The Powers of Pain

The Powers of Pain are a professional wrestling tag team. They are best known for their tenure in Jim Crockett Promotions and the World Wrestling Federation.

History

Jim Crockett Promotions

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, ramming Road Warrior Animal's head into a stack of weights. A (legitimate) eye socket injury suffered by Animal at the time was attributed in kayfabe to the Powers' actions. 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.

World Wrestling Federation

Upon their arrival, the Powers were faces initially managed by Tito Santana.^[2][3] They feuded with WWF World Tag Team Champions Demolition (Ax and Smash)^[1] 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.

Following their failure to win the titles, the Powers feuded with teams such as The Bushwhackers and The Rockers until they were eventually split up in 1990. Subsequently, the Barbarian was managed by Bobby Heenan, while the Warlord paired up with Slick.^[1]

Independent circuit

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. The Powers of Pain reunited on September 16, 2012, in Chikara, taking part in a gauntlet match, from which they eliminated their old WWF rivals, Demolition, before being eliminated themselves by 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Jannetty.^[4]

Other media

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.

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • Electric chair (Warlord) / Diving clothesline (Barbarian) combination
  • Running powerslam by Warlord followed by a diving headbutt by Barbarian

• Signature moves
  • Aided diving crossbody^[5]
  • Double shoulder block^[5]

• Managers
  • The Baron^[1]
  • Sonny Blayze
  • Mr. Fuji^[1]
  • Paul Jones
  • Ivan Koloff
  • Col. Robert Parker
  • Tito Santana

Championships and accomplishments

• Jim Crockett Promotions
  • NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ivan Koloff

• World Wide Wrestling Alliance
  • WWWA Tag Team Championship (1 time, first)^[6]

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked them #97 of the 100 best tag teams during the "PWI Years" in 2003
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
  • Worst Tag Team (1989)

References