The current state of WWE Tag Team Wrestling

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

After watching a great tag team contest last night on RAW, it really seems like the tag team division in WWE could be that much better. Y2AJ vs The New Day was as good as Cesaro/Kidd vs The New Day. That is a problem. The New Day, Uso's and The Dudley Boys are the division. That's it, no other team is even worth mentioning right now on the main roster. Cesaro/Kidd having the last exciting matches with New Day was awhile ago as well.

For some strange reason...the WWE won't combine wrestlers currently involved in stables and make them legit tag team contenders. Why? You could have these guys actually having meaningful matches in the tag team division...

Luke Harper and Eric Rowan/Strowman

Rusev and Del Rio

Barrett and Sheamus

Rose and Axel/other stable members.

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Then you have a pretty much broken up tag team in Lucha Dragon's because of the U.S Championship. The WWE Roster is big enough to make the tag team division good again, here's how it could look if taken seriously.

New Day
Dudley Boys
Uso's
Harper/Rowan
Del Rio/Rusev
Axel/ Rose
Cesaro/ Ziggler
Neville / Sin Cara
Ryback / Strowman (repackaged Strowman)
Big Show / Mark Henry
Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas (Face team for a short time to experiment)
Ziggler/Breeze ( Heel Freebird's-like team)

Possible NXT call ups...most notable being Gable/Jordan.

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I'm not saying spam tag team contests like a certain GM who Holla Holla Holla-ed his way into the fray of an opening match but...you could also get epic tag team contests with top stars in the company, maybe even create an angle where the current champions...say Cesaro/Ziggler are on an unstoppable run as champions and random top stars are pairing up to try and stop them....

Kevin Owens / Brock Lesnar
John Cena / Randy Orton
Seth Rollins/ Roman Reigns
Sting / The Undertaker

...for example.

Pairing A.J Styles and Chris Jericho really showed how good the tag team division could be. I have high hopes for the division.

 

[kadroan]

The tag division is solid IMO. New Day is the best tag team they've had in years. You had the Dudleyz/Usos feuding but they weren't on RAW and they've been feuding for a while. It's only so much you can do with one title and one set of contenders.

I see they've been building up the Goldust/R Truth tag team, a rip off of Goldust/Booker T 14 years ago.

 

[enviousdominous]

What I really liked about that match on Raw was that we were able to see that the WWE has enough faith in New Day to allow them to take a solid win against a super-team like Y2AJ.

I think the smartest thing the WWE could do to revitalize the tag team division would be to -- as the OP suggested -- call up the NXT tag teams. I realize that the roster is already very full of people hurting for tv time, but we're talking ideas to bring back the glory days of the tag team division here.

New Day are a rare combination of entertaining, talented and profoundly over with the crowd. The division can easily be built around them, and amazing matches can be had with any of the established tag teams of NXT. I hope that if the WWE gives a shot to a new tag team by putting them against New Day, they don't automatically give up on that team just because they couldn't justify letting them beat New Day.

Ahh, I'm blue skying it here.

 

[MartialHorror]

In my opinion, The Tag Team division kind of sucks right now...although the New Day is one of my favorite acts in the WWE and are turning out to be great champions. But the competition is minimal. Who will compete against them now? I don't think turning them babyface is a good idea, so hopefully their 'feud' against the League of Nations is only a side thing at Road Block.

Otherwise, they've beaten the Dudleys and Usos, who are the only other real tag teams right now. The Lucha Dragons are still together, but the focus is on Kalisto's solo career, although this would be interesting if they developed a 'Lucha Dragons Vs New Day', where somehow the U.S Championship also came into play. The Prime Time Players are apparently done. Los Matadores are still around, but are apparently going through a heel re-packaging and weren't credible anyway.

The League and the Wyatts barely factor into the Tag Team scene for some reason, although both are heels, so it doesn't matter. Y2AJ was cool, but has already ended. Some want to see Enzo and Cass come up and go for those belts, but...really? NXT is usually presented as weaker than the main roster and Enzo/Cass can't even seem to get those belts, so I wouldn't buy them as credible opponents.

Admittedly, a large part of the problem is that there are too many injuries and a lack of desire to elevate the lower card guys. They could easily pair the likes of Swagger, Henry, Fandango and Mizdow together just to give them something to do and maybe if built right, they can catch fire...but they don't so the division feels kind of empty.

I'm guessing that the Usos and Dudleyz feud will somehow involve the New Day for Wrestlemania, but unless the New Day retains, it won't be very satisfying if either team wins. I kind of feel bad for the Usos as since they've returned, it doesn't seem like WWE cares about them anymore, even though they were previously the backbone of the division.

I guess there's that Golden Truth, but...I'm not sure if anyone really wants that.

 

[BillAlfonsos_Whistle]

They never bother to flesh out the ranks with depth.
I remember in the golden days when a midcard tag match for no title could steal the show.

 

[achromat666]

The current Tag Division barely exist outside the New Day. The problem is they're treating it like every other title right now, which is to say that their divisions are in total disarray.

