The 411 Wrestling Top 5: The Top 5 Trios

The 411 Wrestling Top 5: Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling’s Top 5 List. We take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to participate and give us their Top 5 on said topic. So, onto this week’s topic…

Week 304 – The Top 5 Trios

Who were the best trios units?

MICHAEL WEYER
5. Demolition Demolition remain the most underrated long-term tag team in wrestling history. Still dismissed as Road Warrior rip-offs, they stood on their own with better ring work, dominating at a period when WWF had arguably its best tag team scene ever. Having already set the record for the longest tag team title reign in history, Ax and Smash had just regained the belts in 1990 when Ax started having health problems. So, after a heel turn, they introduced the massive Crush, who brought a new bit of power into the team. They would hold to the old “any two guys can defend belts” bit and added in wearing masks to trick refs more. This led to the long-awaited Legion of Doom feud with the brilliance of Demolition calling them the rip-offs. Ax moved to more of a manger position before leaving but it was another great touch for an already classic tag team.

4. The Russians In 1984, with the Cold War still running hot, it made total sense for Jim Crockett to push a Soviet trio as heels. Ivan Koloff, his “nephew” Nikita and Krusher Kruschev may all have been as Russian as I am but they did wonderfully with the concept. From wicked promos involving real Russian phrases, they did their best as monsters, especially the incredibly strong and talented Nikita. They’d use the idea that any two of them could defend the NWA tag team titles at a time with great trading of the belt with the Rock n Roll Express. Their chain battles against the Road Warriors were also great as Nikita was soon put into a feud with Magnum T.A. that nicely elevated both men up. Magnum’s car accident would lead to Nikita turning face but for a time, the Russians were the most feared unit in JCP and highlighting a time period that brought so much excitement.

3. The Shield Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins already had the potential to be something big. Banded together as the Shield, they paid off on that wonderfully. They were a true unit, a brutal faction at first to smash anyone in their path and terrific as champs with Reigns and Rollins tag champs and Ambrose U.S. champ. They were sold great as a force ready to attack at any time and taking down pretty major stars along the way. It was inevitable the fans would cheer them and turn them face but they kept up their great work still with beatings and good promos. We can argue how it all ended with Rollins turning heel and wasting Ambrose while Reigns was pushed to a position he probably isn’t ready for. But for 18 months, the Shield were a major highlight of WWE as you never knew where they’d strike but that when they did, they would make a major impact.

2. The NWO We all know the bad stuff of WCW but it’s easy to forget just how massive a deal the New World Order truly was. When Scott Hall and Kevin Nash jumped to WCW in 1996, it was incredible, some of the biggest shocks in the history of the business as it truly looked like a WWF invasion of WCW. Having Hulk Hogan turn heel to join them was even more stunning, Hogan embracing his new image wonderfully and elevating himself to the most hated man in wrestling. Their initial attacks on WCW were huge, rocking the entire company as they destroyed everyone in their path. The concept would get bloated and watered down by too many members but that initial wave of pure malice shifted the entire business forever and still the best thing WCW ever gave us.

1. The Fabulous Freebirds The obvious pick. The Freebirds truly broke the mold as the first cool heels, the first bad guys fans wanted to cheer for. Terry Gordy was a fantastic worker, Michael Hayes a brilliant talker and Buddy Roberts great taking punishment. They tore it up in Georgia with a wild feud with the Junkyard Dog but it was in Texas they achieved their greatest fame with their epic feud with the Von Erichs. Holding multiple championships, they were fantastic holding the fans’ hate but still able to get them on their side as when they feuded with Devastation Inc. As one man nicely put it “There’s a thin line between love and hate and they walked it better than anyone.” From their heel ways to bringing a true rock and roll attitude to wrestling, they were the top trio in the sport and blazed a trail for so many to follow.

Mike Hammerlock
5. The nWo – For the record, Hogan, Hall and Nash wrestled as a trio exactly twice – Bash at the Beach in 1996 and on a Monday Nitro in March, 1998. Plus, the nWo expanded rapidly after its initial formation. So it’s hard to count them as a strict trio. Yet they kicked the entire wrestling business into hyper drive, so I’m giving them credit ahead of all the other tag teams in support of a singles star (Team Angle, Legacy), tag teams which recruited a third member later on (Demolition, Wild Samoans) and three-person factions featuring a novelty act (DX, Los Matadores … love conflating those two groups). The true glory of the nWo was them hamming it up outside the ring. Matches schmatches. They were Seinfeldian. They turned Nitro into a giant show about nothing … and we loved it.

