Overlooked Tag Teams: The Eliminators
Tag team wrestling is a beautiful art when done correctly. Despite this, mainstream wrestling has had long periods where it can almost seem like a non-factor. The 1980s may have been the zenith in many ways, with tag teams like The Hart Foundation, The British Bulldogs, Strike Force and Demolition ruling in the World Wrestling Federation while the National Wrestling Alliance/World Championship Wrestling dominated by The Midnight Express, The Rock N’ Roll Express, The Road Warriors and the Four Horsemen. Into the 1990s, tag team wrestling was on the back burner for much of the decade, with a few notable exceptions on the big stages, such as The Steiner Brothers, Harlem Heat, Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith. The end of the decade would see a resurgence, mainly due to the insane chemistry and matches of three teams, The Dudley Boyz, The Hardy Boyz and Edge & Christian.
Unlike today, where tag team wrestling has slowly become a hot commodity again, thanks partly to FTR, the recently disbanded The North (Josh Alexander & Ethan Page), The Briscoes, The Lucha Brothers and The Young Bucks, tag team wrestling was primarily ignored throughout the 1990s. There were still good teams, but unfortunately, many are not remembered in the same vein as the glory years. But there was one team in the 1990s that is often overlooked as one under-the-radar duo of the decade. Due to their tenure in the pre-explosion years of Extreme Championship Wrestling, many have forgotten about this team, but all it would take is one look to realize they may have been the most underrated team of the 1990s. I speak about Perry Saturn and John Kronus, The Eliminators pairing.
The man who would become known to the world as Saturn, Perry Satullo, was a former U.S. Army Ranger who, after serving for four years, decided to follow his dream of becoming a professional wrestler. Enrolling in Killer Kowalski’s wrestling school, Satullo took on the name Saturn while working small indie shows in the Northeastern United States under a few different gimmicks. During this time, while working at a nightclub, he met the hulking George Caiazzo. Saturn would suggest that Caiazzo begin training at Kowalski’s school, and he would become his tag team partner, giving him the name Kronus. Saturn and Cronus were the Roman and Greek names for the Gods of the harvest, respectively, and Saturn had the idea of the team name is “The Harvesters of Sorrow.” Sadly, as excellent of a tag team name as that is, it never made it past the planning stages. The team would begin working for Jerry Jarrett’s United States Wrestling Association, and Jarrett told Saturn the name wouldn’t work, presumably while eating some chicken salad.
The team immediately gelled and took off as both men had something completely different to offer. Standing at 5 foot 10, Saturn was built like a brick shithouse and had a technical mastery beyond his years. In comparison, the 6 foot 4 Kronus had a high-flying ability and agility similar to other big men like Bam Bam Bigelow and, later, Mike Awesome. Now officially known as The Eliminators, the team began running roughshod through the USWA tag team ranks while building their chemistry and gaining experience.
In April 1994, The Eliminators would make it to the tournament finals to crown new USWA Tag Team Champions but fell short, losing to the team of Brian Christopher and ‘Hot Stuff’ Eddie Gilbert (for more on Gilbert, click here) in the finals. This would kick off a feud between the two teams, and in May of ’94, The Eliminators would get their first taste of gold. They would hold onto the titles for a little over a month before dropping them to PG-13, best known for being the rapping group in the original incarnation of The Nation Of Domination. The team would linger around the USWA before going to Japan to compete for WAR. They would catch the eye of the one and only Paul Heyman, who immediately made a play to bring their high-impact style to his blossoming Extreme Championship Wrestling organization.
Interestingly, before they would make their ECW debut proper, the team would briefly appear for both WCW and WWF, albeit not televised. On April 5th, 1995, The Eliminators appeared at the legendary Center Stage in Atlanta, defeating Barry Houston and Kenny Kendall in a dark match during a WCW Saturday Night taping. On August 17th, 1995, almost a month to the day when they would make their ECW debut, the two appeared at a WWF House Show in Manchester, New Hampshire, defeating the team of Smooth Operator and Tim McNealy. But with their upcoming ECW debut, they would make a huge impact.
