What Does War Machine Bring To WWE?
WWE added to their collection of elite wrestling talent with the signings of Hanson and Rowe, collectively known as the tag team “War Machine”. What impact will the former IWGP heavyweight tag team champions have?
This week, WWE continued to bolster their impressive roster of prominent independent wrestlers. The company signed former PWG World Tag Team Champion Candice LeRae (also the husband of NXT star Johnny Gargano), innovative highflier Ricochet (a.k.a Prince Puma in Lucha Underground), and hard-hitting tag team War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe).
Hanson and Raymond Rowe have come to WWE at the right time. The company has presented some pretty good tag team matches over the past several months; both on the main roster and in NXT. With a bevy of tandems to work with, War Machine has a chance to stand out as one of the top teams in the company if everything goes right.
International success
Like other indie talents that WWE has poached over the years, War Machine brings a proven track record of success to the biggest wrestling fed in the world. The catalog of wrestling promotions they have worked for reads like a child’s Christmas list. Seriously, go to Wikipedia and look at the list, it’s pretty extensive. They racked up plenty of gold across those feds as well, winning tag team gold in New Japan, Ring of Honor, and WPCW (now Defiant Wrestling).
At first glance, Hanson and Rowe resemble old-school brawling, powerhouse tag teams like The Road Warriors, Demolition, and The Powers of Pain. While War Machine is very similar visually to those legendary teams, their workrate differentiates them from those throwback tandems. Even when crowds seemed indifferent to their presence, War Machine’s work always earned them the appreciation of the fans.
Even though he’s the smaller of the two, Rowe is the powerhouse of the team. When he isn’t suplexing his opponents, Rowe spends the match realigning their jaws with knees, forearms, and uppercuts. Hanson also uses power moves but is better known for his high flying spots. Imagine Killian Dain with less body hair–that’s Hanson. Together, War Machine has become one of the best teams in the industry. They hope to continue that success in WWE.
How successful can they be?
I would be shocked if War Machine didn’t become one of the top teams in the company. They have a cool look, can go in the ring, and possess the size that Vince McMahon likes. They’ll probably start in NXT, with several potentially great tag teams waiting to face them.
The obvious opening feud for them would be with the Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar). It’s an easy story to tell: two hoss teams battle to see who the best is. Add in the fact that Paul Ellering–who managed the Road Warriors in the 80’s–governs Akam and Rezar, and the result is a basic but great feud that could last for a couple of months. Aside from the Authors, War Machine has possible bouts with Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly, SAnitY, Heavy Machinery, and the returning TM-61 waiting in the wings. Even on the main roster, they’ll still have plenty of quality opponents like The Bar, The Usos, The New Day, The Bludgeon Brothers, The Hardys, and The Revival.
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Given their size, skills, and look, it’s hard to imagine War Machine toiling in the middle of the tag team division. Then again, fans probably felt the same way about Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, and those two have spent most of their run starring in campy skits and calling other wrestlers “nerds” in their promos. Despite the non-zero chance of WWE positioning Hanson and Rowe as jokes, I think that both men will do what makes them great: earn fans’ respect with their workrate and eventually collect more championship gold.