4. Los Psycho Circus – I think we’re entering a golden era for trios wrestling. Every promotion is going to have a trios belt within the next decade. It’s been a feature in Mexico for a long time. You’ll find trios matches on most major cards there, creating odd combinations of tecnicos and rudos. CMLL has had a trios title since 1991. A trio called La Furia del Norte (Hector Garza, Tarzan Boy and El Terrible) had the longest reign in that title’s history. Garza (R.I.P.) held the belt five times as part of four different groups, including as part of Los Perros del Mal with Perro Aguayo Jr. (R.I.P.) and Mr. Aguila. You could make a serious case for Los Perros on this list, though they didn’t make the cut for me. AAA didn’t create a trios belt until 2011, and it’s been dominated by Los Psycho Circus, which is group of badass clowns. Psycho Clown, Monster Clown and Murder Clown have held the AAA Trios Championship for more than two years and even have a team mini dopplegangers. They are the current world gold standard for trios wrestling. So what if they’re absolutely ridiculous. They’re a blast. Despite a million good reasons why their gimmick should fail, Killer Klowns from Mexico works. And they’re not flip-flop-fly guys. Los Psycho Circus put some serous beef on the table. Those clowns will beat you something fierce, though the people love it when they do. It really is an Undertakerish situation with them. Main reason they make this list is they’re a cultural phenomenon. They will make every lucha libre history book and 50 years from now fans will be cheering for El Hijo de Murder Clown Jr.

3. The Colony – Let’s just get this out of the way up front, the classic Colony lineup of Fire Ant, Soldier Ant and Green Ant (now known as Silver Ant) were the most innovative in-ring trio of all time. They had trio combination moves and finishers (the Super Ant-apult ranking #1) coming out their antennae. Yes, I’m saying that about a group of Chikara guys in ant costumes. Their King of Trios win in 2011 might count as the biggest moment in Chikara history. It was when the best wrestlers with the best gimmick the company has ever hit upon ascended to the top of the Chikara mountain. Thanks to the Chikarametrics of the evil Wink Vavasseur, the group was split apart too soon. I’m hoping there’s a reunion in the near future. Fans will freak out if they get back together. And what I really want to see, if there’s any justice in this world, is Ants vs. Clowns. Somebody’s got to make that happen.

2. The Shield – I consider the Shield to be the first true trio in the WWE. They turned the six-man match in their own personal badge of honor. The entire top of the WWE roster came to play on the Shield’s turf and got their assess kicked. Shield matches were unlike anything else the company was producing. The pace was all kinds of frenetic and Rollins, Reigns and Ambrose would hit from every angle. I maintain those three are drift compatible. If kaiju ever spring from the Marianas Trench, they’re my first pick to operate a Jaeger. Best thing the WWE has done in the 21st century? Maybe. They’ve been torn apart, perhaps too soon, but for 18 months they dominated the WWE landscape. Their clash against the Wyatt Family at Elimination Chamber was epic. When they took out Evolution, it was awesome stuff to behold. They mixed tactical genius with a seemingly endless amount of fight. Best part about them was that using the relatively untouched (by the WWE) trio angle made them feel like the dawn of a new generation. We literally hadn’t seen anybody do anything like what the Shield did in the E.

1. The Fabulous Freebirds – If you weren’t around in the 1970s, I can’t adequately explain to you how square pro wrestling was compared to the general culture. It hadn’t changed much since the 1950s. It was right up there with professional bowling in terms of being frozen in a bygone era. Everywhere you looked it was crew cuts, horn-rimmed glasses and bad polyester suits. The business almost entirely missed the ’70s. Superstar Graham and Terry Funk were the only two guys to hold one of the big three belts during the ’70s who actually felt like they belonged in that decade. Much as I love the Crusher, threatening to polka until dawn with the local ladies did not register with the bulk of the population.

It was out of this void that the Freebirds exploded. From the Lynyrd Skynyrd reference in the name to the over the top antics to being a three-man tag team, they dragged the business out of Squaresville. One thing we forget is how young Michael “P.S.” Hayes and Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy were when they burst onto the scene (20 and 18, respectively). Hayes was preternatural on the mic. I remember being blown away by Hayes largely because he didn’t sound like someone’s dad. He was this rock ‘n’ roll dude who got that this wrestling gig ought to be fun. Wrestling wouldn’t catch on to punk, new wave and hip-hop until the ’90s, but the Freebirds brought arena rock to wrestling. They were as gonzo as a Ted Nugent concert. Along with Buddy Roberts, nicknamed “Jack” because he loved to swig Jack Daniels — which is, like, the most rock ‘n’ roll thing ever — they made a lot of the 1970s wrestling business instantly obsolete.

