The Legion of Doom are considered by many to be the greatest tag team of all-time, their mix of appearance, aura and bruising in-ring work presenting a complete package that only few acts ever achieve. They dominated tag team wrestling for over a decade by the time 1998 rolled around but, as is the case with most legendary acts, they grew stale. Worse yet, the times were passing them by. While they may have been revolutionary badasses at one point, they did not reflect the changing attitude of WWE programming. So after tensions between Hawk and Animal escalated to the point that they had to be pulled apart by officials, they disappeared from television. At WrestleMania XIV, they made their return as LOD 2000, complete with new shoulder spikes, tights and manager in the form of the vivacious Sunny. Rather than refreshing the gimmick, though, the revamped presentation felt like the company's last-gasp effort to polish an old tool. The Legion of Doom stumbled early and went downhill rapidly. They soon found themselves in a rivalry with the Disciples of Apocalypse that never ended. With neither team really fitting the youth movement of the Attitude Era, they were relegated to the undercard, where they stunk up the joint on a nightly basis. Then, Hawk's demons were exploited for the sake of television ratings, the performer portraying a drunkard who stumbled and slurred his way through every episode of Raw. It was uncomfortable to watch and ensured that LOD's last major run in WWE ended with a dull thud rather than a bang. For WWE to exploit a legend like Hawk for the sake of a midcard story that fans did not care about anyway was both stupid and unnecessary. LOD could have been better used to put over younger teams. Wins over them should have meant something. Instead, they were bastardized to the point that new fans failed to see what was so great about a duo that had been instrumental in the growth of tag wrestling during the 1980s and early '90s.
Erik Beaston is a freelance pro wrestling writer who likes long walks in the park, dandelions and has not quite figured out that this introduction is not for Match.com. He resides in Parts Unknown, where he hosts weekly cookouts with Kane, The Ultimate Warrior, Papa Shango and The Boogeyman. Be jealous.
