| The Powers of Pain | |
|---|---|
| Tag team | |
| Members | The Barbarian The Warlord |
| Name(s) | The Powers of Pain The Super Assassins The Super Destroyers |
| Heights | Barbarian: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) Warlord: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Combined weight |
618 lb (280 kg; 44.1 st) |
| Debut | 1987 |
| Promotions | JCP WWF WWWA GCW |
The Powers of Pain are an on-and-off professional wrestling tag team. They are best known for their tenure in Jim Crockett Promotions and the World Wrestling Federation.
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Terry Szopinski and Sione Vailahi were put together as a tag team called the Powers of Pain by Ivan Koloff and Paul Jones in the National Wrestling Alliance's Jim Crockett Promotions in late 1987. Szopinski was named "The Warlord," while Vailahi was known as "The Barbarian."
The Powers then began feuding with the Road Warriors. During their feud, they attacked the Road Warriors during a bench press contest between the two teams. Later during their feud, the Powers won the World Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Ivan Koloff from the Warriors and Dusty Rhodes.
They feuded for several more months until the Powers left the NWA while still the champions with Koloff when the Powers refused to do scaffold matches. As a result, the Powers and Koloff were stripped of the titles.
Upon their arrival, the Powers were faces initially managed by Tito Santana[1][2], introduced during an a WWF Event Center promo on WWF Superstars of Wrestling. They feuded with WWF World Tag Team Champions Demolition (Ax and Smash) who had defeated Strike Force (Santana and Rick Martel) for the titles and then injured Martel (kayfabe). The Powers were introduced as mercenaries to help Martel and Santana gain revenge on Demolition for both the title loss and the injury to Martel. Then later they were managed by The Baron.
They became heels while Demolition became faces when Mr. Fuji attacked Demolition at Survivor Series and aligned himself with the Powers of Pain. The Powers of Pain went on to win the match when they eliminated the foreign heel team The Conquistadors, The feud with Demolition ended at Wrestlemania V when the Powers Of Pain teamed with Fuji and lost to Demolition when Ax pinned Fuji.
They failed to win the titles and were eventually split up in 1990, with the Barbarian being managed by Bobby Heenan, while the Warlord paired up with "The Doctor of Style" Slick. The double turn between them and Demolition back at the 1988 Survivor Series was seen to many as the catalyst of their sudden loss of popularity and subsequent push down the card.
The rumor of the Powers of Pain's split was when the Legion of Doom were negotiating with the WWF in June 1990, they reportedly demanded that the Powers of Pain be split up and repackaged in different gimmicks due to thinking that they [the Warriors] would look like Powers of Pain-ripoffs when they entered the WWF due to their similar appearances. Thus, the Powers were split up, repackaged in different ring attires, and lost their familiar face paint until they both left the WWF.
Upon returning to the independent circuit, The Powers of Pain won the WWWA Tag Team Championship together on the independent circuit in the early 1990s before later debuting for World Championship Wrestling. During their time in WCW, they wrestled under masks as the Super Assassins and were managed by Col. Rob Parker. They later reformed their team in 2005 for Gladiator Championship Wrestling.
They filmed a shoot interview in 2004 with RF Video and spoke about their careers.
In 2008, they introduced an energy drink in association with Gladiator Championship Wrestling.