For years now, I've enjoyed creating music videos in conjunction with the Wrestling Playlists project, which chronicles the history of pro wrestling each week.

This project has redefined the things I enjoy most in wrestling. I had long leaned toward the "more is more" theory of pro wrestling since around 1996. These days, I prefer slower-paced matches where every exchange carries weight and happens for a reason. I've truly reconditioned my brain's preference of what I consider ideal professional wrestling.

As I've combed through this footage, it has become abundantly clear that tag team wrestling was king in the 1980s. There were long-tenured tag teams, like Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens, Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne, and the Nightmares, along with newer teams that captured the Zeitgeist, such as the Rock 'n' Roll Express, the Fantastics, and The Road Warriors.

Thrown Together

You also had short-lived tag teams made up of two singles stars. Let's call them "Tag Team B-Sides." Like with music, these offerings often appear as less important than the real deal on the surface but can ultimately find their spot within a greater catalog — often becoming fan favorites.

In modern wrestling, we've seen some of these teams with runs that I've enjoyed, like Adam Cole and MJF, Tyson Kidd and Cesaro, and Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy. Brodie Lee and Bandido currently hold the AEW Tag Team Championships after winning the titles in a recent surprise PPV victory, though it's too early in their title run to fairly judge at this point.

These teams often come about when a booker aims to keep a former top commodity fresh after running out of opponents at the main event scene of the singles roster. Shifting to tag teams gives them a fresh division to conquer while putting them in the ring with new types of opponents.

Thanks to my time with Wrestling Playlists, I've created the following list of my favorite 1980s Tag Team B-Sides.

Buddy Rose and Doug Somers

Playboy Buddy Rose had a mastery of working fans into a frenzy and excelled in every role he was given. His run in the Pacific Northwest afforded him the challenge to perform at a high level based on having to keep things interesting in front of the same fans each week. Headlining shows throughout the Northwest for almost a decade, Rose made his way to the Northeast, winning over fans with his bouts against World Wide Wrestling Federation Champion Bob Backlund.

Doug Somers, conversely, had a longer road to capturing gold in pro wrestling. A journeyman in every sense of the word, he started his career at age nine, setting up rings in the Midwest, eventually parlaying his involvement into a stint as a referee. As a wrestler, he spent most of his time putting over other wrestlers and shining them up for the main events in cities across the country. He took great bumps, had solid timing, and developed a well-rounded skill set by working with experienced, top-level talent.

Somers and Rose arrived in the AWA on their own paths and were quickly packaged as a tag team with Sherri Martel, who expertly riled up the fans at Las Vegas' Showboat Casino. She steadfastly agreed with Buddy Rose's statement that he weighed in at 217 pounds (and not 271 pounds). She primped Somers' hair. It was an easy act for that era of rasslin' fans to despise.

As a team, they were very cohesive. Buddy provided most of the sizzle, while Doug was more workmanlike and dissected their opponents. Doug had basic, yet effective offense & threw a great punch. They were not a "moves" team; they were a "feelings" team.

When it came time for comeuppance, few were better than Buddy and Doug to eat right hands and bump around for their respective opponents. They took big backdrops. Doug wonderfully borrowed Sergeant Slaughter's over-the-corner bump into the post. Buddy regularly took a series of right hands before landing flat on his ass, causing fans to rejoice.

It was comical and effective, while Sherri provided a constant stream of ringside energy. The team lacked matching tights, had little history with one another, and didn't have a specific team name – but it didn't matter. They got the job done as one of the better teams you'll find that lasted less than one year.

Manny Fernandez and Rick Rude

Dubbed "The Awesome Twosome" or "RnR" (Ravishing N' Ragin), Manny and Rick were both in the right place at the right time. Rude had left World Class to join the NWA, and Manny Fernandez had just recently turned on Jimmy Valiant to align himself with Paul Jones. Rude also linked up with Jones, and very quickly, the stablemates became a tag team.

Manny has often recounted the story about starting off on the wrong foot with Rude, asking Rick why he wasn't holding up his end of their matches. Rude reportedly responded:

"You're the worker, I'm the gimmick."

As history goes, Manny immediately saw his point.

Manny had been in this spot before. Dusty Rhodes booked him with partners who weren't best known as in-ring tacticians, like Jimmy Valiant, Thunderbolt Patterson, and even Dusty himself, who could still bring the house down with their antics, brawling, and connections to the crowds.

Manny was the meat and potatoes of each team. He'd do a lot of the heavy in-ring lifting, take the dangerous bump, bleed, sell, and act as the catalyst to the big tag near the end of each bout. It was a winning formula.

Like Rhodes and Manny, Rude and Fernandez quickly won the NWA World Tag Team Championships. Their primary opposition was the Rock 'n' Roll Express — arguably one of the greatest teams of all time.

Rude and Bull vs RnR led to many packed houses and great matches along the way. Manny flew around for Ricky and Robert, while Rude slowed things down as he posed and stalled for time in between moves. I've long felt that Rude's in-ring work improved drastically during this six-month period. He honed his heel work and learned to put together a great match from the best. And though it was brief, it was not filler material, like the worst B-sides can often be.

He had actually been in this role a year earlier in Florida with Jesse Barr, who, like Manny, was a very solid in-ring performer. Dream featured this team like Verne Gagne featured Jesse Ventura and Adrian Adonis in the early eighties, with the former getting a ton of heat in his interviews and physique, and the latter flying around feverishly for big comebacks. I'd like to see more of this long-standing template in 2025.

Matt Borne and Buzz Sawyer

Sawyer and Borne had a short run as a team in early 1980s Portland, but their brief reunion in 1986 World Class stands out the most for me. In addition to their self-destructive behaviors outside the ring, these two shared a similar physique, temperament, and wrestling style.

The more Buzz Sawyer I watch, the more I'm convinced he was one of the all-time great pro wrestlers. He was aggressive, athletic as hell, and could generate offense as believable as his ability to take a beating.

Borne was a tad more methodical, but like Buzz with his powerslam, he used a belly-to-belly suplex to shift gears and turn the tide back in his favor.

World Class in 1986 was in a state of flux with Kerry's injury, seceding from the NWA, and many top stars moving to the UWF, which can make it a bit of a tough revisit. Borne and Sawyer remained highlights of any card — whether they took on Steve Simpson and the Dingo Warrior or the Batten Twins, the matches always delivered. Flanked by the over-the-top Percival Pringle the 3rd, it was a solid act in a less-than-solid promotion.

I think the best thing about this team was their ability to cut off an opponent. They could take a deluge of offense and then quickly hit a knee to the stomach or a big elbow to the face to pivot.

In the following years, Borne noted that the two men disliked each other and even came to blows a time or two in 1986, making their short run as a team even more impressive.

Now and Then

In the modern landscape, I'd like to see more patience with ad-hoc teams. There's often a perception that B-Side tag teams are inherently "less than" established teams, but this mid-1980s period proves that a short-lived team can still make an impact, so long as they don't outstay their welcome or inevitably turn on each other.

Rob Naylor is a longtime pro wrestling fan, sometimes pro wrestling contributor, and former columnist in the defunct Fighting Spirit Magazine.