There’s nothing greater than having a member of a heel (bad guy) tag team distract the referee so that his partner can beat up on the baby face (good guy) behind the ref’s back to the great dismay of the crowd. It’s how the bad guys get heat (excitement/jeers/boo’s) from the crowd. The tag team used to be one of the most popular attractions in pro wrestling, and it’s why Steve Johnson and
Steve Johnson & Greg Oliver collaborated together to give us The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams.
The book is broken up into several sections: The Top Twenty (these kinds of debates always have controversy; depending on your criteria, you can make a case for a lot of teams), The Next Five, The Golden Era (the 1950s to the mid-1960s), The Brothers, The Territorial Era (mid-1960s to mid-1980s), The Evil Foreigners, and last but certainly not least, The National Era.
With an introduction by legendary tag team champion “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton and an introduction by the writers themselves, The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams covers the history and eveolution of the tag team as wrestling itself grew with the advent of television and its further explosion later on as cable became prominent in households across the land.
Overall, The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams is a great (and pretty thorough) look at the historical significance of the tag team in pro wrestling. Definitely a great read for the long-time pro wrestling fan.