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Paul London (born April 16, 1980) and Brian Kendrick (born May 29, 1979) were a professional wrestling tag team best known for their time together in World Wrestling Entertainment. The team never had an official team name, but were just referred to as "the tag team of Paul London and Spanky" then "the tag team of (Paul) London and (Brian) Kendrick." In 2006 London and Kendrick put the tag team name "The Hooliganz" on their wrestling attires and tried to convince the WWE management to start calling the team by that name, but were unsuccessful in their attempts. However, many fans and especially smarks called them 'The Hooliganz' as they intended.

They first began teaming together in 2003 as a part of WWE, but Kendrick left the company shortly thereafter while London remained, won the WWE Tag Team Championship with Billy Kidman in 2004, and had a WWE Cruiserweight Title run in 2005. When Kendrick returned in mid-2005, he and London reunited as a tag team. In May 2006 the duo won the WWE Tag Team Championship from MNM; it was Kendrick's first title victory with the company, and London's third. Their reign was the longest since WWE created the title in 2002, and they became the fourth longest-reigning tag team champions in the company's history, finally dropping the titles to Deuce 'n Domino in April 2007.

Later in 2007, London and Kendrick were drafted from SmackDown to the Raw brand, where they briefly held the World Tag Team Championship. They would continue to work together until Kendrick was drafted back to SmackDown in the 2008 supplemental draft, thus disbanding the team until 2010, when they reunited in Pro Wrestling Guerilla following their releases from WWE. They have since reunited on several occasions and have won the Scottish Insane Championship Wrestling Tag Team Titles, where they were billed as the Hooligans, while Kendrick has come back to WWE as a participant in the Cruiserweight Classic and a member of the Raw Cruiserweight division. In 2016, London debuted on Season 3 of Lucha Underground as the face of the mysterious Rabbit Tribe.


Tropes associated with London and Kendrick include:

  • A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: After Joey Ryan antagonized Ivelisse Vélez for months digitally then helped Candice LeRae cheat her out of Family Wrestling Entertainments Women's Title belt and seemingly the promotion itself, London stepped in as they began to repeat the process with Veda Scott.
  • Aborted Arc: Their three way feud between the Teacher's Pets and The Pit Bulls abruptly ended when one half of the Pit Bulls, Kid Kash, got released and Michelle McCool, Teacher's Pet manager, got injured.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: The formation of team came about after Paul London asked Mr. McMahon for a tryout match for the main roster and was put in the ring with Brock Lesnar, who decided to keep beating on London after the match was over. Spanky tried to save London from Brock Lesnar, and while his efforts were in vain, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
  • Blood from the Mouth: Paul, as a result of multiple shooing star presses from Billy Kidman after they broke up.
  • Book Ends: In their Armageddon Ladder match, when the Hardys and London and Kendrick were alone in the ring, only Matt and Paul were standing after they traded blows. More than 20 minutes later on a ladder, Matt and Paul were the ones fighting to get the championship, but with Paul winning.

  • Breakup Breakout: Minimally, in that Paul got a run as cruiserweight champion and a tag team title run with Billy Kidman after their first breakup, but that did not overshadow what both were able to accomplish once getting back together. After they split up in 2008, it initially looked as if Brian would be this, with a new gimmick & look as The Brian Kendrick & competed for the WWE title on PPV, whilst Paul languished on Raw. Brian wound up dropping back down the card & both were ultimately released, however, Brian managed to return to WWE in 2016.

  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: JBL always kept saying the two came from Pluto, and they weren't exactly serious, orthodox wrestlers either, but that still didn't stop them from having one of the longest WWE Tag Team Championship reigns ever.
  • Canon Name
  • Can't Hold His Liquor: To celebrate a victory, the two went into the office of the Acolyte Protection Agency and started drinking their beer. Bradshaw and Farooq were at first, understandably upset until they realized the two were wasted in spite of not drinking much and decided to punish them by making them drink more. Brian collapsed to the side after finishing a can.
