Friday, September 10, 2021

16 Years to Go Before the Answer Is R-K-Bro: The Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Championship

*This blog post was started on September 8, 2021.

A part of me thinks I should take out the pink and black plaid themed memo book to just place another review from 2010 on this blog, but after Summer Slam and All Out, I am essentially three blogs behind when it comes to finding our current OCHO, Real World Tag Team, and Men's Doubles World champions. It seems best to catch up on them despite the lack of a personal blog (You can get that here.) and that I do not see any titles changing hands until WWE's October pay-per-view at the earliest. Stating that, I maybe too far behind on New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Is that $9.38 a month worth it? The reason for keeping it beyond Wrestle Kingdom was to divert funds away from WWE, but I am with Comcast, so I get the Network included now. I always promised myself to follow the G1 and with the success of NinetyForChill: The Podcast, following through on promises is something I have been further establishing. This trend must continue.

16 Years to Go Before the Answer Is R-K-Bro: The Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Championship

The lineage of my first (The Hella Good Men's Doubles World Championship) attempt at a comprehensive title history of tag teams who were just comprised of two guy instead of presenting a team aesthetic came to a halt when all the domestic titles (WWE, World, ROH, and NWA) ended up on true blue teams with the advent of The Spirit Squad. I cannot let a bunch of male cheerleaders destroy my efforts, so I went all the way back to the Gnarly Men's Doubles World Championship and tried to fix previous gaps upon discovering that the Japanese tag team scene was pretty gaijin heavy. Here is to hoping that is the case 15 years later.

The 75th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

World Tag Team Champions

Kane (5) and The Big Show (Paul Wight) (12/27/05 to 4/3/06)

The 76th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

Global Honored Crown (Pro-Wrestling Noah) Tag Team Champions

Takeshi Morishima and Muhammad Yone (4/3/06 to 6/4/06)

So thank the gods for the AJPW break up in 2000. Morishima would end up winning this title with three different partners, so that is how I am establishing this pair as doubles instead of a tag team. Meanwhile, the IWGP Tag Team Champions were Cho-Ten and AJPW had a 14 month vacancy.

The 77th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

Global Honored Crown (Pro-Wrestling Noah) Tag Team Champions

Tamon Honda and Kenta Kobashi (6/4/06 to 9/25/06)

The 78th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

NWA World Tag Team Champions

Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles (9/25/06 to 10/22/06)

The GHC Championship was vacated due to Kobashi's diagnosis of kidney cancer.

The 79th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

IWGP Tag Team Champions

Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori (10/22/06 to 3/11/07)

The 80th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

ROH World Tag Team Champions

Shingo Takagi and Naruki Doi (3/11/07 to 3/30/07)

The perfect bridge between Japanese and American promotions.

The 81st Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

World Tag Team Champions

John Cena and Shawn Michaels (3/30/07 to 4/2/07)

Is there a greater example of two guys who were not a team?

The 82nd Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
Global Honored Crown (Pro-Wrestling Noah) Tag Team Champions

Jun Akiyama and Takeshi Rikio (4/2/07 to 9/13/07)

The 83rd Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

WWE Tag Team Champions

Matt Hardy and MVP: Montel Vontavious Porter (9/13/07 to 11/13/07)

The 84th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

TNA World Tag Team Champions

AJ Styles (2) and Tomko (11/13/07 to 4/15/08)

The 85th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

TNA World Tag Team Champions

Frankie "Kaz" Kazarian and Eric "Super Eric" Young (4/15/08 to 4/17/08)

The 86th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

AJPW World Tag Team Champions

Joe Doring and Keiji Mutoh (Great Muta) (3) (4/17/08 to 6/28/08)

The 87th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

World Tag Team Champions

Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly (6/28/08 to 6/29/08)

The 88th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

Open the Twin Gate (Dragon Gate) Champions

Ryo Saito and Susumu Yokosuka (6/29/08 to 10/5/08)

I thought adding this championship would be acceptable due to the DGUSA top prize being part of the Poser World Championship.

The AJPW championship would be held by Minoru Suzuki and Taiyo Kea for 554 days, so I do not want to call that chemistry a mere pairing instead of a tag team. ROH was in the midst of a tag team renascence. Beer Money would soon be dominating TNA. Cody Rhodes would be teaming with Ted DiBiase Jr. as Legacy. Smackdown also had a solid line up of teams and the Great Heel Bash was just starting up in New Japan.

