The Top 100 Tag Teams of All Time | 99: Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre

Click here to see the Top 100 Tag Teams of All Time list so far.

Here we have the number 118-ranked Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre sliding into the number 99 slot. Number 119-ranked AbLas was disqualified because they’re a niche German tag team that only existed for a year and barely had any matches in Cagematch’s Matchguide. That said, I did check out one match from them that caught my interest (you should definitely click this link). They’re replaced by an even shorter-lived tag team, but one that was very well received while they were together and one whose matches were seen by way more people. 

They were a heel tag team of convenience on WWE’s Raw brand from spring to autumn in 2018, winning and losing the tag titles there once and then dissolving as a team when McIntyre turned on Ziggler. In hindsight, it’s a bit odd that they went that way, as McIntyre as a top babyface rather than a heel has since seemed to be one of Vince McMahon’s wet dreams. 

Because these matches happened in such a short time-span, I’m going chronological. Normally I’d do them in Cagematch rank order, but it doesn’t make sense to do that when their history together was basically just this one title run.

July 2, 2018 – Sioux Falls, South Dakota 

Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins def. Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre
From WWE Raw 1,310.  This is an extension of the Ziggler vs. Rollins Intercontinental Championship feud, leading into their Ironman Match that I’m sure you’ve forgotten ever happened. It was also an extension of the Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley feud (both were after absentee champion Brock Lesnar), as Reigns was set to team with Lashley as a tag team that doesn’t get along against the Revival in a match immediately following this one. That latter element ruined what was an otherwise fun heavyweight style tag match. Rollins played babyface-in-trouble very well, but when he was about to finally make a hot tag, the Revival ran out and attacked Reigns. That drew a disqualification at 11:17 (shown of 15:40). ***

July 23, 2018 – Cincinnati, Ohio 

Finn Balor & Seth Rollins def. Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre
From WWE Raw 1,313. This started as a random singles match between McIntyre and Balor (who was feuding with Corbin at the time), but Ziggler interfered. Ziggler was still Intercontinental Champion after the Ironman Match, but the feud with Rollins continued so Rollins made the save. General Manager Kurt Angle turned it into an immediate tag match. This was high-energy the whole way through; a lot faster paced than the Reigns version and with a better finish. That said, I think I preferred the slower, more impactful style to this. That’s not to say that I didn’t like this, but it didn’t suit the team I’m examining as well as it did the team of Rollins & Balor (who to date have wrestled on the same team nine times and have never lost, and have also never gotten a tag title shot). Rollins hit Ziggler with the Stomp for the win at 9:11 (shown of 13:00), setting up another IC title shot for him. Despite all this losing, Ziggler & McIntyre beat Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel for the tag titles on September 15. Between this and that, they beat Rollins in a handicap match and lose to Braun Strowman & Reigns by disqualification once. ***

September 16, 2018 – San Antonio, Texas 

Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre def. Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins {WWE Raw Tag Team Championship Match}
From WWE Hell in a Cell. This match is the reason this post exists. There are so many great things about it. First and most obvious is the wonderful use of classic tag team match tropes. Ziggler distracting the referee so he misses Rollins tagging to Ambrose, Rollins getting close to the tag over and over before Ambrose finally gets the tag, McIntyre & Ziggler cheating just enough to be dicks but not so much as to take away from how brutishly dangerous they’re meant to be. Beyond that, Ambrose worked smarter here than I’ve seen him work in any other match. He couldn’t use his strength to take down McIntyre, so he systematically tried lower and lower impact moves to find the most damaging thing he could do successfully to take the big man off his feet. Also, this was a rare occasion when having a match in WWE made it better than it would have been somewhere else. That’s because every time the match looked like it might take a turn towards indie nonsense, they did something more fundamentally sound than you’d expect from a modern match. The finish was incredible too. Ziggler & McIntyre went for a Doomsday Device on Ambrose, but were thwarted. Ambrose dumped McIntyre, leaving Ziggler up top. Rollins popped up and hit a superplex. He tried to roll right into a Falcon Arrow, but McIntyre escaped Ambrose and hit the Claymore on Rollins mid-Falcon Arrow. Ziggler landed on top of Rollins for the win at 22:57. It’s possible WWE has put on a tag team match this good since, but I doubt it. ****½ 

September 24, 2018 – Denver, Colorado 

Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre def. Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson {WWE Raw Tag Team Championship Match}
From WWE Raw 1,322. The Revival weren’t big enough to overpower McIntyre or fast enough to match speed with Ziggler, so they just obliterated both guys’ hands. That was fun. They were also a lot better at tandem offense than the champs. The problem is that this was WWE, so the fun had to stop in fewer than ten minutes of TV time very suddenly as soon as the heel champs decided they’d had enough. Ziggler gave McIntyre a maniacal smile and they somewhat casually hit Wilder with a Claymore into a ZigZag for the win at 9:16 (shown of 12:30). ***¼ 

October 22, 2018 – Providence, Rhode Island 

Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins def. Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre {WWE Raw Tag Team Championship Match}
From WWE Raw 1,326. This was the episode of Raw that started with the challengers’ Shield teammate Reigns announcing that his Leukemia was back and he’d have to vacate the Universal Championship. If anyone was going to not move the titles to the Shield that night, it would have been WWE. But they did the right thing and gave us a nice moment after the upsetting news earlier in the night. I was enjoying this quite a bit as a very TV but very breezy version of their outstanding PPV match when the finish landed like a soiled washcloth on my lunch. Braun Strowman, who I guess was feuding with McIntyre at the time, came out and brawled with him to the back. Ziggler panicked at being left alone and grabbed his title belt to use, but Ambrose stopped him and Rollins hit the Stomp for the win at 11:58 (shown of 19:20). Oh yeah, this thing got gobbled up by two commercial breaks. ***¼ 

Does this pair really deserve a spot in the top 100? It could be easily argued that they don’t. But I’m glad they showed up here because it gave us the Hell in a Cell match. It also gave us a few nice Shield matches. Given that they’re listed as a stable and not a tag team on Cagematch, we’ll take what we can get (and probably do a supplemental post about them later).