By Steph Franchomme, John Dinsdale, Humza Hussain, James Truepenny, Tom Mimnagh, Danny Cause, Anthony Davies, Sêan Reid, Chris White & David Bedwell.
After the strange year 2020, we have lived a pretty hurtful year. Never the cards have been shuffled in the wrestling business. WWE have released more wrestlers than they have done in years. AEW have been signing more talents than they could ever put on TV at the same time. The “Forbidden Door” has changed our perception of the business. If some companies have been used to being partners, we suddenly saw wrestlers being in sometimes 3 or 4 different TV shows a week. A company like GCW has become THE place to come wrestle. The landscape has definitely changed, for the good but also for the bad.
Some names in our Tops will probably surprise you, we hope you will explore their work. And the other names are the ones you can’t ignore, these men and women who are monopolizing our screens or collecting the belts like a kid chasing treats on Halloween. But these are the teams who we think deserved your attention in 2021 and we can only begin to imagine, many of whom will be still shaping the scene come 2022.
Like for Top Wrestlers, new this year, the Spotlight. Some writers chose a team who was not on the “top of the Top,” his or her underdog, someone they thought deserved some words instead of just a pic. So, we are pleased to say that this list represents SteelChair fully. We let you find out the countdown from 50 to 11, the top 10 will be revealed tomorrow.
Editor’s note: This list is based on the faction/team’s accomplishments between September 2020 and September 2021. Men and women are treated equally as wrestlers (Click on a pic to enlarge it).
50. Io Shirai & Zoey Stark (WWE/NXT)
49. Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler (WWE)
48. NEO Biishiki Gun (Sakisama & St Michel) (TJPW)
47. OGK (Bennett & Taven) (ROH)
46. Foundation (Lethal & Gresham) (ROH)
45. LIJ (Naito & Sanada) (NJPW)
44. Suzuki Gun (Desperado & Kanemura) (NJPW)
43. TropikaWild (Mizumori & SAKI) (ChocoPro)
42. Ross & Bradley (H2O)
41. White Trash Forever (Grey & Voxx) (H2O)
40. Second Gear Crew (Mance Warner & Matthew Justice) (GCW)
39. Egg Tarts (Chie & Shinno) (ChocoPro)
38. Men of The Year (Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky) (AEW)
37. Dark Order (Uno, Silver & Grayson) (AEW)
36. Inner Circle (Guevara & Jericho) (AEW) – Were #14 in 2020
35. The Acclaimed (AEW)
34. Private Party (AEW)
33. Kenny Omega & Adam Page (AEW) – Were #1 in 2020
32. Gunn Club (AEW)
31. Best Friends (Chuck & Trent) (AEW) – Were #14 in 2020
30. 44.OH (Ryan & Beverly) (Indies)
29. Briscoes (ROH)
28. Dirty Dawgs (WWE)
27. Alpha Academy (WWE)
26. Tamina & Natalya (WWE)
25. Hurt Business (WWE) – Were #14 in 2020
24. FinJuice (NJPW/IMPACT) – Were #12 in 2020
23. Violent By Design (IMPACT) – Spotlight by Steph Franchomme: “Eric Young, Deaner, Joe Doering, rarely in less than a year has a team made such a striking effect on Impact Wrestling. Not only are they excellent in the ring but the promos they have cut are just amazingly dark and unique. Doering joined Young at Turning Point. Later, Deaner tried all he could but stopped resisting and joined VBD. If Young got injured in March, he has never left the side of his partners, leading them to victories and, in May, thanks to Rhino’s Call Your Shot Gauntlet Cup, to the IMPACT World Tag Team Championships. They would lose the belts at Slammiversary against The Good Brothers but never have they stopped being a deadly force on IMPACT.”
22. Grizzled Young Veterans (WWE)
21. The Mysterios (WWE)
20. Legado del Fantasma (WWE)
19. Guerrillas of Destiny (NJPW) – Were #9 in 2020 and #11 in 2019
18. Fire ‘N Flava (IMPACT)
17. Best Bros (Akki & Mei) (ChocoPro) – Spotlight by John Dinsdale: “As ChocoPro becomes more and more popular among wrestling fans, proper acknowledgement needs to be given to their top tag team, Best Bros. Baliyan Akki and Mei Suruga have taken Ichigaya by storm across our evaluation period, having high profile wars with anyone and everyone in and around the company. They finally dethroned Emi Sakura’s team RESET to claim the Asia Dream Tag Titles and have been dominant champions ever since. No one has been able to stop them as they just keep improving. Continuously creative with their teamwork, Best Bros aim to be the best and nearly always achieve it.”
16. Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston (AEW)
15. Jurassic Express (AEW)
14. Imperium (WWE)
13. CHAOS (Yoshi-Hashi, Ishii, Goto) NJPW – Spotlight by James Truepenny: “When CHAOS won the vacant NEVER Six-Man titles, it gave the perennial workhorse underdogs a chance to shine. They would lose in non-title bouts, even to Junior Heavyweights but, come game day, they came through EVERY time. Until they faced The House of Torture, the worst booking strategies NJ have all neatly wrapped into one faction and of course, promptly lost. In a year when NJPW made you fear for their sanity with booking decisions from the planet Zog, they told one beautiful tale of redemption. It was almost worth all the pain. Almost.”
12. AJ Styles & Omos (WWE)
11. Good Brothers (IMPACT)
All pics courtesy of WWE, NJPW, AEW, Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, H2O, GCW, ICW NHB, TJPW, and Gatoh Move – Feature image courtesy of David Garlick