Tag Teams to Singles, can it work?

[timmy872]

The question I have to pose to you is in the WWE and i suppose wrestling in general, is can two people in a tag team get a reasonable push after the split of their tag team?

Some examples;

The Hardys - Jeff Hardy has done well, Matt Hardy amounts to an ECW champion despite being the longer running Hardy.

Edge & Christian - Edge a 9 time champion, Christian an ECW champion, but perhaps only because he left WWE.

MNM - John Morrison nee Nitro has done well, not at main event status, but much better than Joey Mercury. Melina is female which in my opinion it makes it different from the conventional male/male.

The Rockers - Shawn Michaels is now a legend, Marty Jannetty... who?

London & Kendrick - Kendrick still has a job, and been re-packaged but London is long gone.

What do you think?

 

[The Doctor]

Absolutely. It just doesn't happen very often. Miz and Morrison are a shining example. They were a fantastic tag team. Miz got a feud with John Cena (!) and is being built up to be a future star. Morrison is challenging for the World Heavyweight Championship. Both of them are doing extremely well for themselves.

 

[Razor]

The Hardyz both got reasonable pushes when they split. However, Matt Hardy can't get over with the crowd worth shit. His face pops are "Oh, he's Jeff's brother!" pops and his heel boos are non-existent.

If you're asking if both people can get over after being in a tag-team....Edge & Christian have done reasonably well. Edge is the main heel of Smackdown while Christian was trusted with holding up the ratings of WWE's talent farm. And the crowd cares about them.

Oh! Miz and Morrison! Both are doing incredibly well after their tag team. Miz is almost main-event after a month or so feud with Cena (and two excellent matches to boot) along with Morrison coming into his own as a face.

 

[jrcongine]

How often does anyone get a reasonable push in wwe is the real question. So ofcourse its rare that out of 2 guys both get a reasonable push. Tag teams usually consist of one guy breaking out and become the star and the other guy their to make him look good. The system works so i can't complain. Guys made a living off making other guys the star in tag teams (neidhart, bagwell, waltman,) i prefer 90's so sue me.

 

[totallbc]

when a tag team enters the WWE more often times than not their is one of the 2 who stand out more, who can become something better within the WWE

APA: JBL - longest reigning wwe champ
Hardyz: jeff 2 time champ winner
MNM: morrison (formerly nitro) getting huge push now
Hawkins / Ryder: ryder repackaged and now pushed
Rockers: HBK - future hall of famer
E&C: Edge - multi time champ
London / Kendrick: look who still has a job

Miz / Morrison: to me is the only tag team where both are becoming bigger stars roughly at the same time and roughly doing equally well

 

[Veritas]

Honestly it all depends on who the wrestlers are in the tag team. Two main eventers have no problem tagging and then going their seperate ways and being sucessfull. But two low or mid card guys try to tag and then go seperate ways best of luck for either of them to do anything decent.

 

[Blade]

There's always one member of the team that will go further that the other. When you're in a very successful tag team that you know will be split up eventually, it's almost a law that one of you is destined for huge success as a singles star. One member of the team is more talented or at least more over and will go further as a result.
Edge, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy (proving you have to be more over, not more talented), JBL etc. It just seems that one member is always destined for huge success.

The "second" wrestlers in the tag teams get varying pushes. It's always extremely difficult to tell what will happen to the less over/talented individual.
Christian is a 2 time world champion, 3 if you count ECW. Although he probably wouldn't be in that situation had he not left WWE.
Jim Neidhart left the WWF for WCW, but was unsuccessful. When he came back, Bret was a singles star so a Hart Foundation reuninon wasn't really going to happen. So Neidhart becamse Bret's lackey for a while. Then he was repackaged, then he was part of the second Hart Foundation incarnation, then he left for WCW again. He had pretty much no success when he was without Bret.
Matt Hardy has had an ECW title run, been injured twice, and is currently as over as Shelton Benjamin. Yeah, things haven't gone well for him.
Marty Jannetty... Blegh.
And of course Ron Simmons, who became a catchphrase and was released.

So it seems like the second wrestler of a team is destined for mediocrity unless they do something to really shake up their career, such as jumping ship like Christian did.

