3 Early 2000s Tag Teams Who The WWE Briefly Brought Back
The WWE has been under the watch of Vince Kennedy McMahon for over 35 years. In turn, thousands of competitors have been featured on WWE programs like RAW, Smackdown, Superstars and Wrestling Challenge over the years.
The WWE has not only repackaged wrestlers at different times to portray entirely new characters -- Kane being one example, having also been Isaac Yankem DDS and Fake Diesel in the early 1990s -- but the company has also brought back talent for reunions and other nostalgia-oriented storylines at different points.
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Earlier this year, the WWE celebrated the 25th anniversary of RAW with a star-studded live episode. While there were a lot of cameos by former WWE Superstars, none of those appearances truly fed into new storylines.
However, prior one-off WWE television appearances from former full-time talent in recent years has turned into story arcs. That said, here are three tag teams from the early 2000s who were brought back by the WWE for more than just one match following a hiatus of at least a few years.
#1 The New Age Outlaws
As referenced with the photo within this article's introduction, The New Age Outlaws -- as comprised of "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn and "Road Dogg" Jesse James -- have had several WWE runs. Prior to becoming one of the top merch sellers of the Attitude Era, the members of The New Age Outlaws were two fledging singles competitors. Road Dogg had been known as "The Real Double J" Jesse James, as part of a feud with Jeff Jarrett, and Billy Gunn was affiliated with The Honky Tonk Man as Rockabilly; Gunn's run as part of The Smoking Gunns was not exactly fresh on people's minds.
The Outlaws won their first WWF Tag Team Championship -- Gunn's fourth overall - in November 1997 after defeating The Legion Of Doom. The duo eventually joined up with DX, keeping them near the top of the card. Road Dogg left the company in 2001 while Gunn was released by WWE in 2004.
The two ultimately found their way to TNA, where it seemed like they had entirely burnt their bridges to WWE. The Outlaws returned to WWE for a one-off appearance as part of the 1000th episode of Raw in July 2012. Finally, in 2013, the Outlaws competed in their first televised WWE tag match in over a decade as part of an Old School Raw. Another match happened again for an Old School Raw in January 2014, and later that month, Road Dogg and Billy Gunn won the tag belts and held on for over a month. The two have returned for other on-air reunions, while Road Dogg is known to be serving as Smackdown's head writer, which leaves the door open for more Outlaws activity in the future.