| New Age Outlaws | |
|---|---|
 Billy Gunn (left) andRoad Dogg (right) in September 2011 | |
| Tag team | |
| Members | Road Dogg Jesse James / B.G. James[1] Billy Gunn / Kip James / Rockabilly[1] |
| Name(s) | The New Age Outlaws[1] The James Gang[1] Voodoo Kin Mafia[1] The Roadie And Rockabilly[1] |
| Billed heights | Jesse James / B.G. James: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[2] Billy Gunn / Kip James: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)[3] |
| Combined billed weight | 501 lb (227 kg) |
| Debut | October 4, 1997[1] |
| Disbanded | May 2, 1999 February 28, 2000 |
| Years active | 1997–2000 2006–2008 2012–2019 |
TheNew Age Outlaws[1] are an Americanprofessional wrestlingtag team short-lived inWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF) made up ofBrian James ("Road Dogg" Jesse James) andMonty Sopp ("Badd Ass" Billy Gunn). The duo became popular in the late 1990s as members of the second incarnation of the professional wrestlingstableD-Generation X. Regarded as one of the greatest tag teams of all time, the promotion has described James and Gunn as "the most popular duo of WWE'sAttitude Era."[4] Over the same period, The New Age Outlaws had the third highestmerchandise sales in the WWF afterStone Cold Steve Austin andThe Rock.[citation needed]
Upon parting ways with the WWF, the team reformed in several promotions, mostly notably inTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling where, under the ringnames B.G. James and Kip James, they performed collectively as the James Gang and then as theVoodoo Kin Mafia, the latter of which was a play on the initials of their former boss in the WWFVince McMahon. The team returned to periodic active competition in WWE under its original name in 2013 (with both members also having full-time backstage jobs with the company as well). Today only James is employed with the WWE in a backstage role while Sopp currently performs inAll Elite Wrestling although the team are under a Legends contract for the WWE.
They are six-time tag team champions in WWE, having held theWWF World Tag Team Championship five times and theWWE Tag Team Championship once. The duo hold the record for the most time between title reigns in WWE history after becoming the WWE Tag Team Champions at the 2014 Royal Rumble PPV, more than 14 years after their previous Tag Team title reign.
The Outlaws first formed on the October 4, 1997 episode ofShotgun Saturday Night when struggling superstars Billy Gunn and "Road Dogg" Jesse James, then known as Rockabilly and "The Real Double J" Jesse James respectively, ended theirfeud and teamed up.
On the October 11, 1997 edition ofShotgun, Jesse James walked out to the ring following a loss by Rockabilly toFlash Funk and asked him to turn on hismanagerThe Honky Tonk Man, who had been responsible for Rockabilly's defeat, and team with him. Rockabilly answered by smashing a guitar on Honky Tonk Man's head and agreeing to team with James. Rockabilly re-dubbed himself "Badd Ass" Billy Gunn and Jesse James rechristened himself the Road Dogg. The team made an immediate impact on the WWF tag team scene with blatant attacks against other tag teams and, initially not having an entrance theme, walking out to the ring with only Road Dogg making a rant against their opponents over the PA system. The team became known for pulling wins out of nowhere via cheating and use of weapons. Through their attitude, charisma and antics, they began to get over with the crowd as heels.[1]
James and Gunn defeated theLegion of Doom for theTag Team Championship in November 1997.[1] This marked Gunn's fourthTag Team Title reign and Road Dogg's first. Not only did the team win the titles that night, but they also got their "Outlaws" nickname when they "stole" the win and then ran to a waiting car, promptingRaw announcerJim Ross to liken them to outlaws leaving a robbery. The name 'New Age Outlaws' was first used during their feud with LOD on the December 15 episode ofMonday Night Raw; the Outlaws joinedTriple H andShawn Michaels, collectively known asD-Generation X, in assaulting the team, including shaving off one ofRoad Warrior Hawk's mohawks and throwingRoad Warrior Animal through the announcers' table. The name stuck and the New Age Outlaws quickly became one of the most hated teams in the WWF.