  • Captain Ersatz
    • They look and act similar to Bill and Ted from the Bill & Ted franchise, and even dressed up as them for one of the WWE Magazine interviews. Heck, they were even addressed as them in said article. note 
    • Leonardo Spanky's time in Zero 1 got him recognition in Fire Pro Wrestling.
  • Catchphrase: One of their best known quotes—which was printed on their T-Shirt—was known as "We're here, but we're not all yet there."
  • Cheap Pop
    • On ZERO-ONE Genesis II - Day 4 Leonardo Spanky invited a woman out of the audience, walked her out to the ring and kissed her on forehead.
    • They went well out of their way to hive five fans in the Pure Wrestling Association, especially Paul London. Needless to say, it was appreciated.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander
    • Definitely. Who else goes in the ring with masks, strange struts, joke about wearing fairy costumes and just be plain happy go lucky?
    • After having been defeated multiple times by Deuce and Domino, what was Paul London and Brian Kendrick's plan to get ready to defend their titles against them at No Way Out? Go play in an amusement park! Well, London and Kendrick successfully retained those championships at No Way Out 2007, so there must have been some method to their madness.
    • This was lampshaded by JBL for a while; he kept telling Michael Cole that the kids weren't normal and that they came from Pluto.
    • This is taken up to eleven for Paul London as part of the Rabbit Tribe on Lucha Underground. He once tried to take Kobra Moon hostage with a carrot!
  • Color-Coded Characters: Their ring-gear had different colors, but each represented something during their career.
    • Their first outfit was purple which could add to their Red and Blue personalities.
    • They soon had separate red and blue outfits, but red was the most significant as it was worn when they won the tag team championship and defended them. Blue was significantly seen when they had their six victories against MNM, as well as at WrestleMania 23 when they served as lumberjacks for the pre-show match.
    • Their most famous one is their Black (Brian)/White (Paul) ensemble which was worn when they had big shifts in the team. In No Mercy 2006, they gain an ally in Ashley Massaro, and in Armageddon 2006, they had the famous Ladder Match. It was later used up until April 2007. This outfit was even shown in their wrestling action figures for a while.
    • They soon had a sky blue/gold ensemble with an improved joker face and another which was purple/green, but they're the least remembered out of the outfits.
  • Combination Attack: The two were known to work together very well, using a lot of double moves on a single opponent (particularly dives and kicks) and tossing each other at their opponents. They also were known for their creativity in the combination attacks. These include:
    • Their first finishing move, "Get Well Soon", where Paul would pass the opponent and enziguri the back of his head while Brian hit a reverse STO.
    • Their second finishing move, where Brian would do his Sliced Bread #2 and Paul would use Shooting Star Press with Brian as a platform.
    • Their third and comparatively rarer finisher, where Paul held the opponent in a powerbomb in the corner before Kendrick hit the Slice Bread #2 on him from the turnbuckle.
    • Another of their most used double team sequences involved they taking turns to twist the opponent's arm near their corner while the other hit diving elbows and stomps on it.
    • A similar one saw them hitting a double Japanese arm drag from the ropes, then kip-upping and hitting him with soccer kicks.
    • Paul would also execute a backflip dropkick on the opponent as Brian would sunset flip him.
  • Comedic Underwear Exposure: Pun aside note  these two gave it to MNM just weeks before their Judgement Day clash in 2006.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Brian Kendrick mostly, going so far as to suggest the sun isn't really hot but both of them believe that reptilians are out to take control of the Earth. Science Fiction Studios got some mileage of this.
  • Cool Mask
    • As part of their ring entrance attire that went along with their new costumes. They ranged from Phantom of the Opera masks, purple fencing hoods and harlequin masks. This was lampshaded one time by commentary:
    Michael Cole: What is the deal with the masks that London and Kendrick wear?
    JBL: Have you seen them without it? They aren't really good looking.
    Michael Cole: Yeah, like right now and every week.
    JBL: (sarcastically) Ooh, Mr. Smarty.
    • They even had a entrance video with a floating mask and masks being part of the video.
