Demolition – The First Tag Team To Three-Peat

It was April 1st, 1990 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  That morning my family and I had just left Edmonton for Ottawa.  That night in the Skydome, in front of almost 68,000 fans, the incredible happened.  Demolition defeated the, seemingly unstoppable, tag team of Andre The Giant and Haku –  The Colossal Connection.

Throughout 1989 Demolition was a powerhouse of a tag team.  They had some great rivalries with all of the hot tag teams of the 80s.  Leading in to that year’s Wrestlemania, the WWF wanted to setup a great tag team title match.  To accomplish this, in December of 1989 The Colossal Connection – in a shocking upset – beat Demolition to become the new tag team champions.

Fast-forward four months to Wrestlemania VI and Demolition have their rematch.

Here comes the Ax
Here comes the Smasher
The Demolition, Walking disaster
Pain and destruction are our middle names

It was the second match on the main card.  The crowd was loud, they were excited.  I don’t think there was a person in the building who didn’t want Demolition to win.

Andre The Giant was no longer the athlete that he was in the 70s.  His back was basically destroyed and he was barely able to wrestle anymore.  Haku fought Demolition all by himself without once tagging in The Giant.

From the ring apron, Andre was doing his damage behind the referee’s back.  Punching, head butting, and choking with the tag rope.  Ax was being man handled by both members of The Colossal Connection.

As the match was nearing its climax, the crowd began to ramp up in excitement.  Ax finally makes the tag to Smash.  Smash comes, clears house.  As Andre The Giant enters the ring and grabs Smash; Haku begins to wind up for his side kick.  It’s looking a lot like how Demolition lost the titles back in December.  This time, Smash ducks, Haku kicks The Giant and he ends up tangled in the ropes.

Smash quickly capitalizes on the mistake by grabbing Haku and setting him up for Demolitions finisher – The Demolition Decapitation.  As he does the crowd is going absolutely crazy.  Up to this point in my life, I haven’t heard a crowd cheer so loud.  It was incredible.

This was Andre The Giant’s last televised match with the WWF.  It was quite fitting as he was able to turn back to a baby face by splitting with long-time manager Bobby The Brain Heenan.