The Powers of Pain
| The Powers of Pain | |
|---|---|
| Tag team | |
| Members | The Barbarian The Warlord |
| Name(s) | The Powers of Pain The Super Assassins The Super Destroyers |
| Heights | Barbarian: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) Warlord: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Combined weight |
618 lb (280 kg; 44.1 st)[1] |
| Debut | 1987 |
| Promotions | JCP WWF WWWA GCW Chikara |
The Powers of Pain are a professional wrestling tag team. They are best known for their tenure in Jim Crockett Promotions and the World Wrestling Federation.
Contents
History
Jim Crockett Promotions
Terry Szopinski and Sione Vailahi were put together as a tag team called the Powers of Pain by Ivan Koloff and Paul Jones in the National Wrestling Alliance's Jim Crockett Promotions in late 1987. Szopinski was named "The Warlord," while Vailahi was known as "The Barbarian."
The Powers then began feuding with The Road Warriors. During their feud, they attacked the Road Warriors during a bench press contest between the two teams, ramming Road Warrior Animal's head into a stack of weights. A (legitimate) eye socket injury suffered by Animal at the time was attributed in kayfabe to the Powers' actions. Later during their feud, the Powers won the World Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Ivan Koloff from the Warriors and Dusty Rhodes.
They feuded for several more months until the Powers left the NWA while still the champions with Koloff when the Powers refused to do scaffold matches. As a result, the Powers and Koloff were stripped of the titles.
World Wrestling Federation
Upon their arrival in June 1988, the Powers were faces managed by Tito Santana.[2][3] They feuded with WWF World Tag Team Champions Demolition (Ax and Smash)[1] who had defeated Strike Force (Santana and Rick Martel) for the titles and then injured Martel (kayfabe). The Powers were introduced as mercenaries to help Martel and Santana gain revenge on Demolition for both the title loss and the injury to Martel. At SummerSlam '88, The Baron debuted as their manager, leading them to victory over The Bolsheviks. The Baron would leave the WWF in early November.
They became heels while Demolition became faces when Mr. Fuji attacked Demolition at Survivor Series and aligned himself with the Powers of Pain. The Powers of Pain went on to win the match when they eliminated the foreign heel team The Conquistadors. The feud with Demolition ended at WrestleMania V when the Powers Of Pain teamed with Fuji and lost to Demolition when Ax pinned Fuji. Following their failure to win the titles, the Powers feuded with teams such as The Bushwhackers and The Rockers. At the 1989 Survivor Series, they along with Zeus were a part of Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Team, losing to the Hulkamaniacs team of Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts and Demolition. The Barbarian and The Warlord each eliminated members of Demolition, only to both be disqualified from the match for double teaming Hogan.
The team was split in March 1990, with the storyline being that Mr. Fuji had sold their contracts separately, with The Barbarian being managed by Bobby Heenan, while The Warlord paired up with Slick.[1] The duo would reunite briefly in 1992 at a house show event in Boston facing The New Foundation.[4]
World Championship Wrestling and independent circuit
Upon returning to the independent circuit, The Powers of Pain won the WWWA Tag Team Championship together on the independent circuit in the early 1990s before later debuting for World Championship Wrestling in November 1995. The team was put under masks as the Super Assassins and were managed by Col. Rob Parker. They only had three matches together (a win over The American Males and losses to The Nasty Boys and Sting and Lex Luger) before The Warlord left WCW in early 1996. They later reformed their team in 2005 for Gladiator Championship Wrestling. The Powers of Pain reunited on September 16, 2012, in Chikara, taking part in a gauntlet match, from which they eliminated their old WWF rivals, Demolition, before being eliminated themselves by 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Jannetty.[5]
Other media
They filmed a shoot interview in 2004 with RF Video and spoke about their careers.[6]
In 2008, they introduced an energy drink in association with Gladiator Championship Wrestling.[7]
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Bearhug (Warlord) / Diving clothesline (Barbarian) combination
- Running powerslam by Warlord followed by a diving headbutt by Barbarian
- Signature moves
Championships and accomplishments
- World Wide Wrestling Alliance
- WWWA Tag Team Championship (1 time)[9]
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI ranked them #97 of the 100 best tag teams during the "PWI Years" in 2003
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
- Worst Tag Team (1989)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Warlord and Barbarian - Demolition's Nightmare - Pro Wrestling Illustrated November 1988
- ↑ PWI Poll - The Powers Of Pain - Pro Wrestling Illustrated December 1988
- ↑ http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/92.htm
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Scott's Blog Of Doom, Shoot Interview with the Powers of Pain by RF video, July 5, 2014, Posted by Brian Bayless, http://www.rspwfaq.net
- ↑ Freakin Awesome Network, FAN Countdown: Top 75 Wrestling Tag Teams, http://www.officialfan.proboards.com
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