Shortly before theRoyal Rumble in 1998, the New Age Outlaws began a feud withMick Foley, first fighting him as Dude Love, then as Mankind and finally Cactus Jack. When it became apparent that he needed help dealing with the Outlaws, Foley brought inTerry Funk as Chainsaw Charlie. Following a disqualification against The Legion of Doom at the Royal Rumble, the team were confronted by DX who told them they needed to start making waves by acting more controversially. In response to this, the Outlaws locked Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie in a dumpster and threw it off the entrance ramp on to the concrete floor.[1] The Outlaws initially looked concerned, but ultimately attacked their injured rivals in what Foley would describe as "one of the funnier examples of bad sportsmanship".[5] AtWrestleMania XIV, the New Age Outlaws lost the titles to Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie in aDumpster match.[6] The next night onRaw, however, with the aid of Triple H andX-Pac, the Outlaws regained the titles in a steel cage match and officially joined DX.
The growing popularity of the "new" DX quicklyturned the group fromheels totweeners, eventually becomingfaces, and they feuded with many different tag teams over the course of 1998. Their immense popularity was part of what helped the WWF challengeWorld Championship Wrestling for ratings supremacy during theMonday Night War. They lost the tag title toKane and Mankind in the summer of 1998, only to regain the titles from that same team atSummerSlam in a handicap match after Kaneno-showed.[7] In late 1998Vince McMahon'sCorporation tried to tempt the Outlaws away from DX and failed, which led to the Outlaws losing the title to Corporation membersKen Shamrock andBig Boss Man.
As 1999 started, the Outlaws slowly began to drift apart, with each man striving for singles gold. Road Dogg held both theHardcore Title and theIntercontinental Championship in the first few months of 1999 (including a successful IC title defense atWrestlemania XV), and Gunn briefly held the Hardcore title as well. In March, the pair started to team once again, leading to a match withJeff Jarrett andOwen Hart atBacklash in April. A week later, Gunn turned heel on Road Dogg, resulting in a feud and a match atOver the Edge. The following month, Gunn went on to win theKing of the Ring tournament.
During the fall of 1999 the Outlaws reunited, first asfaces, but then as heels when they rejoined the reformed and now heel DX.No Way Out saw the final end of the Outlaws when Gunn received a serious arm injury during a match with theDudley Boyz. Gunn was soon kicked out of DX after "losing his cool" and getting into a fight with all of the DX members; in reality, he needed to have surgery to repair historn rotator cuff. The two would reunite one more time as faces atSurvivor Series, teaming up withK Kwik and former DX teammate Chyna against the Radicalz in a traditional Survivor Series match. Afterwards Road Dogg continued to team with K-Kwik. Gunn went on his own. Road Dogg was released from his WWF contract in January 2001 due to ongoing drug issues while Gunn was released from his contract in November 2004 after eleven years with the company.
On September 18, 2002, "Road Dogg" Jesse James debuted inTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling under his birth name B.G. James. In July 2003, he formed astable withKonnan andRon "The Truth" Killings known asThe 3Live Kru (3LK). The trio went on to become fan favorites and eventually won theNWA World Tag Team Championship on two occasions, which they defended collectively under theFreebird Rule. Billy Gunn debuted in TNA atAgainst All Odds on February 13, 2005, interfering in theNWA World Heavyweight Championship bout betweenJeff Jarrett and the challengingKevin Nash. Gunn struck Nash with a chair, but he was able to kick out of Jarrett's subsequent pin attempt. After Gunn seized the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt in order to strike Nash with it, B.G. James ran to the ring and wrestled it away from him.
B.G. James and Gunn, now renamed The New Age Outlaw (later shortened to just The Outlaw), came into conflict once more on April 24, atLockdown, when Jarrett, The Outlaw andMonty Brown facedDiamond Dallas Page,Sean Waltman and B.G. James (who was replacing an injuredKevin Nash) in aLethal Lockdown match. Page, Waltman and James were victorious, although during the match James and The Outlaw refrained from fighting one another. Through October and November 2005, "The Outlaw" (now using the name Kip James, due to threats from the WWE that "The Outlaw" sounded too similar to their trademarked New Age Outlaws name) helped 3LK numerous times during theirfeud withTeam Canada. Although he was obviously helping the Kru at every turn, Konnan refused to trust Kip.
On the November 26 episode ofTNA Impact!, and even though Konnan had his doubts, 3LK inducted Kip into the group and renamed themselves the 4Live Kru. AtTurning Point, however, Konnan turned on the group, eventually forming his own group,The Latin American Xchange (LAX). Killings also went out on his own afterward, leaving only Kip and B.G. together.
