10 Teams You Forgot Were WWE Tag Team Champions

Happy Birthday to Nick Dinsmore, AKA former WWE superstar Eugene!

Dinsmore - who has recently announced a forthcoming 'Retirement Tour' - toiled for an age on the indies and then in WWE's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling, before finally making it to the bigtime as the simple savant.

In the summer of 2004, Eugene was everywhere. He was involved in a feud with Triple H, which led to a match at SummerSlam, tagged with Ric Flair on pay-per-view and was a part of The Rock's last in-ring segment for an age.

Eugene was a character first and foremost and was never going to be in the title mix (at least not for long). He did, however, win the World Tag Team Titles on one occasion, though he held the belts only briefly.

He was one of many wrestlers, particularly from this era, who you might struggle to remember holding doubles gold.

10. Eugene & William Regal

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Eugene was Eric Bischoff's kayfabe nephew, the Raw General Manager placing him under the care of the recently returned William Regal (who had been battling health issues for the past year).

They were a classic odd couple pairing and the blue-blooded Brit wasn't exactly keen at first though he came to have an affinity for his 'special' friend and sought to protect him against those who wished to take advantaged of him.

The two became a full-time tag team in the fall of 2004 and WWE teased giving them the tag straps when Raw was taped from Manchester, England on October 11.

They 'won', only for Bischoff to restart the match, after which La Resistance retained.

Still, WWE must have liked the reaction Eugene and Regal got, because they booked the strip proper on the November 15 episode of Raw. They defended the titles a few times on television, mostly against La Resistance, but their reign was ultimately cut short.

While defending against Christian and Tyson Tomko in the opener of 2005's New Year's Revolution pay-per-view, Eugene landed badly on a dropkick and injured his knee.

He needed surgery and would be out for a while, so WWE booked a title change on a house show, La Resistance regaining the belts (with Jonathan Coachman subbing for Eugene).

Regal would bounce back not too long after, joining up with Tajiri in another odd couple scenario and winning the titles on an episode of Raw that emanated from the Japanese Buzzsaw's homeland.

9. Lance Storm & Chief Morley

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As mentioned in the previous entry, William Regal had to take about a year out in order to recover from some health issues in 2003/04.

When these health issues started to occur, Regal was reigning as World Tag Team Champion with Lance Storm as the two were feuding with Rob Van Dam and Kane.

Rather than have the titles vacated, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff's 'Chief of Staff' Val 'Chief Morley' Venis stepped in.

It was a short-term fix, with Storm and Morley only successfully defending the titles once during the week that they held them, beating RVD and the Big Red Machine on the pre-WrestleMania XIX episode of Sunday Night Heat (their match was bumped from the main card due to time constraints).

The next night on Raw, RVD and Kane came good and won the titles.

8. Rikishi & Rico

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Well, wasn't this all quite the pointless endeavour?

In the spring of 2002, Rikishi was feuding with World Tag Team Champions Billy and Chuck, who were managed by their 'personal stylist', Rico.

Heading into the title match at Judgment Day, Rikishi didn't have a partner, with Vince McMahon picking a surprise one for him.

He picked Rico, basically turning things into a 3-on-1 handicap match where the Samoan superheavyweight had to fight his own partner, too.

But - quelle surprise - Rico's meddling actually backfired and he found himself as champion.

The storyline only lasted a couple of weeks, with one defense on television, before Billy and Chuck won them back. And everyone moved on with their lives. And nobody ever spoke about it again.

There was really no point in this reign, as it didn't lead anywhere and only served to cool off Gunn and Palumbo as they were starting to gain some steam.

7. Rico & Charlie Haas

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A couple of years later, Rico found himself as Tag Team Champion once more, though this time it was his partner - Charlie Haas - who was the (initially) reluctant party.

The flamboyant Rico and the straight-laced Haas bagged the gold in their first match as a team, beating Rikishi and Scotty Too Hotty on the April 22, 2004 episode of SmackDown.

You can see the psychology in pairing them up, since it was an easy-to-understand dichotomy, Rico had been floundering and Haas was a noted tag specialist fresh off a great run with Shelton Benjamin (who had been traded to Raw).

Regrettably, the odd couple duo (accompanied by 'Miss' Jackie Gayda) did next to nothing on television, defending the belts mainly on Velocity and at house shows.

Their most high profile defense was against Hardcore Holly and Billy Gunn, at Judgment Day. A month later, they dropped the titles to the Dudley Boys after holding onto them for a not-inconsiderable but unmemorable 56 days.

6. Paul London & Billy Kidman

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Sometimes when two somewhat similar wrestlers aren't doing anything, WWE will chuck them together in a tag team as a quick fix and hope for the best.

That was clearly the idea when they tagged up Billy Kidman and Paul London.

They had a similar look and both used the Shooting Star Press as a finisher. Neither was doing much of anything before they joined forces and they only teamed once (on Velocity) before they upset the Dudley Boys on the July 8, 2004 episode of SmackDown.

Following that, they defended them mostly on house shows while their televised matches were non-title.

