Professional wrestling has always thrived on crossover appeal. From Rocky III to The Iron Claw, wrestlers and their stories have found their way into film and television with varying degrees of success. In 1991, one of the strangest and most ambitious attempts aired on ABC: a television pilot called TagTeam, starring “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Jesse “The Body” Ventura as wrestlers-turned-police officers. It never became a full series, but the campy pilot remains a fascinating time capsule of early ’90s television and wrestling’s constant push to break into Hollywood.
From the Ring to the Screen
By the time TagTeam was made, wrestling stars already had a track record in film and television. Hulk Hogan’s breakout role as Thunderlips in Rocky III helped launch him into mainstream stardom, while Roddy Piper had earned cult-movie credibility with John Carpenter’s They Live. Jesse Ventura, meanwhile, had retired from the ring but carved out a niche in Hollywood as the tough guy sidekick in films like Predator and The Running Man. Pairing Piper and Ventura in a TV series seemed like a natural progression. Both were charismatic, both carried name recognition, and both knew how to hold an audience’s attention.
The Premise of TagTeam
Written by Robert McCullough, who had worked on shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Baywatch Nights, TagTeam was produced by Touchstone Television, Disney’s television arm at the time. The premise leaned heavily into the stars’ wrestling personas. Piper and Ventura played wrestlers named Tricky Ricky McDonald and Bobby “The Body” Youngblood who refuse to throw a match and are blackballed from the industry. Out of work, the pair stumble through odd jobs before enrolling in the police academy.
The pilot follows their bumbling journey into law enforcement. They struggle with new responsibilities but ultimately prove themselves when they foil a robbery, protect a key witness, and take down criminals in action sequences that borrow heavily from their wrestling backgrounds. The climax of the episode even features a wrestling-style “tag in” during a shootout, a wink to fans who expected to see their in-ring antics adapted for television.
Wrestling References and Kayfabe Winks
What made TagTeam unusual was its approach to wrestling itself. The opening scene presents Piper and Ventura’s characters in a full match, filmed with commentary and a live crowd. The storyline hinges on their refusal to throw a bout, treating wrestling as if it were a legitimate sport rather than scripted entertainment. In doing so, the show blurred the line between kayfabe and reality, long before modern projects like GLOW or Heels would explore similar territory. Even in its campiest moments, TagTeam seemed strangely committed to honoring the moral codes of wrestling — loyalty, toughness, and standing up against corruption — while transplanting those values into a buddy cop format.
Piper and Ventura’s Chemistry
The biggest strength of TagTeam was unquestionably its leads. Ventura, with his dry humor and stoic presence, played the straight man, while Piper leaned into his natural chaotic energy, providing manic outbursts and unpredictable charm. Together, they embodied the classic “odd couple” pairing that had powered buddy cop films throughout the 1980s. Even when the dialogue wavered or the plot felt thin, Piper and Ventura’s charisma carried the episode. For wrestling fans, watching them banter and improvise outside the ring was half the fun.
Why TagTeam Failed
Despite the novelty, TagTeam never made it beyond the pilot stage. Timing played a major role in its failure. By 1991, the buddy cop genre had been thoroughly saturated, and television audiences were beginning to shift toward grittier police dramas like NYPD Blue. The show’s campy, cartoonish tone felt more in line with Baywatch than the evolving tastes of primetime TV. Wrestling’s mainstream popularity was also in a downturn, stuck between the peak of Hulkamania in the ’80s and the rise of the Attitude Era later in the decade. Piper and Ventura had name recognition, but to ABC executives, they were still seen primarily as wrestlers rather than bankable mainstream stars.
Cult Status Among Fans
Although the series was never picked up, TagTeam did not completely vanish. Fans circulated the pilot on VHS bootlegs in the 1990s, and eventually it resurfaced online, where it developed cult status. Wrestling fans came to appreciate the show’s campy charm, praising Piper and Ventura’s chemistry and laughing at its over-the-top action scenes. In retrospect, TagTeam is remembered more fondly than Hulk Hogan’s later syndicated series Thunder in Paradise, in large part because it never overstayed its welcome. It remains a trivia gem, the kind of show people mention with a grin: “Did you know Roddy Piper and Jesse Ventura once starred in a cop show together?”
TagTeam in Context
Placed alongside other wrestling crossovers, TagTeam occupies a curious middle ground. It was not a runaway success like Piper’s They Live, nor a full-season flop like Hogan’s Thunder in Paradise. It lacked the prestige of The Rock’s Ballers or the critical acclaim of Netflix’s GLOW, but it captured something unique. Unlike most projects that recast wrestlers as entirely new characters, TagTeam leaned into their wrestling personas, acknowledging their careers before spinning them into new adventures. In this way, it served as a prototype for more modern wrestling-inspired storytelling, even if it arrived a decade too early to resonate with mainstream audiences.
TagTeam’s Legacy in 2025
Looking back from 2025, TagTeam feels like a quirky but important step in the long relationship between wrestling and television. It blurred kayfabe and reality in a way that anticipated later shows, while also showcasing how wrestlers’ charisma could carry them into new genres. Piper went on to further acting roles, Ventura pursued a career in politics and even became governor of Minnesota, but TagTeam remains a curious “what if” moment in their careers.
For fans, it endures as a campy cult favorite: not a hit, not a disaster, but a unique experiment that encapsulated both the ambition and absurdity of wrestling crossovers in the early 1990s.
Final Word
TagTeam may have only lasted for one pilot episode, but it represents wrestling’s willingness to take risks on the small screen. Piper and Ventura brought charisma, humor, and a wink of wrestling’s theatricality to the buddy cop genre, producing a show that was equal parts silly and entertaining.
It was never going to be The A-Team. It wasn’t They Live. But as a snapshot of wrestling’s Hollywood ambitions, TagTeam remains one of the most fascinating forgotten chapters in wrestling entertainment history.
