Matches That Time Forgot #23

The NWO dominated WCW from late 1996 to early 1998. If you watch an isolated episode of Nitro from that time period, you'll have black-and-white merchandise shoved down your throat ad infinitum. It was a formula that proved to be successful in the short-term, but it wasn't the only reason why Nitro happened to be slaughtering Raw in the ratings war. There was a cruiserweight division, and yes, there was even a booming tag team division. Ah, real tag teams...remember those? Relatively speaking, the WWF had a strong tag division in late '96/early '97, but it didn't hold a candle to WCW's roster of celebrated tandems.

The Nasty Boys, The Road Warriors, Harlem Heat, The Outsiders, The Steiner Brothers, Faces of Fear, High Voltage (mere jobbers, but they had a cool look)...sweet line-up, eh? Today's match pits The Nasty Boys against Faces of Fear (Meng and The Barbarian, as managed by Jimmy Hart). It's an ugly slugfest. Honestly, I don't know why I chose to spotlight this particular bout, but it does serve as a reminder of how important the Tag Team Championship was under Eric Bischoff's incumbency. That's one thing he did right. Keep an eye out for Hart's high spot near the end. That's no typo, baby!