The Canadian NINJAs Demonstrate Perfect Tag Match Structure
The Canadian NINJAs Demonstrate Perfect Tag Match Structure
It's like they copy-pasted it right out of the 1980s southern territories.
The very best wrestlers in the world teach the viewer about the form. Watching them becomes not just a passive consumption, but an active appreciation of their work, as well as the finer details of professional wrestling itself as a medium. Great wrestlers don’t just entertain, they instruct.
Nicole Matthews & Portia Perez are a great tag team. They’re the most iconic tag team act from SHIMMER’s entire run, and I feel confident in saying that they’re collectively the best heel act that the company’s ever had as well. One learns so much about tag team wrestling and the art of being a heel just by watching those two work their magic in the ring.
Take this match from Volume 29. If someone asked me to summarize what makes tag team wrestling such an exciting genre, this would be a great place to start. When it comes to understanding the most basic, elemental narrative structure of a tag team match, then this displays that to a tee. It’s the southern tag done exactly right, with only a few minor adjustments to adjust it to the modern day.
Things kick off with a babyface shine. It doesn’t take much early back and forth to see that Melissa and MsChif can get the best of the NINJAs on an even playing field. If we’re being honest though, it’s mostly Melissa who holds down the babyface team. Not only does she have the power to thrash the champions, she’s also confident enough down on the mat to ground the opposition.
Beyond just feeding in for the babyfaces’ offense though, the NINJAs odd incredible humorous layers to this opening segment. They don’t just run into offense, but also outright fail to function properly as a team. At one point, with Melissa having Portia down on the mat, Nicole shouts out a suggestion that Portia go for the leg. Hearing this, Melissa takes the advice instead and attacks Portia’s leg for herself. In a neat little bonus to that small story, when Nicole comes and is able to get in a dropkick to Melissa’s leg, that ends up failing too when Melissa levels her with a lariat.
It’s a simple progression of events that get over all the points you need: Melissa’s stronger and cooler, and the NINJAs are bumbling failures.
The segment all culminates in a truly spectacular bit of tandem offense from the babyfaces as Melissa repeatedly wheelbarrows Portia into Nicole who’s being held up against the barricades by MsChif. It’s brutal, it’s awesome, and it’s a great way to lead into our babyfaces posing to soak in some adulation.
The next step of a southern tag like this is the heel heat. Of course, the NINJAs understand that they can never earn their way into this segment, they must always steal it. It takes Portia on the apron distracting Melissa on the top rope to give Nicole the chance to slam Melissa down into the ring. and when the NINJAs take over, their offense is mean and petty instead of flashy and admirable. It’s bully stuff like Portia grinding Melissa’s face into the ring canvas.
The only real twist on the southern tag comes here as we get an initial hot tag. The heat segment is all about denial—building anticipation to when the fresh face on the apron gets to wreak havoc on the babyfaces. Here, the pay off comes a little sooner than expected with Melissa breaking free of the NINJAs and tagging in MsChif. Where in older forms of this tag, this would be a red herring in the form of the referee missing the tag and forcing MsChif back onto the apron.
This match takes another tact with the NINJAs swiftly regaining control and isolating MsChif for a second heat segment. This one’s a little less interesting than the last, with the peak being just a real funny but douchey pinfall pose by Portia Perez, but it still serves its role of delaying the gratification of that big climactic hot tag.
The hot tag is the centerpiece of any great southern tag, even moreso than the finish. Older tag matches typically don’t stray too far from the hot tag, wrapping things up in quick fashion once The Robert Gibson rushes in to action. The hot tag is the point, not an extended finishing stretch that swings back and forth with nearfalls and saves.
Again, the four women here get this part of the formula exactly right. Melissa cleans house, tags in LuFisto and they hit a tandem maneuver, Portia rams LuFisto into Bryce and Funky Cold Medina gets the win for the NINJAs. No chance to endure big offense and kick out like heroes, they just steal their win.
This match isn’t going to change the world, and it won’t top many greatest match ever lists or even match of the year lists. But what it is is fucking textboot, and a good one to study at that.
IS IT BETTER THAN 6/3/94? No.
Rating: ***1/2