Team Rhodes Scholars def. Team Hell No by Disqualification

ATLANTA — Team Rhodes Scholars might consider themselves “the most intellectually compatible tag team in WWE,” but that cohesiveness did not translate to championship glory for Cody Rhodes & Damien Sandow at WWE Hell in a Cell. There, live in front of a raucous crowd packed inside Atlanta’s Philips Arena, Team Hell No retained the WWE Tag Team Titles when the rampaging Kane got himself disqualified. ( PHOTOS)

In the early goings of this contest, it seemed as though Kane & Daniel Bryan might be able to co-exist, with frequent tags keeping the smug sophisticates on their toes. After Kane clocked Rhodes with his patented top rope flying clothesline, however, the anxious Bryan tagged himself in and further punished Rhodes with a flying headbutt. Bryan’s pinfall attempt did not sit well with The Big Red Monster, who bizarrely broke up the three-count that would have won the match for his team.

The dysfunction between the WWE Tag Team Champions continued at ringside, where The Devil’s Favorite Demon and “The World’s Toughest Vegan” continued to get in the way of each other’s offense. A heated argument between Kane and Bryan seemed to signal a Team Rhodes Scholars championship victory, especially when Rhodes nailed Bryan with a vicious Cross Rhodes and went for the cover. No doubt sensing the WWE Tag Team Titles slipping away, Kane saved his partner from defeat and brutalized both Sandow and Rhodes in the corner of the ring. Since The Big Red Monster was not the legal man and completely ignored the referee’s five-count to leave the ring, the official called for the bell and disqualified WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No.

The road to WWE Hell in a Cell was a strange one for the WWE Tag Team Champions, a pair of unhinged Superstars who shouldn’t be able to inhabit the same building let alone the same corner of the ring. Joined together as a tag team in September as part of their anger management therapy, Kane & Bryan ultimately proved to be an effective tag team. Neither of them was willing to admit it, though. That surprising teamwork netted the peculiar duo a WWE Tag Team Championship opportunity against reigning titleholders Kofi Kingston & R-Truth at Night of Champions. Defying the odds and their own tangled history, Daniel Bryan & Kane attained championship glory that night. Which team member deserved to be called “the Tag Team Champions,” however, remained a sensitive point of contention.

Mere moments after the WWE Universe on Twitter named the unhinged WWE Tag Team Champions “Team Hell No” in a RAWactive poll on the Sept. 24 edition of Raw, the new team of Rhodes & Sandow made their goal of tag team supremacy abundantly clear, assaulting Kane & Bryan and revealing their own tag team moniker: Team Rhodes Scholars. Eager to use their combined brainpower to prey on the well-documented instability of the reigning champions, Rhodes & Sandow outlasted seven other teams in a tournament to earn the privilege of challenging the combustible titleholders at WWE Hell in a Cell. Although their initial effort proved fruitless, it’s unlikely that the refined palates of Team Rhodes Scholars will ever lose their taste for championship gold. ( WATCH EXCLUSIVE)

As for Team Hell No, it’s equally unlikely that Bryan & Kane will resolve their issues with one another anytime soon. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of WWE Hell in a Cell, each of these unstable Superstars reserves the right to exclaim, “I am the Tag Team Champions!”