The Twin Towers (professional wrestling)

The Twin Towers was the name of a heel professional wrestling tag-team that competed in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1988 to 1990, consisting of Akeem and the The Big Bossman.^[1]

History

The Towers had before feuded with each other when the Big Bossman when known as Big Bubba Rogers and Akeem when known as The One Man Gang in the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) when Rogers defeated Gang to win the UWF World Heavyweight Championship.^[2][3] This happened when Skandor Akbar who was managing Gang then deviously pitted Gang against Rogers who Akbar was also managing, for the UWF championship, Rogers then defeated Gang to win the title, and after Akbar then dumped Gang and continued to manage Rogers.^[4] Shortly after losing the UWF championship, Gang left the UWF and joined the WWF. In late 1988 when Slick was managing One Man Gang who had recently become Akeem "The African Dream", Slick then paired up Akeem with the Big Bossman, who Slick was also managing, and billed them as the Twin Towers. The Towers would make their pay-per-view debut on November 24, 1988 as at the WWF 1988 Survivor Series captaining a team with Haku, Ted DiBiase, and The Red Rooster against a team captained by the Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage), Hercules, Koko B. Ware and Hillbilly Jim in a five against five elimination match. The Towers' team lost, and Hogan and Savage were the survivors of the match.^[5] While still teaming as the Towers, Bossman and Akeem would have many single matches against Hogan and Savage. Then on a January 9 1989 episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling, WWF World Heavyweight Champion Savage had a match against Akeem. When Savage delivered his diving elbow drop to Akeem and when to pin him, Bossman the came to and entered the ring and attacked Savage with his billyclub, and Akeem was disqualified. Hogan then ran down and attacked the Towers who then left the ring.^[6] On January 7, 1989 When Hogan faced Akeem on episode 19 of Saturday Night's Main Event, Bossman again interfered in the match, and then Elizabeth who was the manager of the Mega Powers came to help Hogan, who was then followed by Savage, who then cleared the ring of the Towers.^[7] Also during January 1989 the Towers would achieve success, when they would score several wins over The Young Stallions (Paul Roma and Jim Powers). Weeks later on February 3, 1989 on episode 2 of The Main Event, the Towers had a match against the Mega Powers, who were having dissension between them. During the match, Akeem threw Savage out of the ring who landed on top of Savage's manager Elizabeth, knocking her unconscious. When Hogan saw what happened, he left the match and carried Elizabeth from the ring to the medical area. When he returned to the ring, he wanted to tag Savage, but Savage, who was furious with being abandoned during the match and very angry that he had to face the Towers alone, then slapped Hogan in the face, and then left Hogan the face the Towers by himself. Hogan then defeated the Towers by himself and the Mega Powers won the match. Two months later at WrestleMania V the Towers defeated the Rockers. The Towers also appeared on a 1989 WWF VHS coliseum home video cassette called WWF Fan Favorites where they wrestled and defeated The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) by countout. Though the Towers were still wrestling as a team, Bossman pursued the WWF world championship and wrestled a major singles match, when he received a title shot against the new WWF champion Hulk Hogan after Hogan regained the WWF World Title from Savage at WrestleMania V, after the Mega Powers disbanded. On episode 21 of Saturday Night's Main Event, Bossman faced Hogan in a Steel Cage Match, and during the match Hogan superplexed Bossman of the top of the cage, Bossman ended up losing the match. Shortly after the Towers began a feud with the WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition as they pursued the tag-team title. The Towers would lose every house show match they had against Demolition, some by pinfall, and some by disqualification.^[8] Even after Demolition lost the tag titles to the Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) the Towers continued to feud with Demolition. The Towers teamed with André the Giant against Demolition and King Duggan at SummerSlam 1989. Surprisingly Demolition and Duggan won the match. The Towers and Slick would also make an appearance on the Arsenio Hall Show. At the 1989 Survivor Series The Towers were to team with The Honky Tonk Man and Rick Martel as a team called the Enforcers against a team called the Dream Team consisting of Dusty Rhodes, Brutus Beefcake, Tito Santana, and the Red Rooster, but the Bossman's partner Akeem but was replaced by Bad News Brown.^[9] In early 1990 the Bossman became a face when Ted DiBiase had paid Slick to have Bossman retrieve the Million Dollar Championship belt from Jake Roberts, who had stolen it, when on a February 24, 1990 episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling, Bossman retrieved a bag containing both the belt and Roberts' pet python, Damien. On The Brother Love Show, he refused to accept DiBiase's money for the bag, and returned it to Roberts.^[10] After that the Towers disbanded.

Breakup and aftermath

After the Towers disbanded they once again feuded, Bossman wrestled and defeated Akeem at WrestleMania VI in only 1:49, and then again defeated Akeem on April 28, 1990 on episode 26 of Saturday Night's Main Event by disqualification. Subsequently, Bossman later began teaming up with his former foe, Hulk Hogan, against many forces, and was also on a team led by Hogan at the 1990 Survivor Series. Akeem would later leave the WWF in October 1990, and would go back to being the One Man Gang.^[11]

In wrestling

• Managers
  • Slick

• Signature moves
  • Body avalanche^[12]

• Theme Music
  • Jive Soul Bro (from Piledriver - The Wrestling Album 2)

External links

• Big Bossman Profile
• One Man Gang Profile
• Twin Towers OWW Profile

References