On January 14, 2006, Kip James and B.G. James, now calling themselves The James Gang, announced that they had reunited in the face of Konnan and his new group after LAX attacked B.G.'s real-life father"Bullet" Bob Armstrong. Their official in-ring reunion took place the next night atFinal Resolution, where they defeatedThe Diamonds in the Rough. Their feud with LAX continued and included several more appearances by "Bullet" Bob Armstrong, including anArm Wrestling match between Konnan and the 67-year-old Armstrong.
In May 2006, The James Gang began a feud withTeam 3D over which of them was the greatest tag team. The James Gang picked up a victory over Team 3D atSacrifice after Kip used a pipe onBrother Devon. They met again atSlammiversary, with Team 3D picking up the win this time. With the teams standing at 1-1 (andBrother Runt returning to in-ring action), Team 3D challenged The James Gang to find themselves a partner and face them (Brother Runt included) in a six-man tag match atVictory Road. Whereas Team 3D expected them to get someone from their family (such as "Bullet" Bob Armstrong), the James Gang "made a deal with the devil" and paidJames Mitchell to haveAbyss team up with them instead. The James Gang and Abyss won the no-disqualification six-man tag match after Abyss Black Hole Slammed Brother Runt onto a table and got the pin.
On the November 2 edition ofImpact!, Kip and B.G. James cut aworked-shootpromo announcing they were quitting the company out of frustration. During the promo B.G. claimed that TNA had mismanaged him during his run there, and as Kip attempted to speak into the microphone it was cut off. Attempts to use an announcers microphone and scream directly to the crowd were met with another microphone cutting and then the show abruptly going to commercial.[8]
After a November 11house show in Connecticut (whereWorld Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is based) was canceled, TNA filmed avignette at WWE headquarters featuring the James Gang discussing the show cancellation, posting it on their website two days later. This vignette was followed with a promo on the November 16Impact!, during which they announced that they had been given "creative control", and were changing their name to the Voodoo Kin Mafia (VKM for short, a play onVince McMahon's initials) and declaring "war" on WWE.[9] During the "war" they called out the revived D-Generation X (DX), calling it a "failure" and stated that the original run was saved by their insertion as The New Age Outlaws in 1998. During their matches and promos on TNA television they continually included references to DX, including use of their signature taunts and maneuvers. Soon a series of vignettes began airing onImpact! with B.G. and Kip in and aroundStamford, Connecticut, calling outPaul Levesque,Michael Hickenbottom, and Vince McMahon. During the vignettes they said they were trying to get acease and desist letter signed and get WWE to stop using the DX name. The vignettes were notable for using the same style of humor as the original DX while running down the revived DX for doing the same thing.
WhenThe Hardys reunited forDecember to Dismember and issued an open challenge the TNA website quickly posted a message from VKM accepting, though it had already been accepted byMNM.[10] On December 1, VKM showed up at a WWEhouse show at the Knoxville Civic Center withVince Russo,Jeremy Borash, and a camera crew. They interviewed fans outside, filmed themselves purchasing tickets and eventually entered the building, watching the main event match - featuring DX - from an upper-level seat.[11][12] At December'sTurning Point, they performed a parody of DX, then, in response toJim Ross commenting on his website that Vince McMahon probably would not respond to the "war",[13] and in response to their still receiving of legal warnings from WWE,[14] they issued a "Million Dollar Challenge" to Vince McMahon and DX, offering to put up$1 million for a big fight between the DX members and themselves.Hermie Sadler of the UWF promotion later offered to host the "Million Dollar Challenge" at a UWF show during the weekend of WWE'sArmageddon pay-per-view event (scheduled for December 17) citing that his event was close toRichmond, Virginia, the site of Armageddon.[15] After the challenge was ignored, they narrowed it on the January 4Impact!, challenging just Hickenbottom to meet them atthe Alamo in his hometown of San Antonio the following Wednesday. VKM declared themselves victorious in their "war" during a promo atFinal Resolution citing WWE's refusal to acknowledge their presence while fans loudly chanted both "TNA" and "VKM" during the January 8 episode ofWWE Raw.[16]
In the same promo, they entered an angle withChristy Hemme, who declared that women deserve respect in wrestling and found herself heavily disagreed with and mocked by Kip James, while B.G. attempted to agree with her. To shut VKM up, theevil Hemme brought inThe Heartbreakers (Antonio Thomas andRomeo Roselli) in to TNA as mystery opponents atDestination X, but VKM made quick work of them. Around this time,Lance Hoyt began hanging around with VKM, keeping Christy Hemme out of VKM's matches. In April, atLockdown, Hemme had Serotonin face VKM on the pre-show, but again VKM came out victorious. AtSacrifice 2007, VKM lost to Hemme's new teamDamaja andBasham formerly known asThe Basham Brothers in World Wrestling Entertainment, though not fairly, as Basham and Damaja injured (kayfabe) BG James before the match, making it a handicap match. VKM finally defeated Basham and Damaja atSlammiversary after Kip pinned Basham, but Lance Hoyt turned on VKM after the match. Weeks later, at theVictory Road pay-per-view, VKM debuted a new valet/accomplice, the so-called "Voodoo Queen"Roxxi Laveaux. She attacked Hemme after VKM's match.
