No Love for Talented Tag Teams

by
Frederick Froehlich
May 9, 2018

Miguel Descart via Wikimedia Commons

WWE has long underappreciated their tag team division. For many years, hodgepodge tag teams were thrown together, some seeing great success, while others floundered. When you reflect on classic tag team wrestling, it is so much easier to make a list of 1980s tag teams than it is to attempt to name a similar number of quality teams since the late 90s. The Road Warriors, The Rock N Roll Express, The Koloffs, The Sheephearders, The Hart Foundation, The Killer Bees, The British Bulldogs, Demolition, The Powers of Pain, The Midnight Express, The Steiners, heck, even Rhythm and Blues had a few good matches.

In today’s WWE, we have a few teams that really make the division go. The Usos, The New Day, The Bar, The Authors of Pain, sAnity, and The Bludgeon Brothers are solid tag teams but even they have been booked into repetitive feuds and nonsense for an extended time. The Bar was a patchwork team with two singles stars WWE didn’t know what to do with. The Deleters of Worlds, Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt, were a last minute combo just as Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre have become. Are we supposed to become infatuated with patchwork tag teams?

What should they do?

WWE needs to focus their energies on talents that have true chemistry in the ring together. There are so many other talents on the roster that there should really be an abundance of solid tag team matches but unfortunately, WWE misses the mark with many of them. Breezango has been over with the fans for an extended period of time. Should WWE choose to put tag team gold around their waist then the feeling is that the fans would be very happy. Even the Miztourage has garnered a level of crowd following and demonstrate solid tag team wrestling chemistry when they are given a chance. Rhyno and Heath Slater have been done to death and should be dismantled as soon as possible but there are still more teams that WWE has on the roster who are capable of contributing so much more.

Why is it so hard for WWE to allow teams to put on a show? The Colons are as technically gifted as any team on the roster today. The Ascension hasn’t been given a fighting chance to be relevant in years and after seeing some of what they can do at the Greatest Royal Rumble, you know there is so much more there. WWE has allowed a few other teams to taste gold. Gallows and Anderson have had brief runs but they have been wasted as well. The Revival looked to be primed for a serious title run but have since been buried by an aging DX on the Raw 25th Anniversary show and haven’t recovered since. Rusev Day are about as popular as an underappreciated team can be but no championship love has been shown to them.

Possibilities for Other Tag Teams

I suppose we could see some other teams either formed or reunited. The Shield will always work. Kane and the Big Show are always good for a match here and there. The Yep Movement of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn can be a ton of fun except that it would be them wasting 2 more main event level talents. Do we push Titus Worldwide? Perhaps we reunite American Alpha when Jason Jordan returns. Could the saviors of the tag team scene actually be the reunion of Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder? Lord I hope not.

My suggestion for WWE

In any event, WWE needs to allow some of these teams to truly entertain us. With the number of tournaments WWE has put on in recent years, I think a tournament featuring all of their teams would be a plus. I don’t mean a list of squash matches in round one either. Allow all of these teams to go out there and truly show you what they can do. Provide the fans with what they really want. GREAT WRESTLING! There is a reason the Young Bucks and the Addiction are so popular in Ring of Honor. The talents of the Guerrillas of Destiny, the Killer Elite Squad, Los Ingobernables de Japon, Roppongi 3K, and so many others are showcased to their fullest in New Japan. It is time for WWE to do the same.

Imagine round one with quality matches between Breezango and the Miztourage if they were actually booked to go 20 minutes. Visualize a half hour slobber knocker between the War Raiders and sAnity. The possibilities are endless. Come on WWE. Give the tag teams some opportunity!