There are so many reasons to be excited about WWE right now. Roman Reigns is the most over and dominant champion in decades. Seth Rollins vs CM Punk might be the most exciting world championship storyline the writers have had to work with in forever. Women’s wrestling has never been better. There are even a ton of characters getting over in the mid-card Attitude Era style. It’s a fantastic time to be a wrestling fan, except, of course, if you’re a big tag team guy.
Over the last year or so, WWE’s tag scene has gone from a thriving division with good, consistent storylines to a restrictive mess thanks to Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Titles that have been consistently used to further major plots, rather than the division itself. Now, with several exciting tag teams looking like they’re ready to take the next step, WWE has a major decision to make. It can continue to use the Tag Team Belts as a way to elevate its biggest performers, or it can use the Tag Team Belts to elevate the entire division.
Let’s back up a little and let me explain what I mean. Back at WrestleMania 39, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn beat The Usos in the main event of Night 1. It was the culmination of months of fantastic Bloodline-related storytelling. The moment paid off all of Sami Zayn’s hard work and was very well received by both the live crowd and viewers watching at home. But as great as the win was, it put WWE in a weird position. Neither Sami Zayn nor Kevin Owens were really tag team wrestlers, and it seemed unlikely WWE would want to use them that way for an extended period of time.
So, Triple H and company decided to have Zayn and Owens drop the tag team titles to The Judgment Day, specifically Damian Priest and Finn Bálor. They were a great option because their win helped Judgment Day solidify their base of power, and it furthered a bunch of storylines of interpersonal drama between the group members. They later dropped the titles to Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso, two singles competitors who, quite frankly, just needed a major storyline to be involved in. They almost immediately dropped the titles back to Judgment Day, and after beating the rising Creed Brothers, it now looks like Damian And Finn may hold the straps for awhile.
That leaves WWE with a really interesting decision to make. It can either continue to use the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships to further the storylines for its biggest, most prominent characters or it can use the belts to further the entire tag division.
Every single person who has held the tag team titles in the last year has been a major singles competitor with a prominent storyline outside the tag team division. Cody Rhodes is the biggest babyface in the entire company (except maybe CM Punk). Damian Priest won Money In The Bank. Finn Bálor is a first ballot Hall of Famer who faced Seth Rollins in a singles match for The World Heavyweight Championship earlier this year at SummerSlam. Jey Uso is being pushed on his own for the first time. Winning the tag team titles has been a great way to keep each of these people on television and show them having success.
But where has that left the rest of the tag team division? Judgment Day put on a great match with The Creed Brothers, but WWE isn’t interested in having multiple weeks of promo exchanges between The Creeds and Judgment Day. Damian Priest and Finn Bálor have better, more prominent storylines to be involved with, and you could say the same thing about every other team that has held the belts since The Usos dropped them. This has resulted in every team in the actual tag team division looking like a pretty weak afterthought. They’re not really actively having a back-and-forth with the guys at the top of the division; so, they’re just existing out there on their own.
I love Damian Priest and Finn Bálor. No one, except maybe R Truth, rides harder for Judgment Day than I do, but something needs to change about this tag team division. There is a crop of fantastic teams just waiting to have big moments. The Creeds, Pretty Deadly, The Street Profits and Alpha Academy, among several others, are all good enough to hold the titles. The Authors Of Pain look like they’re coming back. Throw in The Good Brothers, The Viking Raiders and more, and suddenly, there’s an embarrassment of talent to work with. They need a belt to compete for that actually feels attainable and that’s held by wrestlers who feel like they’re a real part of the same division.
WWE has three options. It can keep using the belt to strengthen its biggest and most popular performers and keep minimizing the tag division as a consequence. It can split the titles back into two different belts (Smackdown Champions and Raw Champions or whatever), thus allowing one belt to further major characters and one to support the tag team division, or it can keep the unified titles but have Judgment Day drop the straps to a real tag team to fully grow the division. We’ll just have to wait and see which path they choose.