They hit Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1980, which got them national exposure on WTBS thanks to this new thing called cable television, and everyone I knew became an instant Freebirds fan. They were supposed to be heels, but if you were young, no way in hell were they heels. They were the coolest thing you’d ever seen hit a wrestling ring. They went on to do great things in the business: the Freebird Rule, the original NWA National Tag Team Champions, the feud with the Von Erichs. They probably could have done more, though it seems that they enjoyed the ride more than the job. Maybe that’s why they got over like they did. They weren’t acting like young guys who wanted to party, they were young guys who wanted to party. My take is they were the first guys who turned the volume up to 11 in the wrestling business.

Shawn S. Lealos
5. The Russians – Man, no one was more hated at one time in the NWA than The Russians. Hell, you had them feuding with Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors and then you had them going after Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen and the Russians were always the villains. Honestly, Vince McMahon could have made a killing off of this faction if he had signed Nikita Koloff in the start. As it was Ivan and Nikita Koloff and Krusher Khruschev were just heat personified. It made Nikita turning face when Magnum T.A.’s career ended even a bigger moment.

4. Triple X – I know people hate Vince Russo, but when he ran TNA during its glory days, he created one of the greatest factions ever in Triple X. It was Christopher Daniels, Low-Ki and Elix Skipper and they were just sensational as a unit. The steel cage match with Triple X against America’s Most Wanted is still one of the company’s best cage matches. I don’t care which two wrestlers were teaming, this was a unit that was just fantastic every time they stepped into the ring together.

3. The Triple Threat – When Shane Douglas was champion in ECW, he did what Ric Flair did before him in the NWA. He created a faction to protect him. Just like the Horsemen, they used hand signals to greet each other (three fingers instead of four). The best known of the Triple Threat was Douglas, Chris Candito and Bam Bam Bigelow. Candito was the pure wrestler and the A-hole of the group and Bigelow was the muscle. Together they were almost unstoppable.

2. The Shield – The most recent unit on this list. Honestly, The Shield was the closest we came in professional wrestling to a re-birth of The Freebirds. They were a cohesive unit who only cared about each other and had no hidden agendas (until Seth Rollins turned bad). Much like the Freebirds, you had three very different wrestlers who worked perfectly together. You had Seth Rollins, the wrestler, Dean Ambrose, the brawler, and Roman Reigns, the muscle. Every man did his part and they almost ever had a bad match.

1. The Freebirds – These were the guys that started the trio faction and they were the best in the world at it. The “Freebird Rule” was something that other units used, but the fact it was named after the Freebirds is all you need to know. Michael Hayes was the perfect leader of the group, the arrogant talker, Buddy Roberts was the perfect A-hole and the guy you always wanted to see get beat up and Terry Gordy was the muscle of the group. They had it all and no one ever matched them until the Shield came along. The Freebirds win out because they lasted longer.

KEVIN PANTOJA
5. The Triple Threat – A lot of people may not put these guys up here, but growing up, I was a big fan. Shane Douglas, while nothing special in any other company, was gold in ECW. The Triple Threat, his group, featuring the late Chris Candido and Bam Bam Bigelow were there to watch his back while he reigned as ECW Champion. They did their jobs well and were just cool to me. Bigelow was always a favorite of mine and Candido was great. Plus, the three finger pose is one that I found simple, but sweet.

4. Team ECK – Yea, I’m counting them as a trio. Sue me. Edge and Christian were entertaining as hell by themselves. Add Kurt Angle into the mix, during the peak of his comedic timing and you have a group of guys that can’t be missed. Their five second pose segments are classics and still hold up to this day. But this isn’t just about how funny they were. These are three of the very best to ever lace up a pair of wrestling boots, making them formidable as well as non-stop fun.

3. nWo – I would for sure have Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash higher on this list if they stayed as a trio for longer. Soon after forming, the group would add members, and seemingly never stop doing so. That being said, the impact that these three men had was so pivotal to the history of pro wrestling. They changed the game and, while things would go on to get complicated down the line, they made WCW must-see compelling television for a while.

2. The Fabulous Freebirds – Growing up, I didn’t see much of the Freebirds. They were just a bit before my time, but I’ve made sure to go back and watch some of their highlights. They seemed to be the first, as far as I can tell, really cool heels. Despite being bad guys, it was hard for people to fully boo them since they were the guys people wanted to hang out with. Each member brought something different to the table, which is vital to any trio. Of course there is also the “Freebird Rule”, which I would love to see a future trio utilize. Often imitated, never duplicated.

1. The Shield – This may be a controversial pick to top my list but I couldn’t care less. I cannot think of a trio that was more talented than the Shield. Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose all have tremendous upside but this isn’t even just about potential. No trio in history has ever come together from out of nowhere and made anywhere near the impact these three did. From the start they were thrust into the spotlight with the likes of the Rock, CM Punk, John Cena, Randy Orton and the Undertaker. They had classics with the Wyatt Family and Evolution, while being the most entertaining thing about the WWE during their run. They made the six man tag match a sight to behold. Based on ability and impact, nobody tops them.