In January 1991, WCW (the former MACW) began the process of withdrawing as a member of the NWA to become an independent promotion, thus the name of the title was changed to the WCW World Tag Team Championship. On July 12, 1992, the WCW World Tag Team Championship was unified with the NWA World Tag Team Championship, which was created earlier that year by the NWA as its prime tag team championship. In September 1993, WCW's withdrawal from the NWA was made official, and the NWA World Tag Team Championship was returned to the NWA; the title was reactivated by the NWA in 1995.[1]
In March 2001, all WCW assets were purchased by the then World Wrestling Federation (WWF) after AOL/Time Warner discontinued their involvement in wrestling programming.[2] After the purchase, the WWF continued the use of the championship as a part of a storyline called The Invasion, which involved a rivalry between former WCW wrestlers and original WWF wrestlers before the purchase of WCW.
Title reigns were determined either by professional wrestling matches with different tag teams, a duo of wrestlers, involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines or were awarded the title due to scripted circumstances. Wrestlers were portrayed as either villains or fan favorites as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches for the championship.[3] The inaugural champions, under the NWA, were The Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Gene Anderson and Ole Anderson), who were announced to have won the titles after winning a tournament in January 1975.[4]
Before the promotion's purchase, the final champions recognized by WCW were Sean O' Haire and Chuck Palumbo; they were also the first champions under the titles operation in the WWF. On November 18, 2001, the championship was deactivated after its use in the Invasion storyline. The title was unified with the WWF Tag Team Championship, and the final champions recognized by the WWF, were The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley).[5] The title was won in Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United States. Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) held the most reigns as a tag team (10), and Booker T held the most individual reigns (11), which is the same number of times the title was vacated. At 282 days, Doom's reign during WCW's NWA withdrawal was the longest in the championship's history. Overall, there were 143 title reigns.
Title history
Names
Name
Years
NWA World Tag Team Championship
January 29, 1975 – January 1991
WCW World Tag Team Championship
January 1991 – March 26, 2001
WCW Tag Team Championship
June 24, 2001 – November 18, 2001
Reigns
Key
No.
Overall reign number
Reign
Reign number for the specific team—reign numbers for the individuals are in parentheses, if different
On a TV taping in Raleigh, the Andersons were said to be headed to San Francisco to participate in a tournament to crown new NWA World Tag Team Champions. The Andersons appeared with the belts on television the next week.
Gene was legitimately injured, and as a result, the NWA forced The Minnesota Wrecking Crew to relinquish the titles. Jim Crockett Promotions announced that a tournament to crown new champions would take place.
(Kayfabe) Awarded to Ole Anderson & Stan Hansen by the NWA after finalists Wahoo McDaniel & Magnificent Don Muraco split. In reality, Ole was fired as Jim Crockett Promotions booker and he took the championship belts to Georgia Championship Wrestling.
Kernodle and Slaughter won the titles in a fictional tournament final. The promotion claimed that they had beaten Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba in Tokyo, Japan. Becomes undisputed championship on December 26, 1982, when Los Angeles version is abandoned.
Event was known as "The Final Conflict". The match had a stipulation that if Steamboat and Youngblood were to lose, they would never be a tag team again.
During this title reign, Krusher Krushchev joined the Koloffs to form a three-man team, in which the NWA applied the Freebird Rule, allowing all three members to defend the title.
Awarded in a phantom match in Spokane, Washington, said to have defeated Fernandez and Ivan Koloff (substituting for Rude after he left for the WWF). An earlier match against Fernandez and Rude was also shown.
Match was no disqualification. The Midnight Express attacked The Rock 'n' Roll Express en route to the ring, injuring Ricky Morton. Robert Gibson wrestled most of the match solo, but when an injured Morton returned to the ring, he was immediately put into a submission hold by Blanchard. Gibson surrendered rather than risk further injury to Morton. This title change aired on tape delay.
Referee Teddy Long fast-counted Road Warrior Hawk's shoulders on the mat, beginning Long's eventual heel turn that would see him fired as a referee and become a manager.
On July 12, 1992, Gordy and Williams won the NWA World Tag Team Championship, which was regarded as unified with the WCW World Tag Team Championship; from here until the withdrawal of WCW from the NWA, the two titles are defended together.
Anderson and Roma are stripped of the NWA World Tag Team Championship on September 1, 1993 following WCW's withdrawal from the NWA. WCW and NWA Tag Team Championships are hereafter no longer defended together.
This title change aired on tape delay on June 24, 1995. When the episode of WorldWide featuring this match was shot on May 3, Harlem Heat were still the champions as Slamboree did not occur until eighteen days later. While the reign of The Nasty Boys technically ended before it began due to the taping schedule, the team's official reign length is 33 days.
This title change aired on tape delay on July 22, 1995. Like the two previous reigns, the tapings were done far enough in advance for the champions not to have won the titles; when the match was taped, The Nasty Boys were still the champions and Harlem Heat's regaining of the titles on WorldWide had not yet aired.
WCW President Eric Bischoff returned the titles to The Outsiders as Luger was not medically cleared to wrestle at SuperBrawl, though Luger and The Giant only agreed to give back the belts if the nWo put all their titles on the line at Uncensored Syxx (1) also gets credited with a reign as the nWo invoked "Wolfpac Rules" and named Syxx as champion after an injury to Nash on October 13, 1997.
Sting won the championships in a singles match against The Giant, in which the winner would take control of the Tag Team Championship and choose a partner to defend with; on the following night's Nitro broadcast in Uniondale, NY, Sting chose Nash.
Rick Steiner and Buff Bagwell[15] defeated The Giant and Scott Steiner, who subbed for an injured Scott Hall.[16] Since Bagwell turned on Steiner during the match, Steiner was allowed to pick a new championship partner, and chose Kaos the next night on Nitro. After Kaos was injured, Steiner then chose Bagwell's mother, Judy, as his new championship partner on November 9, 1998 as a psychological ploy against Buff Bagwell.
Wright teamed up with General Rection, who took the place of an injured Disco Inferno. However, Inferno is recognized by WWE as the champion with Wright.
This title reign by Palumbo and O'Haire was the final recognized by WCW before its assets were bought by the WWF; titles renamed to WCW Tag Team Championship.
^ - This title reign is included twice for the purpose of showing the different recognitions by WCW and the WWF.
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1 2 Cawthon, Graham (2015). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 5: World Championship Wrestling 1995–2001. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN978-1499656343.
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