Doom

Doom was a professional wrestling tag team in the National Wrestling Alliance and World Championship Wrestling that consisted of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed which existed from 1989 to 1991.

Before the masks
Butch Reed had signed with Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988 after leaving the World Wrestling Federation and feuded shortly with the Junkyard Dog. Simmons had been with JCP for a while teaming with Eddie Gilbert but had not achieved much notoriety.

Woman’s revenge
When Rick and Scott Steiner started to team in 1989 a female fan started following them around, professing her love for the cute & dorky Rick Steiner. After a while Scott got fed up with this almost stalker like behavior and told the woman (Robin Green) off making her so angry that she turned on Rick Steiner, adopting the name Woman and vowed that the Steiner Brothers would meet their doom at Halloween Havoc 1989 but never made it clear who or what “Doom” was.

At the night of the PPV Woman unveiled the Steiner Brother’s Doom – a couple of brawny, hard hitting masked African Americans. Doom won their debut match against the Steiners when one of the members of Doom put an illegal object inside his mask and headbutted Rick Steiner and then pinned him. Doom followed up on this success by defeating Eddie Gilbert and Tommy Rich at Clash of the Champions IX, looking very strong in the process.

Unfortunately Doom’s next PPV outing did not come with the same success. Along with the Steiner Brothers, the Road Warriors and the Samoan Swat Team they were entered in a one night, tag-team round robin tournament but did not score a single point ending dead last in the tournament. Doom’s misfortune continued as Woman soon dropped the team and left the federation. Then on February 6, 1990 Doom hit rock bottom when they were defeated by Rick & Scott Steiner and as a result of the stipulation were forced to unmask.

Unmasked
When Doom unmasked no one was really surprised to see Ron Simmons and Butch Reed underneath the black hoods, they had both been on WCW television shortly before Doom debuted and they were the only two African American wrestlers in the federation that had the same massive physical appearance. Freed of the masks and now under management of former referee Teddy Long Doom began to prosper, being free to use their full movesets and not trying to hide who they were Doom earned another shot at the Steiner Brothers.

Capital Combat Doom shocked the world, they beat the Steiner Brothers a team that at that point in time did not lose very often. Doom won the tag-team titles and quickly set about defending them against the former champions the Steiners as well the rest of WCW’s very talented tag-team division. Doom defeated the Rock & Roll Express at the Great American Bash 1990 and also mauled such teams as Flyin’ Brian & The Z-Man and The Southern Boys while having frequent clashes with rivals the Steiner Brothers.

In the fall of 1990 Doom soon got their hands full with The 4 Horsemen after a backstage altercation that saw the arrogant Horsemen insult Doom by not wanting to share a dressing room with them (this of course was a storyline). At Halloween Havoc 1990 Doom held on to their tag-team titles against Ric Flair and Arn Anderson despite both teams being counted out. A no rules rematch was signed for Starrcade 1990 but on the night Ric Flair was replaced by Barry Windham since Flair was slated to wrestle as The Black Scorpion in the main event. Once again the result was a “No Contest”, this time due to a double pin (Windham pinned Simmons and Reed pinned Anderson at the same time) but despite the non-definitive finish the Doom / Horseman feud ended shortly afterwards.

At Clash of the Champions XIV Doom lost a non-title match to Sting and Lex Luger in a match that foreshadowed the trouble that lay ahead for Doom.

Break up and beyond
February 24, 1991 at WCW’s 1991 Wrestle War PPV Doom took on former tag-team champions The Fabulous Freebirds and lost due to miscommunication between Reed and Simmons. After the Freebirds left the ring Reed turned on Simmons and beat him up, turning Simmons face and ending the team of Doom forever.

Teddy Long sided with Butch Reed as the former Doom partners engaged in a short but intense feud. The feud culminated at SuperBrawl I where Ron Simmons pinned Butch Reed in a Steel cage match (referred to as a "Thunder-Doom" cage match). After the PPV Reed left the company allowing Ron Simmons to focus on other opponents while Teddy Long started to manage other talent in WCW.

In wrestling
Finishing moves
 * Shoulder Tackle
 * Diving Shoulder block

Managers
 * Woman
 * Teddy Long

Championships and accomplishments
National Wrestling Alliance / World Championship Wrestling
 * NWA World Tag Team Championship/WCW World Tag-Team Championship
 * Doom won the titles while they were still called the NWA titles and lost them after the name changed to WCW.


 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * PWI ranked Doom # 91 of the best 100 tag teams of the PWI Years.