Kickoff - The Return of the Tag Team Battle Royal

[EnglishControlWwe]

There has always been a debate in the IWC about whether WrestleMania should be the place where you reward your roster, while management just focuses on buy rate. In this respect, many so-called 'deserving' superstars are left off the card each year, even champions.

Last year's pre-show saw The Miz defeat Wade Barrett for the Intercontinental Championship in a short match of just 4 minutes of a 1 hour pre show. However, this year is different, this year there is the WWE Network. As a result, WrestleMania can be promoted all day long, leaving more (theoretical) time available for matches. While my main aim is not to predict the WrestleMania card, I don't believe that there will be enough time for a Divas match on the main card in the current landscape, although AJ definitely deserves it; I do foresee a match on the pre-show (Lumberjill match?).

If this happens, what happens to the veterans who are unlikely to make it onto the card. With the recent resurgence of the tag team division, and the apparent break up of most of those teams, this is the perfect time to test the waters in a tag team battle royal. I hope to see The Usos win the titles at WrestleMania, so new contenders would be needed for the coming months.

To my knowledge the last tag team battle royal happened on SmackDown in September 2007, meaning that it would be something we haven't seen in a while. Also, as only one superstar has to be thrown over the top rope for the team to be eliminated, it can protect superstars from looking 'weak' and promote a short feud with the superstar who got the team eliminated. Leading up to the event, these teams can compete against each other, seeing which ones have chemistry and could work in the tag division for the foreseeable future. It could also be good filler to see former teams reunite and superstars at odds with their partner (Sandow & Slater and Jericho & Fandango anyone?)

We already have Truth & Woods, Los Matadores, The Wyatt Family, The Real Americans, RybAxel and 3MB (McIntyre & Mahal).
How about Big Show & Mark Henry, Mysterio & Sin Cara, Air Boom (Kingston & Bourne), International Airstrike (Gabriel & Kidd), Santino & Khali and Hawkins & Ryder reunite.
Then we have new teams like Christian & RVD, Ziggler & Miz, Young & Tensai, Titus & Brodus, Jericho & Fandango, Sandow & Slater, Kane & Barrett and Del Rio & Rusev.

I think a few could become permanent features of the division if nothing is planned for their singles careers. This could be a great way to get everyone on at least the pre-show, get the crowd fired up and create new teams; particularly Miz & Ziggler who I'd like to get the victory.

What do you think? Would you like to see a tag team battle royal or would you just prefer a singles one? Or do you hate Battle Royals and have another concept that could be done in the same timeframe?

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I would absolutely love to see a huge tag team Battle Royale with the winning team getting a shot at the tag team championships on the WrestleMania card itself.

The Shield likely won't be together in a tag team format by WrestleMania, nor would they be on the pre-show. Tons of Funk and the Prime Time Players have already split up. The New Age Outlaws are the current champions, and it's not likely they'll deliver the big payoff to their title reign until WrestleMania itself, if they're smart. So that leaves us with the following teams:

The Real Americans
The Usos
Cody Rhodes & Goldust
Luke Harper & Erick Rowan
Curtis Axel & Ryback
3MB
R-Truth & Xavier Woods

Because it's WrestleMania and that pre-show would give a new team some great exposure, it would be an amazing time to bring up an NXT team as well. The Ascension would be a logical choice.

That gives us 8 teams, or 16 men in the Battle Royale. The Ascension wouldn't win - no team from NXT would. No formation of 3MB will win, obviously. It's very likely the Real Americans either won't be a team, or will have something completely different going on. But let's say this is their "last chance" to get the tag team game correctly before they break up for good.

The Usos should win, in this case. They are the team that's getting the push right now, and are on Twitter feuding with them over the past few weeks. If they don't win the titles at Elimination Chamber, they will win them at Wrestlemania. It's been a long ass time coming for them. The Outlaws, while good, are merely a heel placeholder to put over two big babyface teams. The first was Cody Rhodes & Goldust, the second will be The Usos.

