Demolition (professional wrestling)
Demolition was an American professional wrestling tag team most prominent during the late 1980s and early 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation made up of Ax, Smash, and later Crush. In the WWF, Demolition were three-time WWF World Tag Team Champions, and hold the record for the most combined days as reigning champions with that championship.
Their first reign with the WWF World Tag Team Championship is the fourth longest reign with any male tag team championship in WWE history and is the longest reign on record for that specific championship. Beginning in 2007, Ax and Smash reunited for several appearances at various independent shows and legends conventions.
Career
World Wrestling Federation (1987–1991)
Formation and early push (1987–1988)
and Bill Eadie created the Demolition gimmick and worked for the World Wrestling Federation. They debuted as a heel tag team on January 4, 1987, at the Springfield Civic Centre in Massachusetts, alongside manager Luscious Johnny V, defeating the team of The Islanders and later participating in a battle royal won by Pete Doherty. Demolition wore studded black leather outfits and leather-covered hockey masks to the ring, which they removed to reveal face paint usually made up of some combination of black, white, red, or silver colors, though other colors were sometimes included. The tag team woreoutfits similar to Lord Humungus of the 1981 film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, while their facepaint was reminiscent of hard rock band KISS. However, in TV interviews the characters generally compared themselves to another hockey-masked horror movie villain, Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th film series, as well as Freddy Krueger of Nightmare on Elm Street.
After only two more matches, Colley was replaced with Barry Darsow starting with a match filmed January 26, 1987 at the Sundome, Tampa FL and aired on the February 14, 1987 edition of Superstars. Eadie has stated that Colley was replaced because he was too recognizable to the fans as the man who previously performed as Moondog Rex. The WWF pitched a few potential replacements to Eadie, but he thought fans would recognize the suggested replacements. However, Eadie felt that many WWF fans would not recognize Darsow, who had been working for Jim Crockett Promotions as Krusher Khruschev alongside Nikita Koloff. Darsow had left Crockett following a dispute in order to take over the role of Smash. On the March 14 Saturday Night's Main Event X, Demolition participated in another battle royal, won by Hercules Hernandez. Around that same period, Johnny Valiant sold their contracts to Mr. Fuji who became their manager.
Demolition's undefeated streak ended when they suffered their first pinfall loss to The Can-Am Connection on June 6, 1987 at the Boston Garden, Demolition became known for their aggressive style in the ring and the way that they dominated their matches. Their first feud was with the team of Ken Patera and Billy Jack Haynes, which started after Ax and Smash brutalized WWF jobber Brady Boone, during a televised match and then battered first Haynes and then Patera when they each tried to come to the rescue. Demolition claimed victories over all of the established face tag teams in the WWF at the time, including The Killer Bees, The Rougeau Brothers, the British Bulldogs, the Young Stallions, The Islanders, and The Can-Am Connection.
Demolition made their pay-per-view debut at Survivor Series in an elimination tag team match as part of the heel team. They eliminated The Rougeau Brothers, but were disqualified when Smash shoved down referee Dave Hebner during the match and the face team went on to win the match.
Tag team title reigns (1988–1990)
At WrestleMania IV, Ax and Smash defeated Strike Force to win their first WWF Tag Team Championship. Ax struck Martel in the back of the neck with Fuji's cane while he had Smash in a Boston crab. Martel was knocked out and Smash covered him for the pin while Ax hid outside with the cane. As champions, they defeated a number of the top teams of the WWF, which at the time had a very talent-rich and hotly contested tag division, most notably the British Bulldogs and Hart Foundation.Their first big challenge came in the summer of 1988, when The Powers of Pain entered the WWF and challenged them for the Tag Team Championship. The Powers, formerly heels in Jim Crockett Promotions, had been brought in as mercenary babyfaces by Strike Force to avenge both the title loss and an injury to Martel which Demolition had inflicted on June 1, 1988 during a title defence in Oakland, California. During the elimination tag team match at Survivor Series, Mr. Fuji attacked Demolition and joined forces with the Powers of Pain. A double turn took place as Demolition turned face while the Powers of Pain turned heel. Interviewed after the contest, Fuji claimed that he had turned on Demolition because, since winning the championship, they had become insubordinate and disrespectful towards him, whereas the Powers would be utterly obedient and loyal apprentices. For their part, Demolition denounced their former manager as a parasite, labelling him "Fuj the Stooge."
Ax and Smash also memorably squared off against each other as entrants #1 and #2 in the Royal Rumble match at the Summit in Houston in 1989, tearing into each other for the full two minutes before being joined in the ring by the third entrant André the Giant, where they once again joined as Demolition and targeted the big man.
