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In January 2014, Billy Gunn and Brian "Road Dogg" James returned to WWE television for what would be their final in-ring run together. During this time, Gunn and James, together known as The New Age Outlaws, notably turned their backs on "The Second City Saint" CM Punk before capturing the WWE Tag Team Championships with a victory over Cody Rhodes and Goldust on the Royal Rumble kick-off show. While recently appearing on "Insight with Chris Van Vliet," James detailed the reasoning behind their title win.
"The whole reason was to drop them to the Usos," James said. "It wasn't because we were worthy of the tag championships or anything. It was all to give it to the next [guys], to pay it forward. [We] couldn't have paid it forward to two greater guys."
For James and Gunn, their 2014 Royal Rumble win marked the beginning of their sixth tag title reign in WWE. During this respective run, The New Age Outlaws successfully defended the WWE Tag Team Championships against Rhodes and Goldust in a steel cage on "WWE Raw" as well as Jimmy and Jey Uso at WWE Elimination Chamber. At a pair of non-televised live events, James and Gunn enjoyed victories over The Usos and The Real Americans (Jack Swagger and Cesaro) in triple-threat title matches.
On the March 3, 2014 episode of "Raw," The Usos received a rematch, this time defeating The New Age Outlaws for the championships. With this, Jimmy and Jey marked the beginning of their first ever tag title reign in WWE. In total, this inaugural run spanned 202 days as they were later unseated by Goldust and Rhodes (as Stardust) at WWE Night of Champions.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Insight With Chris Van Vliet" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

