Beverly Brothers

The Beverly Brothers
Tag team
Members	Beau Beverly / Wayne Bloom Blake Beverly / Mike Enos
Name(s)	The Beverly Brothers The Destruction Crew (AWA) Minnesota Wrecking Crew II (NWA)
Heights	Bloom: 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) Enos: 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Combined weight	518 lb (235 kg; 37.0 st)
Billed from	Chicago, Illinois - AWA Minneapolis, Minnesota - NWA/WCW Shaker Heights, Ohio - WWF
Debut	1989
Disbanded	1997
Promotions	AWA NWA NJPW SWS WCW WWF
Trainer	Eddie Sharkey

The Beverly Brothers were a professional wrestling tag team comprising Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom in the World Wrestling Federation. They were also known as The Destruction Crew in the American Wrestling Association and the Minnesota Wrecking Crew 2 in the National Wrestling Alliance. The Destruction Crew won the Pro Wrestling Illustrated 1990 Rookie of the Year award, the only tag team to win this accolade.^[1]

Career

American Wrestling Assoociation (1989-1991)

Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom started out in 1989 in the American Wrestling Association after being trained by Eddie Sharkey and managed by Johnny Valiant.^[2] Sporting matching ring attire and carrying sledgehammers to the ring, they were known as "The Destruction Crew". They feuded with The Olympians, Ken Patera and Brad Rheingans, and challenged them to a “car lifting” contest. During the challenge, The Crew attacked The Olympians and, in storyline, injured them. The Olympian's injuries forced them to vacate their AWA Tag Team Championship which were then placed in a tournament. The Crew went on to defeat Greg Gagne and Paul Diamond to win the title tournament on October 1, 1989.^[3] They also faced Rheingans and Paul Diamond and in a steel cage match were the former was locked out of the cage only to have his partner decimated by The Destruction Crew. The team finally lost their Tag Team titles on August 11, 1990 to The Trooper and D.J. Peterson^[3]. Although neither Enos nor Bloom were technically "rookies," fans voted The Destruction Crew the 1989 Rookie of the Year in Pro Wrestling Illustrated, making them the only tag team to win this award.

By the end of 1990, the AWA was effectively on hiatus and would eventually shut down entirely by May 1991. The Destruction Crew's entrance theme in the AWA was the highly popular Queen song "We Will Rock You", a theme of defeating your opponents in sports and leaving them in humiliation. This was most fitting considering by the time the AWA went under, they were viewed upon as a tag team with one of the best win/loss records in the history of the company.

World Championship Wrestling (1990)

While still AWA World Tag Team Champions, the Destruction Crew joined World Championship Wrestling during the summer of 1990. In WCW they wrestled under masks as the "Minnesota Wrecking Crew II" and were managed by Ole Anderson who was part of the original Minnesota Wrecking Crew. They attempted without success to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship from The Steiner Brothers during a brief feud.

New Japan Pro Wrestling (1990)

After the AWA closed, the Destruction Crew went to Japan and compete in a series of matches in the New Japan Pro Wrestling including an unsuccessful title match against then IWGP Tag Team Champions Keiji Mutoh and Masahiro Chono on August 19, 1990.^[4]

World Wrestling Federation (1991-1993)

In May 1991, the team went to the World Wrestling Federation and were transformed into Beau (Bloom) and Blake (Enos), "The Beverly Brothers". Their gimmick was that of two spoiled rich brats. They were originally managed by Coach (John Tolos), then by The Genius. The team was initially promoted as a force to be reckoned with and launched into feuds with the Legion of Doom, The Bushwhackers and The Natural Disasters, the latter of which revolved around the WWF World Tag Team Championship. By the later part of 1992, however, the Beverly Brothers would be used primarily to put over other tag teams. The Beverly Brothers were seldom promoted as serious players in the tag team division, making only a few PPV appearances between 1991 and 1993.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Bloom left the WWF in April 1993 and semi-retired from the sport while Enos, still under the Blake Beverly moniker, remained with the company for an additional four months as a singles competitor, primarily putting over other talent.

World Championship Wrestling (1997-1998)

The team had a brief reunion in World Championship Wrestling in 1997-98 for a few matches. They remained low-card performers, and after a few matches together, the team finally disbanded.

In wrestling

Finishing moves

• As The Beverly Brothers
  • Shaker Heights Spike^[10] (Blake flapjacks the opponent into the air and Beau catches them with a kneeling head spike)^[11]

• As The Destruction Crew
  • Aided piledriver^[11]
  • Wrecking Ball (Electric chair / Diving clothesline combination)^[11]

• Managers
  • Johnny Valiant
  • Ole Anderson
  • Coach (John Tolos)
  • The Genius
  • Christopher Love
  • Baron Von Raschke
  • Manny Fernandez

Championships and accomplishments

• American Wrestling Association
  • AWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI Rookie of the Year: 1989

References

Professional wrestling portal

1. ^ Pro Wrestling Illustrated (1990). "PWI 1989 Rookie of the Year Award". PWI 1989 Reader Awards (London Publishing Co.). 
2. ^ Greg Oliver and Steve Johnson (2005). The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-5502-2683-6. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2006). Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4. 
4. ^ prowrestlinghistory.com. "NJPW show results 1990". Archived from the original on 03-04-2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070403205941/http://puroresufan.com/njpw/results90.php. Retrieved 04-04 2007. 
5. ^ prowrestlinghistory.com. "Survivor Series Show results (1991)". http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/usa/wwf/survivor.html#91. Retrieved 04-04 2007. 
6. ^ prowrestlinghistory.com. "Royal Rumble Show results (1992)". http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/usa/wwf/rumble.html#92. Retrieved 04-04 2007. 
7. ^ prowrestlinghistory.com. "SummerSlam Show results (1992)". http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/usa/wwf/summer.html#92. Retrieved 04-04 2007. 
8. ^ prowrestlinghistory.com. "Survivor Series Show results (1992)". http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/usa/wwf/survivor.html#92. Retrieved 04-04 2007. 
9. ^ prowrestlinghistory.com. "Royal Rumble Show results (1993)". http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/usa/wwf/rumble.html#93. Retrieved 04-04 2007. 
10. ^ Shields, Brian and Kevin Sullivan (2009). WWE Encyclopedia. DK/BradyGAMES. p. 27. ISBN 9780756641900. 
11. ^ ^{a b c} "Finishing Moves List". Other Arena. http://www.otherarena.com/nCo/finish/finish.html. Retrieved 2009-08-28.