The Decline of Tag Teams

[The Crock]

Since the early days of wrestling, tag teams have always been a factor. Believed to have originated in San Francisco in 1901, tag team wrestling didn't become very popular until later on around the 1930s, with the first World Tag Champs being crowned some 20 years later in 1950 in San Francisco. Tag team wrestling was viewed as a way to bring excitement into matches, and to spotlight wrestlers who would otherwise be undercard wrestlers. Tag team wrestling reached its pinnacle in the 1980s and was highlighted by teams such as the Hart Foundation, Demolition, the Legion of Doom, and many more. At that time tag teams were legitimate main eventers, people had no qualms about any of these teams highlighting the show. Tag team wrestling went back into a slight decline in the mid 90s, only to have a resurgence in the late 90s - early 2000s with the arrival of teams such as the Hardys, the Dudleys, and Edge and Christian. These teams brought the excitement back into tag team wrestling with their matches, as is shown by their legendary TLC matches. After that, tag team wrestling went into a deep decline and never really recovered. Although there are teams today like the MCMGs and Beer Money, there aren't very many good ones. That being said, is tag team wrestling ever going to be like it once was? Will it ever recover?

I say, no. Even though wrestling ebbs and flows as time goes by, it's just a totally different product. I can't see there ever being so many legendary teams as there were in the 80s and 90s. I mean, look at teams they just somewhat threw together back then, even they were good. Today's teams lack chemistry, and they get split up in favor of singles success. It is very hard to find a team like the Hart Foundation, due to the amount of chemistry they had. Tag teams are viewed as demotions today, and it wasn't like that before. If you were in a tag team that was enjoying some success, props to you. It wasn't that the second a team had any success they had to be split up. There doesn't always have to be a "Michaels" or a "Jannetty," sometimes it is enough for a guy to be a career tag team wrestler or to enjoy a few years of continued tag team success.

Your thoughts?

 

[UltimateHitman]

I love this thread. It's a very valid question, and one that does need discussing, and I think you made some great points.

Society, in general, is taught to look at how "you' are going to get to the top of the heap and get yours these days, or even how "you" are going to survive, and I think that attitude kind of helps to shape what we see in the media. (Or maybe the media shapes the attitude, but anyway...)

I think another possible factor is the economy. You don't really have the finances to keep enough two man teams around very long to provide the amount of variety in opponents and keep matches fresh and exciting.

It's been shown that after a while instead of keeping both guys around they usually split them up into singles competitors, and more often than not "trim the fat", which is probably so obvious now (especially with tag teams not being much of a focal point) that it has almost a "sense of impending doom" over any talent pairing. Hell, even w/Christian's success after E&C was over, he's still kind of stuck in the "Jannetty" role of not getting a push. Maybe this ideology is keeping talent apprehensive about being in a tag team and as such they don't mesh, but purposely keep their individual personalities separated even as a team so they don't get "passed over" or "lose out" to the other guy.

I don't know if it's going to stay buried. Like you said, there is still a demand for tag team bouts because of teams such as MCMG, Beer Money, Gen Me, and a few others. For argument's sake you can even say Santino and Kozlov have enough of a following to help keep it from dying completely. I also think Gabriel and Slater and the Usos help to keep some amount of focus on the tag team aspect.

You even have a couple of stables remaining prominent now such as Nexus and Corre (I'm referencing them because they have smaller numbers and are more streamlined) which also helps to keep a "team" mentality alive. This also helps from a tag team standpoint because they can switch the members involved in a tag team bout around storyline-wise and find one that works a little better than just throwing this random person with that random person and becoming overly transparent that you're just trying to find a team that works.

I think it could still be done at present, but whether it's a singular mentality that's prevalent in society right now, or the economy (just for the sake of keeping quicker release options open), or the lack of talent that could come together to provide that powerful team dynamic, it simply isn't being bothered with right now. And it could also be a combination of those things. But I don't think we've seen the last of tag team wrestling, and it could very well become prominent once again in the near future.

 

[dwith]

no offense, but if anyone has a actual answer to this you must be a WWE mark, because TNA has a some excellant tag teams, and matches, every week. with BEER MONEY, INK INC., MCM'S, GENERATION ME, and there are a few more team's but TNA pushes tag wrestling quite well for this day and age.

Even ROH has some great tag teams.

So just because WWE has lost it's tag team division (which used to be great BTW) doesn't me tag team wrestling is on the decline. Not a WWE hater, just wanted to note that WWE isn't a wrestling GOD, and just because their not pushing tag team's doesn't mean it's not happening.

 

[T2KFreeker]

I don't know. I believe that Tag Team Wrestling could potentially be big again, if somebody other than TNA got behind it. TNA has proven it can be done as the Tag team division seems to land the big matches on the cards anymore. I can say that teams like Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money are great examples of this theory. They get huge pops, well for a TNA sized crowd, and consistently have the top matches of the PPV and television product. One of the big reasons TNA has fans is because of it's Tag Team Division. WWE has used it to put two guys together and break them apart for one to be great and one to be the trash for far too long. I believe it could be big again, you just have to allow the divisions flow and not turn it into a thrown together mess to find the best singles athlete of the group.

