Written by Michael Vacchiano
This past Sunday at the Elimination Chamber PPV, history was made. The team of Bayley and Sasha Banks emerged victorious over five other pairs of ladies in the title structure to be crowned the brand new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. It is definitely another amazing step in the ongoing women’s revolution that the company has instituted in the past three to four years.
However, with all this focus on tag team wrestling — in the women’s division — I would be remiss if I didn’t ask this burning question: will WWE start putting this same emphasis on tag team wrestling in general? Was this just a short-term push to introduce new titles? You don’t have to be a sultan of swing to realize that tag team wrestling in the WWE has been in dire straits for quite some time.
Tag team wrestling has often been an important part of WWE’s game plan, albeit at different times in its history. During those periods, there’d be at least 8 to 10 teams fighting their way up the ranks for a shot at the tag team belts. The division was usually carried by a few teams engaging in long-lasting feuds that resulted in spectacular and memorable contests.
In the mid-late ‘80s, the Hart Foundation and the British Bulldogs impressed fans with their European-influenced mat skills and technique. At the turn of the century, the Hardyz, Dudleyz, and Edge & Christian wowed audiences by incorporating tables, ladders and chairs into the equation. And in recent years, it’s been the Usos and the New Day who tore it up on a weekly basis, and eliciting plenty of “This is awesome!” chants while doing so.
While I will concede to the claim that women’s wrestling was barely existent in WWE during those first two aforementioned time frames, what about the last one? Less than 18 months ago, the Usos/New Day rivalry culminated in the first ever tag team championship Hell in a Cell match. And even though they were the opening contest at the title PPV, the penitentiary guards and the pancake aficionados arguably stole the show. Their incredible match got me giddy with excitement at the idea, Can WWE finally give us a thriving women’s and tag team division at the same time?! I was salivating at all the thoughts of what could be….
That was until WrestleMania 34 happened.
Six months later, travesty struck at the Granddaddy of Them All during the match for the Raw tag team titles. The Bar defended the belts against Braun Strowman and a mystery partner of his choice…who turned out to be a 12-year-old kid. And even worse yet, they won!! You can imagine the rage and disgust felt by yours truly watching his favorite team losing their titles to someone who had barely hit puberty. Personal animosity aside, I couldn’t help but think that WWE squandered any hope they previously offered to the fans that their tag team division was alive and well. Did they really believe no other team could have had a good match with the champs, or did they even care?! Literally any other pairing would have been better opponents to face Sheamus and Cesaro at their biggest show of the year.
After that trainwreck, the WWE tag team division was sent to the sports entertainment ICU, and has mostly been on life support ever since. However, this article is not a full-blown condemnation of what they’ve done, but rather an earnest plea to them for what they can do. Now is the time for the company to break out the defibrillators to save tag team wrestling from flatlining. In short, the overall theme and solution of this Jerry Maguire-esque mission statement is extremely simple and is as follows: Just let tag teams go out to the ring and wrestle. That’s it, just give them the opportunity to fight for gold and the bragging rights to claim that they are the best tag team in wrestling.
Part of this recipe for success includes a wide variety of ingredients that’ll make a truly delectable tag team feast. The Bar, the Usos, and the New Day have firmly established themselves as the cornerstones of the WWE tag team picture. They’ve been consistently great at what they do for years now, and have earned the right to be known as the foundations of a hopefully competitive division.
Then there’s the Lucha House Party and the Colons who bring their high-flying aerial skills into the mix. In contrast, Authors of Pain and Heavy Machinery offer their hard-hitting powerhouse style. The team of Gallows & Anderson are loaded with international credibility, and the deranged SaNiTy has the potential to be a dominant heel faction if fully unleashed. Even lower card teams like the Ascension and the B-Team can be valuable contributors.
Surprisingly, the past several weeks of WWE programming has offered glimmers of hope that this may actually start to happen. Recent developments in the tag team ranks may end up proving to be possible game-changers. The newly formed tandem of Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev could easily become a dangerous alliance, as well as tag title contenders. The former Edge-heads, Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins, appear to be getting the proverbial band back together to try and make another successful run. And this past Monday night, the Revival defeated Bobby Roode and Chad Gable to win the Raw tag team titles in an early-Match of the Year candidate that truly brought the house down.
My expectations are appropriately tempered, but the life-long fan in me isn’t giving up yet on WWE. The company brass listened to the people when they asked for better women’s wrestling, and I’m trying to remain optimistic that they will do so again. They gave us a Women’s Revolution, so now perhaps how about a Tag Team Renaissance? They already have a unique plethora of artists on their roster who can deliver when the chance arises. Now just give them the opportunity to create some tag team masterpieces on that squared circle canvas.
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