Debut 1987 | ||
Members The Barbarian
The Warlord Name(s) The Powers of Pain
The Super Assassins
The Super Destroyers Heights Barbarian:
6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Warlord:
6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) Combined
weight 618 lb (280 kg; 44.1 st) Promotions APWA
BCW
BTW
Chikara
CIW
GCW
IWC
JCW
LCW
NWA
NWC
PWS
SWS
WM
WrestleCade
WCW
WFP/TNT
WWF
WWWA | ||
The Powers of Pain are a professional wrestling tag team.
Contents
History
Paul Jones had previously managed The Barbarian (Sione Vailahi) in National Wrestling Alliance's territories during 1985-1987, while The Warlord (Terry Szopinski) and joined the NWA in late 1986 where he was managed by Baby Doll. Soon The Warlord and Doll left the NWA and went to the Central States area where Jones was managing The Barbarian, so a feud then took place between The Warlord and The Barbarian. Doll soon stopped managing The Warlord, and The Warlord and The Barbarian stopped feuding. Jones then started the manage The Warlord as well and teamed him up with The Barbarian as The Powers of Pain. Later on Jones brought The Powers of Pain to the NWA in late 1987.
Jim Crockett Promotions
After Paul Jones and the Powers of Pain came to the National Wrestling Alliance's Jim Crockett Promotions in late 1987, they were joined by Ivan Koloff.
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, ramming Road Warrior Animal's head into a stack of weights. A (legitimate) eye socket injury suffered by Animal at the time was attributed in kayfabe to the Powers' actions. 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
The Powers of Pain made their first appearance on June 18, 1988 on a house show in South Bend, Indiana and faced WWF World Tag-Team Champions Demolition (Ax and Smash) via countout in their first match. Upon their initial arrival the Powers were faces managed by Tito Santana. They feuded with WWF World Tag Team Champions Demolition 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. At the 1988 SummerSlam, The Baron debuted as their manager, leading them to victory over The Bolsheviks (Nikolai Volkoff and Boris Zhukov). The Baron would leave the WWF in early November.
They became heels while Demolition became faces when Mr. Fuji attacked Demolition at the 1988 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 The Conquistadors. The feud with Demolition ended at WrestleMania V when the Powers Of Pain teamed with Fuji and lost to Demolition when Ax pinned Fuji. Following their failure to win the titles, the Powers feuded with teams such as The Bushwhackers (Luke and Butch) and The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty). At the 1989 Survivor Series, they along with Zeus were a part of Ted DiBiase's "Million Dollar Team", losing to the "Hulkamaniacs" team of WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan, Jake "The Snake" Roberts and WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition. The Barbarian and The Warlord each eliminated members of Demolition, only to both be disqualified from the match for double teaming Hogan.
In March 1990, the team split, with Fuji selling Barbarian's contract to Bobby "The Brain" Heenan while selling Warlord's contract to Slick. Their final match as The Powers of Pain came on March 25 in Hershey, Pennsylvania when they were defeated by Hulk Hogan & The Big Bossman.
Although not officially reunited as a tandem, The Warlord and The Barbarian would team again on January 18, 1992 at a house show in Boston, Massachusetts, losing to The New Foundation ("The Rocket" Owen Hart and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart).
World Championship Wrestling and 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 (WCW) in November 1995. The team was put under masks as the Super Assassins and were managed by Col. Rob Parker. They only had three matches together (a win over The American Males and losses to The Nasty Boys and Sting and Lex Luger) before The Warlord left WCW in early 1996.
They later reformed their team in 2005 for Gladiator Championship Wrestling. The Powers of Pain reunited on September 16, 2012, in Chikara, taking part in a gauntlet match, from which they eliminated their old WWF rivals, Demolition, before being eliminated themselves by 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Jannetty.
The Powers of Pain continue to wrestle occasionally, including schedule matches for Big Time Wrestling in February 2016.
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.