| Strike Force | |
|---|---|
 Tito Santana (left), Rick Martel (right) | |
| Tag team | |
| Members | Rick Martel [1] Tito Santana [1] |
| Name(s) | Strike Force |
| Billed heights | Rick Martel: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) [2] Tito Santana: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) [3] |
| Combined billed weight | 460 lb (210 kg; 33 st) [4] |
| Debut | August 1987 [5] |
| Disbanded | April 2, 1989 [6] |
| Years active | 1987–1989 |
Strike Force was a professional wrestling tag team in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) composed of Tito Santana and Rick Martel. [1]
On August 29, 1982, Santana and Martel teamed up for the first time. They faced AWA Tag Team Champions The High Flyers, Greg Gagne and "Jumpin'" Jim Brunzell for the title. Martel and Santana came up short after Brunzell pinned Santana.
The team officially formed on a permanent basis after Martel defeated both members of The Islanders (Haku and Tama) in separate singles matches in July 1987 [7] (after the departure of his then tag team partner Tom Zenk from the WWF, with Zenk's departure worked into the feud and used as fodder by the Islanders to taunt Martel). On the August 15, 1987 episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling , the Islanders jumped Martel after his win over Barry Horowitz. Santana, who was doing commentary in the Spanish broadcast booth, ran to the ring to help Martel fight off the attackers. [5] The team were played off as good looking pretty boys (a story-line that came directly from the team's predecessor The Can-Am Connection) even using the theme called "Girls In Cars", which was originally made for the Can-Am Connection. The name Strike Force came from Santana's promise that as a team they would, "be striking (the Islanders) with force." Martel immediately came up with the team's name based on this. [8] They feuded with the Islanders until October, when they got a shot at The Hart Foundation for the Tag Team Championship. On October 27, 1987 [9] they won the title when Jim Neidhart submitted to Martel's Boston crab. [10] [11] While feuding with the Harts, they resumed their feud with the Islanders, successfully defending the title against both teams at house shows across the country.
The team held onto the championship until WrestleMania IV, when they lost it to Demolition. [12] Martel had Smash in the Boston Crab, until Ax hit him in the back of the head with Mr. Fuji's cane, while the ref was distracted by a fight between Santana and Fuji. [13]
In July 1988, Martel (kayfabe) suffered an injury after taking Demolition's finisher on the floor, splitting up the team for several months. In reality, Martel took an extended leave of absence to help take care of his wife, who was severely ill. [14] [15]
Santana wrestled in singles matches again afterward for a while. Martel returned to the WWF in January 1989 at the Royal Rumble. Sometime later, Santana and Martel reunited, taking on The Brain Busters at WrestleMania V. [6] After Santana accidentally knocked Martel out with a flying forearm, Martel left Santana alone in the ring to fend for himself, thus turning heel. Martel later stated that he felt Santana had been riding his coattails and was sick and tired of carrying him. The two feuded for the next year, as Martel transformed into "The Model" Rick Martel, an arrogant egomaniac. [11] Both men scored wins over the other, including a win by Santana over Martel in the final of the 1989 King of the Ring tournament. [16] Martel scored a win over Santana later in the year at the Survivor Series when he pinned his former partner as the first elimination of the opening match of the night. The feud between the two effectively died out after the Survivor Series, with the two sporadically facing each other in matches throughout 1990, with their last two televised meetings taking place around Thanksgiving, first being on the opposite sides of the Grand Finale match of the 1990 Survivor Series, where Santana's partners, Hulk Hogan and then-WWF Champion The Ultimate Warrior were the sole survivors, giving Santana's team the victory, and a one on one match aired the next night on the November 23, 1990 (taped October 30) of The Main Event IV , where Martel won by submission.
Santana left the WWF in August 1993 and Martel in January 1995. Santana was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
Barry Allen Darsow is an American retired professional wrestler who performed as Smash, one half of the tag team Demolition. He also wrestled as Krusher Kruschev, Repo Man, the Blacktop Bully and "Mr. Hole in One" Barry Darsow.
WrestleMania IV was the fourth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. The event took place on March 27, 1988, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The announced attendance of the event was 19,199.
