Tag Team Wrestling

[Moonlight Drive]

Well, it is quite obvious WWE does not really care about tag team wrestling anymore. The tag belts are defended on PPV about twice a year, and noone really gives a shit about either of them anymore. What would you do to rectify the situation, and bring some prestige and interest back into tag team wrestling?

Personally, it is the most obvious of moves but on, e the WWE will more than likely never do. And that is merge the titles and make them cross-branded. The brand split is almost non-existent now, so if there was ever a time to cross brand the championships, it is now. The talent is there-

Miz & Morrison:These guys are fucking awesome. They are good and crisp in the ring, play off each other well, cover each others flaws (despite Morrison having none) and generate great heat.

The Colons:A great, quick paced face tag team. They're great in the ring and another solid addition to the tag team division.

Cryme Tyme:They are WAYY over with the crowd, have a great gimmick and can work a match well.

Priceless:Fantastic heels, generate great heat and probably the best on the mic out of all the teams. DiBiase and Rhodes are naturals in the ring and on the schtick, and if need be, could quite honestly carry the tag division by themselves.

Ryder & Hawkins:Every division needs some jobbers.

Jesse & Festus:Another team who are pretty over. I don't particularly like their gimmick, but Festus is great for a big guy and Jesse is alright in-ring as well.

Right there is a very solid tag division that with a little build-up could be as good as the days of Hardys/E & C/Dudleys.


Discuss.

 

[Nancy Di Loreto]

Well, it is quite obvious WWE does not really care about tag team wrestling anymore. The tag belts are defended on PPV about twice a year, and noone really gives a shit about either of them anymore. What would you do to rectify the situation, and bring some prestige and interest back into tag team wrestling?

Personally, it is the most obvious of moves but on, e the WWE will more than likely never do. And that is merge the titles and make them cross-branded. The brand split is almost non-existent now, so if there was ever a time to cross brand the championships, it is now. The talent is there-

Miz & Morrison:These guys are fucking awesome. They are good and crisp in the ring, play off each other well, cover each others flaws (despite Morrison having none) and generate great heat.

The Colons:A great, quick paced face tag team. They're great in the ring and another solid addition to the tag team division.

Cryme Tyme:They are WAYY over with the crowd, have a great gimmick and can work a match well.

Priceless:Fantastic heels, generate great heat and probably the best on the mic out of all the teams. DiBiase and Rhodes are naturals in the ring and on the schtick, and if need be, could quite honestly carry the tag division by themselves.

Ryder & Hawkins:Every division needs some jobbers.

Jesse & Festus:Another team who are pretty over. I don't particularly like their gimmick, but Festus is great for a big guy and Jesse is alright in-ring as well.

Right there is a very solid tag division that with a little build-up could be as good as the days of Hardys/E & C/Dudleys.


Discuss.

Jobbers that are the former WWE Tag Team champions, and have been pushed quite well? Rightttttt.... :moonbart:

 

[Airfixx]

^^^Is that all you can find to comment on, ND'L?

Regardless of, their previous 'push' (Personally I think it was more of an super-rub from Edge), they are without a doubt the worst of the current crop of heel tag teams, so why NOT job them? ...As HBK says "every division needs jobbers" and I don't think peeps would actually tire too quickly of seeing them get their ass kicked so it owuldn't be the worst thing in the world for them either.

I think HBK's suggestion is spot on and that the time is right... Unify the belts, but keep it simple... Find a way for Priceless & The Colons have beef and after a month of so a cross-brand bragging and promos etc. have the Colon's challenge Priceless title-for title in a unification match (Carlito: "Primo, imagine if we were the undisputed tag champs... That would be COOL!")...... Have Manu screw the Colons so that Priceless become the WWE World Tag Team Champions; resulting in a long fued (which should deliver in terms of ring & mic).

As with my repeatedly saying about the IC/US belts they don't need to force the belts onto EVERY PPV (just if there's a particularly hot fued), but let's see the damn things defended regularly on weekly TV - It would create some genuine interest in the TV matches beyond being mere fued-building fodder (and one would assume, eventually bring viewing figures up a bit).

Looking at the list of talent above, IF WWE wanted, with what they have at their disposal, they are in the best position they have been in for quite a while to actually do something about reviving the tag div.

All of the teams are over in some respect, they can all wrestle a decent match and if they added another team or two (why not? the rosters are full of guys not getting any ring time) and fostered a few rivalries/fueds, 3-way contendership matches etc. on Raw/SD then they could quite easily regain what they once had... Maybe not an Attitude type of tag-scene where every other match had a gimmick (EC/Hardy's/Dudleys should be regarded as something special and not something that is gonna regularly occur and there was a fair amount of innovation that carrying it along), but more like they had back in the late 80's: Just a solid roster of TEAMS (rather than odd-ball pair-ups like Bob Holly and 'generic struggling wrestler-X') with good personality/chemistry that can actually put on a half decent match.

