WWE: Why 'Team Hell No' Is a Terrible Tag Team Name

Photo by Lamzboy via Wikimedia Commons

What’s in a name? Apparently, everything. Kane and Daniel Bryan are perhaps one of the most exciting WWE tag teams in some time. But their name, Team Hell No, is a terrible name for a tag team.

In the WWE, image is everything. To make a real mark on the landscape of professional wrestling, you need a great name, since 10 years down the road, that’s really what most people are going to remember above all else.

Using Twitter to name Kane and Daniel Bryan was a fun way to involve the WWE Universe. Sadly, it has produced one of the least intimidating and perhaps worst names for a tag team in quite some time.

Team Hell No sounds like it came straight out of the Twilight movies. It’s a mash-up of a catchphrase and a theme. While Kane and Bryan are largely a comedy bit right now, the name does nothing but make them a running joke when they could actually be one of the more dominant WWE tag teams in history, even with the funny bits.

There have been some wonderfully named tag teams in WWE history, names that reflect the wrestlers themselves or provide a bit of intimidation. Not all of these teams have been great teams, and there are many more than what is listed here, but they all had great names.

The Brothers of Destruction

Separately, Kane and The Undertaker have a combined 10 WWE titles and 16 Tag Team titles. Together they have two tag team title reigns.

Just based on their solo careers alone, these two would be a good tag team.

But put them together and give them an intimidating name and suddenly you have a great tag team.

Add in the fact that the two have had great chemistry ever since they first appeared in a ring together at the very the first Hell in a Cell match, and suddenly, they become legendary.

These two would have been intimidating regardless what you did with them, but it is their name that adds that extra allure and sends shivers down the spines of their opponents and cheers through the crowd.

The Powers of Pain

Photo from WWE.com

No one would ever confuse Warlord and Barbarian of being a joke.

Sometimes called a Legion of Doom knockoff, the Powers of Pain were intimidating and powerful, nonetheless. Wearing face paint, black tights and chains, and weighing a combined 618 pounds, they had both the look and the name down pat.

They feuded with WWF World Tag Team champions Demolition, even competing for the straps at WrestleMania V, but never won the straps themselves, so in that sense, they never reached their full potential.

But they are regarded as legendary based on their name and appearance alone. The name The Powers of Pain correctly conveyed what they could do and did do in the ring: hurt people.

Had they been dubbed The Hurters, Pain Train or even Team Pain, it just wouldn’t have worked.

Doom

Doom never competed in the WWE, but they had one hell of a run in the NWA and later WCW.

Doom consisted of Hacksaw Butch Reed and Ron Simmons, competing under black masks. They had early success, beating The Steiner Brothers for the WCW World Tag Team Titles.

Reed and Simmons would have been a great tag team regardless of the gimmick, but giving them black masks and latching the great name of Doom to them made them legendary.

They achieved more as Doom then they would have ever done as simply Reed and Simmons or some other poorly conceived name.

Demolition

Photo from WWE.com

One of the greatest tag teams in WWE history also had one of the greatest names in WWE history.

Looking like yet another Legion of Doom imitator, Ax and Smash (and later Crush) would quickly dominate the WWE and within a year of debuting, win and hold their first Tag Team titles for 16 months, a record that still holds today.

Aside from obvious skill at simply beating people up, Demolition joined the ranks of the legends with more than a little help from their name and image. WWE.com even ranked them No. 3 out of the 50 greatest tag teams of all time. 

Granted, they weren’t a comedy duo like Kane and Bryan, but had they been called simply Ax and Smash, they would have easily been relegated to the WWE dustbin of cartoon characters.

Their name gave them an edge.

The Legion of Doom

Photo from WWE.com

You don’t get a more intimidating name than The Legion of Doom.

Add that to their physical appearance of face paint, black and red colors and spiked shoulder pads, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

Road Warrior Hawk and Road Warrior Animal also benefited from being a great team. Not only did they pioneer the use of face paint, they physically dominated their opponents with their sheer size and strength.

Along the way, they did what no one else has done: They won the AWA, NWA and WWF World Tag Team Titles.

Could they have done it all if they had been called Team Face Paint? Sure. But since image is everything in wrestling, they may have become a sideshow instead.