Ooh, some controversy to close things out here. Yes, Hawk and Animal formed one of the greatest tag teams in wrestling history, winning Tag Team Titles over 20 times throughout the world in their illustrious careers. However, a bunch of title reigns doesn't mean you're any good in the ring, and that's exactly the case with these two. They were never any good. Ever. They got over because they were two big, bad, face painted freaks who wore giant spikes on their shoulder pads and wrist bands. They were unlike anything wrestling had seen before, and that is why they began to win, win, win everywhere they went. Go ahead and watch any of their matches, though. It doesn't matter when... whether it's some of their late-80s work in the NWA all the way up to their early-2000s work with the WWF... what you see when you watch them is a bunch of sloppy in-ring work, no technical ability whatsoever, complete inability to sell (when they decided they even wanted to try and sell opposing offense, that is), and general carelessness with the health and well-being of anyone they were facing. It's very rare that you'll find a good match of theirs that didn't involve War Games or some other type of stipulation that allowed them to be as violent as possible with having to wrestle as little as possible, and even then, it's not like they made their War Games matches good. They were just along for the ride. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztRVpp2_hnY They are enshrined in the NWA Hall Of Fame, the Pro Wrestling Hall Of Fame, the WWE Hall Of Fame, and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall Of Fame. All the Hall Of Fames in the world aren't going to take away from the fact that they were just never that good. Just imagine how far the gimmick could have gone if two capable workers had donned the face paint and the spikes.
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