  • Crowd Chant: Paul London got the infamous "Please Don't Die" from the ROHbots.
  • Crowd Song: You don't clap for the swarm, you buzz!
  • Defeat Means Friendship: During London's short heel run in 2005, he lost to a returning Kendrick, and promptly cut a promo saying how he went from being Cruiserweight Champion to not even being able to beat Kendrick. This set up their tag team reuniting, surprisingly.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Invoked by Jillian Hall, who joined up with them specifically to get at Melina. Also, stuck with them against the Teacher's Pets lead by Michelle McCool, until Ashley took over as their valet and got in her own feud with Michelle. Not the case with Deuce And Domino, as their valet was a sweetheart named Cherry.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: As of 2016; while Kendrick (now called The Brian Kendrick) returned to WWE as a grizzled, embittered and aging veteran, using every wily trick he can come up with to stay one step ahead of the young bloods he feels are out to supplant him, Paul London joined Lucha Underground as the blissed-out, psychedelic, three-quarters-mad leader of the wacky Rabbit Tribe, who dresses like a combination of Vegas-era Elvis Presley and Elton John in a top hat, fighting against Lizard Folk alongside two equally-bizarre compatriots.
  • Dumbass Has a Point: Spanky had accidentally spilled chocolate syrup on Vince McMahon and apologized but when Vince asked him who he was, after Spanky had been on the active roster for a year, he told him he should know he's Brian Kendrick because he pays his checks and proceeded to run down Vince's marriage problems and the failed XFL. Maybe it wasn't too bright to run down your boss after you got his suit dirty (it gets you squashed by Brock Lesnar), but everything said was true.
  • Dynamic Entry: They based their entrance on the Warlord's dash to the ring. After they do their dash, they then slide into the ring, climb up onto the ring posts, point to each other, back flip and then grasp their hands. Once they got their masks, they remove them and pose for the fans. When Ashley was with them, she would motion the boys to do their back-flip and remove the masks for them.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Go back and watch Scott Steiner's match with Diamond Dallas Page at WCW's final pay-per view Greed. That plant in the crowd getting in Steiner's face? That's London.
  • Eccentric Mentor: They've trained quite a few wrestlers, including Joey Ryan and Eva Marie.
  • Enemy Mine: Paul London ended up teaming with Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin against Zach Gowen, El Hijo de Rey Misterio and Marco Corleone in Mexican EAW after he and Kendrick traded wins with Haas and Benjamin in a series of six man tag team matches that also involved Jackie Haas and Reby Sky, where Marco was trying to court Jackie and Reby.
  • Erudite Stoner: Aside from both being this in real life note  they've separately had laid back implied drug user gimmicks in TNA (Kendrick) and Lucha Underground (Paul London and the White Rabbit tribe)
  • Finishing Move
    • Paul London used a legsweep DDT in Ring Of Honor and a chickenwing facebuster called waffle face. He also had a running shooting star press called London Calling. Also a 450 splash in WWE.
    • Spanky used a scissored cobra clutch, AKA Captain's Hook, and Naomichi Marufuji's Shiranui, which he popularized in USA as "Sliced Bread #2". He used a shooting star press in New Japan Pro-Wrestling and busted out a goddamn Burning Hammer during his match with Kota Ibushi in CWC tournament.
    • Together, Get Well Soon.
  • Fragile Speedster: London and Kendrick are pretty fast, and prefer speeding around the opponent with suicide dives and drop kicks, but they can't take a lot of hits when wrestling individually.
  • The Gadfly: While Dashawns2cents was interviewing Joey Ryan about up coming Pro Wrestling Guerilla events Kendrick was prodding him with questions about TNA's well documented production troubles and London eventually joined in too.