Ok, right now outside of possibly Alberto Del Rio, who else is in contention for the US title? Owens has at least had credible wrestlers to try for the IC belt but it would be hard to say a division exists, as there are only maybe 3 people that have tried for the belt recently, but it's better than just about everywhere else.

The tag titles have no strong regular contenders, no tag team booked as having a chance against them. Y2AJ was booked stronger than most of the other tag teams that TND have taken on recently. The Uso's are not being booked against them, thy're being booked against the Dudley Boyz in a heel turn that is getting lost. The Lucha Dragons are not booked strong against them recently most of the other tag teams are largely ignored. And it looks like the next contenders are the League of Nations? Seriously?

And this doesn't even cover the issues I have with how the Ascension have been booked from the moment they got on the main roster, treated like Road Warrior also rans when you needed a solid heel tag team. Instead they turned them into a joke, run through all the other tag teams on the roster and give us a pointless feud with stable no one really cares about? How is this helping the tag division? And this says nothing of other factions with guys that have been tag teams like the Wyatts or even the Social Outcasts who clearly aren't going to be taken seriously anywhere else.

You obviously can't book every team as being a strong tag team, but you can give us a specific set of teams you want the audience to get behind and book them feuding regularly. It's how we got the Dudley Boyz/ E&C/ Hardy Boys feud from some years back, you had 3 top tag teams booked strong and created great matches to build a division around.

The only team that's booked strong right now is the New Day, and it's at the expense of a lot of teams that need the exposure and time in the spotlight. Hell, the other teams that are currently in the tag division that have recently feuded with TND are former tag champions (the Lucha Dragons are currently an afterthought and the LON hasn't actually had a match against TND). How do you build a division that way?

They have all the tools and there have been bright spots, but they are wasting the potential.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

There's plenty of strength in depth in the roster, but WWE seem incapable of focusing any attention on more than 2 or 3 teams at a time.

The New Day
Dudley Boyz
The Usos
Lucha Dragons
The Wyatt Family
Social Outcasts
Golden Truth
League Of Nations

That's a really good selection of tag-teams, and I am sure I'm missing some out. Plus, you've got the upcoming main roster debuts of Anderson/Gallows and Enzo/Cass. The Tag Team division could be one of the best WWE has ever had if they gave some serious attention to it, and made several teams into credible challengers, rather than ignoring 75% of the teams to focus on 1 feud.

I'd personally like to see The Dudleyz get another reign with the belts and then feud with Anderson/Gallows when they debut, but for now The New Day are doing a great job as champs, they are so entertaining. Also, a Dolph Ziggler/Tyler Breeze heel tag team could be money!

 

[OYDK]

I don't think the tag division is a priority for the WWE right now, they seem content to sit back and let New Day carry the one or two segments that the tag teams usually get per week. As OP said, if WWE wanted to create a remarkably strong tag team roster, they have the tools to do so. The problem in my opinion, is WWE doesn't necessarily want a massive roster of tag team competitors taking up an hour of Raw and Smackdown each week and that's what would need to happen if all of these teams were made legitimate.

The tag roster that you proposed was way too big however. How do you possibly find time for all of those guys? The tag team division doesn't need to be large to be quality. I think a tag roster consisting of New Day, Usos, Enzo and Cass, Gallows and Anderson, The Dudleys, and Jordan and Gable would make a great tag team division. Only 6 teams, but 6 quality teams.

 

[Navi]

Yea the WWE isn't concentrating on the tag team division right now, which is a shame. Some of these teams, the Dudley's and Uso's in particular that's all they do. Remember when one of the Uso's went out last year with an injury, we never saw the other twin till they were both ready to go again.

Don't imagine the Dudley's will be around forever and with the Lucha Dragons, you have one member holding a singles title. That basically takes them out of tag team title contention. New Day as much as I love them are kind of getting stale, they need new people to play off. There is only so much you can say to the Uso's and the Dudley's. Maybe when Enzio and Cass come up, we'll see some good action. Enzio is great on the mic and he and Woods can go at it.

Maybe after Mania this year we'll see the tag division ramp up. Again this only adds fuel to the fire that the WWE can only concentrate on one thing at a time. Don't really know when this started happening, but letting a lot of good people go to waste.

 

[TDFG]

The tag division has potential to be solid but WWE is going back to throwing teams together and not using others.

The Dudleys turning heel is good.
The New Day turning face isn't.
Goldust & R-Truth teaming together is another comedy team.
The Usos are just drifting along.
Harper & Rowan aren't teaming as much.
The Social Outcasts, The Ascension & Los Matadores are all just fillers.

 

[Piss Bucket]

There's not that many teams left on the main roster, don't get me wrong I'm no racist, I just don't think the New Day are good, apart from maybe Big E.

And the best days of the Dudleys are behind them IMO, 14 years ago they were putting the entire roster through Tables every week, including Women sometimes, in the PG era they're not allowed to do that kind of thing any more.

And smh at cobbled together teams such as pairings of the Wyatts etc to make up the numbers in the tag team division, seems a bit silly really.

 

[RacistHulkHogan]

Brothers I miss the day the Mega Powers were wreaking havoc in the WWE dudes. I don't lack the New Day jack. Vince daddy you need to focus more on the tag team division dude it's lacking. Only love. HH