10 Seriously Bizarre TNA Tag Teams

For all of TNA’s faults over the years, the promotion has often boasted a pretty strong tag team division. Unfortunately, though, for every Motor City Machine Guns, LAX, and America’s Most Wanted, there are other teams that didn’t quite work and are only ingrained into the collective memories of fans due to plain weirdness. 

Whether they were one-offs, genuine contenders or actual, honest-to-goodness tag team champions, the following pairs were certainly strange for one reason or another. 

This is 10 Seriously Bizarre TNA Tag Teams. 

10. D-Ray 3000 & Shark Boy

The masked Shark Boy was TNA’s resident cult hero in the Summer of 2004, having been on the roster since TNA’s seventh weekly pay-per-view, when he was joined by another wacky character. D-Ray 3000 – named after Outcast’s Andre 3000, whom he closely resembled – was thrown together with the X-Division star on a whim, with the duo simply instructed to ‘be funny’ in segments and matches. 

Not many of their opponents feared the pairing, but they had a decent little run as an undercard squad, picking up a few wins on the low-priority Xplosion show and were involved in a storyline where their contracts were acquired by Goldilocks. Unsurprisingly, the duo involving a man who looked like a rapper and another who thought he was a shark got nowhere near the TNA Tag Team Titles. It gave two hardworking performers something to do for about five months or so at the very least. 

9. Phi Delta Slam

Phi Delta Slam were a longtime jobber tag team who showed up in TNA in early 2005 and were heavily involved in a storyline before disappearing off the face of the Earth. One major, blatant issue in their tandem was a severe lack of talent and only getting hired for driving Dusty Rhodes around Florida. 

Managed by Trinity, the main thing Big Tilly and Bruno Sassi were involved in was an angle that revolved around the battle between Trinity and Traci Brooks to become the American Dream’s sole assistant. 

The worst thing about Phi Delta Slam - besides their shoddy ringwork - was their complete inability to live up to their frat house gimmick. They were just a couple of big boys who came out with paddleboards. 

Needless to say, it didn’t get over and they were gone within the space of three matches, falling out of favour when Dusty Rhodes made his exit. The tandem resurfaced many years later, though, as Big Rocco and Sally Boy, the personal security of the Main Event Mafia. 

8. The Flying Elvises

The early days of the then-Nashville based promotion could best be described as ‘throw everything at the wall, see what sticks and hope we don’t run out of money by next week’s show’. One of the genius ideas designed to appeal to the Tennessee fans was the Flying Elvises, AKA the Flying Elvis Impersonators. For some reason, they were sent out to compete in TNA’s very first match in a winning effort. 

Sonny Siaki, Jorge Estrada and Jimmy Yang were all plenty capable in the ring and could have a decent match, but anyone wrestling in a Jumpsuit and adopting the mannerisms of The King is immediately going to be compared with The Honky Tonk Man, and not in a favourable way. Initially a stable, Siaki eventually split away from the group, leaving Estrada and Yang to tag a few more times before it simmered down and was ended.  

7. AJ Styles & Vince Russo

Given his history, it was no surprise to see Vince Russo booking himself in a main event, even by the time 2003 rolled around.  The leader of Sports Entertainment Xtreme (S.E.X.) wrestled three main event matches for TNA in 2003, including one where he teamed with AJ Styles. 

Russo – who had been managing The Phenomenal One – suffered the first in-ring loss of his career (despite competing 10 times prior to this) when he fell to Dusty Rhodes and Jeff Jarrett. Of course, Russo didn’t take the pin. 

It was bizarre to see Styles in this sort of position, as TNA hadn’t quite worked out what they wanted to do with him in the main event scene. 

6. Team Pacman

It’s hard to fault TNA for using a celebrity in a prominent spot as they tried to get some mainstream attention and more eyes on their fledgling product. However, it wasn’t the best idea to hire controversial NFL player Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones and making him one half of their tag team champions. 

