenter who thinks I get off on "patting myself on the back" at the pass.

Chikarasaurus Rex Weekend Is William Regal Approved

We all knew English catch-as-catch-can legends Johnny Saint and Johnny Kidd were coming to Chikara for Chikarasaurus Rex: King of Sequel weekend. Over the last couple of days, we found out what matches they'd be competing in. Here's the first, scheduled for July 30th in Reading, PA:

World of Sport!
Photo Credit: ChikaraPro.com

Holy crap, it almost makes me want to risk alienating my 6 months pregnant wife by going to Reading for that show. However, if people are giving me good advice, then I'm erring on the side of caution here, as drawing the ire of a pregnant woman really is fucking stupid. So I'm sad that I won't be able to go to this one, especially since this match got a rousing endorsement from an expert on English grappling:

In a related note, Regal is the man on Twitter. He's one of the most interactive wrestlers on there, along with Claudio Castagnoli and Sugar Dunkerton. Anyway, back to the point at hand, if you're free on the 30th, can be in the Reading area and are a wrestling fan, then Regal's endorsement should be more than enough impetus for you to go. Seriously, this is like hearing Mario Batali say that an Italian restaurant is must-eat-at, or Kirk Hammett give you the recommendation to listen to a guy shred on guitar.

Of course, that isn't enough. No, as you know, Chikarasaurus Rex weekend is two days long, and Sunday's card in Philly, a card I will be attending. Of course Chikara isn't content just to let Reading have all the awesome. Kidd and Saint will of course be sticking around the whole weekend, and just in case Saturday's card didn't feature an awesome enough match, well, they had to go and up the ante for Sunday, which for my sake, IS AWESOME FREAKING SAUCE:

Well-played.
Photo Credit: ChikaraPro.com

I was hoping for Colt Cabana to be involved in the proceedings for that weekend, and my prayers to the Wrestling Gods were answered. Quack being involved is just gravy. Seriously, there scant few wrestling matches that I look forward to watching with this much fervor. It's good that WWE is giving us one in Punk/Cena at Money in the Bank, but to have two in the same month? Especially one of this caliber? I'm in hog heaven right now.

All of this goes to reinforce how freaking epic Chikara is when it comes to running an extremely fun, supremely eminent wrestling promotion. You ask me why I act as their propaganda arm, and I will point to these matches, which are just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to their awesomeness, as incontrovertible proof. Chikara is wrestling, folks.