Why do tag teams even break up?

[funckygarcon]

I don't know why WWE treats tag teams as inseparable entities, why do team members always have matches together? And it's either you're together as a team, or you compete by yourself and you're on your own without a partner. Why? Why can't team members thrive in the singles scene, having matches and competing for titles, while still be in a team that backs them up and band together in times of need? One example I'd use for this is the "Wyatt Family". They simply looked so good together, their team made so much sense and they fit the role they're given. Of course Bray Wyatt grew considerably as a performer and had to leave Eric Rowan and Luke Harper. The question is, why leave them in the first place? Why can't Wyatt compete by himself and thrive as a performer, having feuds with whoever he wants, while still be a part of the "Wyatt family"? Why can't he keep the gimmick of the cult leader and have both his brothers on his side, while they too pursue their own careers, but be kept as a team? Don't you think that Wyatt would've been even more successful if he was allowed to remain a cult leader, and don't you think that Rowan and Harper would've avoided being lost in the shuffle, were they to remain a team, along with Wyatt? I think it's kind of stupid to break up teams to allow one superstar or both to shine, because they can shine on their own and still be a tag team, if they were allowed to compete on their own for once instead of being viewed as one entity.

 

[Soulblazed]

I don't know why WWE treats tag teams as inseparable entities, why do team members always have matches together? And it's either you're together as a team, or you compete by yourself and you're on your own without a partner. Why? Why can't team members thrive in the singles scene, having matches and competing for titles, while still be in a team that backs them up and band together in times of need? One example I'd use for this is the "Wyatt Family". They simply looked so good together, their team made so much sense and they fit the role they're given. Of course Bray Wyatt grew considerably as a performer and had to leave Eric Rowan and Luke Harper. The question is, why leave them in the first place? Why can't Wyatt compete by himself and thrive as a performer, having feuds with whoever he wants, while still be a part of the "Wyatt family"? Why can't he keep the gimmick of the cult leader and have both his brothers on his side, while they too pursue their own careers, but be kept as a team? Don't you think that Wyatt would've been even more successful if he was allowed to remain a cult leader, and don't you think that Rowan and Harper would've avoided being lost in the shuffle, were they to remain a team, along with Wyatt? I think it's kind of stupid to break up teams to allow one superstar or both to shine, because they can shine on their own and still be a tag team, if they were allowed to compete on their own for once instead of being viewed as one entity.

Great thread! To answer your question on why tag teams in the WWE break up in general, it's because in today's WWE, tag teams are made to be inevitably broken up so that way the better wrestler can benefit from the singles push I've grown very tired of that formula of "pair a couple of wrestlers together, let them tag for awhile and then break them up so that wrestler A can goto the main event while wrestler B can be a high-midcarder at best".

I grew up watching wrestling in the mid 80s..Tag teams back then and in previous decades were REAL teams..They stayed together for years and years traveling throughout the various territories planetwide..Tag teams back then actually meshed together and their tag team finishers actually made sense-for example, "The Hart Attack", with Neidhart holding the opponent up while Bret came off the ropes with his signature Hart Attack Clothesline to take the opponent down. The Road Warriors, The Fabulous Ones, The Midnight Express, The Rock N Roll Express, The Blackjacks, The Hart Foundation, Demolition, The British Bulldogs, The Rockers, The Brainbusters, etc,..Those were real tag teams who exemplified what it meant to be a true tag team.

Now onto your good point about The Wyatt Family-I already posted this in the Wyatt Derp thread about how Bray as a singles wrestler could be booked better, so now I'll focus on how to use Bray while still being aligned with Harper and Rowan. Wyatt could have his own feuds, as you've said, while Harper and Rowan would have their own thing going on but still having The Wyatt Family to anchor the trio together. Bray would wrestle only once in awhile, because with his character, less should be more. In terms of Harper and Rowan, maybe if they reunited as a trio, Harper and Rowan could finally win the WWE Tag Titles which they should've won months ago. Also, speaking of tag team finishers, Rowan and Harper do have that modified Double Chokeslam where they lift their opponent by his arm-pits instead of a normal Chokeslam. They could have a 2nd tag team finisher-Rowan could hold an opponent up in the same way Neidhart did, while Harper could come off the ropes with a running Big Boot(think of Test's Running Big Boot). Lastly, Bray could try "recruiting" more followers to his Family, whether it's current WWE wrestlers, NXT wrestlers or both.

 

[FromGlasgow]

I think tag teams should mainly be kept to their own division it gives it a sort of different feel and more relevancy working towards the tag team titles rather than just 2 single guys teaming up I don't think it would be the same.

 

[SoulTrain4]

Tag teams are seen as two guys that are pretty much useless without each other being put together to make one whole, over act. Case in point: Tyson Kidd & Cesaro.

Back in the day you could make a great living as a tag wrestler and you could main event shows being the feature performers, this is true in some of the indies today but everyone should want to win titles and be world champion and that requires an extensive singles career.

