Line #4 Wrestling/Demolition


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/demolition2_6014.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Ax (left), Smash (right), and their later third member, Crush (center), proving EvilIsCool and it will pound the ''crap'' out of you.]]
3	->''"Here comes the Axe\
4	And here comes the Smasher\
5	The Demolition, walking disaster\
6	Pain and destruction are our middle names"''
7
8	Demolition is a {{professional wrestling}} {{tag team}} most prominent during the late 1980s and early 1990s in the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]]. Debuting in January 1987 of an episode of ''Superstars,'' Demolition began as the WWF's answer to Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors. Decked out in studded, leather outfits and black masks (which would be removed to reveal their signature red/silver face paint), Ax and Smash soon became a hugely successful tag team in their own right, winning the WWF Tag Team Championships three times during one of the most prominent eras of the tag division.
9
10	The team was made up of Bill Eadie as Ax and Wrestling/BarryDarsow as Smash. [[note]]The latter was originally played by Randy Colley, who was replaced when Eadie and WWF management realized fans recognized Colley from his old role as Moondog Rex of Wrestling/TheMoondogs.[[/note]] Originally managed by Luscious Johnny V, they eventually settled on Wrestling/MrFuji as their manager. Ax and Smash ran roughshod over the tag division, culminating in their first [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-world-t.html WWE World Tag Team Championship]] win at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania IV'', over Strike Force (Wrestling/RickMartel and Wrestling/TitoSantana). They got even more successful following a HeelFaceTurn, where Mr. Fuji turned on them and joined up with a newly {{Heel}} Powers of Pain, leading to a ''[=WrestleMania=] V'' feud. For the next few years, Demolition were one of the most, if not ''the'' most, popular tag teams in the company... until Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors themselves showed up in the WWF. Combined with a FaceHeelTurn and Bill Eadie's poor health at the time, not even a third member (Wrestling/BrianAdams, a.k.a. Crush) could revive their momentum.
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12	Their last title reign ended at the hands of the Hart Foundation at ''Wrestling/SummerSlam 1990,'' and soon the team was simply Smash and Crush. Eadie departed the WWF, while the other two made various attempts to reinvent themselves. Crush completely made over his character for a HeelFaceTurn and actually showed potential as a breakout star as the "Hawaiian" Crush, but then turned heel again to feud with Wrestling/RandySavage. Meanwhile, Barry Darsow attempted to reinvent himself as the EvilDebtCollector Repo Man, who made little impact other than [[ChewingTheScenery cartoonish, over-the-top promos]] and being a longtime favorite of ''Website/{{WrestleCrap}}'''s RD Reynolds.
13
14	In the late 2000s, Eadie and Darsow reunited for some independent shows.
15	----
16	!! "Tropes and destruction are our middle names!":
17	* ArchEnemy: Wrestling/ThePowersOfPain (the Warlord and Wrestling/TheBarbarian), Wrestling/TitoSantana, the Hart Foundation ([[Wrestling/BretHart Bret "The Hitman" Hart]] and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart), [[Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors the Legion of Doom]].
18	* BashBrothers
19	* BloodKnight: Even as faces, the original two were more interested in brawling than anything else. Best shown at the 1989 Wrestling/RoyalRumble where they were entrants #1 and #2, and spared no time beating each other senseless.
20	* CatchPhrase: Smash: "We're gonna kick your stinkin' teeth in!"
21	* CoolMask
22	* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: During their heyday, the team was pretty much unstoppable, and their first tag team reign, which lasted well over a year and will likely never be topped as the original World Tag Team Title is now defunct, beating the team was pretty much this. Until the Brain Busters (Wrestling/ArnAnderson and Wrestling/TullyBlanchard) knocked them off the mountain, very few had a victory over them.
23	* DemotedToExtra: When Demolition was at the height of their dominance of the WWF tag team scene in the late 1980s and very early 1990s, many fans who were aware of Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors were eagerly anticipating a series of matches between these two face-painted, muscle-bound, power brawling tag teams. Once the Road Warriors showed up in the WWF as the Legion of Doom, it never happened, and Demolition seemed to lose much of their prominence. Demolition was starting to lose their edge, in large part due to health problems Bill Eadie was suffering in 1990 (he was looking at retiring from the ring) and Crush – although talented – never quite meshed with Smash. The result, once the Demolition-LOD matches finally took place, was a laughable series of matches that Hawk and Animal easily won.
