10 Times WWE Wrestlers Were WAY Better Together Than Apart
Teamwork makes the dream work.
WWE recently celebrated 20 years of D-Generation-X by asking several contemporary stars to do their best impersonation of Shawn Michaels and Triple H at the height of their DX pomp. The modern day performers were young enough to have been fans of the group, and clearly delighted in playing the part for old time's sake.
Amongst the starlets (that also included Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Jason Jordan, and Shinsuke Nakamura) were Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods. The New Day are a glorious success story for the power of unity and, as they'd always say, positivity, in an industry that so often doesn't reward such harmony.
The three had meandered amongst the undergrowth of WWE's midcard for years when Xavier Woods first took Kofi and Big E to task in a promo that none of the men must have ever thought could have resulted in them dressing up as video game characters and flogging mock cereals and ice creams to millions of devoted followers just three years later. Rivalries before (and after, following the inevitable split storyline) couldn't and won't remotely compare to a truly remarkable run.
The wrestling business has always impressed upon fans and talent alike the importance of being 'Number One', whatever that might mean to the individual. It disparages the very notion of a team despite the fact that sometimes a partnership can be a performer's golden age. And it's never so apparent than when the friends become foes.
10. Team Hell No
Daniel Bryan and Kane's lengthy run as a tag team was so joyously daft that it promptly made many fans forget how desperately they'd wanted Bryan back in the main event picture following his 18 second defeat to Sheamus at WrestleMania XXVIII.
It did however, help audiences promptly disregard their prior ambivalence for the 'Big Red Machine', who earned one final great run as a result of the unlikely kinship developed with his smaller teammate.
Segments questioning their separate and collective mental dexterity were a riot, and the gradual advancement of their friendship in their formative days added real buzz to the genuine affection that emerged when they finally agreed to 'Hug It Out'.
Their relatively amicable split turned nasty in 2013, when Kane joined The Authority as Director Of Operations, becoming as hell-bent as the remainder of his colleagues on distancing the 'Yes Man' from the WWE World Heavyweight Title.
When Bryan's WrestleMania XXX victory toppled their grasp, Kane was selected as his first (and ultimately only) title feud in the aftermath, but the angle's absurdity couldn't match the charm of their original vignettes.
Stripping back the irony his 'Demon' persona had carried for years beforehand, Kane was a cartoon villain, terrorising Bryan and wife Brie in a variety of unconvincing ways. Their Extreme Rules match was Bryan's penultimate that year, and upon his brief 2015 return, the story was thankfully not revisited.