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

WWE's tag teams are different from other promotions tag team wrestling. Basically, their tag teams are to put two people together who normally couldnt get do a decent fued by themselves. Santino and Kozlov are a good example for this. Santino is great now dont get me wrong but its just that he isnt world champion material in my eyes. He's funny but his character is basically like hulk hogan, he "hulks up" after taking a beating for nearly the whole match and out of nowhere he will get a clean rollup pin for the victory. Kozlov is good but not as a comedian but as a monster heel. Together they make a decent tag team. TNA has a good tag divsion just because they use alot of tag team moves. WWE dont realize that tag divison is about working together and not just throwing two random people together and go for the belts, but about history that the two individuals have with eachother. To answer your question, yes. The tag division could be as big as it was but it will take a few years. Vince has to stop worrying so much about other promotions and realize, the wwe is not going anywhere.

 

[Disturbed]

I think tag team wrestling has the potential to be big again but it is all about what Vince wants. At the moment, he sees tag team wrestling as a stepping stone to get these superstars into the main event. Now, TNA's tag division is very good but is a little overated. Sure they have some good ass matches between two or three teams but hell, they only got four teams. I am a big fan of tag team wrestling and I certainly do miss it.

Think back ten years ago..... Did you ever think a team like Vladimir Kozlov and Santino would be WWE Tag Team Champions? I sure as hell didn't. Within ten years WWE went from the tag division stealing the show at Wrestlemania, to having a comedic tag team win the belts. Now, The Dudley Boyz and E and C were also comedic but they stole the show week in and week out.

Back to TNA, to be honest, the only reason I think TNA gives the tag team wrestlers there time is because it is something WWE doesn't do and they think they can gain more fans with that tag divison and the matches they put on. I love watching the MCMG take on Beer Money and Generation Me but that is only three tag teams. Ink Inc. isn't on tv every week like these guys. Generation Me also isn't given as much tv exposure as Beer Money and the MCMGs.

Now, I think Tag Team Wrestling has a lot of potential in todays age. Both WWE and TNA have several superstars they are not using on there active roster, who they can put together and form tag teams. In WWE right now, they could throw in guys from Nexus and Corre to the tag division. For example, Michael McGillicutty and Husky Harris could be feuding with Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel for the tag titles which I could see happening in the future once Kozlov and Santino drop the belts. WWE also has the Uso's who are a very solid tag team in my opinion. That's four teams and if you take those who aren't being used and put them in tag teams, then it could contribute to the division. Why not bring up Percy Watson and reform the South Beach Boys with Darren Young? There's five teams. Trent Baretta and Curt Hawkins have plenty of chemistry, and would make a good tag team, so how about forming there version of the Dudebusters. That's six teams. Rtruth and JTG both have similar gimmicks and since neither are doing much right now, they could form a tag team. Seven teams.... Lastly, The Hart Dynasty should have never disbanned. So far, the split hasn't done much for either superstar. So, if they reformed then that would be eight teams off the top of my head.

I think the tag team division has potential but it's all about what Vince wants. EVen in TNA, what WWE does has something to do with TNA too, since WWE is the biggest wrestling company in the world.

All in all, I don't tag wrestling will ever be what it once was but it all depends on Vince McMahon and what he decides to go with.

 

[MinistryDeadman95]

I actually say yes. Like someone else above said, there are some good teams around, like in ROH and a few in TNA. If WWE doesn't do something about it now, like form some teams that could be formed but aren't getting formed, like South Beach Party Boys, and the other teams someone above mentioned, but if WWE doesn't form those teams, the only savior I see is if TNA does sometime in the future catch up to the WWE, then WWE would have to step up their products and hopefully somehow they see that tag teams are something that really helps a company when it comes to booking a good show. Because they do. Up until around 3 years ago, tag teams were a big part of WWE. I guess the WWE just doesn't feel the need for them

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I think that the problem that tag team wrestling faces is that a wrestler is not viewed as a successful one if he remains a tag team wrestler for his entire career. In the early days of the WWF and in the days of regional territories, it was not the case. We had guys like Demolition and the Road Warriors who were quite content to remain tag team specialists for the entire duration of their career.

Nowadays even the most mediocre wrestler wants to make his name as a singles star. The result is that the said wrestler is pushed for a while and when he fails to get over, he is cast aside. An example of such a case that comes to my mind is Shelton Benjamin. Sure, he was a great wrestler but he did not have the neccesary charisma to get over as a singles competitor. He could have easily spent his career in a tag team with Charlie Haas and if he was content to do so, I believe he would have still had a job with the WWE. The same could be said about Carlito. He had a perfectly decent tag team with his brother Primo. Yet they were meaninglessly broken up and Carlito has been released while Primo is in jobberville.

So yes, the decline in tag team wrestling is a direct result of the obsession of wrestling promoters to make the next Shawn Michaels and also because the wrestlers individually are not satisfied with a career as a tag team specialist. That being said, tag team wrestling has never been a huge draw and I don't think any casual fan will be crying because it has declined.

 

[Santiman21]

Tag Teams always boasted some of my favorite wrestlers, the Hart Foundation, The Steiner Brothers, Legion of Doom, The Nasty Boys... my god tag team wrestling was fantastic, I guess nowadays people have bigger egos than ever and all want to be the heavyweight champion, its ridiculous.

 

[Dagger Dias]

There certainly has been a huge decline in the quality of the tag team division over the past several years. The problem (in WWE at least) lies with the way they treated the division. It stopped being ok for someone to be a tag team specialist their whole career when the focus shifted to tag teams being a way for singles stars to break out. Sure it worked out great for Michaels, but there does not always have to be a Michaels and a Jannetty in every single tag team. They could do some of both. Some teams get split up if one guy has a ton of potential, while others stay in the division to keep it alive. That is the route they should have gone but far too many teams get split up too soon because somewhere down the line creative stopped using the division to get both guys over rather than whoever they like more.