The Lucky Top Turnbuckle

[Asa Kaze]

Hi! I'm new to these forums so I'm not positive that this subject hasn't been brought up. I did search a little to make sure. Anyway I have been a wrestling fan for about 12 years off and on and into puroresu for about 4 or 5. I recently got some new tapes and was watching them with my Girlfriend.

I am and always will be a very big Liger Mark so I was watching Liger/ Inoue vs Kikuchi/ Kanemaru (2/17/02) when I noticed something odd. Actually my girlfriend was first to notice it and when she questioned me about it I couldn't give her an answer. Liger and Inoue were doing something odd when they were on the apron, waiting for a tag. They both grabbed what appeared to be the string from the top turnbuckle and hold onto it while they waited on the apron. Then they would be tagged in and the other person would get on the apron and do the same.

Now it was a great match but, I was perplexed by that behaviour. It didn't seem Kikuchi and Kanemaru were doing it, just Liger and Inoue. So I passed it off as maybe for Good Luck they held onto it (they wouldn't botch a spot or something.) That's my guess but, I would like a solid answer. Is it a common practice? A rule exclusive to NOAH (They were wrestling at a NOAH show)? Or have I just been blind for years and not noticed it in any other matches?

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

I think you are talking about a "tag rope". You have to be holding it when your partner is trying to make a tag; otherwise, the ref won't allow you to switch in. I heard it was a common thing in the pre-Hulkamania US, too.

[Deadpool]

Ah yes, I remember that kind of thing well from the days of Saturday afternoon wrestling on TV here in England way back in the day I'd only have to mention the names Big Daddy, "Bomber" Pat Roach, Kendo Nagasaki and Giant Haystacks and I'm fairly certain the other Brits on the board would know exactly what I'm talking about

Deadpool

[El Negro Magnifico]

When Rob Feinstein's Ring of Honor was about to start, one of the many announcements he made before the first card was the revival of the tag rope. So I believe ROH is the only promotion in North America that actually acknowledges the tag rope.

I used to describe something that's extinct or no longer done as having "gone the way of the tag rope".

[Dante_Inferno]

Thank *** that really does exist. My father has told me stories about old wrestling and I thought he was going nuts when he talked about wrestlers holding a rope. I asked him if it prevented run ins and he would laugh.

[RoaringElbow25]

Yeah the Tag Ropes I know USED to be used in the WWF up until the attitude era(around WM 14 or so) and they asked what happend to them recently on 1wrestling.com/ask1w and it was also in a past issue of WWF Magazine(Feb 2002,Flair on cover) I have and this is what it says:
They were once as intergal as turnbuckles and ring aprons, but have not been seen on a federation telecast in years.Were talking about tag ropes. Relics of a bygone age, tag ropes were tied to opposing corners of the ring before tag team matches. Any tag team competitor who was not active inside the ring was required to hold the rope at all times. It was intended to keep him in his legal corner, and he had to be holding the rope when tagged otherwise that tag would be disallowed by the ref.
Then it goes on to talk about how the heel teams would choke opponents with it while the ref was distracted and and they were lost somewhere in the 1990s it says and how the ppl at WWE Magazine are trying to get the tag ropes back. Iknow you puroresu fans dont wanna read something out of a sports entertainment magazine but I figured this may help

[Mutoh-Mania]

And it gave the heels something else to wrap around the throat of some poor face.

[Hijo de Carlos]

I guess they were abandoned/forgotten for the very reason that they existed in the first place - they prevented run-ins/interference/general extra-curricular silliness....

[The Great Gouki]

Ahh I thought I was the only one that knew of the legend of Tag Ropes Now I don't feel so old

[Mutoh-Mania]

Originally posted by The Great Gouki
Ahh I thought I was the only one that knew of the legend of Tag Ropes Now I don't feel so old

I still remember freaking the first tag match I saw without tag ropes.

[Das]

I honestly believe that they are a good thing to have in a match. Kind of like a free foreign object for a heel team (or a single heel since you don't take them off between matches) that they do not really have to sneak into the match

[The Franceman]

In France the tags ropes always exist and it's funny to see the heel trying to make cheat moves with the tag rope in his hands.