  • Genghis Gambit: Apparently Shawn Michaels' training consisted mostly of his students beating each other senseless while he sat back and laughed, which was supposed to bring them closer together. In the case of American Dragon and Spanky, it worked. Presumably for London too, since he also teamed with American Dragon.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Paul London was filled with both envy toward Amazing Red for winning a Ring of Honor tag team belt with AJ Styles while Paul was hospitalized and unable to wrestle himself and jealously toward Amazing Red and Alexis Laree, feeling that they were going make AJ stop being his friend. AJ Styles suggested he get another tag team partner and win his own titles, and what do you know, Spanky happened to be an ROH alumna as well. (It did not work out that smoothly but is oddly poetic all the same).
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Paul would hip toss Brian onto opponents or throw him at them to make Brian's drop kicks more powerful.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: They both trained together in Shawn Michaels' Wrestling Academy, fought as a team (they have only fought one on one four times), their entrance has them pointing to each other before back flipping before grabbing hands, and they like hugging each other a lot.
  • Incoming Ham: During Kendrick's stint in 205 Live: "I'M A MAN WITH THE PLAN!"
  • Informed Attribute: The Pure Wrestling Association announced London and Kendrick as having a combined weight of 3000 pounds. (Yeah, it used pounds despite being a Canadian company.)
  • Jobber: Brian Kendrick reprises his jobber role when he shows up in NXT.
  • Keet: And they just feed each other energy it seems, allowing them to take a whole lot of punishment from their enemies and come up with lots of double team maneuvers on the fly. When teaming with Billy Kidman, he actually forbid Paul from sprinting to the ring.
  • Kid-Appeal Character: Once the team got off Velocity, this is what helped them stand out a little on Smackdown and especially on Raw. Smaller than most of the roster, scrappy underdogs in bright colors and lots of goofy character quirks.
  • Legacy Character: Apparently, they, Jason Sensation, Shooter Schultz and Danielson were part of a "Second Generation Kliq"
  • Long Runner: They have the fourth longest reign as Tag Team Championsnote  at a total of 331 days. In comparison, the teams ahead of them were from the old WWF days, and the more recent The New Day. Not bad for a low-midcard tag team.
  • Loser Leaves Town: While in Dragon Gate they lost a loser leaves the company match to Jack Evans and Jimmy Jacobs.
  • Masked Luchador
    • Brian Kendrick wore many masks during his Smackdown/Velocity jobber run, usually themed after a popular local sports team. Most infamously, he was that no name jobber named Diamondback who won a match against Sho Funaki. In case you thought that was the start of his push you'd be wrong, as he went right back to jobbing afterward.
    • JBL brought out Paul London in a mask as the "Champion Of Mexico, El Gran Luchador". He also wore a mask during his Lucha Libra USA jobber run as Sydistiko.
  • Metaphorgotten: The origin of the "Hybrid Dolphins", as Paul London simultaneously used pods and swarms to describe his team with Bryan Danielson, who protested that it made no sense.
  • Motif: A main trend for London and Kendrick were them being rebels, pranksters and jokers. Their outfits had harlequin faces and fleur-de-lis on them, they were known wearing masks, were very happy-go-lucky and crazy, and once pantsed MNM, an opposing team.
  • Naked People Are Funny: Spanky infamously went streaking on Smackdown. Note that this was so he could actually be an official wrestler.
  • Older Sidekick: Lord Asteroth, an established wrestling vampire who sought out London for further training.
  • One-Steve Limit: While they were tagging as "The Hooligans" in Insane Championship Wrestling, Roy and Zak Knight were tagging as "The Hooligans" in Real Quality Wrestling, which is also in the UK, albeit England instead of Scotland.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: They are sometimes acknowledged as being founding fathers of Ring Of Honor, such as at Kendrick's return for the 8th anniversary. They're just not ranked in with the three founding fathers, a status held by Low Ki, Danielson and Christopher Daniels, who were fighting to be the first singles champion while Kendrick and London were fighting for long time contracts, though Spanky was in the four way scramble which Low Ki ultimately won.
  • Pelvic Thrust: London does a lot of these on Lucha Underground, completely with sequins on the crotch of his white pants.
  • Power Stable: Spanky was part of CHAOS in New Japan and The Embassy in Ring of Honor.
