Brian Damage
The Powers of Pain, Warlord and Barbarian, were a former NWA tag team that found their way into the WWF at the peak of the company’s expansion. However, another hulking face-painted duo led to the pair splitting while with Vince McMahon’s company. Today we look at that break of the team.
When the Powers of Pain (The Warlord and the Barbarian) were brought into the World Wrestling Federation in 1988, they were almost immediately pushed as a dominant babyface tag team. They would take on the Baron aka Baron von Raschke as their manager and feud with heel teams like The Bolsheviks. During this time, Demolition (who were a heel tag team) were increasingly becoming more popular. At Survivor Series ’88, a double turn occurred which saw Mr. Fuji turn on Demolition and align with The Powers of Pain. The Powers of Pain would feud with Demolition leading up to a handicap match where Demolition defeated POP and Mr. Fuji at Wrestlemania V. The Powers of Pain would move on to various feuds with teams like the Bushwackers and the Rockers with little to no fanfare. It would all culminate in February of 1990, when on an edition of WWF Update, ‘Mean’ Gene Okerlund would announce that Mr. Fuji individually sold the contracts of the Warlord and the Barbarian.
The Warlord would be sold to manager Slick, while the Barbarian would be sold to manager Bobby ‘the Brain’ Heenan. The kayfabe excuse as to why Fuji was breaking up the team was because he had just started to manage a new team of Akio and Tanaka aka the Orient Express. To prevent any conflict of interest, Mr. Fuji sold the contracts of the Powers of Pain separately thus ending their run as a tag team. In reality, the reasoning was much different. Around this time, the Road Warriors of Hawk and Animal were making it known that they were unhappy in the NWA/WCW and wanted out. Vince McMahon began contract negotiations to bring in this very popular team. Rumors persisted that Hawk and Animal would only sign with the WWF under the condition that the Powers of Pain were separated and not wrestle with a gimmick too similar to theirs. While the Road Warriors and the Powers of Pain feuded previously in the NWA, Hawk and Animal apparently did not want the confusion of too many teams with the same exact gimmick.
Regardless if the Road Warriors requested, the Powers of Pain break up, the fact still remained that if POP was to stay together, there would be three teams with identical gimmicks. (Road Warriors, Powers of Pain and Demolition) Considering that the Road Warriors were already a well-known attraction outside of the WWF and Demolition was Vince’s own creation, that left the Powers Of Pain as the odd men out. They were the ones chosen to split up and were given new managers and completely new attire. Just because the team split up, didn’t mean that Vince McMahon didn’t have big plans for both their singles careers. The Warlord would challenge Hulk Hogan on the house show circuit for the WWF title, while the Barbarian was booked to feud with the Ultimate Warrior. Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior were two of the biggest babyfaces in the company, so it seemed like a win-win situation for the two. Ultimately though, Warlord and Barbarian never made it out of the mid-card doldrums. Remembering back to this moment though, ‘Mean’ Gene heralded the moves akin to some of the biggest sports trades and said that in this case, “everybody was a winner.” Not quite though.