Jones was suspended after he had paralysed a man in a strip club shooting when Jeff Jarrett – a fan of Pacman’s Tennessee Titans team – suggested he come in for a brief run. Unable to do anything physical due to a clause in his NFL contract, Jones was to strictly compete in tag matches alongside R-Truth, though all he did in these matches was stand on the apron and occasionally perform a leapfrog.

Team Pacman beat Sting and Kurt Angle for the tag titles, defending them twice on television before Jones was replaced by Consequences Creed (AKA Xavier Woods). 

The whole thing was a disgusting promotional tactic and a total misfire in the ring. Jones was also paid a ton of money and added nothing to the TNA product. 

5. Jim Duggan & Moondog Spot

Sometimes, nostalgia isn’t necessarily a good thing, and that was the case when Jim Duggan teamed up with Moondog Spot in TNA. Whilst Duggan had the charisma to carry him and the ability to hide his softening physique with dungarees, Spot looked horrendous out there. 

To celebrate the start of the Iraq war, the pair scored a patriotic win over Mike Sanders and Glenn Gilberti in a horrible match. This was one of Spot’s last matches before he suffered a heart attack in the ring and passed away eight months later. 

4. Shark Boy & New Jack

Shark Boy was a steady utility player in TNA, being plugged in where the company saw fit. This saw him team up with New Jack. TNA astutely played up the odd couple nature of their alliance, with New Jack making it very clear he didn’t want anything to do with ‘no damn fish’ and referring to the man in the mask as a ‘haemorrhoid’. 

The two had some amusing backstage segments together, which included Shark Boy insisting his partner jump into a paddling pool, the two playing Twister backstage, and one where he gave New Jack his very own shark mask. 

The sum total of their in-ring output, however, was two losses to the Harris twins, one of which came in the ‘Anarchy Alliance Tournament’. 

3. The Dupps

The Dupps had previously competed in ECW, the indies, and WWE developmental, before eventually showing up on TNA’s first show. The cartoonishly stereotypical rednecks did all the classic ‘bits’ of implying incestuous relationships. 

Inaugural winners of the positively insane Dupp Cup, the team were deeply unpleasant in almost every way and are mostly remembered for refusing to wrestle the Rainbow Express because they were uncomfortable with their ‘alternative lifestyle’. Thankfully, they were only around for a few shows, though Bo stuck around for a couple of extra singles matches. 

TNA were going all-in on toilet humour and controversy in those dark early days and the Dupps pretty much epitomised the worst of both worlds. 

2. Black Reign & Rellik

Black Reign and Rellik was the unholy union of the alter-egos of Dustin Rhodes and Johnny Stamboli. 

The lamentable characters were managed by James Mitchell and made their bow in a brutal 10,000 Tacks Match with Raven and Abyss. They were unsuccessful in it, a recurring theme as they racked up losses against LAX, Curry Man & Shark Boy, Eric Young & Kaz, and Team 3D. 

Rhodes has been very open with this time in his life and career not being a great one due to serious substance abuse issues at the time, but Black Reign was up there with the worst of TNA and saddling him with Rellik (‘Killer’ spelt backwards, which TNA made sure that you understood) didn’t do much to improve the act. 

1. The Johnsons

There were a number of dumb ideas on TNA’s very first show. The Johnsons were the absolute worst. 

Rod and Richard (Dick) Johnson were the tag team of human penises who wrestled in flesh-coloured bodysuits. Portrayed by the Shane Twins – later WWE’s The Gymini – they didn’t even play up to the gimmick properly! They were just a couple of muscular dudes who wrestled in a generic manner. 

They showed up with Mortimer Plumtree, looking like a couple of penises, and beat the cobbled-together tag team of James Storm and Psicosis. 

Then, three weeks later, they wrestled their second and final match, putting over Storm and new American’s Most Wanted partner Chris Harris, their run ending with a real anti-climax.