8. Public Enemy vs. Harlem Heat - WCW Nitro 1997
Speaking of standing out like sore thumbs, Public Enemy were one tag-team which - aided by the strength of Paul Heyman's booking - managed to pull the wool over the eyes of almost the entire wrestling world in the mid-90's. Neither Rocco Rock nor Johnny Grunge were particularly well-rounded performers, but their white-boy gangster routine got over huge with the ECW faithful. This led to the duo becoming one of the hottest tandems on the market, but their bark far exceeded their bite, as both the WWF and WCW found out. Looking like fish out of water in both promotions, Public Enemy would initially turn down a deal with the WWF, choosing the bigger money that WCW were offering. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4r3vp_harlem-heat-vs-public-enemy_news Unbelievably, the Public Enemy would capture the WCW World Tag-Team Titles, defeating Harlem Heat to win the gold. Just around one week later, Rock and Grunge would drop the belts back to their far more accomplished peers, but would stick around right up until 1998 before eventually making the switch to the WWF. The Public Enemy experiment is a perfect example of Heyman accentuating the strengths of performers and hiding their weaknesses from plain sight, something nobody else was able to accomplish.
Jamie Kennedy
Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.
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