Rock N Roll Express vs. The Rockers

[Childs]

One of the questions I can never resolve in my own mind is whether Morton or Eaton was the greatest U.S. tag team wrestler of all time. Do you give Morton more credit for lugging Gibson or do you give Eaton more credit for being great with multiple partners? Do you like Eaton's offense or Morton's selling/fire? It's one where my answer changes repeatedly.

Can I vote Arn?

 

Absolutely. I felt a little bad about not mentioning him after I posted. He'd be No. 3 for me.

[Matt D]

I think Robert Gibson gets a bad deal. He might not be a whole lot more than mediocre but I don’t think mediocre is necessarily bad in this case. Ricky Morton was such a good babyface especially in a tag team role that Gibson did not have to be much more than what he was which was a competent tag team wrestler. He is going to pale to Ricky Morton in comparison as a lot of other wrestlers would but he was far from just some schmuck along for the ride in the Rock ‘n Rolls. He brought something to the team, even if that was just his ability to be a competent babyface tag team wrestler.

 

I would have RNR, Midnight Express, and Tully & Arn all above the Rockers in terms of US tag teams. I think I’d likely have the Fantastics above the Rockers as well but that would probably be a better and closer comparison than the RNR/Rockers one.

Still top 5 though, baby!

 

It is actually kind of surprising how thin the elite US tag teams are. I agree those were two other teams I would put in my Top 5. Tully & Arn have longevity issues and Fantastics while they were great with MX, I can't think of many other tag matches they had were great with different teams. I think those are easier arguments for the Rockers, but I would not begrudge anyone having those teams over the Rockers.

 

So where do the High Flyers rate vs the Rockers now?

 

I wish we had more (any) Hennig/Race, and more Valentine/Flair and more 70s Bock/Stevens.

[Loss]

One of the questions I can never resolve in my own mind is whether Morton or Eaton was the greatest U.S. tag team wrestler of all time. Do you give Morton more credit for lugging Gibson or do you give Eaton more credit for being great with multiple partners? Do you like Eaton's offense or Morton's selling/fire? It's one where my answer changes repeatedly.

I'm with you here. Totally depends on the day. Both arguments for each one over the other are correct.

[victory]

Both are in my top ten so it's a tough choice. I always enjoyed the Rockers better ever since I was a teen in the 80's and I'm not changing now. Lol. RnR had way better feuds and a longer run, I just never dug their move set nearly as much as Marty and Shawn.

 

I think they can do everything RnR can do. Put them in JCP in 86 against the same teams and they would be even better than the originals. The one comparison team that they both faced would be Tully/Arn and I'll take the Rockers matches of theirs over RnR overall.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Sorry, I can't even fathom that the first title win against the Russians would have been better with the Rockers. That's crazy talk, man.

[slabinski611]

Sorry, I can't even fathom that the first title win against the Russians would have been better with the Rockers. That's crazy talk, man.

 

I agree with this. No way would the Rockers have that kind of match with the Russians. On the flip side, I can see the RNR having better matches with the Rougeous/Powers of Pain and just as good if not better matches with Rose/Somers.

[victory]

Sorry, I can't even fathom that the first title win against the Russians would have been better with the Rockers. That's crazy talk, man.

I can definitely see why you would think that as they had some great matches. We also have the videotape proof, where matches against the Rockers are pure speculation. I guess I can envision Marty or Shawn taking a backdrop into the lights from Nikita or them landing a double dropkick on the chin of Ivan instead of chest level. Either way I think they would of been awesome.

[Johnny Sorrow]

See, a Rock N' Roll Express double dropkick "to the chest" is better than any double team move because it worked and the crowds always went ape shit for it. Which is all that matters.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Sorry, I can't even fathom that the first title win against the Russians would have been better with the Rockers. That's crazy talk, man.

 

I agree with this. No way would the Rockers have that kind of match with the Russians. On the flip side, I can see the RNR having better matches with the Rougeous/Powers of Pain and just as good if not better matches with Rose/Somers.

 

The Rockers match with POP would most likely be better than an RNR match with the POP by a healthy margin. RNR never worked power spotfests very well. Later on in 1990, they wrestle Doom in what is considered a pretty disappointing match because Doom just kinda does holds with no real heat. I think we all agree that Doom is way better than POP. Rockers played to POP strengths and just said do power moves and we will bump like crazy. I am not trying to take away from the RNR, but their best matches in my view are against teams like MX, Bodies and the Horsemen. I don't think they always clicked for me against power teams like Russians, Ragin' & Ravishin' and Doom. Their heat segments tended to be too drawn out in my opinion. You think that would be the easier story to tell, but something seems to be missing. I actually think Rockers/Demos & Rockers/POP is better than any match the RNRs did with a power team including the Russians.

 

I still want to do a bigger write-up, but I think the Rockers had more great matches with more teams than the RNRs. Of course, I have only seen the Bodies matches from the 90s, so maybe there is more and I don't know too much about their Mid-South run except the stuff with MX. Rockers has Rose/Somers, Demolition, Hart Foundation, Rougueas, Orient Express, Powers of Pain, and Brainbusters. The RNRs have MX, Bodies, Russians, Ragin' N Ravishin, and Horsemen. Yes RNRs had the better feuds and Rockers only had Rose & Somers, but the Rockers delivered as that popcorn babyface tag team to pop the crowd on each card for the WWF. I think the RNRs are better, but just not by as much as people think.

[Matt D]

I am the world's biggest fan of Demos vs Rockers and I'm not sure I put it above the RnR vs Russians title change.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I am the world's biggest fan of Demos vs Rockers and I'm not sure I put it above the RnR vs Russians title change.

 

I watched it twice, but I guess that was over six months ago. My appreciation of matches definitely follows the inverse-square law with time. I have a tendency to underrate matches I have not seen in a while and I overrate matches I have just seen. I will try to watch RNRs vs Russians again this weekend.

[Matt D]

To be fair, I am rarely affected by atmopshere/big match feel, but the way they dedicate a whole show to that match and make it seem almost as special as any match in the history of JCP matters. I still think it's a great match with a double FIP but if I had seen it without the build it may have been different.