Follow TV Tropes

Following

Wrestling / The World's Greatest Tag Team

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WGTT_3334.jpg
Haas and Benjamin

The World's Greatest Tag Team is a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. The duo debuted near the end of 2002 in World Wrestling Entertainment as part of Kurt Angle's new faction, Team Angle. After they broke ranks with Angle and started feuding with him, they adopted the "World's Greatest Tag Team" name. Both sharing amateur wrestling backgrounds, the duo proved to be highly successful performers in the ring. More impressively, they debuted during a period where popular tag teams such as Edge & Christian and The Hardy Boyz were no longer together, so TWGTT helped to fill the void in the tag team scene. Unfortunately, the duo split up in 2004 after Benjamin was traded to the Raw brand. While Benjamin went on to have a relatively successful singles career, Haas was lost in the shuffle and was briefly released in 2005 before returning to the company the following year. In 2006, the duo re-formed their tag team before they were eventually split up again. The two were both released from their contracts in 2010. They both found their way to Ring of Honor and competed there for three years. Benjamin left for New Japan Pro-Wrestling at the very end of 2012; Haas stayed in Ring of Honor until March 2013, when he quit in what so far appears to have been a legitimate shoot, disbanding the team.


"The World's Greatest Trope List"

  • Afro Ass Kicker: Haas as "Charlito".
  • Arch-Enemy: As a team they had Kurt Angle in WWE and The Briscoes in Ring Of Honor.
  • Badass Boast: "The best damn tag team period!" But really, their name says it all.
  • Bash Brothers: Each other, plus Rico for Charlie and MVP for Shelton.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Shelton Benjamin after his face turn in ECW, Charlie Haas during his impersonation gimmick on Raw.
  • Boring, but Practical: Nigel McGuinness was really incensed by their use of a tainted rag to defeat the Briscoes at Boarder Wars, even if it was a "Fight Without Honor".
  • The Bully: To poor ROH rookie Cheeseburger, in fact Charlie Haas is the reason he was called Cheeseburger and tried to retire him for no reason. Shelton wasn't content to leave him alone even after Charlie was gone. Mike Bennett stood up to Shelton and sent him out of ROH with a loss at Super Card of Honor VII.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: You know what pisses Charlie Haas off? That Obamacare doesn't pay for breast implants! Every woman should have them!
  • Call-Back: Breaking the Three Month Rule, Charlie's promo as CHL on Raw called back to Shelton's promo as Bradshaw on Smackdown.
  • Canon Discontinuity: Regarding Benjamin's relationship with Brock Lesnar. On top of having been roommates at the University of Minnesota, Benjamin actually coached Lesnar in amateur wrestling, and later they formed a tag team called the Minnesota Stretching Crew in OVW. When Kurt Angle debuted Team Angle, he claimed he'd drafted Benjamin to make it personal. Only, since the casual fans didn't follow OVW, Angle only mentioned the roommate thing. This was dropped after only a couple of weeks, and later they would acknowledge the Benjamin/Lesnar tag team.
  • Co-Dragons: For Kurt Angle, mainly during his feud with Brock Lesnar. After Brock put Kurt on the shelf they continued to act in his steed but then turned on Kurt when he came back and made less use of them.
  • Combination Attack: Atomic drop from Haas, super kick from Benjamin, which was their finisher during their first WWE run. Sometimes it would start with a super kick from Shelton and end with a German suplex from Charlie. Also a leap from guillotine called the Broken Arrow and a double hip toss back breaker called the star spangled banner.
  • Cool Shades: Benjamin would occasionally don a pair after his heel turn on Raw, which carried over when the team reunited.
  • Cool Versus Awesome: Many first time viewers or long time detractors of Ring Of Honor got tickets just because they heard the Worlds Greatest Tag Team would be taking on The Kings of Wrestling (Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero). This pay-per-view match, being the first Haas and Benjamin had in Ring of Honor, was just below a main event which featured Tyler Black (aka the future Seth Rollins) threatening to leave the promotion with the World Championship.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Invoked during one of their January 2011 EAW match with London, Kendrick and Reby Sky, where Jackie tagged herself in, in embarrassment over Reby knocking over Shelton. Defied by Charlie when Jackie started getting beat up too (but too late, she lost them the match and they wouldn't "get their win back" till July).
