Vacated championships happen semi regularly throughout history due to injuries, the wrestler leaving the company, and so on, and This Day in Wrestling History celebrates one of those moments.
This one came due to an injury when Scott Steiner was injured and the Steiner Brothers were forced to vacate the WCW Tag Team Championship on July 18, 1991.
Since it’s bad for business to have a championship empty for too long, so a tournament was set up for the World tag team titles with the finals being at Clash of Champions: Fall Brawl on September 5, 1991.
Mix of partners
With Scott Steiner injured, his brother Rick teamed with Bill Kazmaier, a former world champion powerlifter, and they faced the Enforcers of Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko.
The Enforcers were an interesting mix, and Larry spoke about in an interview. Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the transcript.
“It is a funny story, but at that time with me and Arn, I was never big on being anything but a singles guy.
“I wasn’t big on anything about being a tag team guy because the singles guys are bigger stars and make more money. But when I was getting close to forty years old I needed a break and the Enforcers were over.
“For some reason, me and Arn clicked. We had a great time on the road and we would walk out into these towns and we got heat. Tagging with Arn and The Enforcers actually should have gone longer than it did and I was willing to do it and so was Arn, but the politics changed at Turner and Bill Watts came in.
“Arn was the perfect guy. He had the look and knowledge, especially with the way people thought of me. People really thought I was an asshole! When we would walk out in an arena, the place would go nuts just like it was back in the ’70s and ’80s! The people bought it, and it was great to team with him.” – Larry Zbyszko Two Man Power Trip interview, October 12, 2018.
Love the heels
It’s always fun to hear how different people can come together so unexpectedly and create something memorable, and they made their statement earlier in the night.
Anderson and Larry attacked Kazmaier while he performed feats of strength earlier in the night and injured his ribs with a weight plate.
It was an injury they’d later take advantage of to win the tag titles.
This was just one of the many ways to make a note on This Day in Wrestling History, and we love to hear about them.
What’s your favorite NWA/WCW tag team match? Let us know in the comments below.
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