The team originated in 2007 in Ring of Honor (ROH), where Zayn portrayed the luchador enmascarado (or masked professional wrestler) El Generico and Owens wrestled under his real name, Kevin Steen.

Kevin Steen and El Generico debuted in Ring of Honor as a team losing to the Briscoe Brothers on February 17, 2007.

At Respect is Earned in a dark match, Steen and Generico defeated The Irish Airborne (Jake Crist and Dave Crist), Pelle Primeau and Mitch Franklin and Jimmy Rave and Adam Pearce with Shane Hagadorn in a Tag Team Scramble match.

At Driven, the Briscoe Brothers defeated Steen and Generico to retain the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

On June 6, 2008, Steen and Generico participated in the one night tournament to crown new ROH World Tag Team Champions.

On September 19, Steen and Generico defeated Jacobs and Black to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

On July 29, 2007, at Giant Size Annual #4, Generico and Steen defeated Pac and Roderick Strong to become the PWG World Tag Team Champions for the first time.

They successfully defended the belts for almost three months, losing them to the team of Davey Richards and Super Dragon on October 27 in England as part of PWG's European Vacation II tour.

The next night, Steen teamed with Pac in an attempt to regain the belts from Richards and Dragon, announcing pre-match that if he lost, he would leave the company indefinitely.

After Generico had agreed to a deal with WWE, he and Steen reunited one more time on January 12, 2013, by entering the 2013 Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament.

Later that night, they attacked McMahon during the 5-on-5 Survivor Series Interbrand elimination match, which ultimately led to Team SmackDown's defeat.

On the November 28 episode of SmackDown Live, Owens defeated Orton in a no disqualification match after interference from Zayn, who was originally banned from ringside.

On the December 5 episode of SmackDown Live, Zayn lost to Orton with Owens handcuffed to the ring ropes.

At Clash of Champions on December 17, Owens and Zayn faced Orton and Nakamura in a tag team match with their jobs on the line and both McMahon and SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan as referees.

This led to a match at WrestleMania 34 against the team of McMahon and Bryan, who made his in-ring return after years of retirement.

On the June 4, 2019 episode of SmackDown Live, Owens and Zayn reunited to face The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) in a losing effort.

Zayn then went on to continue his work as a menacing, ruthless heel which helped him to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship on two separate occasions in 2020.

At Night of Champions, Owens and Zayn retained their Undisputed Tag Team Championship against The Bloodline (Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa).