History
The WCW World Tag Team Championship was originally created as the NWA World Tag Team Championship of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (MACW) run by Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). Following the title's introduction in 1975, the Minnesota Wrecking Crew became the inaugural champions on January 29. The title was renamed the WCW World Tag Team Championship in 1991 when Ted Turner bought JCP and it became World Championship Wrestling. Despite the title's name in MACW, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) did not recognize its own NWA World Tag Team Championship until 1992, when the NWA held a tournament to crown the first tag team recognized by all of the NWA territories. Terry Gordy and Steve Williams won the tournament. [2] As a result of Gordy and Williams being the WCW World Tag Team Champions when they became NWA World Tag Team Champions, both titles were defended together until WCW left the NWA in September 1993. On January 17, 2008, the NWA withdrew its recognition of every WCW World Tag Team Champion linked to the NWA World Tag Team Championship, officially stating that their titles were formed in 1995.
In March 2001, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) purchased WCW. Soon after, The Invasion took place in which The Alliance (an alliance between WCW and ECW) was formed to fight against the WWF. During this time, the title was referred to as the WCW Tag Team Championship. At SummerSlam, the WCW Tag Team Champions Kane and The Undertaker defeated Chris Kanyon and Diamond Dallas Page for the WWF Tag Team Championship in a steel cage match to unify the two titles for the first time ever. Both titles remained independently active during this reign, with Kane and The Undertaker first losing the WWF Tag Team Championship to The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) on the September 17 episode of Raw , followed by the loss of the WCW Tag Team Championship to Booker T and Test on the September 25 episode of SmackDown! . At Survivor Series, the WCW Tag Team Champions The Dudley Boyz defeated the WWF Tag Team Champions The Hardy Boyz (Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy) in a steel cage unification match. The WCW Tag Team Championship was then retired with WWE (the former WWF) officially recognizing The Dudley Boyz as the final champions.
Richard Henry Blood Sr., better known by his ring name Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat, is an American retired professional wrestler best known for his work with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation. Steamboat is often regarded as one of the best professional wrestlers of all time.
The World Tag Team Championship was the original professional wrestling world tag team championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promotion, and the promotion's third tag team championship overall. Originally established by the then-World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) on June 3, 1971, it served as the only title for tag teams in the promotion until the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) bought World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in March 2001, which added their tag team championship. Both titles were unified in November 2001, retiring WCW's championship and continuing WWF's.
Ronald Simmons is an American retired professional football player and professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenures in WWE and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Prior to becoming a professional wrestler, Simmons played football as a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL), Canadian Football League (CFL) and United States Football League (USFL) for four seasons during the 1980s.
WrestleMania 17 was the 17th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on April 1, 2001, at the Reliant Astrodome in Houston, Texas. It was the first WrestleMania held in the state of Texas. Twelve matches were contested at the event, including one broadcast exclusively on the Sunday Night Heat pre-show.
The Alliance, also known as Team WCW/ECW and The Coalition, was a villainous professional wrestling stable in the World Wrestling Federation and the Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) that existed during the Invasion storyline from May to November 2001.
Michael Seitz is an American retired professional wrestler and former musician. Seitz is best known for leading The Fabulous Freebirds under the ring name Michael "P.S." Hayes and for his role as an announcer under the name "Handsome" Dok Hendrix in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He is currently employed with WWE as Vice President, Creative Writing & Booking and is also a senior producer.
The NWA World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created by the National Wrestling Alliance. From 1948 to 1982, the NWA allowed member promotions to create their own territorial version of the "NWA World Tag Team Championship" without oversight from the board of directors. The first of these NWA World Tag Team Championships was created in 1950 in the San Francisco territory, which while billed as a "World" title was essentially restricted to the specific NWA territory. In 1957 as many as 13 versions of the NWA World Tag Team Championship were confirmed to be in existence. In 1982 Big Time Wrestling, based in Los Angeles, closed and abandoned their version of the championship. The following year, the World Wrestling Federation, an NWA member at the time and which had its own World Tag Team Championship, split from the NWA in acrimony. This meant that only the Jim Crockett Promotions' NWA World Tag Team Championship was active within the NWA, but still being controlled by JCP, not the NWA board of directors. In 1991 that championship was renamed the WCW World Tag Team Championship.