 

[LSN80]

The Usos should win, in this case. They are the team that's getting the push right now, and are on Twitter feuding with them over the past few weeks. If they don't win the titles at Elimination Chamber, they will win them at Wrestlemania. It's been a long ass time coming for them. The Outlaws, while good, are merely a heel placeholder to put over two big babyface teams. The first was Cody Rhodes & Goldust, the second will be The Usos.

To put someone over they actually have to beat you, or at least receive a rub from you, you realize, correct? The Outlaws beat the Rhodes in 3 straight matches; the match on Smackdown which made them #1 Contenders, the pre-show at the Rumble which made them champions, and the steel cage match. In the latter two instances, they did so clean. How exactly is this putting them over? The Shield put the Rhodes over, not the New Age Outlaws. This is truly some of the worst posting on the site I've seen in some time. And yes, it is you.

As for the match itself, Cody and Goldust shouldn't even find themselves in a pre-show waste such as this. In fact, I wouldn't mind them winning the titles back and having a face vs. face match with the Usos at Wrestlemania, but, despite Dustin's denials on Twitter, I believe fully that they're headed for a 1 on 1 match at Wrestlemania. As for this match, it's the Usos time. They're riding a long undefeated streak, including the big steel cage matchup vs. Bray and Bryan on Raw in the New Year's main event of Raw.

Should a match such as this take place, the Usos are the clear winners. They're a strong team with great chemistry both together and with nearly any team they face, and as such, should leave Wrestlemania 30 as the WWE Unified Tag Team Champions.

 

[thebarber]

instead of a tag team battle royal, where both men have to leave when one member is eliminated, I would have a singles Battle Royal, 30 men for 30 years of Wrestlemania. I have been spruiking this for months nowm, and to me it is a great way to blend in current roster guys like Miz, Ziggler, Kingston etc who are probably going to miss out, and some WWE Wrestlemania legends who can still go reasonably well, and aren't the same rank and file LEGENDS WWE trots out every few months(Piper, Slaughter, DiBiase, Flair, Anderson, or any other road agent). I think this gives us 10 minutes breather also, have it between two of the bigger matchs, the card is supposed to be booked taking the emotion of the corwd into consideration, the legends making their entrances to their old music is always a great nostalgic pop, and gives the current guys something to do. Cesaro doing the swing on King Kong Bundy, how cool would that be????????????

 

[LSN80]

instead of a tag team battle royal, where both men have to leave when one member is eliminated, I would have a singles Battle Royal, 30 men for 30 years of Wrestlemania. I have been spruiking this for months nowm, and to me it is a great way to blend in current roster guys like Miz, Ziggler, Kingston etc who are probably going to miss out, and some WWE Wrestlemania legends who can still go reasonably well, and aren't the same rank and file LEGENDS WWE trots out every few months(Piper, Slaughter, DiBiase, Flair, Anderson, or any other road agent). I think this gives us 10 minutes breather also, have it between two of the bigger matchs, the card is supposed to be booked taking the emotion of the corwd into consideration, the legends making their entrances to their old music is always a great nostalgic pop, and gives the current guys something to do. Cesaro doing the swing on King Kong Bundy, how cool would that be????????????

I like this idea, although it would have to be a battle royale, and not a Rumble style match being that there are 30 men. To make this even more awesome, I'd do 30 men, one each representing a "year" of Wrestlemania, so to speak. If Piper wants a match so badly, as he claims, do it here. If you're going to bring back legends for a match, here's the spot. Men who are washed up and can no longer put on a good match, but can generate a nostalgia pop. If you want to use Cesaro(which I feel is a mistake here, but whatever), he needs to represent WM 30, as the future, and he should be the winner.

And for goodness sakes, make one of these battle royals mean something for once. Give the winner a championship match at "X" title at the Extreme Rules PPV, making this match a nostalgia trip and the win meaningful both. I like when legends show up on Raw to generate a pop, but on a PPV, even a pre-show match, make it meaningful, setting the tone for the rest of the show.