10 Best Ever Wrestling Tournaments
9. WWE Tag Team Title Tournament (2002)
WWE have hosted a number of big Tag Team Championship tournaments over the years, but none were as exciting as the 2002 incarnation. Devised several months after the original brand extension’s birth, the tournament’s purpose was to crown the inaugural WWE Tag Team Champions after the original World Tag Team Titles had become exclusive to Raw, and it came with a star-studded line-up.
2002 wasn’t exactly a golden year for tag wrestling, and the tournament featured a number of hastily thrown together units. Still, pre-existing teams like Los Guerreros and Billy and Chuck still claimed a spot, and they were joined by major stars in Edge, Brock Lesnar, and Rey Mysterio.
Most of the half-baked teams didn’t fare so well (Mark Henry & Rikishi and Billy Kidman & John Cena both lost in the first round), with one notable exception. Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle were long-term WWE rivals who’d put on a number of great matches over the years, and they were made to team for the tournament. They ran through the competition, eliminating the makeshift Kidman/Cena combo in the first round, then defeating Los Guerreros in the semi-finals.
Benoit and Angle met Edge and Rey Mysterio in the tournament finals at No Mercy 2002. As you’d expect from four men of their ability, it was an outstanding match, and they performed a legitimate tag wrestling classic before a white-hot crowd. In the end, Angle and Benoit’s smart work in isolating Mysterio paid-off, and while they entered the tournament as bitter enemies, they left as champions.