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Tag Team Competition Thrives As Two Teams Vie To Become Dual Champions

Posted: Aug 1st 2014 By: Michael Hunt

Tag Team competition seems to come and go in waves. There are periods such as the mid-1980s or around the turn of the 21st century were tag teams appeared to thrive. Even recently, there appears to have been a resurgence of tag teams both nationally and locally.

Last year, The K. C. Wolves cemented their reputation as one of the best tag teams in the region by being voted the 2013 Oklafan Tag Team of the Year. At the time, they had been SRPW Tag Team Champions, were tag team champions in UWE, regularly competed in MSWA and had just begun to compete in IZW. By April, 2014, they had added 2 more tag team titles to their resume.

It seemed like no team could possibly compete with the K. C. Wolves. But another team was in the wings. A team no one realised was a team, because they had not competed as a team in Oklahoma.

Aaron Anders and Clint Cassidy had been competing in the Sooner State for the past couple of years, but had always managed to be opposite each other or on completely different matches on the card. Almost no one realised that they were former tag team partners and they wanted to use that to their advantage.

They pulled it off in UWE and almost managed to achieve similar success in WFC.

Prior to their April event, WFC announced that they would be crowning their very first WFC Tag Team Champions in a Best-of-3 series between the K. C. Wolves and Anders & Cassidy. On the surface, most people immediately gave this series to the Wolves as they were not aware of the tag team background of Anders & Cassidy. And that lack of knowledge was very useful to the latter duo in the first match as the Wolves were certainly expecting a much less cohesive team than the one they faced in the ring. That lack of knowledge proved very important for Anders & Cassidy as they fought a rather evenly-paced match and were able to pull out what many at the time considered an upset when Cassidy rolled up Graham Bell for the pin, taking a 1-0 lead in the series.

Perhaps that was the motivation the Wolves needed as they went into the 2nd match with much more determination. Anders & Cassidy also came with a different attitude, one that was much more selfish. Knowing that they could not underestimate their opponents a second time and survive, the Wolves brought all their knowledge to the ring and were able to pull out a victory after a hard fought contest. But after the match, interviewer C. M. Burnham informed the Wolves that the 3rd and final match would be a Ladder Match. The complexity of the playing field immediately increased because now pinfalls and submissions would not count.

On July 20, the wait was over. Anders & Cassidy, now competing under the name A. C. Slaughter, came to the ring first. They stood in the ring confident, posing for the crowd. The K. C. Wolves came second and tempted fate by climbing up the ladders on the outside of the ring, howling to the crowd while atop them. When the bell ran, both teams began to tell each other that the belts were theirs and a shoving match began, which soon broke down into a paired off brawl. With all four men allowed in the ring at the same time and the referees on the outside, there really was not much that could be done to control the action, but neither team wanted to be controlled. A. C. Slaughter were the first to introduce a ladder into the match, but it was on the outside and after being used on Luke Langley, Graham Bell dove through the ropes to crash it into Anders and Cassidy. A. C. Slaughter quickly turned the ladders into weapons, beating both members of the K. C. Wolves with them. But the Wolves fought back, collectively climbing on one ladder to try and take down the belts hanging over the ring, only to have the ladder shoved over, throwing them both out of the ring. Cassidy then did a Suicide Dive over the top onto the Wolves, which he believed took them out. Anders & Cassidy then began to climb the ladder, but the Wolves came back in and tipped the ladder over, picked up Cassidy in a vertical suplex and dropped him into the clutch of Anders, then superkicked Anders' legs so he gave his own partner a tombstone piledriver and finished the segment double-superkicking Anders in the face. It still was not enough to keep A. C. Slaughter down.

By this point almost ten minutes of action had passed, but both teams kept fighting, knowing that the prestige of being the very first WFC Tag Team Champions would only come to one of them. As the fifteen minute mark approached, all four men connected with individual finishers in a series. With both ladders set up in the ring, Cassidy and Bell climbed up one, while Anders and Luke Langley ascended the other. Both pairings brawled with each other atop the ladder, all the while trying to grasp at the belts which were just a fingertip away from both teams. Langley was knocked from his ladder, but ran around and tipped over the ladder with Cassidy on it after Bell jumped to the other ladder. Bell then unhooked the belts and the very first WFC Tag Team Champions were crowned.

It was another jewel in the crown of the K. C. Wolves ,but now the real challenge begins. The Wolves not only have to worry about challengers for their new WFC Tag Team Titles, but must also continue to defend their MSWA Mid-South Tag Team Titles. And it will not be an easy task for A. C. Slaughter to challenge the Wolves to a rematch as they also have their newly won UWE Tag Team Titles to defend.

Tag Team competition between these two teams may have just taken a huge step up. And that is a positive thing for all the fans in Oklahoma.