People throw out the arguement of The Miz and John Morrison both being successful since the split up. But 1) Were they really that successful? They had a couple of title reigns at a time when the titles were worthless and 2) Miz had a feud with Cena, but he got beaten clean twice and where is he now? Floating around the midcard while Morrison is the number 1 contender after Night of Champions... Hmmm.

Obviously Ted Dibiase will be the more successful wrestler from the Legacy, but I'm interested to see what happens with the Hart Dynasty.

 

[Leeds Guy]

Yeah they can and I can think of three big examples of this.

First up Edge and Christian

Edge has gone on to be a 9 time champion a multi time Intercontinental champion and King of the Ring since his split from Christian. He has carried a fair bit of the WWE over the past few years both on Raw and Smackdown, and has been in memorable feuds with Undertaker/Cena/HHH/Batista/Angle/HBK and others.

Christian went on to become a multi time Intercontinental/European/Hardcore champion before his release and was involved in a big Wrestlemania match with Chris Jericho. He went to TNA to become champion there and had big feuds with people like Angle/Styles/Joe and others and since returning to the WWE has held the ECW title and has feuded with a future star in Swagger an established big heel in Mark Henry and a legend in Tommy Dreamer. I have a feeling this wont be the last title Christian holds.

So its worked here.

up next - Hardy Boyz

Lets face it when these two had their original split nobody thought it was a good thing. Matt was really the breakout star here he went on to have an excellent feud over the pointless Cruiserweight title with Rey Mysterio whereas Jeff was released. Next up for Matt was a semi feud with Undertaker as Brock Lesners bitch. Matt continued strongly going on to have good feuds with both Kane and Edge before Jeff's return. It didn't stop their for Matt he went on to have an originally great feud with MVP over the US title untill he was unfortunatly injured and then the feud became stale after pointless games of one uppping each other. Then went to ECW to become the ECW champion and the face of that brand for a number of months, in this time he became the first man to win in the first ever Championship Scramble match and like Christian he went on to have decent matches with people like Evan Bourne and a great match on smackdown between him,Chris Jericho and HHH. He feuded with Mark Henry before losing the title in a rivalry with Swagger and then went on to have a great feud with his brother between Wrestlemania and Backlash.

Jeff came back to the WWE and was instantly put in a good feud with a man that alot of people regard as the future of the WWE in John Nitro/Morrison over the IC title. From there he went on to feud with Shelton Benjamin and Chris Jericho and towards the end of his Raw run feuded with the WWE Champion Randy Orton and HHH. He moved to Smackdown and became a 2 time WWE/WHC Champion and thus fr has headlined every pay-per-view since Backlash.

So with 1 man as a major player and the other as a high mid carder I'd say it's worked here.

Now on to the team that I can't believe nobody has mentioned yet.

The Hart Foundation - Bret And Owen Hart
Both men were great in the ring and had great careers after tagging. One man is regarded as one of the greatest champions of all time and the other would have questionably been champion had he not passed away. Bret has feuded with them all from Hogan to Austin. Owen had great feuds with Austin and others in his time so it worked a treat here.

To answer your question. Yes it works and these 3 are good examples of it working.

 

[timmy872]

I understand these points completely, to address Miz and Morrison...

Using them as an example is like using Rated RKO or this generations DX (HBK/HHH)

What i mean is like Randy Orton and Edge both had already been established and not debuted together as a tag team, whereas Edge/Christian, Hardys, did.

Morrison was a 2 time IC Champ and a few time tag champ already, it was Miz who needed Morrison's rub, which was why he was the one who turned.

I know that then goes on to beg the question of tag teams like London and Kendrick, London having had a Crusierweight title reign..but hey..

The bottom line of what I am trying to say here is that Miz and Morisson were in a different leauge of tag team, Cryme Tyme debuted together and are known as a tag team, Morrison had already debuted as a tag team but then had a singles push and went back to Tag team, Miz had already debuted as the wise cracking former reality show contestant.

See..??

 

[KillBill]

Its weird how that happens. Im not sure I can name a team where both guys were successful. I can name more that both weren't, like Powers of Pain and the Dudleys. Its almost like a choice has to be made, because 1 of them just cannot work well solo.

And as far as Jannetty is concerned, its his fault he didn't get pushed. Had he stayed clean and out of trouble, he would have had a good career. Not as great as HBK's, but I mean he was brought back several times. He beat HBK for the I.C. belt, and was a tag champ for a short while. I'm sure he would have done more if he kept his shit together.