Tag Team Top 5 for the Week of May 18th, 2015
#1 Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, & Masato Tanaka- This one is a bit of a surprise. It's not just a surprise because it's a team that hasn't teamed frequently in 2015, but because it's a 3-man team. While there have been 3-man teams to grab the #1 spot before (Viking War Party and Devastation Corporation being the most obvious) it's not the most common thing in the Tag Team Top 5. The weekend at FMW for this team was a little bit nostalgic as they defeated NOSAWA Rongai, Buffalo and Monster Leather at FMW in Japan on 5/13, then defeated Monster Freddie, Monster Leather & NOSAWA Rongai on 5/14, and then teamed with Ricky Fuji on 5/15 to beat Monster Freddie, Monster Leather, NOSAWA Rongai & The Winger to go 3-0 for the week. Can they do it again? It's unlikely, but also entirely possible.
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#2 The Hooligans (Devin & Mason Cutter @BeardedBullys)- These bearded bullies found their way to the Tag Team Top 5 yet again. Much like last weekend, it wasn't their greatest weekend as a team, their recent string of victories along with their prestige as a team earned them their 2 nd straight #2 ranking. The SLA Tag Team Champions defeated Just D'Air and Mike Outlaw at SNPW on 5/16 and then followed that up with a victory over The Viking War Party (Jake Parnell & Frank Wyatt) at IWA Mid-South on 5/17 to go 2-0 on the week. With 4 straight wins, these Hooligans are looking more and more unstoppable as the year rolls on.
#3 The Ballard Brothers (Shane & Shannon Ballard)-It's been a while since you've seen this tag team mentioned in the Tag Team Top 5, but the NEW VPW Western States Tag Team Champions had a phenomenal weekend. First, they teamed with Holly Renee at VPW on 5/15 to defeat The Carnival of Shadows (Jeckles The Jester & Jinx) & Kiara Dillonwon; then a four-way match vs The Classic Connection (Buddy Royal & Levi Shapiro), The Von Dooms (Cyanide & The Vintage Dragon) and The Excess Express (Alexander G. Bernard & Perry Von Vicious) to win the titles on 5/16, and then teamed with Holly Renee on 5/17 to defeat The Carnival Of Shadows (Jeckles The Jester & Jinx) & Kiara Dillon to go 3-0 for the week. This is a tag team that is back to making an impact on the West Coast. We hope to see more of them in 2015.
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#4 Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)- Name value can do a lot for a team and when it comes to a team like The Young Bucks, the fact that they're widely regarded as the best tag team in the world can pay dividends on a slow week. While they did defeat The Addiction on 5/17 to retain the 2CW Tag Team Titles, they didn't have multiple wins this week like several other teams. That being said, their victory was over last week's #1 so certainly that helped their stock this week as well. If they can keep bringing the Super Kick Party to the indies (outside of ROH and New Japan that is) you'll likely keep seeing them pop up in the Tag Team Top 5 going forward.
#5 Strong BJ/BJ Strong (Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi)- It was another "strong" week for the KO-D Tag Team Champions as they teamed with Hideyoshi Kamitani at BJW on 5/14 to beat Isamu Oshita, Kazuki Hashimoto & Tatsuo Omori and then defeated Smile Squash (HARASHIMA & Yasu Urano) on 5/17 to retain the titles to go 2-0 for the week. With 11 straight wins to their credit, they got some support for the #1 spot this week, but they were eventually overwhelmed due to lack of fan support in the online voting competition and the official voters showing a little more support to the teams in front of them. One thing's for sure, they've been a force in 2015 regardless of ranking.
People's Champs. Rochester Wrecking Crew (Hellcat @hellcat420 & Rob Sweet @RobJust2Sweet)- At one point in time you could say Team IOU (or even F1rst Generation or The Soul Shooters) were the undisputed People's Champs on a week in, week out basis for the Indy Power Rankings Tag Team Top 5. That may have changed at this point. After 2 weeks of absolutely OVERWHELMING performances in the online voting competition, The Rochester Wrecking Crew are now back-to-back People's Champs. The UPW Tag Team Champions fell short in winning the ESW Tag Team Titles vs. The Hate Brigade on 5/16, but did win by DQ which got them another crack at the poll, which they easily won. With 363 votes this week, it was clearly their week again.
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Just missing out/Others Receiving Votes:
Bravado Brothers
Dark City Fight Club
Kimber Bombs
Jerarquia-#3 in the online voting competition with 52 votes
Oliver Strange & Justin Turnbull-#2 in the online voting competition with 57 votes
PS Playas-#4 in the online voting competition with 34 votes
SFU
Diego Vasquez & Kris Nemesis
AR Fox & Rich Swann
Disco World Order
Big Guns
Young Lions
Blunt Force Trauma
Red Nation
Tryout Show Rejects
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The Tag Team Top 5 Reveal on Elite Podcast Network features former Angelus Layne this week: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/elitepodcastnetwork/2015/05/20/indy-power-rankings-tag-team-top-5-reveal-ft-angeluslayne