Demolition defeated the Powers of Pain and Mr. Fuji in a tag team handicap match at WrestleMania V to retain the WWF World Tag Team Championship when they caught Fuji in the "Demolition Decapitation". That day, Demolition became the longest reigning WWF World Tag Team Champions after breaking the previous 370 day record of The Valiant Brothers. Subsequently, on May 2 Demolition's reign exceeded the 399-day third reign of The Fabulous Kangaroos with the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship, thus becoming the longest running holders of any tag team championship in WWF/WWWF history. They would eventually last a reign of 478 days, and while the general record for any male tag team championship has since been broken, this still stands as the specific record for the "classic" World tag team title of 1971–2010.
After WrestleMania V, Demolition started a feud with The Twin Towers and then a feud with The Brain Busters, who were managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. On the May 27, 1989 Saturday Night's Main Event XXI, the Brain Busters defeated Demolition by disqualification. They finally dropped the titles to the Brain Busters in a two out of three falls match on the July 29 Saturday Night's Main Event XXII following outside interference from André the Giant who threw a chair into the ring for Anderson to use on Smash. As well as looking to regain the belts, Demolition sought revenge on André and closure on The Twin Towers. At SummerSlam 1989, King Duggan and Demolition defeated André and the Towers in a six-man tag team match where Darsow showcased his strength by body slamming both of the Twin Towers. Demolition focused on regaining the tag titles and restarted their feud with the Brain Busters. On the November 4 edition of Superstars, Demolition defeated the Brain Busters to regain their tag titles and win their second WWF Tag Team Championship.
Demolition next feuded with the new Heenan Family team, The Colossal Connection. On the December 30 edition of Superstars, Demolition lost the tag titles to the Colossal Connection. At WrestleMania VI at the SkyDome in Toronto, Demolition defeated the Colossal Connection to regain the titles and win their third and final WWF World Tag Team Championship, and finally put an end to their feud with the Heenan Family. Due to his deteriorating physical condition, André never tagged in during the match with Haku facing Demolition on his own.
Addition of Crush (1990–1991)
Shortly after WrestleMania VI, the team quietly turned heel. This intensified when Brian Adams debuted in WWF and joined the team as Crush. In kayfabe it was claimed that this was a heinous scheme to gain a three-on-two advantage over other tag teams.Crush soon took a more active role, teaming with Smash while Ax faded into the background, becoming more of a manager. At this time Demolition used the "Freebird rule" to allow any two members to wrestle the matches. Smash and Crush defended the titles in the summer of 1990. On the July 28 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Smash and Crush defeated The Rockers to retain the titles after Ax interfered on their behalf and scored the pin on Michaels. The next month at SummerSlam, however, Demolition lost the titles to the Hart Foundation in a two out of three falls match. In that match, Smash & Crush started, but Ax secretly came down later on to substitute himself into the match behind the referee's back. Ultimately, the Legion of Doom, who had signed with the WWF a month earlier, interfered and snuffed out the deception. Demolition never recaptured the titles after this loss.
As a result of the interference by LOD, Demolition began feuding with Hawk and Animal who would often be joined in six man matches by reigning WWF Champion The Ultimate Warrior. WWF commentators at the time would often claim that the team wearing the face paint would win whichever particular match they were broadcasting. On the October 13 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Ax, Smash, and Crush lost to the Ultimate Warrior and LOD.
Soon after, due to the Legion of Doom now being on the WWF roster, Demolition's popularity began to decline and they regained the managerial services of Mr. Fuji in the fall of 1990. At Survivor Series, The Perfect Team was defeated by The Ultimate Warriors. Shortly after, Ax left the WWF, with the on-air explanation being an order from kayfabe WWF President Jack Tunney that there could only be two members of Demolition. Smash and Crush were the two remaining members, and went on to primarily lose to teams such as the Rockers and the Legion of Doom. The team lost a match to Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao at WrestleMania VII.
The team's next match was at WWF/SWS Wrestlefest on March 30, 1991 where they defeated Shunji Takano & Shinichi Nakano. Following this match, Demolition would continue to wrestle in the SWS throughout the summer usually on the losing end of matches. Crush went on a leave of absence from the WWF, while Smash wrestled in singles matches for a brief time before also leaving the WWF. As well as SWS, they also teamed in the WWC after leaving the WWF. The team's final WWF-related match occurred on an SWS show in Japan on September 18, 1991 in a losing effort to George Takano and Shunji Takano. Afterwards, they eventually broke up and the member Crush would return to PNW. The two ended up facing off at SummerSlam 1992, with Crush getting the victory over Repo Man. Crush would later turn heel on Randy Savage and rehire Mr. Fuji as his manager in 1993, once again painting his face, only in a different pattern from his Demolition days.