The 89th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
Open the Twin Gate (Dragon Gate) Champions

Cyber Kong and Yamato (10/5/08 to 3/1/09)

The 90th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

Open the Twin Gate (Dragon Gate) Champions

Gamma and Susumu Yokosuka (2) (3/1/09 to 5/5/09)

The 91st Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:

Open the Twin Gate (Dragon Gate) Champions

Ryo Saito (2) and Genki Horiguchi (5/5/09 to 9/17/09)

Pinterest @superdad32675

I wonder how optimistic I can be when it comes to domestic championships for the next 12 years. This research is taking up way too many tabs on my Internet browser. At least there will be a stretch of only one WWE title. And this is when I recall that the second half of this list did not consider the Pro-Wrestling Noah. Thankfully, Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith's 486-day reign makes them a tag team instead of a duo.

Did I forget the NWA all together? No. The Skullkrushers' 777-day reign makes them a tag team to me.

No comments:

The Undrafted and Wrongfully Drafted

"Bull Durham" was not drafted on the Baseball Draft (A film that can only be drafted at #1)
"No Fear of a Black Hat" on the Fictional Band Mini-Mega Draft
The entire George Lucas Draft
"The Birdcage" instead of "La Cage Aux Folles" on the Drag Draft
"Road Trip" was not even mentioned during the Road Trip Draft
"Major League" instead of "Drop Zone" on the Wesley Snipes Draft
"Black Swan" instead of "Mermaids" on the Wynona Ryder Draft
"Akira" instead of "Ghost World" on the Comic Book Movie (Non-Super Hero) Draft. Tetsuo is a Supe.
"Now You See Me" instead of "Diggstown" on the Con Artist Movie Draft
"The Onion Movie" instead of "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask" on the Sketch Comedy Anthologies Draft
"The Big Lebowski" not being marked eight on the Coen Bros. Draft
"Labrynth" or "Dark Crystal" not receiving the number 1 or 2 spot in the Jim Henson Draft
"Stage Fright" on the Giallo Draft. It is a slasher despite the presentation.
"Assault of Precinct 13" and "Prince of Darkness" Instead of "Escape from New York" and "The Thing" on the John Carpenter Draft
"Con Air" instead of "US Marshalls" and "Universal Soldier" instead of "Time Cop " on the 90's Action Draft
"WarGames" instead of "Spies Like Us" on the Cold War Draft
"Traffic" instead of "Side Effects" on the Steven Soderbergh Draft
"Fight Club" instead of "The Virgin Suicides" on the 1999 Draft ("Suicides" made the Actor Directorial Debut Draft)
Any Kirk Douglass instead of "The Shining" being on the Kubrick Draft
"Return of the Jedi" instead of "Tokyo Drift" on the Threequels Draft (there's only one "Return," okay, and it ain't "of the King," it's "of the Jedi.")

Deserves a Second Chance

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).

I find the DC movies, or at least Zack Snyder, was trying to bring comic books to the big screen as opposed to adapting comic books for the big screen. If you read, (or watch the excellent animated adaptation of) "The Dark Knight Returns", it is a very slow build to the battle between the Bat and Supe. This is regarded as one of the best threads in comics.

As a guy who fell in love with wrestling in the 1980's, the very methodical showdown is what I loved. It's a love letter to comic book fans who read and note every detail and want to try figuring out the plot before the character do. Come at the flick this way, and I think you will get something out of it.

Tropic Thunder (2008)

This is a feature that dares you to be offended. When director Ben Stiller is that forthcoming like Robert Downey Sr. was with 1969's "Putney Swope", an audience saying that something is in poor taste, hence not funny, means they are afraid to make a mockery of a concept.

My own experience with junkies bankrupting me allows me to thoroughly enjoy Jack Black's making addiction seem ridiculous. Robert Downey Jr. nails his taboo performance and I would say helps the call for actors from a demographic to be the first people called on for the roles representing them. As for the "Forest Gump" knock off jokes, they serve as a way to ridicule us for what we accepted (and encouraged) as fine a decade prior. The narrative that controls the pace in the second act can drag, but the content that is delivered cannot be cut.

MainEventofTheDead.com

Friday, September 10, 2021