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Benjamin's main run as a singles performer in WWE began when he managed to pin Triple H twice in 2004, back when Hunter was still Raw's nigh-unbeatable top Heel.
  • Ditto Fighter: Charlie mimics the styles of other wrestlers and public domain characters. Even Great Khali, despite being two feet shorter! This also applied to the women. Enjoy.
  • Dumb Jock: Shelton Benjamin according to Sheamus. Calling him "One of the most amazing athletes" he had ever seen but then asking "but what's he done with it?" Shelton responded that Sheamus had yet to do anything to impress anybody.
  • Expy: They had one in Ring of Honor's The All Night Express, much to their annoyance. The World's Greatest Tag Team had been together longer but The All Night Express were in Ring of Honor first.
  • Faceā€“Heel Turn: At Final Battle 2011, a pre-taped anti-WWE promo by the Briscoes and a pre-match beatdown by Haas and Benjamin turned WGTT from sympathetic wrestlers screwed by WWE to among the most hated heels in Ring of Honor.
  • Finishing Move: Individually, Shelton has the T-Bone Suplex and a jumping reverse STO he calls Paydirt, Charlie has the Haas of Pain submission and a lifting inverted DDT called the Haastile Takeover. Together "The World's Greatest Finisher" (two man power bomb).
  • Go Seduce My Archnemesis: Something Jackie Gayda does of her own volition. Haas and Benjamin are happy to take advantage of any distractions/absences but would both prefer she didn't.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: In real life. Benjamin was the best man to Haas' wedding. Charlie once claimed that his brother may have sent Benjamin to him after his death.
  • In the Hood: Haas, when the team first reunited.
  • Irony: Their ROH theme boasts about how they will smack you down, which is exactly what happened to Charlie Haas via an overhead punch from Claudio Castagnoli when Charlie tried to jump up to the top rope where Castagnoli already was. However, Shelton jumped too high for it to work and still knocked him off.
  • Jack of All Stats
    • Charlie Haas, with a noted lack of high flying finesse (as part of his gimmick, the man can jump around when he wants to, just not to the extent that Shelton does).
    • Shelton does about everything except for not being particular deep in submission holds (he highly excels at the mat, high flying and striking) while Charlie is more so known for submission holds and has a submission finisher. Shelton does sometimes used a grapevine ankle lock as a finishing move though.
  • Jerkass: Charlie Haas in ROH. Both to an extent, what with Benjamin getting them a 5K fine for use of a chair but Haas went so gone so far as to breakup Shelton's covers while they were on the same team and punch the ref who threatened a DQ. Eventually Haas would fully turn on Benjamin during their attempts to win back the tag team titles in 2013, as shown on ROH on SBG #76.
  • Jerk Jock: Both of them as the World's Greatest Tag Team.
  • Jobber: Charlie Haas became such a jobber that he lost to Takeshi Morishima. Granted, that wouldn't be the mark of a jobber anywhere else but WWE land, but the point stands Morishima wasn't even a developmental guy and would be gone for seemingly for good in another day.
  • Large Ham: Charlie Haas is about as charismatic as most wrestlers which automatically qualifies him as one, Shelton not so much but he does tend to have better promos working alongside Charlie than he does on his own.
  • Lightning Bruiser: A duo of Lightning Bruisers at that.
  • Masked Luchador: Charlie Haas became seemingly invincible on Sunday Night Heat after he donned a luchador's mask, up until he climbed the turnbuckle in a match with Drew McIntyre and got weak around the knees.
  • Mythology Gag: The maroon and silver singlets they wore until they first split-up were one, as those were the respective colors of the universities they went to.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Haas and Benjamin gave one to the Briscoes at ROH Final Battle 2011 but still ended up losing the ROH Tag Team Championships.