Sometime the plan is to separate one from the other from the get-go but other times a star sort of just emerges on his own and you gotta run with it.

The stuff in the OP has happened before with Ricky Morton challenging Flair for the NWA title or Scott Steiner having a main event run while the Steiner Bros were still together, It just doesn't happen that much if at all today and especially not in WWE.

 

[Navi]

Tag teams back then and in previous decades were REAL teams..They stayed together for years and years traveling throughout the various territories planetwide..Tag teams back then actually meshed together and their tag team finishers actually made sense-for example, "The Hart Attack", with Neidhart holding the opponent up while Bret came off the ropes with his signature Hart Attack Clothesline to take the opponent down. The Road Warriors, The Fabulous Ones, The Midnight Express, The Rock N Roll Express, The Blackjacks, The Hart Foundation, Demolition, The British Bulldogs, The Rockers, The Brainbusters, etc,..Those were real tag teams who exemplified what it meant to be a true tag team.

This is very much on point.

Tag teams used to be huge and put on great matches. They were teams when you heard a wrestler's name mentioned you expected to hear the other one as well. Like when you heard Bret Hart name, Jim Neidhart's name would be right behind it. It was like having two bodies with one mind, if that makes any sense.

These teams stayed together forever. Even though once in awhile they would wrestle in singles matches, they usually always wrestled together. I loved the Dudley's and it was very strange for me to see Bubba Ray in the Rumble without D Von with him.

Sadly the WWE doesn't feel the same today as it did years ago. Tag teams come and go and other than the Uso's is there even one that's of any mention. It seems that they just take two wrestler's that they have no creative plans for and throw them together. In the case of Cesaro and Kidd it seems to have worked, but it could have been a disaster. The tag team division has been awful for the past little while, and shows no signs really of getting any better.

The Ascension is in the shitter, Los Matadores is just plain bad and New Day should just go away. That's three out of how many tag teams nowadays. If they fold then the division might as well fold as well. I have very little hope that we will ever see another Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian or Dudley's. Shit I would even take Team Hell No back with what we have now.

 

[Soulblazed]

This is very much on point.

Tag teams used to be huge and put on great matches. They were teams when you heard a wrestler's name mentioned you expected to hear the other one as well. Like when you heard Bret Hart name, Jim Neidhart's name would be right behind it. It was like having two bodies with one mind, if that makes any sense.

These teams stayed together forever. Even though once in awhile they would wrestle in singles matches, they usually always wrestled together. I loved the Dudley's and it was very strange for me to see Bubba Ray in the Rumble without D Von with him.

Sadly the WWE doesn't feel the same today as it did years ago. Tag teams come and go and other than the Uso's is there even one that's of any mention. It seems that they just take two wrestler's that they have no creative plans for and throw them together. In the case of Cesaro and Kidd it seems to have worked, but it could have been a disaster. The tag team division has been awful for the past little while, and shows no signs really of getting any better.

The Ascension is in the shitter, Los Matadores is just plain bad and New Day should just go away. That's three out of how many tag teams nowadays. If they fold then the division might as well fold as well. I have very little hope that we will ever see another Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian or Dudley's. Shit I would even take Team Hell No back with what we have now.

You've made a great point as well! Yea, tag teams in the 20th century were like 2 bodies with 1 mind as you put it. They had to be a legit, cohesive unit in order to pull it off from the get-go. To expand on your mentioning of well-known tag teams occasionally wrestling in singles matches-Even if a well-known tag team was relegated to competing in 2 singles matches on a card, you could rest assured that despite that, their tag partner would be at ringside, do a run-in, etc to always preserve the continuity of the tag team(basically in that tag partners always watch each other's backs, even if one of them isn't physically at ring-side, they'll be there at some point in time to even the odds).

As far as today's tag division goes, I agree with ya as well..Besides the Usos, and Kidd/Cesaro, I can say that the reunited Prime Time Players are another team which shouldn't be overlooked. I also will give the Lucha Dragons tag team credit, as well. They put on good matches, have the crowd behind them and keep things interesting(at least at the moment). Other than that, Los Matadores was asinine from the onset(Puerto Rican matadores?! Really?), New Day and The Ascension both need to be revamped because they're both a prime example of Wrestlecrap in today's WWE. I'd like to see The Dudleys(with Spike) have 1 final run in the WWE with Heyman as their manager(doubtful that'll happen, but ya never know).

 

[MartialHorror]

To be fair in regards to the Wyatt breakup, I don't think it was so much about giving Bray a solo career as much as it was about giving Rowan and Harper solo careers. Can you remember many Tag Team matches involving Bray? I remember 'The Wyatts Vs the Shield', but Bray usually was a solo competitor while Rowan and Harper were the tag team.

When they split, Harper joined the Authority and became a major contender for the IC belt. Rowan also temporarily got a pretty notable push, but in both cases, they got lost in the shuffle and the breakup obviously demoted them. Then again, they were technically jobbers as a tag team. Now they're just jobbers as solo competitors and they don't get as much TV time.