Tag Team Partners as Opponents

It the world of professional wrestling it is very common for tag team partners to break up and feud with each other.  Most famously it happened in December 1991 (aired January 1992) on The Barber Shop when Shawn Michaels attacked his former The Rockers partner Marty Jannetty throwing him the sets plate glass window.  

These incidents are well known, however there had been some former tag partners that wrestled each other in lesser known matches, that is what I am looking at today. 

The Rock n' Roll Express: Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson

The Rock n' Roll Express first teamed together in 1983 and most recently made an appearance together on the August 12, 2020 episode for AEW Dynamite.  For a brief time in 1991 they wrestled against each other in World Championship Wrestling.  Robert Gibson had been on the shelf with an injury and at Clash of the Champions XV on June 12, 1991 Gibson returned and Morton turned on him becoming Richard Morton and joining the York Foundation. 

This lead to a forgotten singles match between the two at the Great American Bash PPV on July 14, 1991 when Morton pinned Gibson in a decent match with assistance from a foreign object.  The two would not have another televised singles match however they wrestled against each other at several house shows in singles and tag team matches.  In fact on August 14, 1991 Morton defeated Gibson inside a steel cage in Fayetteville, Georgia.  I would have loved to have seen this one.  

Gibson left WCW at the end of August 1991.  The duo would reunite in July 1992 and it doesn't appear they have any intention to stop wrestling.

The Fantastics: Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton

The duo first teamed in 1984 in Mid-South Wrestling, they would travel the territories and capture several championships along they way.   They would team on and off until 1996 and then reunited for a match in 2004 and 2005.  The last time they teamed together was for World Championship Wrestling on the October 21, 1996 Monday Nitro losing to the Faces of Fear.  They would then lose a dark match to High Voltage the next night.

On the June 16, 1997 episode or WWE Raw is War Tommy Roger and Bobby Fulton would wrestle a random match against each other in the new Light Heavyweight Division.  Both McMahon and Ross acknowledged that they had previously teamed together as the Fantastics.  Ross would put over the championships they had won and some of the great teams they wrestled.

The match was short, just over two minutes, but it was pretty basic.  Fulton played the heel on this night, however Rogers would pick up the win with the tomikaze.

Rogers would wrestle one other match in the WWE and it was taped this same night in a loss to Brian Christopher for Shotgun Saturday Night.  Fulton had wrestled twice previously in the promotion, 1979 and 1984 losing both matches. 

 

The British Bulldogs: Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith

The British Bulldogs are one of my all time favorite tag teams.  They are real life cousins and wrestled several matches against each other prior to forming the team.  They even feuded over the Stampede Wrestling British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championships and the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship in New Japan Pro Wrestling. 

They began teaming the summer of 1983 in Stampede and later in New Japan.  They signed with the WWF in 1984 and would stay with the promotion until 1988.  They then returned to Stampede and New Japan before jumping to All Japan Pro Wrestling.  They last match together was January 28, 1990 in All Japan at Korakuen Hall. 

 

In June 1989 between tours of All Japan, the Bulldogs wrestled a series of matches against each other in singles and tag matches in Stampede.  

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page, check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network and while your at it pick up my book over at Amazon in Kindle or Paperback.

Until next time!!