  • Politically Incorrect Hero: A double politically incorrect hero feud between Charlie Haas and Rico. Charlie was portrayed as seemingly homophobic, but he was not too into Rico valet Jackie either and Rico was harassing him. The two eventually became a tag team.
  • Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Haas is a Jive Turkey.
  • Slut-Shaming: When Dawn Marie was telling everyone she was sleeping with Charlie Haas behind Jackie Gayda's back, Haas asked Dawn why she was such as slut.
  • Stop Being Stereotypical: The reason the World's Greatest Tag Team came back was to fight Cryme Tyme, who ignored Haas and Benjamin's individual complaints.
  • Tag Team: Besides each other, Charlie used to team with his late brother Russ, and has teamed with Rico Constantino and Viscera when Shelton was not available. Shelton was one half of "The Dogg Pound" With Rodney Mack, "The Minnesota Stretching Crew" with Brock Lesnar and "Black Dynamite" (AKA World Greatest Tag) with MVP.
  • Tag Team Twins: Charlie and Russ were twins.
  • Take That, Critics!: One of Charlie Haas's ROH videos was directed at Ari Berenstein of 411 MANIA for having the audacity to offer him constructive criticism.
  • The Alcoholic: Charlie Haas in the later stages of his ROH run, especially after Shelton got suspended and took a trip to New Japan, leaving him alone to get drunk and get in fights because of it. Warm beer pisses Charlie Haas off. And so do people with beer muscles, especially if they were drinking it warm!
  • The Rival
    • Los Guerreros (Eddie and Chavo) on SmackDown. London and Kendrick throughout WWE and beyond. La Resistance in the Pro Wrestling Alliance and American Rampage Wrestling, especially while the latter was in France.
    • The Kings of Wrestling, The All Night Express, D-Line and The C&C Wrestle Factory in Ring of Honor.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: This is what caused the end of Charlie Haas's friendship with Lillian Garcia and his (onscreen) relationship with Jackie Gayda in WWE. Lillian had said she wanted to be just friends, so he laughed and congratulated his till then romantic rival Viscera when he accidentally smacked her. Dawn Marie was trying to ruin his relationship with Jackie and it apparently worked as he took it upon himself to let them both down hard and in tears.
  • To Be a Master: Both of them but in different ways. Charlie's dream was to be a tag team champion, Shelton wants to be the world heavyweight champion of whatever promotion he's working for and just sees showing fans what he calls "the last great tag team" as just biding his time till he gets a shot at the highest possible title. Ironically, Charlie Haas has had more heavyweight championships than Shelton.
  • Tournament Arc: Charlie won the Phoenix Championship Wrestling Russ Haas Memorial Cup with Nova as his partner, substituting for Jamal in the finals against Doug Basham and The Damaja.
  • Wholesome Cross Dresser: Charlie Haas when wrestling as GlamaHaas
  • Worthy Opponent: They said that being Ring of Honor's tag team champions did not make them the best team in the world but that every tag team before them who held Ring of Honor's tag team title belts being great made them the best in the world and they thanked every single team in ROH, even the ones who cheated against them.
  • Wrestling Family: Charlie Haas' brother was his tag team partner, before his sad death.
  • Wrestling Psychology: Charlie showed some great psychology during his impersonation gimmick on Raw, imitating various other wrestlers and common gimmicks. Shelton, for his noted lack of charisma on the mic, could tell you a whole lot just from a look and some raised shoulders while wrestling in the ring.
  • Writing Around Trademarks: Known as Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team outside of WWE
  • You Have Failed Me: After their feud with the All Night Express, Haas tried teaming with Rhett Titus to win the ROH World Tag Team Titles left vacant by Kenny King's departure, and Shelton Benjamin tried to help them in the deciding round by running interference against SCUM. Titus objected to it, causing he and Haas to lose the match and Haas and Benjamin to go back to teaming with each other after beating up Titus.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Their attitude toward Kurt Angle when he returned from injury and thought he could still be friendly with them, them being "Team Angle" and all. Neither party thought they needed the other but Haas and Benjamin wanted to put an exclamation on that point, going as far as to team up against Kurt with The Big Show.

Top