Tuesday, January 29, 2019

The Texas Hangmen

ChrisP2K5:


'''The Texas Hangmen''' was the name of a [[professional wrestling]] tag team formed in the 1980s. The team competed in the [[American Wrestling Association]] in the late 1980s, where they received their highest amount of exposure, but had more success in the [[World Wrestling Council]] where they held the company's world tag team championship multiple times.

==Formation==
The Texas Hangmen consisted of wrestlers [[Bull Pain|Frank Vizi]], who had been wrestling as Rick Gantner in the AWA and [[WWE|World Wrestling Federation]] primarily as a jobber, and [[Tough Tom|Tom Benninghaus]]. Both men were put under [[wrestling mask]]s to hide their faces, and carried nooses to the ring to emphasize their characters as executioners<ref>http://bit.ly/2Ut2tnp>. Vizi was given the name '''Psycho''' while Benninghaus became '''Killer'''.<ref>http://bit.ly/2DG7rYb>

===American Wrestling Association===
Killer and Psycho wrestled in the AWA for several years, beginning in 1987, and contended for the [[AWA World Tag Team Championship]] but never won it.

They were also participants in the company's ill fated Team Challenge Series that eventually resulted in the AWA's downfall.

===World Wrestling Council===
After the AWA folded, Vizi and Benninghaus carried their Texas Hangmen characters with them to Puerto Rico.

On September 15, 1990, Killer and Psycho challenged the newly crowned WWC World Tag Team Champions, The Super Medicos, for the titles. The match ended controversially, with the titles being held up, and the champions regained the title over the Hangmen one week later. Killer and Psycho would return the favor one week later, winning their first championship together. They would hold the belts until February 3, 1991, dropping them to [[El Bronco]] and [[Invader I]]. The Hangmen won the rematch on February 10 and kept the belts for three more weeks, losing a [[Luchas de apuestas]] match on March 2 where El Bronco and Invader I put their mask and hair on the line against the tag team title belts.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfzCogfausU</ref>

==United States Wrestling Association==
Shortly after their loss of their second WWC World Tag Team Championship, the Texas Hangmen went to the [[United States Wrestling Association]] in Memphis and defeated their tag team champions, [[Jeff Jarrett]] and [[Eddie Gilbert]], for the belts. They would lose the belts to Jarrett and [[Robert Fuller]] in May 1991.
<ref>http://bit.ly/2UnPPGb>


==Afterward==
Both Vizi and Benninghaus would move on to different companies. Vizi eventually became known as Bull Pain and have a successful singles career as an independent wrestler, first in the original [[Extreme Championship Wrestling]] and then in [[IWA Mid-South]]. He would also appear from time to time as an enhancement talent in [[World Championship Wrestling]].

The team made one last run as WWC World Tag Team Champions in 1996, only to split during their reign as Vizi and promoter [[Carlos Colon]] fought over his salary and left. [[Vito LoGrasso]] (as Skull von Krush]] replaced the former Psycho for the remainder of the team's reign.

Benninghaus is perhaps better known to modern wrestling fans as Tough Tom, one half of the team Disorderly Conduct in World Championship Wrestling. He teamed with Mike Moran, who took the name Mean Mike, and the two served primarily as a lower-level tag team that primarily wrestled on the company's syndicated programming and ''WCW Saturday Night''. On occasion, Benninghaus and Moran would don masks and wrestle as the Texas Hangmen with Moran taking on the role of Psycho.

==Championships and accomplishments==
*'''Independent Association of Wrestling'''
**IAW Tag Team Championship (4 times)
*'''[[United States Wrestling Association]]
**[[USWA Tag Team Championship]] ([[USWA Tag Team Championship#Title history|1 time]])<ref name=USWATagBook>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (1 for 2)</ref>
*'''[[Windy City Pro Wrestling|Windy City Wrestling]]'''
**WCPW Tag Team Championship (3 times)
*'''[[World Wrestling Council]]'''
**[[WWC World Tag Team Championship]] ([[WWC World Tag Team Championship#Title history|3 times]])<ref name=WWCWorldTagBook></ref><ref name=WWCWorldTagWeb></ref>

==References==


[[Category:Independent promotions teams and stables]]
[[Category:American Wrestling Association teams and stables]]


from Wikipedia - New pages [en] http://bit.ly/2HDFdl2
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