But again, Windham and Rotundo's title reign was short-lived.  Recent Intercontinental Champion Greg Valentine teamed with newcomer Brutus Beefcake as a makeshift tandem to beat the U.S. Express when Johnny V.'s cigar was used in Windham's eyes.  The only tag matches Valentine and Beefcake had together prior to this was in the Valentine vs. Santana feud where Santana teamed with various partners to beat Valentine and Beefcake.  The team was eventually named the Dream Team by Johnny V.

They actually enjoyed a lengthy title reign, until WrestleMania 2 where The British Bulldogs, who had several shots before this, got past the Dream Team when Davey Boy Smith sent Valentine into Dynamite Kid on the apron.  Dynamite went flying off causing the back injury that eventually ended his career, but not before he enjoyed his greatest amount of success.

Toward the end of the Bulldogs' reign, Dynamite's back injury worsened to the point that he could no longer work.  They used various replacements at house shows, including Tito Santana, Ricky Steamboat and Billy Jack Haynes.  Finally they had to take the titles off the company's greatest team ever!  But one member was still too injured to work and needed surgery to fix the problem.  An angle was devised to take the belts off the team without Dynamite having to work and it even set up a tag team feud upon his return.  Jimmy Hart's newest proteges were a tag team called the Hart Foundation, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, and Bret "Hit Man" Hart.  They received a title shot on television in January of 1987.  As the champs came into the ring, the Bulldogs pet dog Matilda chased Jimmy Hart around the ring.  As Dynamite was walking into the ring Hart ran past, hitting him in the head with his megaphone, and Dynamite was unconscious during the whole match.  Davey Boy worked the match alone, and was eventually pinned to the Hart Attack.  He didn't have to lose much face in the process since what single could beat two men?

The Harts had a lengthy title reign, meeting mostly their the Bulldogs.  They started their reign by losing every house show in non-title matches to tandems like the Killer Bees and the Rougeaus with the angle being that since the match was signed before the Harts won the titles they were not obligated to defend the belts (but at the same this angle had to ignore the 30-day rule, but I guess that was a technicality).

Then a new tag team came on the scene.  The Can-Am Connection consisted of veteran wrestler Rick Martel and young up-and-comer Tom Zenk.  They were naturals to defeat the Harts, except for one thing.  Zenk felt under-appreciated and walked out on the company.  Instead they ran an angle where The Islanders, Haku and Tama, wrestled a match while Tito Santana was doing Spanish commentary.  The Islanders took exception to Tito and brawled with him igniting a hot team feud.  Tito found Rick Martel as his partner, and between feuding with The Islanders, found time to have a title match with the Harts and win the titles in Syracuse on October 27.

But by this time a new vicious team joined the fray.  Demolition, Ax and Smash, were certainly not the most original of tandems, but after I found out Ax was Bill Eadie, the Masked Superstar, I became Demolition mark # 1.  A lot of people make a big deal about Randy Cully (Moondog Rex) being an original member, but I find that a rather meaningless footnote.  The real version was Eadie and Barry Darsow (aka Krusher Kruschev).  "Lucious" Johnny V. was their original manager, but he was soon replaced by Mr. Fuji.  Anyway, WrestleMania 4 in Atlantic City became the site where this vicious duo won the tag straps when Martel held Smash in a Boston crab, but Ax hit him with Fuji's cane when the ref wasn't looking.

Demolition dominated the division for over a year.  They were heels, but soon got so many cheers they had to be turned babyface.  Oh yeah, and when the WWF failed to sign the Road Warriors the first time, they put these two together.  When they failed a second time they signed the Powers of Pain instead and used them as #1 contenders.  But fans soon grew wise that neither of these teams were the real deal, and they had to be reversed, since Demos were getting all the cheers.  So at the Survivor Series, Mr. Fuji turned on his team to go with Powers of Pain, and things were righted again (that is except for Baron von Raschke who was managing the Powers of Pain, since he was no longer needed and was fired).  That kept the Demos going a bit longer.  In fact, the Demos hold the record for the longest reigning WWF tag team champions ever.

Finally, Bobby Heenan had a team that was new to the WWF in Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard.  I never got used to seeing them wrestler under a WWF logo, nor did I get used to seeing Ric Flair wrestle under it in 1991-92.  But there they were and on a July Saturday Night's Main Event in Worcester, Mass., in 1989, the Brain Busters, as they were then called, won the tag titles when Andre the Giant slid a folding chair into the ring for the Busters to use.

But Demolition would not be denied. Just three months later they won the titles back a second time.  It's amazing that a pair of decent workers who were hampered by a gimmick of being clones to the competition's greatest tag team could hold such success.  Not only did they hold the company's tag titles longer than other tandem in history, they were also only the third team to hold the belts three times (Fuji and Tanaka were first, The Samoans were second), when they lost them to Andre the Giant and Haku, and regained them at WrestleMania 6 In Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

NEXT MONTH:

A first look at the WWF's North American, er, I mean Intercontinental Title.  Well, if you don't get that reference, tune in next month.