9 Thrown Together Tag Teams That Resurrected Careers

Professional wrestling is an ever-changing industry, where individuals must frequently evolve and reinvent themselves to stay relevant in a most competitive environment. The longer an individual takes to take off to the stratosphere the harder it becomes, as younger talent joins the rapid stream of piranhas already flooding past.

Whilst this is daunting, professional wrestling also comes with a traditional little thing called tag team wrestling, a sort of side division to the main event that allows inexperienced workers to learn the ropes and for older talent to be showcased without being overexposed.

Tag team wrestling also provides interesting stories for those singles stars that are treading water somewhat. World Wrestling Entertainment does this more than most, due in part to their decade-long negligence of the tag division and their overabundance of mid-card singles performers.

The majority of thrown-together tag teams fizzle out (hey Val Venis and Viscera!), but every now and then creative can magically strike gold. An out of nowhere duo catches on, and those men involved in the team get a brand new lease of life. Whether it actually leads to somewhere is another matter, but tag team wrestling has proven to be wrestling rehabilitation on a number of occasions.

Here are nine tag teams that resurrected the careers of one or two (and possibly three) of the members. Included are two TNA teams, the resurrected from which find themselves in WWE today.

When all is said and done on the career of the Samoan Submission Machine, it is unlikely that this chapter will get much coverage. Without this chapter however the Samoa Joe that we all enjoy in NXT today may not have come to be, and whilst the duo only teamed for a short time at the beginning of 2012 the run reinvigorated the current NXT Champion.

After coming into TNA as one of the top wrestlers in the world 2005, the initial strong booking that Joe received was long gone by 2011. Joe's performances had gone from being top of the tree to sluggish to say the least, and many were lamenting times gone by.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the team with Magnus happened. The duo won TNA World Tag Team gold, and Joe was able to work quality matches somewhat under the radar. His Nation of Violence misery was forgotten for a moment, and when the team ended Joe returned to form somewhat in matches against Austin Aries and his former partner, Magnus.

Whilst Joe didn't magically return to 2005 'Joe's Gonna Kill You' super warrior at this point, the brief teaming threw his career a much-needed lifeline.