Heyman had decided to put Jason Knight with The Eliminators as the stickman for the group, given their limited promo abilities. On September 16th, 1995, at ECW Gangsta’s Paradise, the trio would defeat the imposing and formidable trio of Taz and The Steiner Brothers. Defeating two already-made legends in the Steiner Brothers, plus a future legend in Taz, immediately solidified The Eliminators as a force to be reckoned with.
Over the next two years, The Eliminators were positioned as ‘the team’ to beat in ECW, engaging in bloody and sadistic feuds with the other marquee teams of the time, the first being The Pitbulls. The two teams battled relentlessly throughout 1996 and early 1997, and while they traded wins, The Pitbulls were never able to defeat The Eliminators when it counted, and the ECW Tag Team Titles were on the line. The same cannot be said for The Gangstas, the late New Jack and Moustapha team. If New Jack is involved in a match, you generally know that blood and weapons are necessary, and you would get what you expected. Outside of The Pitbulls, perhaps the most significant rivals for The Eliminators were the clan from Dudleyville, the one and only Dudley Boyz.
This feud helped make The Dudley Boyz one of the marquee battles at the first ECW Pay Per View, At Barely Legal, in 1997. Paul Heyman trusted the two teams enough to be the first match. Despite a devastating injury partway through the match that saw Buh Buh Ray legitimately break his ankle, The Eliminators would win back the ECW Tag Team Championship with one of the most innovative finishing moves at the time. The move consisted of a dual sweep and kick to the lower and upper parts of the body, and at the time, it was considered not only devastating but also thoroughly protected. When ECW invaded WWF RAW months before, The Eliminators delivered the maneuver that kicked off the ECW mini-invasion of WWF programming.
Unfortunately, the big PPV debut of The Eliminators would also be the last gasp for the team. Saturn would tear his ACL not long after during another match with The Dudley Boyz. While rehabbing, Saturn grew impatient with the lack of growth and drive his partner was showing, which would eventually lead to his departure from ECW for World Championship Wrestling, where he would go on to new heights as a member of Raven’s Flock and reach substantial success as a singles star before departing for the WWF in 2000 as a member of The Radicalz, a move many saw as WCW’s final nail in the coffin.
Kronus would continue to work within the tag team division in ECW, most notably as a member of the Gangstanators, combining his team with New Jack. While the team would see some success, including an ECW Tag Team Championship win, Kronus struggled to remain relevant and would leave ECW by early 1999. He would remain moderately active in the business throughout the Indies and the ill-fated XPW before retiring in 2002. Despite his retirement, he would return to action briefly for the Hardcore Homecoming ECW reunions. Sadly, the real-life George Caiazzo passed away in 2007 at 38 due to an enlarged heart causing heart failure.
Despite their shorter tenure on top, many hardcore wrestling fans still fondly remember The Eliminators. Why did they have such an impact, even if most wrestling fans generally forget it? In many ways, the combination of Saturn’s technical expertise and mat wrestling, along with the larger Kronus’s ability to fly, could truly be argued that it helped lay the groundwork for what was to come in the wrestling business. Saturn’s style helped bring more spotlight to technicality and brutality in tandem, something that would become even more popular thanks to other stars in the next two decades, like his Radicalz teammates Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko, then taken to another level by guys like Bryan Danielson and even a CM Punk. Then there was the style of Kronus. While today we have guys like Keith Lee and the like, in the early to mid-1990s, it was nearly unheard of to see someone of that size do the things he could do. Fans were used to guys of a more significant hulking size moving and operating more akin to a King Kong Bundy, but here was a man of a larger stature doing moonsaults and even a 450 Splash from the top rope.
While it can easily be argued that these styles would have come into vogue one way or another, the absolute impact of The Eliminators cannot be understated. In 1990s tag team wrestling, fewer teams had such a hard-hitting style and high-impact offense. Who knows if the Dudleyz would have gotten over to the extent of moving onto the WWF and having their classic TLC matches without the battles they endured against The Eliminators. They were innovators in a time that strongly lacked them, and for this reason, they need to be more fondly remembered and are undoubtedly one of the most overlooked tag teams of the 1990s.
