EOTR Tag Team Tuesdays: Killer Elite Squad

By @MeenHendrix 

If there's anything I love about tag team wrestling, pairing up two random guys who have instant chemistry together is near the top of the list. That's kind of what you get with these guys. Some may remember when Ted DiBiase Jr. made his debut in WWE, he challenged then World Tag Team Champions Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes to a match for their titles. The fun part is that Teddy refused to name his tag team partner for a month. When he did he and new partner Cody Rhodes stole the Tag Team Titles. The reason I mentioned Cody and Ted coming together is because they remind me exactly of Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.

In July of 2012, Lance Archer challenged Tencozy (One of the most successful teams in the history of New Japan Pro Wrestling made up of Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) to a match for their IWGP Tag Team titles. Like DiBiase, Archer refused to name his partner for a month. His partner would be revealed as none other than fellow former WWE competitor David Hart Smith (known as Harry Smith in NJPW before changing it to Davey Boy Smith Jr.). At the King of Pro-Wrestling PPV, Archer and Smith would go on to defeat Tencozy to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Now dubbed the Killer Elite Squad, Archer and Smith would go on to defeat Tencozy in a rematch for the tag team titles and finish as the runner up in the 2012 World Tag League to Sword & Guns (Hirooki Goto and Karl Anderson).

After defeating Sword & Guns at Wrestle Kingdom 7, K.E.S. joined their fellow Suzuki-gun stablemates in a rivalry with the Chaos stable (led by current NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura), which really was one sided for the most part. K.E.S. was able to defeat Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii to retain their IWGP Tag Titles, but that was about it. On April 20, 2013, Archer and Smith became double champions, winning the NWA World Tag Team Championship from Ryan Genesis and Scot Summers. However they would drop their IWGP Tag Team Championships to Tencozy, ending their lengthy reign at 207 Days. They would go on to win back their IWGP Tag Titles from Tencozy in a two-fall three way match with The IronGodz (Jax Dane and former WWE superstar Rob Conway), but dropped the NWA World Tag Team titles in the first fall to Dane and Conway. They then entered the 2013 World Tag League, this time losing in the semifinals by Tencozy. At Wrestle Kingdom 8, they lost their titles to Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows aka The Bullet Club.

The reason I picked these guys this week is because it seems as if these guys don't exist to even the die hard wrestling fans and that makes me like them even more. These guys have been together 5 years now and have made their mark across four notable promotions in Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Noah, Global Force Wrestling and New Japan. They have won the NWA World, IWGP, and GHC Tag Team Championships twice each. They are a combination of power and athleticism, both being strong as an ox and very mobile for two big men. Their Killer Bomb finisher is pretty sick. They also have been a near perfect match for each other with Archer's douchebag attitude bringing out the asshole in Smith.

Davey Boy Smith Jr. has also proven himself to be one of the best tag team wrestlers in the world today being able to adjust to the style of multiple partners. I'm also very thankful I don't have to see the cancer known as The Rock 'n Rave Infection. The team has been dead for 8 years, but I am still very blessed that I don't have to go through that again. One more thing I like about these guys is that they didn't let the WWE hype machine hold them back from being one of the World's best tag teams. WWE randomly broke up The Hart Dynasty, a team I loved by the way, and sent Smith packing. Meanwhile, Archer briefly made an impact in ECW going unpinned for 2 months, but then again they were handing those kinds of streaks to anyone who debuted for ECW (Kofi, Sheamus, hell even Ricky Ortiz... yeah haha). If the Killer Elite Squad isn't on your radar, this is your reminder to take notice.

-Ameen