On February 21, 2008, Kip turned on his partner by hitting him and his father with a crutch in a tag title match againstA.J. Styles and Tomko, thus ending the team.
TNA creative writer Vince Russo stated that the Voodoo Kin Mafia ended whenTriple H was injured, as there was nowhere else to go with the gimmick.[17]
On July 23, 2012, the New Age Outlaws returned toWWE on the1000th episode ofRaw to re-unite withX-Pac,Shawn Michaels andTriple H to reform D-Generation X for one night only. On December 17, Billy Gunn and Road Dogg appeared to present theSlammy Award toJerry Lawler for Comeback of the Year.[18] Starting on December 26 inDetroit at theJoe Louis Arena, the team reunited to face Team Rhodes Scholars in a house show loop.
On the March 4, 2013, episode ofOld School Raw, the New Age Outlaws competed in their first televised tag team match in WWE since February 2000, where they defeatedPrimo and Epico. The following week onRaw, the New Age Outlaws answered a challenge to take on Rhodes Scholars, but during the match they were attacked byBrock Lesnar, who was in a feud with Triple H at the time.
On the January 6, 2014, episode ofOld School Raw, the Outlaws were in the corner ofCM Punk during his match againstRoman Reigns. On the January 10 episode ofSmackDown, the Outlaws teamed with CM Punk in a six-man tag match againstThe Shield in a losing effort. On the January 13 episode ofRaw, the Outlaws again teamed with Punk in a rematch againstThe Shield, only to abandon Punk and lose the match, thus turning heel in the process for the first time since 1999. Four days later onSmackDown, they defeatedWWE Tag Team ChampionsCody Rhodes and Goldust in a non-title match. At theRoyal Rumble, the Outlaws defeated Rhodes and Goldust to become WWE Tag Team Champions, their first reign with these particular title, their sixth overall tag team championship reign in WWE and first in over 14 years, marking the longest time between reigns in WWE history. The following night onRaw, Rhodes and Goldust invoked their rematch clause, with the Outlaws retaining the title after losing by disqualification afterBrock Lesnar interfered and attacked both Rhodes and Goldust. On the February 3 episode ofRaw,Triple H granted Rhodes and Goldust a rematch for the titles in a steel cage match, in which the Outlaws would retain their title. AtElimination Chamber, the Outlaws successfully defended their titles againstThe Usos, but lost the championship in a rematch to The Usos on the March 3 episode ofRaw. The New Age Outlaws, now billed as "The Corporate Outlaws", teamed with Kane to take on The Shield in a losing effort atWrestleMania XXX. Billy Gunn got injured on the night by a Triple Power Bomb that The Shield delivered to him. He developedhemoptysis and The New Age Outlaws did not appear onRaw and the following night onSmackDown.
On January 19, 2015, on Raw, they along withthe APA andnWo, returned as faces and attackedThe Ascension. This set up a match between the Outlaws and The Ascension at theRoyal Rumble. They went on to lose to The Ascension after aFall of Man on Gunn. AtWrestleMania 31 The Outlaws, along with X-Pac and Shawn Michaels, assisted their DX partner Triple H in defeatingSting and also fought against the nWo, who had come to aid Sting.
On January 22, 2018, onthe 25th anniversary of Raw, The New Age Outlaws got together with DX, andScott Hall. During the segment, the historic stable established an alliance for one night only, with theBálor Club. Later that evening, the Bálor Club defeated theRevival, and after the match the legends of the past performed on the latter, their classic finishers and signature taunts, with aShake, Rattle and Roll from Road Dogg and aFamouser from Billy Gunn againstScott Dawson.