With regards to adding further teams, I think what's missing is:

1. A high-flying face team.

Rey & Bourne would be ideal, were it not for the fact that Rey's presence would almost force WWE to have them champs all the time, but Bourne & Kofi, for example, could work and as a pairing could still easily cross over into the Orton & Priceless V Punk angle that's developing (rather than using Cryme Tyme as widely suggested)...

2. A rough-house heel team.

A couple of mean 300lb-ish guys, kinda like a heel APA. Preferably bound by a joined gimmick... Some form of combination of Knox/Snitsky/Palumbo/Duece/Burchill or maybe a repackaged Deuce & Domino (Subject to Domino being re-hired, of course....)... Or even turn Cryme Tyme heel and bring in another face team to keep the balance.


The good thing is that once the belt starts to mean something, given the dynamics of tag wrestling (for starters the ref is way more easily distracted, thus allowing heels to do their thing), there's a tonnes of finishes that can be used for fued generation, heel/face turns, short term alliances, 'gang' wars etc.

At this point in time it really does just take abit of effort on the E's part.

 

[DoYouKnowTyler?]

I completely agree with the notion of merging the World and WWE Tag Titles being the ideal situation. Like you guys said, they have the legitimate and over tag teams with which to devleop a great division; they're just not doing it.

It would be so simple, too. Like Airfixx said, just have either Carlito|Primo or Priceless claim to be the best tag team in the entire WWE. (I see Priceless cutting that promo first) The feud would also be cool, pun intended, because Primo and Carlito are also second generation superstars. It would be a battle for supremacy on that basis, on top of the belts themselves. That would kick ass.

 

[Ballin]

Uncaring about tag-team wrestling? You're wrong here - If you have noticed on RAW, and this has been going on for quite a while now, is that they'll smash the top 4 main-eventers; Face 1 (Rivalry A) and Face 2 (Rivalrly B) vs Heel 1 (Rivalry A) and Heel 2 (Rivalry B) and if thats not the main event on tv they'll book as a dark match.

About not caring about the Tag-Team division then you're right there. RAW has some good tag-teams: Cryme Tyme (or CTC), Priceless (Heel gods, new face of wrestling, future main-eventers), Rey & Bourne (Ovver, plus it's inovated which WWE lacks in), The Colons, Miz and Morrison, and Punk & Kingston (Dont think you can clasify them as a tag-team but they've been tagging together for the last couple weeks and Punk would like to be in a tag-team.

How to rectify this...Well, first off, one set of titles. Then the belts will be defeated on RAW, ECW, and Smackdown. This will also benefit the ppv issue and they will be able to be defeated on more ppvs than just Night of Champions.

 

[chessarmy]

Tag Team Wrestling will never go back to the golden days, its over, WWE apparently has moved on and this is what we'll be stuck with from now on. Its unfortunate, but true. I think I am ready to move on as well, I am not a big tag team wrestling fan and to be honest I think WWE is handling both the divisions fine. They basically use the Tag Belts to elevate the younger talent, and it works. All the tag teams you listed are talented, so there isn't a shortage of talent in the division, there is just a shortage of actual tag teams. I think that is the way its going to be for a long time though, so if I were you I'd get used to it

 

[Cenaspinner84]

i actually like tag team division. It sucks that the hardyes Dudleys and edge and christian gimmick is gone. but i know it can't last forever and they want to accomplish and wrestle on their own to achieve their own goals but that would be sweet to have another gimmick like that a few heel teams teaming up together to battle the face teams and then a big war brakes out and its a 4 tag team Battle royal match for the undisputed tag team championships

 

[Kaedon]

Vince has always and will always see the tag teams as secondary to his main event drawers. Just like the CWs and the Divas, its not his main focus. And the division isnt like it used to be, IMO.

 

[CenaMark54]

There is no point in pushing a tag division if there isn't enough talent to fill it out.

You are all thinking back to a time when there was one brand.

There are three brands now, with barely enough talent to fill out the singles division. Its pretty bad when Matt Hardy is the top face on one brand, and Vladimir Kozlov is the top heel on another. Those guys should be jobbing.

Back ten years ago, Cryme Tyme, Jesse, Festus, Hawkins, Priceless, Ryder, and the Colons, wouldn't even have a job.

Back ten years ago, Kozlov, Punk, both Hardy's, Henry, and Jericho wouldn't be main eventing.

Having three brands has watered down the product. The tag team division is only one of many facets to suffer.

Imagine if there was still one brand? Undertaker, Edge, Cena, HBK, and Triple H would be the ones gunning for the top prize. The mid card would be great with Orton, Batista and Jericho fighting for the IC title. The Hardy's would still be a tag team. Dolf Lundgren wouldn't have a job.

The only difference between now and the Attitude era is the brand split. Instead of one show being stacked and loaded with watchable talent, we get three brands that all ahve 15 guys who shouldnt be there. And you wonder why Cena, HHH, and Orton get all the screen time. Because they are some of the very few worthy enough to actually be on my screen.