The World's Greatest Tag Team

The team of Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas formed on October 22, 2002 in a dark match on *WWE Velocity*, as they lost to Bill DeMott and Val Venis. For a couple of months, they worked their way up by competing in house shows. The tag team made their television debut on the December 26, 2002 edition of WWE's *SmackDown!*. Paul Heyman introduced Benjamin and Haas under the name **Team Angle** as a "gift" to his top client Kurt Angle. Team Angle quickly involved themselves in a rivalry with Chris Benoit and Edge, defeating them on January 30, 2003 to become the number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship.

The following week, on February 6, they won the WWE Tag Team Championship by defeating Los Guerreros. They continued their rivalry with Benoit, facing him and Brock Lesnar at No Way Out in a handicap match, where they teamed with their mentor Angle in a losing effort. After a successful title defense at WrestleMania XIX against Los Guerreros and the team of Chris Benoit and Rhyno, Team Angle lost the championship to Eddie Guerrero and his new partner Tajiri at Judgment Day on May 18 in a ladder match. Shortly afterwards, on June 12, Angle confronted Benjamin and Haas about the losing streak they had been in for a couple of weeks, and, after they blamed him for losing the Tag Team Championship and began to question his leadership, he fired them both from Team Angle. For a few weeks they wrestled against Angle, both in singles matches and in tag team matches.

Soon after the breakup, Benjamin and Haas referred to themselves as *The Best Damn Tag Team Period* and then *The Self-Proclaimed World's Greatest Tag Team*, or ***The World's Greatest Tag Team*** for short. They went on to recapture the WWE Tag Team Championship from Eddie Guerrero and Tajiri on July 3. Following their win, they competed against the teams of Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman and The APA, before losing the championships to the reformed Los Guerreros team two months later on September 18. After their loss, The World's Greatest Tag Team continued competing against Los Guerreros in an attempt to regain the championships, but were unsuccessful.

In early 2004, The World's Greatest Tag Team began a scripted rivalry with The APA, and beat them at the No Way Out pay-per-view. Following their loss, The World's Greatest Tag Team mocked The APA, leading to The APA attacking them. Both the team of Scotty Too Hotty and Rikishi and the Basham Brothers also got involved in the brawl, leading to a fatal four-way match at WrestleMania XX for the WWE Tag Team Championship. At WrestleMania, Scotty Too Hotty and Rikishi retained the championship.

The group stayed together until March 22, 2004 when, during the Draft Lottery, Benjamin was drafted to the *Raw* brand, breaking up The World's Greatest Tag Team. On the *Raw* brand, Benjamin was quickly added to the WWE Intercontinental Championship picture, first challenging for it at Bad Blood in June 2004 against Randy Orton. He eventually won the championship at Taboo Tuesday in October by defeating Chris Jericho, and held the championships for approximately eight months, eventually losing it to Carlito in June 2005. He held the championship twice more during 2006.

After Benjamin's draft, Haas gained Miss Jackie as a valet and teamed with Rico to win the WWE Tag Team Championship on April 22, 2004. After a brief spell in singles competition, Haas joined forces with Hardcore Holly briefly, before being released from WWE in July 2005.

On April 17, 2006, Haas returned to WWE as part of the *Raw* brand, defeating his former tag team partner, Benjamin, the very same night. On the December 4 episode of *Raw*, after Benjamin pinned Super Crazy, Haas entered the ring, berated Crazy, and celebrated with a bewildered Benjamin. The next week, Benjamin announced The World's Greatest Tag Team was officially back in a segment with Cryme Tyme. They defeated The Highlanders in a match later that same night. They then started a scripted rivalry with Cryme Tyme, but were largely unsuccessful, including a tag team turmoil match at New Year's Revolution. They finally pinned Cryme Tyme, however, ending their undefeated streak, on the January 29, 2007 episode of *Raw*.

On April 2, The World's Greatest Tag Team was unsuccessful in defeating the team of Ric Flair and Carlito, but defeated them in a rematch on April 16 when Haas distracted Carlito, allowing Benjamin to gain the win. They won again two weeks later when Carlito turned on Flair, attacking him and allowing The World's Greatest Tag Team to win via countout. They then challenged the Hardy Boyz for the World Tag Team Championship at One Night Stand in a ladder match, but were unsuccessful.

Following this, The World's Greatest Tag Team began a rivalry with Paul London and Brian Kendrick after losing to the duo in their debut match on *Raw*. A few weeks later, London defeated Benjamin in a singles match, however, on the July 23 episode of *Raw*, The World's Greatest Tag Team got a tag team win over London and Kendrick to end the rivalry. For this match they were announced as *The (Self-Proclaimed) World's Greatest Tag Team*, having been previously using simply *The World's Greatest Tag Team* since their reformation.

Following this, Benjamin and Haas competed against the teams of Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes and Super Crazy and Jim Duggan until November, when the team was disbanded due to Benjamin joining the *ECW* roster. Benjamin was drafted to the *SmackDown* brand as part of the 2008 Supplemental Draft.

On April 15, 2009, Haas was drafted to the *SmackDown* brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft. On the May 8, 2009 episode of *SmackDown*, Benjamin accompanied Haas to the ring for his match against John Morrison, hinting at a possible reunion. The following week on the May 15 episode of *SmackDown*, Benjamin and Haas unofficially reunited and competed against John Morrison and CM Punk in a losing effort. At Judgment Day, Haas escorted Benjamin to the ring for his match against Morrison. On June 29, Benjamin was traded back to the *ECW* brand. On February 28, 2010, WWE announced that Haas had been released from his contract, and two months later, on April 22, WWE announced that Benjamin had also been released.