Powers of Pain

The Powers of Pain are an on-and-off professional wrestling tag team. They are best known for their tenure in Jim Crockett Promotions and the World Wrestling Federation.

Jim Crockett Promotions
The Barbarian and The Warlord were put together as a tag team called the Powers of Pain by Ivan Koloff and Paul Jones in the National Wrestling Alliance's Jim Crockett Promotions in late 1987.

The Powers then began feuding with the Road Warriors. During their feud, they attacked the Road Warriors during a bench press contest between the two teams. Later during their feud, the Powers won the World Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Ivan Koloff from the Warriors and Dusty Rhodes.

They feuded for several more months until the Powers left the NWA while still the champions with Koloff when the Powers refused to do scaffold matches. As a result, the Powers and Koloff were stripped of the titles.

World Wrestling Federation
Upon their arrival, the Powers were faces initially introduced by Tito Santana during an a WWF Event Center promo on WWF Superstars of Wrestling and feuded with WWF World Tag Team Champions Demolition (Ax and Smash) who had defeated Strike Force (Santana and Rick Martel) for the titles and then injured Martel (kayfabe). The Powers were introduced as mercenaries to help Martel and Santana gain revenge on Demolition for both the title loss and the injury to Martel. Then later they were managed by The Baron.

They became heels while Demolition became faces when Mr. Fuji attacked Demolition at Survivor Series and aligned himself with the Powers of Pain. The Powers of Pain went on to win the match when they eliminated the foreign heel team Los Conquistadores.

They failed to win the titles and were eventually split up in 1990, with the Barbarian being managed by Bobby Heenan, while the Warlord paired up with "The Doctor of Style" Slick. The double turn between them and Demolition was seen to many as the catalyst of their sudden loss of popularity and subsequent push down the card.

The rumor of the Powers of Pain's split was when the Legion of Doom were negotiating with the WWF in 1990, they reportedly demanded that the Powers of Pain be split up and repackaged in different gimmicks due to thinking that they [the Warriors] would look like Powers of Pain-ripoffs when they entered the WWF due to their similar appearances. Thus, the Powers were split up, repackaged in different ring attires, and lost their familiar face paint until they both left the WWF.

Independent circuit
Upon returning to the independent circuit, The Powers of Pain won the WWWA Tag Team Championship together on the independent circuit in the early 1990s before later debuting for World Championship Wrestling. During their time in WCW, they wrestled under masks as the Super Assassins and were managed by Col. Rob Parker. They later reformed their team in 2005 for Gladiator Championship Wrestling.

Other media
They filmed a shoot interview in 2004 with RF Video and spoke about their careers.

In 2008, they introduced an energy drink in association with Gladiator Championship Wrestling.

In wrestling

 * Finishing tag team moves
 * Electric chair (The Warlord) / Diving clothesline (The Barbarian) combination
 * Running powerslam by The Warlord followed by a diving headbutt by The Barbarian


 * Managers
 * Ivan Koloff
 * Paul Jones
 * The Baron
 * Mr. Fuji
 * Col. Robert Parker
 * Sonny Blayze

Championships and accomplishments

 * National Wrestling Alliance
 * NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ivan Koloff
 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * PWI ranked them #97 of the 100 best tag teams during the "PWI Years" in 2003
 * Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
 * Worst Tag Team (1989)


 * Other Championships and Accomplishments
 * WWWA Tag Team Championship