15. The Southern Boys vs. The Midnight Express (Great American Bash 1990)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bCdFXEpFOg Here is your barnburnerand another forgotten classic. In this United States Tag Team Championship match from 1990s Great American Bash, you have one of the top 5 tag team matches in mainstream professional wrestling of the 90s decade. Bottom line. The Southern Boys were Tracy Smothers (more famous later in his career for his work in ECWs Full Blooded Italian stable) and Steve Armstrong (brother of Road Dogg and son of Bullet Bob), a dynamic young duo who came roaring into WCW with that same kind of aura that the Rockers and Hardys had. There was something about them that made it seem like they could be future stars. The Midnight Express were on their last legs, doing little more in the early 1990s than enhancing their considerable legacy with fantastic matches like this one. It was basically Midnights parting shot to the industry. They had a lot of phenomenal tag matches over the years and this was the last. The match very much carried with it a feel of the young lions against the alpha males of the pride. The veteran Midnight Express were as cunning as they came, but they were up against a fiery pair that did not know enough to understand that they should not be hanging with arguably the best tag team of all-time. Call it ignorance being bliss, but The Southern Boys wrestled Stan Lane and Bobby Eaton like they were auditioning to be the team of the future. That never really panned out, but they wrestled with confident, youthful exuberance en route to as good a tag team match as youll ever see.
Chad Matthews
Contributor
"The Doc" Chad Matthews has written wrestling columns for over a decade. A physician by trade, Matthews began writing about wrestling as a hobby, but it became a passion. After 30 years as a wrestling fan, "The Doc" gives an unmatched analytical perspective on pro wrestling in the modern era. He is a long-time columnist for Lordsofpain.net and hosts a weekly podcast on the LOP Radio Network called "The Doc Says." His first book - The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment - ranks the Top 90 wrestlers from 1983 to present day, was originally published in December 2013, and is now in its third edition.
Matthews lives in North Carolina with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.
See more from
Chad