Frankly, I'm amazed that WCW ever cancelled that show. It gave them an identity of their own, and a time when they could showcase their product without having to compete with - well, anyone, since there is nothing on that time of day but fishing shows and Xena, Warrior Princess - that cheap Chyna impersonator.

Throughout the latter half of the 1980's, tag team wrestling was a highlight of NWA shows, with teams like the Midnight Express, the Road Warriors, The Fabulous Freebirds, and the Rock-and-Roll Express leading the way. When the NWA became known as WCW (sort of) in 1991, the NWA tag team champions Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed) became the WCW tag team champions. The were at that time an athletic, exciting, popular, and incredibly stiff tag team.

You may recall that there have been a number of great tag teams in WCW over the years, but they do tend to run together, so I did a little research on the history of the WCW tag team championship and started doing what actuaries do when they look at anything - fooling with the numbers involved. Starting in 1991 made it pretty easy to analyze. Some results:

1) The Start - the first official title WCW tag title change kicked off the only "negative reign" in tag team title history. The Fabulous Freebirds defeated Doom on for the titles on February 24th, 1991. The problem was, the Fabulous Freebirds had *lost* the title to the Steiner Brothers on February 18th, 1991. In keeping statistics on title reigns, I'm forced to conclude that Michael P.S. Hayes and Jimmy Garvin had a negative six day reign as tag champions. Interestingly enough, the 'Birds were the only of the great tag teams from the 80's that I listed above to ever win the WCW tag belts - sort of.

2) The Dominant Teams - here are the teams with the most days spent as WCW tag champions:

1. Outsiders - for 477 days, or 12.5% of the time between 1991 and 2001, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were the tag team champions. These 477 days were spread over 3 title reigns betwen 1996 and 1998.

2. Harlem Heat - for 470 days, or 12.3% of the time between 1991 and 2001, Stevie Ray and Booker T were the tag team champions. These 470 days were spread over 11 title reigns between 1994 and 1999.

3. Rick and Scott Steiner, the Steiner Brothers, 369 days, 9.7% of the time, between 1991 and 1998.

4. Doom, 281 days, 7.4% of the time (including their final NWA days), all in one title reign in 1990-1991.

5. Brian Knobs and Jerry Saggs, the Nasty Boys, 259 days, 6.8% of the time, in 3 title reigns from 1993 to 1995.

One of these five teams has been champion for almost half (48.7%) of the last 10 years.

3) The Dominant Individuals - besides members of the teams above, there have been other individuals who have been multi-team winnners and one other team of note:

1. Arn Anderson, 215 days, 5.6% of the time, 3 times.
2. Sting, 207 days, 5.4% of the time, 3 times.
3. Marcus Alexander "Buff" Bagwell, 175 days, 4.6% of the time, 6 times.
4. Steve Austin, 169 days, 4.4% of the time in one title reign.
5. Brian Pillman, 169 days, 4.4% of the time in one title reign, with Austin as the Hollywood Blondes.

If you then add in individuals from top five teams that also occasionally had other partners, you find that one of these 15 individuals was tag team champion for 3 out every 4 days (74.8%) of the last 10 years.

4) The Short-Timers. Not counting the Freebirds negative title reign, here are the shortest title reigns in WCW tag team history (two weeks or less):]

Not much to note here, except that that 12 of the 17 shortest title reigns in WCW history happened in the two years 1999 and 2000 and that 3 of the top 5 teams had at least one very short title reign.

5) Miscellaneous.

· An African-American has been WCW tag team champion one out of every 5 days that WCW has had the titles.
· The number of WCW world champions that have also been tag champions: 12 by my count.
· Almost one out of every three tag title changes WCW has had came in the Russo era.
· If you look at a picture of Scott Steiner in 1990 and now, you might suspect he uses performance enhancing substances. Oops, sorry, that's not statistical.

I may go back sometime an analyze the overall quality of WCW tag title PPV matches versus those of the WWF over time, or maybe versus those for the other WCW titles. There have been some great teams in WCW.

It's Saturday afternoon as I write this and I *should* be getting ready to watch wrestling on WTBS. Oh, well, I'll find something else to do.

But it sure isn't going to be Xena.