Powers of Pain The Powers of Pain are an on - and - off professional wrestling tag team . They are best known for their tenure in Jim Crockett Promotions and the World Wrestling Federation . History . Jim Crockett Promotions . The Barbarian and The Warlord were put together as a tag team called the Powers of Pain by Ivan Koloff and Paul Jones in the National Wrestling Alliance ' s Jim Crockett Promotions in late 1987 . The Powers then began feuding with the Road Warriors . During their feud , they attacked the Road Warriors during a bench press contest between the two teams . Later during their feud , the Powers won the World Six - Man Tag Team Championship with Ivan Koloff from the Warriors and Dusty Rhodes . They feuded for several more months until the Powers left the NWA while still the champions with Koloff when the Powers refused to do scaffold matches . As a result , the Powers and Koloff were stripped of the titles . World Wrestling Federation . Upon their arrival , the Powers were faces initially introduced by Tito Santana during an a WWF Event Center promo on WWF Superstars of Wrestling and feuded with WWF World Tag Team Champions Demolition ( Ax and Smash ) who had defeated Strike Force ( Santana and Rick Martel ) for the titles and then injured Martel ( kayfabe ) . The Powers were introduced as mercenaries to help Martel and Santana gain revenge on Demolition for both the title loss and the injury to Martel . Then later they were managed by The Baron . They became heels while Demolition became faces when Mr . Fuji attacked Demolition at Survivor Series and aligned himself with the Powers of Pain . The Powers of Pain went on to win the match when they eliminated the foreign heel team Los Conquistadores . They failed to win the titles and were eventually split up in 1990 , with the Barbarian being managed by Bobby Heenan , while the Warlord paired up with " The Doctor of Style " Slick . The double turn between them and Demolition was seen to many as the catalyst of their sudden loss of popularity and subsequent push down the card . The rumor of the Powers of Pain ' s split was when the Legion of Doom were negotiating with the WWF in 1990 , they reportedly demanded that the Powers of Pain be split up and repackaged in different gimmicks due to thinking that they [ the Warriors ] would look like Powers of Pain - ripoffs when they entered the WWF due to their similar appearances . Thus , the Powers were split up , repackaged in different ring attires , and lost their familiar face paint until they both left the WWF . Independent circuit . Upon returning to the independent circuit , The Powers of Pain won the WWWA Tag Team Championship together on the independent circuit in the early 1990s before later debuting for World Championship Wrestling . During their time in WCW , they wrestled under masks as the Super Assassins and were managed by Col . Rob Parker . They later reformed their team in 2005 for Gladiator Championship Wrestling . The Powers of Pain reunited on September 16 , 2012 , in Chikara , taking part in a gauntlet match , from which they eliminated their old WWF rivals , Demolition , before being eliminated themselves by 1 - 2 - 3 Kid and Marty Jannetty . Other media . They filmed a shoot interview in 2004 with RF Video and spoke about their careers . In 2008 , they introduced an energy drink in association with Gladiator Championship Wrestling .