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Is Claudio Castagnoli/Antonio Cesaro the best tag worker of this century?


KawadaSmile

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I'm not as high on Cesaro in general as many seem to be, but while I think of him as a good worker I find it hard to distinguish his work in tags from what he does in singles.  For purposes of this discussion I'm drawn to names that distinguish themselves in that format whether it be the Bucks or even a Roderick Strong this century or a Morton, Eaton or Kobashi from decades past.  Those are names where they not only excel in a tag setting but their performance varies to fit such a match.

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I agree with the Robert Roode mention. Beer Money was excellent for years having great matches with every team around that time, then he had the Aries team which produced lots of good stuff in a shorter timeframe. Then in WWE, his team with Chad Gable was fantastic. They had my favorite Revival matches there, great series.

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I've always thought that Billy Gunn was an overlooked tag team wrestler. He might not be the best worker but you can't deny, his tag teams were all over: Billy & Chuck, Smoking Gunns, New Age Outlaws. And whenever anyone tried to use him solo, it didn't work. That dude has a strong decade of tag teams. 

I mean obviously he doesn't touch someone like Ricky Morton or Bobby Eaton or anything like that, let's not get crazy, I just wanted to name drop & acknowledge Mr. Ass. I do think I'd put him over Cesaro though, but I did love The Bar. Mostly because I'm a Sheamus mark more so than big on Cesaro.

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Made this same point to a friend today or yesterday about Cesaro.

Absolutely! The sheer variety of partners and consistent excellence throughout puts Cesaro over the top for me. 

Think of your least favorite current wrestler - whoever that is - and you're still guaranteed a great or at least compelling team if Cesaro is in it.

BTW, I assume the thread title was something else/misleading at first? Because Eaton certainly wasn't a major player this century.

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8 hours ago, C.S. said:

BTW, I assume the thread title was something else/misleading at first? Because Eaton certainly wasn't a major player this century.

It was about if he was the best tag wrestler EVER but that would make the thread useless as he's not touching Eaton or Morton.

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I think it is Mark and Jay for the 2000's . . The Briscoes have been working at a high level for 20 years.Working with the Briscoes  really helped elevate the carrers of Aries/ Strong , Steen / Generico , KOW and the Bucks . I never got my AMW / Briscoes match . Holding out hope for Briscoes and FTR .

   All time it is Bobby Eaton , then Dennis Condry and Stan Lane  . Bobby carried George  Gulas , then went on to to tag with Koko Ware , Dennis Condry and Stan Lane.  All money draws. Also Bobby has his great singles feud  with Randy Savage in the Gulas territory .

Phil Hickerson and Dennis Condry were just magically in the ring.  After Phil  had his short retirement , Dennis formed great teams with Dr. D , Randy Rose, Norvell Austin and Bobby Eaton .

Stan had his run in Florida with Bryan St. John . Then work as part of a three man team with Condry and Rose in Mobile , the unoffical beginning of the Midnight Express. Then Stan went to Memphis a worked a part heel team with Koko Ware. Then  he turned face and formed the Fabs with Steve Keirn . Of course later he Bobby teamed up in JCP. Stan was part of two money drawing teams . One team worked  heel and the other baby face. Stan has one hell of a tag team legacy .

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For me it is no question. I sort of disregard folks like Briscoes, Bucks, etc. cause those are such defined units. Jay or Mark never broke off and teamed with other folks for a period of time to show they could make something else work. That is no shame I just don't know how to separate their individual tag team abilities compared to being part of this great team.

The case for Cesaro is straight forward so if you don't agree with the premise it isn't going to be something you can be persuaded on. He has been part of many teams that all have had really good matches. You got Kidd, Hero, Swagger, Sheamus, and if someone wanted to say the team with Ares is worth commending him on as it is one of the fewer times where he heads the driving force of a promotion, sure. I loved Beer Money and MCMG, but can't fathom having Shelley, Storm, or Roode (which, honestly shocked me he was brought up) outranking him. Saying he might only rank if you WWE on a curve feels in bad faith for a wrestler who has been good-great his entire WWE run even in stretches (and there have been many) where the overall quality of the WWE wrestling has been dire.

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On 7/23/2020 at 12:10 AM, SirEdger said:

Interesting. I had always thought that Norvell Austin was considered an original member of the Midnight Express with Condrey & Rose, not Stan Lane.

 Stan Lane just worked six man with Rose and Condrey. The three did not have a team name. After Lane went to Memphis, Dennis and Randy  became the Midnight Express. Norvell Austin join the two later. If memory serves me  correct  Norvell turned on Jerry Stubbs during a match against the MX .  I got the Wrestling News via mail back in the day .

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Off the top of my head-

Daisuke Sekimoto- In the last two decades, the guy has had over 20 tag title runs across a half dozen promotions and a dozen or so different tag partners, and his matches are consistently good to great.

Karl Anderson- Multiple championship runs in NJPW and WWE tagging with Gallows. Championship runs in Japan tagging with Bernard and a long run tagging with Joey Ryan on the Cali indies. 

Negro Casas- In the last two decades he's had 5 tag title runs with Santo, Mistico and Shocker as well as countless 6 man title runs. He had the whole Mistico feud and the whole Peste Negra vs Los Ingobernales feud.   

Harry Smith- Was one half of maybe my favorite WWE tag champs in recent memory with Tyson Kidd. Then went to Japan had several title reigns in NOAH and NJPW with Lance Archer and in between has had several interesting tag runs on the indies tagging with a wide variety of people. 

 

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