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Tag Team Appreciation Month

THE DYNAMIC DUO

Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard

1981-1984

SCW World Tag Team Championship

SCW Southwest Tag Team Championship

 

Written by Adam Zimmerman

The Dynamic Duo.png

Whenever Canadian Bulldog's World does one of it's "appreciation months," I always like to try to shed some light on wrestlers, managers, or teams that have perhaps been forgotten over time. Well, I'd have to say that is a team that has definitely been forgotten over time by most fans - The Dynamic Duo. No, I'm not referring to the Smoky Mountain Wrestling tag team of the mid-90s consisting of Al Snow and Glen Jacobs (although they were a pretty decent "odd couple" sort of team). Today we're gonna talk about the original Dynamic Duo comprised of Tully Blanchard and Gino Hernandez.

 

Gino got his break into the business at the young age of 19 by being a protege of Ed Farhat, a/k/a The Sheik. Farhat trained the young Hernandez and even put his coveted United States title on him before eventually winning it back. It was at this point that "The Handsome Halfbreed" (that's pretty assuredly a nickname that wouldn't fly nowadays) decided to travel down to Texas and try his hand working for Joe Blanchard's Southwest Championship Wrestling.

Tully had already been a mainstay in his father's promotion for a few years at this point being trained by his father and Jose Lothario. Tully originally teamed with his father to help him in his ongoing feud with Terry and Dory Funk Jr. Once Gino hit the area, though, it was decided that these two should team up and man, what a classic tag team they made!

 

The Duo was a great heel team that ended up being sort of a precursor to Blanchard's future (and more famous) Four Horseman run. Fast cars, fast women, fancy clothes - The Dynamic Duo seemed to have it all. Not only that (because, of course, as fun as all that sounds, it's not going to earn you many fans by itself), the Duo worked amazingly well together in the ring. One of the smoothest teams I've ever seen work together.

Gino and Tully became the top heels in Texas and wrestled tag teams made up of future legends like Tony Atlas & Junkyard Dog, Ivan Putski & Bob Orton Jr., and even the legendary brother team of Mil Mascaras and Dos Caras. The Dynamic Duo headlined (and probably sold out) the Sam Houston Coliseum many, many times.   

 

Sadly, for such a great team, it was a fairly short-lived run on top. Tully had decided to move on to Jim Crockett Promotions but before he parted; The Dynamic Duo had a blow-off feud that was almost as good as the team itself had been. After Tully left, Gino also moved on to World Cass Championship Wrestling and formed yet another (I guess that makes three now) Dynamic Duo with "Gentleman" Chris Adams. Not long after this was Gino's untimely passing which cut short his promising, young career. Regardless, The Dynamic Duo should always be remembered for being just that: dynamic!     

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