WrestleMania V was the fifth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on April 2, 1989, at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A total of 14 matches were contested at the event.
Demolition was an American professional wrestling tag team most prominent during the late 1980s and early 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation made up of Ax, Smash, and later Crush. In the WWF, Demolition were three-time WWF World Tag Team Champions, and hold the record for the most combined days as reigning champions with that championship.
Merced Solis, better known by the ring name Tito Santana, is an American professional wrestler, trainer, and retired school teacher.
Richard Vigneault is a Canadian retired professional wrestler, trainer, and television presenter, better known by his ring name, Rick "The Model" Martel. He is best known for his appearances with the American Wrestling Association, the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. Championships held by Martel over the course of his career include the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, WCW World Television Championship, and WWF World Tag Team Championship.
Sione Havea Vailahi is a Tongan professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, The Barbarian. He is best known for his various stints with National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and for being a part of tag teams The Powers of Pain with The Warlord and Faces of Fear with Meng.
The Powers of Pain are a professional wrestling tag team.
The Heenan Family was a stable of wrestlers managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan beginning in the 1970s. Heenan managed wrestlers under the Heenan Family name in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
Samuel Larry Anoa'i Fatu is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation under the ring names The Tonga Kid and Tama and with World Championship Wrestling as The Samoan Savage.
The Dream Team was a World Wrestling Federation tag team from 1985 to March 29, 1987 consisting of Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine managed by "Luscious" Johnny Valiant. The New Dream Team, also managed by Johnny Valiant, saw Dino Bravo replace Brutus Beefcake and competed from March 1987 until the winter of 1988.
The Can-Am Connection was a tag team composed of Rick Martel and Tom Zenk in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) through 1986 and 1987.
The Islanders was a professional wrestling tag team. The members were Tonga Fifita (Haku) and Sam Fatu (Tama), and they wrestled in the World Wrestling Federation. They were managed by Bobby Heenan and had a memorable feud with The British Bulldogs in which they kidnapped their pet mascot Matilda. They were also very briefly joined by a third islander Siva Afi. Haku is the father of Tama Tonga while Tama is the uncle of Solo Sikoa and the father of Jacob Fatu; both Tonga and Sikoa currently wrestle as The Bloodline.
The 1989 SummerSlam was the second annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on August 28, 1989, in the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Ten matches were contested at the event, including one dark match held before the live broadcast.
The 1990 SummerSlam was the third annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on August 27, 1990, at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The card consisted of 10 televised matches, including two main events. The Ultimate Warrior successfully defended the WWF World Heavyweight Championship against Rick Rude in a Steel Cage match, and Hulk Hogan defeated Earthquake by countout.
The 1988 Royal Rumble was the inaugural Royal Rumble professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on January 24, 1988, at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The event aired as a television special on the USA Network on the same night as Jim Crockett Promotions' Bunkhouse Stampede pay-per-view (PPV) and was centered on the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. It would be the only Royal Rumble event to broadcast as a television special, as beginning with the 1989 event, it began airing on pay-per-view. After the launch of the WWE Network in 2014, this inaugural Royal Rumble was included with the rest of the Royal Rumble events in the PPV section.
The 1987 Survivor Series was the inaugural Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on Thanksgiving Night on November 26, 1987, and was held at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield Township, Ohio. It was one of the first four annual pay-per-view events produced by the WWF, along with WrestleMania, introduced in 1985, and Royal Rumble and SummerSlam, introduced in 1988, referred to as the "Big Four".
The 1988 Survivor Series was the second annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on November 24, 1988, at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield Township, Ohio for the second consecutive year. Four matches were contested at the event.
The 1989 Survivor Series was the third annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on Thanksgiving Day on November 23, 1989, at the Rosemont Horizon in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois.
The Hart Foundation is the name of several derivative tag teams and stables composed primarily of members and close friends of the Hart wrestling family. The name originated in the World Wrestling Federation in 1985 with the original Hart Foundation consisting of brothers-in-law Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart. Initially managed by Jimmy Hart, they won the WWF Tag Team Championship twice. WWE has consistently ranked the original Hart Foundation as one of the greatest tag teams in wrestling history.
| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
