The Dream Team was a tag team in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1985 to March 29, 1987 consisting of Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine managed by ”Lucious” Johnny Valiant. The New Dream Team, also managed by Johnny Valiant, saw Dino Bravo replace Brutus Beefcake and competed from March 1987 until the winter of 1987/1988.
History[]
The Dream Team[]
Managers Johnny Valiant and Jimmy Hart first put Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake together in May 1985. Early on Beefcake teamed with Valentine to fight off Tito Santana and the Junkyard Dog, both high ranked contenders for Valentine's WWF Intercontinental Championship. On July 6, 1985 Santana regained the WWF Intercontinental Championship in a Steel Cage match and shortly afterwards the Dream Team set their sights on the reigning WWF World Tag Team champions, the US Express (Barry Windham & Mike Rotunda).
Not long after Johnny Valiant became the sole manager of the Dream Team as the two started to team more and more regularly. Their initial shots at the tag team champions were unsuccessful but on August 24 the Dream Team won the tag team titles from the U.S. Express when Beefcake rubbed Valiant's cigar in Windham's eye (only a storyline).
Immediately after their title win, the Dream Team were challenged by the British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith & the Dynamite Kid), often escaping with their titles due to underhanded means. Besides defending against the Bulldogs the Dream Team also put the gold on the line against such teams as The Killer Bees as well as the former champions the US Express (both versions). The Bulldogs remained a constant threat to the Dream Team as 1985 turned to 1986, finally the Dream Team agreed to give the Bulldogs one final tag team title shot at WrestleMania 2. On April 7, 1986 the two teams met in the Chicago section of WrestleMania broadcast from the Rosemont Horizon, with the addition of “Prince of Darkness” Ozzy Osbourne in the Bulldogs’ corner the Dream Team finally ran out of tricks and lost the gold.
Finding themselves in the challengers position the Dream Team now chased the Bulldogs in the months following WrestleMania 2 climaxing in a series of steel cage matches during the summer of 1986. As the summer passed the Dream Team found themselves facing the Killer Bees and the 2nd version of the US Express instead of challenging for the gold. As 1986 turned to 1987 the Dream Team found themselves feuding with The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jaques and Raymond). The team was also joined by Johnny Valiant's newest addition Dino Bravo in six-man tag matches. Lack of championship success, not to mention Beefcake feeling muscled out by Bravo, began tension within the team. It didn't help when Adrian Adonis inadvertently cut Beefcake's hair leading to a loss in a six-man tag team match for Adonis and the Dream Team to the Can-Am Connection and Lanny Poffo.
At WrestleMania III the Dream Team and the Rougeaus clashed once again with the Dream Team winning due to Dino Bravo's interference. This was to rescue a miscommunication between Beefcake and Valentine. After the match Dino Bravo and Greg Valentine argued with Brutus Beefcake, kicking him off the team and blaming him for nearly costing the team the match.
The New Dream Team[]
After dumping Beefcake, Valentine and Bravo began wrestling as “The New Dream Team”, starting out strong by defeating The Islanders in a series of house show matches after which they continued the long running feud with the Rougeau brothers splitting matches between them over the summer, often in six man matches with Beefcake joining the Rougeaus to take on Valentine, Bravo and Valiant. The Dream Team also had a couple of shots at the world tag team champions The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) but did not manage to repeat the success of the original Dream Team.
The New Dream Team's last major appearance as a team was at the inaugural Survivor Series where they took part in a 10 team, tag team elimination match. Valentine was pinned by Paul Roma of the Young Stallions, eliminating the team from the match.
After Survivor Series the New Dream Team broke up quietly, they simply stopped teaming up and went their separate ways. One of the main reasons for this split was because Valentine and Bravo legitimately did not get along outside the ring. Johnny Valiant left the WWF, Greg Valentine began working as a singles wrestler reuniting with Jimmy Hart and Dino Bravo came under the guidance of Frenchy Martin
Championships and accomplishments[]
- Ranked #94 of the 100 best Tag teams during the "PWI" years in 2003.
