Even though professional wrestling has waned in popularity over the past half decade, tag team wrestling has suffered a much worse fate, nearly going extinct. For some reason, many of the big wigs in the WWE and TNA have stopped developing tag teams, seemingly forgetting about it entirely.
For that reason alone, “Allied Powers: The World’s Greatest Tag Teams” is a must own for any hardcore fan of the sport.
Nevertheless, those same fans may be a bit upset with the final product, which in spite of being chock-full of content (nine hours on three DVDs) misses the mark at times, partly thanks to shoddy match segways and the exclusion of several great teams.
For one, the pre-match banter from The Miz and John Morrison is extremely annoying. While they have their moments, listening to them constantly refer to themselves as the greatest tag team gets tiresome quickly. While no one would ever doubt how talented the team is, it’s easy to name at least a dozen other teams that were a better pair than these two.
After a while, it gets so bad that you’ll either choose to fast forward through their diatribes completely or laugh at them and wait for it to pass.
Aside from that, the fact that many of the other great tag teams from ECW, such as the Impact Players, Perry Saturn and Kronus and the Pitbulls weren’t featured or are barely shown at all, while marginal and gimmick teams like the Bushwackers and Billy and Chuck are.
Talk about crazy.
In the end, all this shows is that popularity had more to do with making the list than pure skill did.
The same thing goes for tag teams like Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko not being included. Lost in both the political shuffle historically after Benoit’s suicide and the state WCW was in during their rise, it’s a true shame not one of their matches wasn’t included on this documentary and somewhat limits the credibility of the compilation as a whole.
On the other hand, seeing teams the likes of the Fabulous Freebirds, the Steiners, Harlem Heat, Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson and the Road Warriors all featured and a nice helping of extras [such as the Freebirds original music video and a handful of great interviews] makes the overall package, in spite of its shortcomings, a must buy for true fans of the sport and anyone who has never seen a great tag match before.
Tag team wrestling is unquestionably a dying art. Back in the day, such teams as The Road Warriors, The Hart Foundation and The Steiners enjoyed extreme success as well as popularity. Now a days most teams just consist of 2 guys thrown together who either already had their run in singles compitition or a booker just can’t find a place for them on their own. Although Chris Benoit was a part of many great teams, the wwe acknowledges him as limitedly as possible due to the controversy surrounding his death.