  • Real Men Wear Pink
    • Every now and then, Brian was shown to wear pink leg warmers and they also been known to have two sets of ring gear that are purple. Oh, and they pretty much can bowl over most guys with suicide dives.
    • During their time with Ashley, Ashley was dressed as a fairy for a Trick or Treat Divas Battle Royal. Paul jokes around that Ashley 'stole his costume' and that was the costume he was going to wear for Halloween (for those who want a description, the costume has a black corset and has purple fairy wings)
  • Red Baron
    • Paul London is Dolphin Master, The Excellence of Innovation, The Intrepid Traveller
    • Brian Kendrick is The Wizard Of Odd
    • As a team they are The Hooliganz
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Paul being the red and Brian the blue.
  • The Rival
    • To each other in Ring of Honor. As a team, Jack Evans, John Morrison and The World's Greatest Tag Team, Pengelux (Kid Lux & Lloyd Pengel) in Pro Wrestling Holland.
    • They've faced The Young Bucks (AKA, Generation Me) in Big Time Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, Family Wrestling Entertainment, House Of Hardcore and House Of Glory.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: On Raw they were booked in a handicap match against Umaga and Kendick ended up bailing on London, who was surprisingly forgiving about it.
  • Share the Male Pain: Paul tends to bend over and grab his knees after hitting Manhattan drops.
  • Signature Move
    • Spanky had Dr. Smoothe's Secret Recipe (Corner backflip kick), Electric Mayhem (Diving facebreaker knee smash) and Whirling Twirlixer (Diving somersault corkscrew plancha)
    • Paul London was a fan of the dropsault, arm wrench inside cradle and somersault plancha.
    • Paul was also a fan of the mushroom stomp, which Brian Kendrick would do with him when they teamed together. They also did assisted standing moonsaults, double dropkicks, double flapjacks, double hip tosses and double Japanese arm drags.
  • Spell My Name with a "The": The Brian Kendrick. This was due to Mike Adamle adding the "The" when he first entered the ring.
  • The Stoner
    • They both have this reputation but Spanky has gotten more mileage out of it as far as his in-ring persona goes, especially his Brian Kendrick TNA run.
    • Paul actually averts this. He lost his older brother and his girlfriend to a drunk driver and abstains from them in their honor. On the other hand, his character on Lucha Underground is implied to be tripping balls at all times as the loony leader of the psychedelic Rabbit Tribe.
  • Tag Team: They're tag team specialists. Spanky also held the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Titles with Low Ki and the Full Impact Pro Tag Team Titles with Sal Rinauro. Paul London held the PWG World Tag Team Titles with El Generico, and the ACW Tag Team Titles with Jack Jameson in IWA Texas.
  • Translator Buddy: Alex Shelley for Brian Kendrick in TNA.
  • Trash the Set: Defied by London, who decided to clean up after a trash can got knocked over in the finals of the PWA Carrot Cup.
  • Two Guys and a Girl: For a while, they were the team of London, Kendrick and Ashley with Ashley considered as their manager/friend/love interest. For a shorter period of time, they had this dynamic with Ashley's rival Jillian.
  • Unperson: Paul London was infamously fired for smiling at Vince McMahon while the latter was walking to his limousine which would blow up immediately after he got in. Since then, he's never been mentioned on TV, and it's unlikely he'll ever return to the company.
  • White Dude, Black Dude: Subverted with the black as Paul is actually Mexican. Kendrick would later recruit the Guyanese Goliath Ezekiel Jackson who was what most people would call black.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: They'll apply wrestling holds so long as they don't involve striking a woman and even then, when Paul London body slammed Courtney Rush of the Moonwalk Thrillers during PWA Quest For The Cup 7, he was instantly apologetic and was booed. He almost retaliated with an elbow after Rush kneed him but he couldn't do it and tagged out to Kendrick, who managed to pin Jody D'Milo with a leg scissor roll up.
  • You Have Out Lived Your Useful Ness: Kendrick decides this is the case with Jon Moxley after seeing Paul London was also in Dragon Gate.

Alternative Title(s): The Hooligans

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