Tag Team Focus: Money Incorporated

You know, something I dont like about the current WWE product is their total de-emphasis on the Tag Team Division.  It's being treated like a place to shunt the stars they want to feature but don't know what to do with.  Case in point: Tag Team Champions David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty.

I miss a time when there were real tag teams, tag teams with names.  People who weren't just partnered together for the hell of it.  Teams like The Road Warriors (or if you prefer, the Legion of Doom), teams like The Hart Foundation, teams like The Rockers.  And teams like Money Incorporated, or Money Inc. for short.

Money Inc was comprised of "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Shyster.  They were managed by Jimmy "Mouth Of The South" Hart (and boy, can you name me a more beloved and despised manager in the eighties than him?) and they were AWESOME.

The Million Dollar Man had for years debased fans by paying them money to do demeaning tasks (RVD, I'm looking at you.)  He'd had his own personal championship title created.  I remember he picked it up from the maker wearing a Dracula cape.  But...what is a millionare without his loyal accountant?  That's where I.R.S. comes in.  He was an EEEEVIL tax-man, and I can only assume he kept the Million Dollar Man from having to pay his taxes.  This team was gold.  They worked together like an oiled machine, and won tag team gold on three separate occasions.  Ted is now a member of the WWE Hall of Fame, and Irwin works for the company as a road agent and occasionally makes appearances as a guest in comedy bits.

These are the kinds of matches I miss, the quick tags in and out, the two team members meshing with each other, and the matches themselves feeling almost main event caliber.  

Sadly, Money Inc. wasn't to last past 1993. Ted retired from active competition, and Irwin went on to defeat stream after stream of jobbers on Monday Night Raw.  Oh, and there was the one time that he feuded with Tatanka over unpaid taxes on a sacred headdress.

I'll focus on other tag teams at a later date, but for now, just let me say... MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEEEEEEYYOOOOOOO.


This is Mehe, signing off for now.

Epic Moments in Pro Wrestling, Part One

    We are now six full weeks removed from the Epic Promo Shoot that CM Punk gave on Monday Night Raw (6/27/2011).  The effects of this rant are still being felt in ripples across the seascape of "Sports Entertainment".  It caused an abrupt changing of the guard in the management and direction of the WWE.  It was, for lack of a better word, amazing.  That being said, I'd like to take a look back at other Epic Moments In Pro Wrestling, and I'll start with:

    Austin 3:16

    "You sit there, and you thump your Bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn't get you anywhere... Talk about your Psalms, talk about your John 3:16 ... Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass!"

    With these words, The Attitude Era of the WWF(E) was born.  For a very long time, wrestling had been stale, kiddie oriented, and frankly kind of boring.  It seemed that only the most die hard of fans had held on.  We were hoping for a hero.  We were downtrodden and dissapointed by what we were being given.  Clowns, Trashmen, Mantaurs.  It was horrible.  Then, this happened.  Attentions were grasped.  Steve Austin, a very talented but underappreciated wrestler, signed with the WWF(E) and was saddled with a gimmick called The Ringmaster.  He was instructed not to talk, given a manager (the wonderful Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase), and the Million Dollar Championship.  It was a poor fit for the man who would become arguably one of the most popular wrestlers of all time.

    Then came King of the Ring 1996.  A Cinderella story had been built around Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who had become a Born-Again Christian and was recovering from long bouts with drug abuse and alcoholism.  He made it all the way to the finals of the tournament, as did Steve Austin.  Austin defeated Jake, and during the Crowning Ceremony (personal interjection: no wrestler should wear a crown unless his name is Jerry Lawler, and even then it's iffy at best), Steve went completely off script and uttered the sentences I have quoted above.

    A phenomenon was born.

    Austin 3:16 shirts flew off the shelves.  They were EVERYWHERE.  At football games, in hallways of high schools, in the malls, at Spencer's Gifts.  You couldn't spit and not hit someone wearing one.  It was amazing.  Austin continued to deliver week after week, taking on everyone in his path.  He became the representative of the working man when he put himself in the path of one Mr. McMahon (the on-air character of the real life owner of the WWF(E), Vince McMahon.


    One could say that Sports Entertainment was born out of that rivalry.  One could say many things.  However, in all truthfulness, Austin 3:16 was one of the most memorable turning points in the history of this beloved sport of ours.  And we wouldn't have it any other way.

    This is Mehe, signing off for now.