In 1967 the team of Lou Albano and Tony Altimore, The Sicilians, won the straps from Pugliese and Skoaland in Atlantic City, NJ, but their reign lasted only two weeks before being defeated by Bruno Sammartino and Spiros Arion, also in Atlantic City. However, because Sammartino was already WWWF World Champion, they were forced to relinquish the belts, and the U.S. tag titles were abandoned.

The federation went without any tag titles until 1969 when the Rising Suns, Prof. Toru Tanaka and Mitsu Arakawa became the WWWF International Tag Team Champions. How they gained this honor is suspect. Some say they won the belts in a tournament in Japan, but others say they "Claimed" the title, but were only recognized after defeating Haystacks Calhoun and Victor Rivera in New York City (presumably Madison Square Garden.)

Arakawa and Tanaka held the belts for six months before Rivera found a new partner to defeat them in Tony Marino. In 1970 the Mongols arrived on the scene, Geeto and Bepo (Newton Tattrie and Nikoli Volkoff, respectively). They were two big rough and tough brawlers from Mongolia, managed by Lou Albano and Tony Altimore, and they became Albano’s first tag team he managed to the straps on June 15, 1970 when they defeated Marino and Rivera in New York City. Their reign lasted one year almost to the day when they were defeated by Bruno Sammartino and Dominic Denucci in Pittburgh, PA. But The Mongols would not stay down for long as they came back to regain the belts from Sammartino and Denucci just two weeks later in Pittsburgh. In late 1971, The Mongols, now managed solely by Lou Albano, finally lost the International straps to "Crazy" Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler in Pittsburgh.

The International titles were abandoned in December of 1971. It is possible that Geeto Mongol and Johnny DeFazio defeated Graham and Tyler for the belts in Pittsburgh on the 18^th of that month, but it is generally regarded that Graham and Tyler were the last champions. The International straps came back in April of 1985 when Vince McMahon and Seiji Sakaguchi awarded the belts to Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch in Madison Square Garden on the 22^nd of that month. However, they did not hold the belts long as Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura defeated the North-South Connection in Kobe City Japan about a month later.

I hate to leave everyone in another cliffhanger again this month, but I think I’m going to end it here. 

NEXT MONTH: 

You can look forward to the birth of the WWWF World Tag Team Titles, and as I run through the list of champions I will try to offer a little more detail than these early title matches.