Regrettable, Kidman accidentally injured Chavo Guerrero with an SSP, which set in motion his and London's premature breakup, as Billy's head wasn't in the game and he kept walking out of matches.

After holding the titles for 63 days, they lost them to Renee Dupree and Kenzo Suzuki.

London and Kidman then began a brief feud, which culminated in a decent singles match at No Mercy. London would later enjoy a much more successful Tag Team Title run with Brian Kendrick.

5. Tazz & Spike Dudley

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Former ECW standouts Tazz and Spike Dudley had settled into a comfortable midcard role after the Invasion storyline had ended.

The pintsized brawlers teamed up against Bubba and D-Von Dudley, beating them in a Hardcore Match on the January 7th, 2002 episode of Raw. That episode emanated from Madison Square Garden, the same arena Tazz had made his WWE debut almost two years prior.

To be fair to the two of them, they defended the belts gamely on television and on pay-per-view, including against the Dudleys (at Royal Rumble) and Test & Booker T (at No Way Out).

It likely would have been a more memorable reign, had the matches not been mostly short and average.

In the end, they lost them to Billy and Chuck on the February 21 episode of SmackDown and split up immediately after.

4. Rob Van Dam & Booker T

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Both Booker T and Rob Van Dam were popular, hardworking performers who could find themselves in the main event mix, but could also often flounder.

WWE's answer to that was, typically, to team them up with another star in a similar situation. Hence why Booker had tag title runs with Goldust and Test and RVD had tag title runs with Kane and Rey Mysterio.

In early 2004, neither of them were in a major programme on Raw, so WWE teamed them up.

Again, there was no real build to their World Tag Team Title win, which came against Ric Flair and Batista on the February 16 episode of Raw.

They did defend the belts a few times on television, against teams such as La Resistance, Matt Hardy & Test and Garrison Cade & Mark Jindrak. No, the Raw tag scene wasn't exactly booming at the time, why do you ask?

The team's 'highlight' was probably their defense in a four-team match at WrestleMania XX, which was essentially an excuse to get as many guys on the show as possible in order to give them a payday.

The night after on Raw, they had a long defense against the Dudleys, but then lost the titles back to The Animal and the Nature Boy a week after.

Both Booker and Van Dam were then traded to SmacDown in the draft.

3. Renee Dupree & Kenzo Suzuki

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What's better than one 'foreign menace'? That's right, TWO foreign menaces!

Kenzo Suzuki was brought in with the view to making him a top heel in a World Heavyweight Title programme on Raw. WWE quickly realised he wasn't up to the task (let's not mention the tabled 'Hirohito' gimmick) and switched him to SmackDown, where he duly sunk as a singles competitor.

Rene Dupree, a good worker with bags of potential who had previously enjoyed Tag Team Title success as a member of La Resistance, was paired up with him (along with Suzuki's wife Hirohito).

It was a goofy and anachronistic act, yes, but such was the dearth of proper tag teams on the blue brand at the time that they won the Tag Team Titles (from Billy Kidman and Paul London), holding them for an impressive 91 days.

In that time, they had some cracking matches with Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam, the team they eventually lost the belts to.

2. The New Nexus (Michael McGillicutty & David Otunga)

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Well, you may remember this, but there were many reasons to forget a lot of what happened on WWE television during this period.

This was practically the 'cookie cutter' era, where Raw and SmackDown were flooded with well muscled but painfully bland prospects from their developmental leagues.

A few of those came to the main roster via the first season of NXT (the game show). Though the angle was a winner initially, most of the group seriously cooled off a few months in, despite the rebrands to New Nexus and The Corre.

Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater weren't amazing tag champions, but they were a damn sight better than David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty.

They beat Kane and Big Show to win those godawful bronze belts and then almost exclusively defended them on house shows for the 91 days they held them.

Their two televised defences were against Vladimir Kozlov & Santino Marella on an episode of Superstars, and the Usos on SmackDown.

It was a relief when Air Boom (Evan Bourne & Kofi Kingston) took the titles away from them.

1. The Unholy Alliance

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You don't think of The Undertaker as a tag team wrestler, but the Deadman has held the tag titles with four different partners - Steve Austin, Kane, The Rock and Big Show.

Most of these runs were short, with his and The Great One's 'reign' lasting a day, as they won it in one match and lost it in their very next one.

That was more of an angle than a proper reign but, out of the rest of them, his Unholy Alliance with Big Show is probably the least memorable.

Managed by Paul Bearer, the Phenom and the World's Largest Athlete won them for the first time at SummerSlam 1999, seeing off Kane and X-Pac in a good match.

They lost them to the Rock and Sock Connection eight days later on Raw, only to then win them back in a Buried Alive match eight days after that.

Their second reign lasted thirteen days, before The Great One and Mankin won them back (talk about two teams playing hot potato) in a 'Darkside Rules' bout, where 'Taker kicked back on commentary while his Ministry of Darkness minions did the dirty work.

Their two reigns were storyline-driven and unmemorable outside of the Buried Alive brawl, since Undertaker was hurting at the time and severely limited in what he could do physically.