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WWE's Is Slowly Killing Their Tag Team Division… Again

It seems the WWE can't seem to get control over the ever swinging pendulum that is the Tag Team Division. And why should we expect them to? It's not like anyone is specifically looking after the division the way a team of writers is assigned to work on the Universal and World titles, or how a few writers and agents look after the Intercontinental and U.S. titles, or how a flock of geese take care of the U.K. and Cruiserweight titles these days.

But I can't think of another section of the WWF/E that works so hard just to become nothing to the company a year or so later. What's more, they've already done this twice and now they're repeating history. Don't believe me? Let's go down memory lane, shall we?

Example One: The '80s Boom

We'll keep things to the major television period of time since most people will never understand us talking about the recklessness that was the '70s. In 1986, the then WWF got serious about their tag team division and decided they needed colorful characters who could be believable teams to match the ones in singles matches. Before 1986, teams would be thrown together with uninspired names and told to roll with it, like Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine forming "The Dream Team" or Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo forming The U.S. Express. (I'm not making those up.)

Then the company managed to sign a number of good talents and repackaged them, starting with The British Bulldogs who would be made champions in April 1986. Shortly after you started seeing teams like The Killer Bees, The Hart Foundation, The Rougeau Brothers, Demolition, The Powers Of Pain, and Demolition. Eventually, teams like The Rockers, The Bushwhackers, and The Brain Busters joined the fray. You still had weird teams like Strike Force and The Twin Towers, but the company had a thriving division that people loved to see.

However, the division plateaued and eventually came to a screeching halt the minute the company was able to hire The Road Warriors and repackaged them as Legion Of Doom. They were the second to last team of that era (the last arguably being The Nasty Boys) to make the WWF exciting in the division. Then the following things happened that killed it all within 18 months: Demolition dissolved, Bret Hart became a singles wrestler, the Rockers broke up on The Barbershop, and LOD's Hawk fell into drugs and quit the company. The division would see some teams come in and act like they were just as good as the ones a few years prior, but WWF was more focused on their singles stars and the New Generation at the time, so the division became lackluster for about four years.

Example Two: Getting Attitude & Extreme

About the time the Attitude Era starting to rumble, the WWF put the Road Dogg and Billy Gunn together, who then formed the New Age Outlaws. They were doing things that no one else was doing at the time, like making fun of the now legendary and returning Legion Of Doom. They shoved Mankind and Chainsaw Charlie off the stage in a dumpster, made fun of the NWA champions, insulted The Nation Of Domination while The Rock was on his best heel game. They sparked interest in the division again and forced the company to take a second look at redeveloping it.

In short order over 1998 and 1999, we got The Headbangers, The Brood (Edge & Christian), The Acolytes (APA), The Dudley Boyz, The Hardy Boyz, Too Cool, and a few other random off-shoot teams that made the division cool again. We could go into an entire discussion of the Attitude Era's accomplishments, but we really don't need to because all I need to say is TLC-2 and we're done. But once WCW was purchased and competition went away, those teams lost their place among a stacked card. Worse yet, in 2002 the now WWE broke up many of those teams for no other reason than they could, leaving the belts to go back to randomly paired singles stars and the occasional team that had little competition for about a decade.

Example Three: Whatever Era We're Calling This Now

NXT and the main roster accidentally fell into having some of the best tag teams in the world from 2013 onward. The Usos, The Shield, The New Day, The Prime Time Players, and The Wyatt Family all on one roster, which is pretty impressive. Eventually to come would be Gallows & Anderson, one of NJPW's finest teams. Then take a look at NXT: You got The Ascension, The Vaudevillians, The Revival, DIY, American Alpha, Enzo & Cass, Blake & Murphy. You have an amazing tag division on the way up to the main roster who are going to make those already there shine.

But… WWE have just killed their own tag division in some of the dumbest ways possible. Let's list them off as a refresher course…

The Wyatt Family: Constantly failing to pull the trigger on a stable feud, then infighting over and over. (Didn't help to watch PT-wrestler The Rock destroy them in a couple minutes.)
Enzo & Cass: Split the team up before they ever got the tag belts, killing any chance at making more money off their passionate fans.
The Ascension: Could have been the next Demolition, until one botched promo ended their debuts and the company turned them into jobbers.
The Vaudevillians: The duo were never treated or booked as a serious threat in WWE after leaving NXT, then Simon Gotch got into trouble and killed the team.
Blake & Murphy: Died a slow death on NXT tapings after the company pulled Alexa Bliss from their partnership.
Slater & Rhyno: Had all the momentum in the world after Slater talked about his kids, now his kids are probably wondering why dad isn't on TV much anymore after their push was killed.
Gallows & Anderson: One of the most dominant teams in Japan, forced into tag team purgatory as WWE just had to make The New Day surpass Demolition's record.
DIY: One of the most exciting partnerships that you knew was going to end badly after teasing it three times, finally came to an end at NXT Takeover: Chicago.
American Alpha: Really, WWE writers? We're living in a world where anyone can look stuff up on Wikipedia, and you made Jason Jordan the son of Kurt Angle? I'd fire you twice.

The only two teams still together in that list are The New Day and The Revival, but after watching The Revival get their trash handed to them by The Hardy Boyz who just finished a match, I don't see them snagging gold anytime soon. And the one exception in this entire list that doesn't feel like an embarrassment is DIY because their breakup was so well planned. I would have saved it for the main roster, but let's be honest, Vince McMahon is going to stick both of them on 205 Live before they come up to be credible threats on Raw and Smackdown.

Conclusion: The Tag Division Is About To Die Again

Let's be honest with each other. The company has a lot of amazing talent who can do amazing things. (Some of them the company only signed so that they wouldn't appear anywhere else, but that's a rant for another day.) There's only so much room in the singles areas on both shows, and the company is showing no signs of slowing that down when SummerSlam rolls around and they bring more NXT talent up. In total, you have six teams across the two major shows: The New Day, The Usos, Breezango, Sheamus & Cesaro, Gallows & Anderson, and The Hardy Boyz—fighting for championships that aren't even gold. And while we're mentioning it, think about that for a brief moment. How much more insulting can you get to the division on TV by making two sets of belts and both of them are silver?

The entire division is running on life support, especially after breaking up two teams with so much potential for money to be made on them within a month of each other. Bringing anyone else up isn't going to fix it, and you can't un-ring the bell on those two breakups now. So throw on your morphine drip and settle in, because you've got a front row seat every Monday and Tuesday to see the latest incarnation of the Tag Team Division fade away.

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