The Fabulous Freebirds were a professional wrestling tag team who attained fame in the 1980s, performing into the 1990s. The team usually consisted of three wrestlers, although in different situations and points in its history, just two performed under the Freebirds name. The Freebird lineup of Hayes, Roberts, and Gordy was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2015, and members Hayes, Roberts, Gordy, and Garvin were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016.
Terry Ray Gordy Sr. was an American professional wrestler. Gordy appeared in the United States with promotions such as Mid-South Wrestling, Georgia Championship Wrestling, World Class Championship Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling and the Universal Wrestling Federation as a member of The Fabulous Freebirds. He also appeared in Japan with All Japan Pro Wrestling as one-half of The Miracle Violence Connection.
The WCW World Television Championship was a professional wrestling television championship owned by the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promotion.
Championship unification is the act of combining two or more separate professional wrestling championships into a single title.
WWF Invasion was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on July 22, 2001, at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. This event was initially planned to be the fourth Fully Loaded PPV, as it was advertised at the King of the Ring event, which immediately preceded Invasion, although the decision to replace Fully Loaded was made in May. Invasion was the first pay-per-view to feature the ongoing Invasion storyline, which featured wrestlers from the WWF taking on The Coalition, a combined force of wrestlers from World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), later known as The Alliance. The event featured WWF wrestlers facing WCW and ECW wrestlers.
The 2001 SummerSlam was the 14th annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on August 19, 2001, at the Compaq Center at San Jose in San Jose, California. It was the last SummerSlam promoted under the WWF name, as the promotion was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002. It was also the last SummerSlam held before the introduction of the brand extension in March 2002.
The 2001 Survivor Series was the 15th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on November 18, 2001, at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was the last Survivor Series to be produced under the WWF name, as the company would be forced to change its name several months later as the result of a verdict in the World Wildlife Fund's lawsuit against the company; the company became World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002. It was also the last Survivor Series held before the introduction of the brand extension in March 2002.
The 2001 Vengeance was the inaugural Vengeance professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on December 9, 2001, at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, California. The event replaced the promotion's usual December PPV, Armageddon, for the year 2001; Armageddon was reinstated in 2002 with Vengeance moved up to July. It was also the only Vengeance event promoted under the WWF name as the promotion was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002. It would also be the only Vengeance held before the introduction of the brand extension in March 2002.
The 2001 King of the Ring was the ninth annual King of the Ring professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation that featured the 15th King of the Ring tournament. It was the final King of the Ring PPV and tournament held under the WWF name as the promotion was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002. The event took place on June 24, 2001, at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The main event was a Triple threat match, a match involving three competitors, for the WWF Championship. Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho to retain the title. The undercard featured the 2001 King of the Ring tournament, which was won by Edge.
The 2001 Unforgiven was the fourth annual Unforgiven professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on September 23, 2001, at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the final Unforgiven event held under the WWF name as the promotion was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002. It was also the last Unforgiven held before the introduction of the brand extension in March 2002.
The 2001 No Mercy was the fourth No Mercy professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. The event took place on October 21, 2001, at the Savvis Center in St. Louis, Missouri. It was the final No Mercy event held under the WWF name as the promotion was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in May 2002. It was also the final No Mercy held before the introduction of the brand extension in March 2002.
The American professional wrestling promotion WWE has maintained several men's and women's tag team championships since Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) seceded from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1963 to become the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), which was later subjected to various name changes, including World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)—in April 2011, the company ceased using its full name and has since just been referred to as WWE. The first men's tag team title, the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship, preceded the company's creation, as it was established in 1958 for CWC as a version of the NWA United States Tag Team Championship, while the first women's tag team title, the WWF Women's Tag Team Championship, was established in 1983. Whenever the WWE brand extension has been implemented, separate tag team championships have been created or allocated for each brand.