24	** Ax himself became this due to his illness. Crush basically replaced him and Ax functioned more as a manager and mentor by the end.
25	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Aside from a different manager (Luscious Johnny V instead of Mr. Fuji), Smash was originally played by Randy "Moondog Spot" Colley, and their facepaint looked ''entirely'' different. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo0BwSYlDjw See for yourself!]]
26	* {{Expy}}: The whole team were explies of the Road Warriors. This became an issue when the Roadwarriors eventually showed up in WWE in 1990, and Demolition accused ''them'' of ripping them off.
27	* FaceHeelDoubleTurn: With the Powers of Pain at the 1988 ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries.'' This came about as Demolition started getting cheered, to the point where, despite being pushed as heels, were the most popular tag team in the WWF, due to their charisma, fan interaction (Bill Eadie and Barry Darsow always enjoyed interacting with fans, even when pushed as monster heels) and legit in-ring abilities. The Powers of Pain -- obstensibly brought in by Wrestling/TitoSantana to gain revenge over Demolition injuring Rick Martel earlier in the year -- was only getting a lukewarm response from fans, despite being pushed as faces. So, a storyline was devised where Wrestling/MrFuji was becoming frurstrated that Ax and Smash were no longer listening to him or taking his advice, and Fuji saw two rivals who not only needed expert guidance but might be willing to listen, and it unfolded at the Survivor Series.
28	* FacialMarkings
29	* FinishingMove: The Demolition Decapitation, which is a backbreaker designed to hold the opponent so the teammate can hit an elbow drop onto the poor guy's ''throat.'' Crossed with TheArtifact, since Wrestling/TheMoondogs (Rex [Randy Colley] and Spot [Larry Latham, real name Larry Booker]) had been using that same move as their finisher.
30	* HellBentForLeather: Well, duh.
31	* HotBlooded: Smash, especially.
32	* {{Irony}}: Referred to the newly-arrived Legion of Doom as "second-rate imposters." Um...yeah.
33	* MaliciousMisnaming: After their face turn, they began referring to their (then) former manager Mr. Fuji as "Fuj the Stooge".
34	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: It would be hard not to feel fear from a team named Demolition and whose members are named after violent actions; Ax, Smash, and Crush.
35	* NoIndoorVoice: As was common during the era, Ax and Smash basically yelled every word they spoke.
36	* PartsUnknown: Where else would they be from?
37	* PowerStable: Became this with the addition of Crush. Somewhat of a subversion in that it was usually Smash and Crush in the role thanks to a [[RealLifeWritesThePlot real life illness from Bill Eadie]], who eventually dropped out of sight entirely.
38	* PrepareToDie: From the theme song:
39	-->"Better say your Act of Contrition"
40	* IHaveManyNames:
41	** Barry Darsow in particular was this trope in spades. He's wrestled under his real name, Krusher Khrushchev, the aforementioned Repo Man, the Blacktop Bully (a trucker gimmick), and "Mr. Hole-in-One" Barry Darsow (an infamous golfer gimmick that was initially going to have him go by the name Stewart Pain, but due to Payne Stewart's [the golfer who inspired the name] death in a freak plane crash, he went by his real name instead).
42	** Crush would {{avert\|edTrope}} this by keeping the ''same name'' through various gimmicks, such as "Hawaiian" Crush, evil, face-painted Crush (managed by Mr. Fuji), ex-convict [[Wrestling/TheNationOfDomination Nation of Domination]] member Crush, and biker leader of the Disciples of the Apocalypse Crush, even though his name came from Demolition's ThemeNaming of it members being named after violent actions (the other two being Ax and Smash).
43	** Ax started as Bolo of the Mongols before starting his most successful non-Demolition gimmick as the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Masked Superstar]]. He was also Super Machine, one of the original three Machines with [[Wrestling/AndreTheGiant Giant Machine (Andre, of course)]] and Big Machine (Blackjack Mulligan.)
44	* WrestlingMonster: Ax, Smash and Crush all fit this.

Context Wrestling / Demolition