Hulk Hogan & Roddy Piper vs Orndorff & Race (WWF - 11/24/86)

Easy second.

How about that for the most electric team you've ever seen in your fuckin life? This was perfect wrestling to me, just a molten hot ten minutes with a babyface team that the crowd will lose its absolute mind for. Right out the gate Piper and Hogan clean house, then they accidentally back into each other, tear off their shirts and draw their fists. They may be teammates on the night but they're not friends and neither has any love nor trust for the other. Then Orndorff and Race get back in and Hogan picks up Piper so Roddy can double pump kick the pair of them back out the ring. The babyface shine was basically some extended arm work on Race, and it was fine if basic stuff, but the real magic here was the tags. As in, the act of tagging your partner in the ring. Every tag elicited an insane crowd response and it was the way they milked those tags that did it. Can they coexist after their history together? Before every tag they look at each other for a couple seconds, I guess taking the measure of one another. By the fourth or fifth it's almost a high five, forceful enough to snap a mere mortal's wrist, the pair of them working as a genuine unit, realising that you don't always need to be best buddies with your teammates. If Jordan can deck Steve Kerr and still win a title together, who says Hogan and Piper can't set aside their past for one night? Piper is an awesome face in peril on sheer charisma alone, but I really love how desperate he always feels in trying to escape trouble. Race was clearly having fun rolling out some big offence and Piper was on his last punch drunk legs. Hogan coming in roaring to save him from a corner mugging at one point was amazing and just primed everyone to explode for that hot tag, which they obviously did. Piper scoring the win even though he wasn't the legal man is definitely one of those things that would've gotten under Hogan's skin, then he gives Hogan the 'up yours' and leaves him alone against the heels after the match, which was incredible. Coexisting in a wrestling match against a common enemy is one thing, but to hell with doing it after the cheque's already been cashed. An insanely fun match.