Where Have All the Tag Teams Gone?
The more articles I post on WrestlingTruth, the more opinions I get from fans of professional wrestling. Mostly, I hear from disgruntled fans on the topic of the changing face of World Wrestling Entertainment. We are now seeing a more kid-oriented product, with less “violence”, blood, sex and adult themes than we have in the past ten or fifteen years, when the Attitude era was born and drew in a whole new demographic of fans. Those, I think, are the fans who are having the hardest time coming to terms with the “new” WWE.
Last week, I vented my feelings on the cheapened version of the WWE Championship— the Spinner belt— inaugurated by John Cena, who is seen by some as the poster boy for the WWE Kids movement.
But this column will deal with probably the main issue old school fans face: the absence of the tag team division.
Thinking back to some of the great tag teams in history— the Hart Foundation, the Brisco’s, the Blackjacks, Edge and Christian, Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson, the Hardy Boys, the Dudleys— a lot of whom used their start in the tag division to establish themselves as main event stars, it’s hard to reconcile that WWE masterminds would jeopardise the history, competition and entertainment that section of the brand has come to represent.
Where would guys like The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy and Edge be without that category when they were coming up in the business?
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact time when the tag titles began to lose their value but, like many of the infuriatingly stupid things the WWE has come up with in the past, it probably began with the brand extension in 2002. While initially it did seem like a good concept, with more titles, more pay-per-views and more opportunities for newer and less-popular wrestlers to get their opportunity at the big time, over the years it hasn’t been used to its full potential.
The original Attitude era tag teams had split up, and most of their members were going on to bigger and better things, like Hardy and Edge, while it was clear some teams should have never been split up (the Dudleyz are one example). This allowed a new influx of tag team talent to emerge on the scene, such as Billy and Chuck (although Billy Gunn was no stranger to the tag team race), La Resistance, The Hurricane and Rosey, and Evolution (any combination of Ric Flair, Batista and Randy Orton), and freshen up the competition a bit.
You’d think this widening pool of talent spread across both shows would generate more competition in the other titles in the company, such as the Hardcore title, the Light Heavyweight Championship, the European Championship and the Cruiserweight Championship. But to no avail. Over the past five years we’ve seen the redundancy of all of those titles, but with the addition of only one more, the Divas Championship. (Which begs the question: if the WWE is now aiming their product at a young audience, what place does another Women’s title have in the company? It could go either way; a stronger, less eye-candy-centric women’s division, or the loss of both women’s titles and the whole division in general.) And, like the tag teams I mentioned above, a lot of today’s big stars and legends of yesteryear got their start with those titles; guys like Rey Mysterio, William Regal, Mick Foley, Rob Van Dam, Triple H, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Brian Pillman, and Gregory Helms.
Each passing year sees another draft lottery, which seems to mostly split up tag teams in the hopes of establishing their members as main eventers, however only really serves to further the biggest stars. A rollcall of those who’ve gone to tag team heaven in recent years include Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, Paul London and Brian Kendrick, The Spirit Squad, MNM, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, and The Miz and John Morrison. Most of those guys have been terminated from their contracts or are struggling to find their niche in the company. The only real tag teams remaining are Cryme Tyme, The Colons, the sometimes-World’s Greatest Tag Team and Priceless.
When the tag team gold was given to Evolution in 2004, whilst Randy Orton held the Intercontinental Championship and Triple H was World Champion, there was some controversy over having once faction (albeit one with the WWE’s biggest backstage player at the helm, Triple H) with all the gold. However, I think that was a great strategy to not only gain more heat for the best faction of this generation (in my opinion), but establish the young Orton and Batista as true champions, a move that has obviously paid dividends. With rumours circulating that lightening might strike twice for Orton, with his new faction Legacy gaining the Undisputed Tag Team Championship from the injured Edge and Jericho (which, considering there are almost no other tag teams left in the company, was an interesting and fresh decision to make them champions), I think Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase really deserve it. If the titles can do for them what they did for Orton and Batista, then we have two of WWE’s future stars in our midst… provided they can use the dwindling platforms the WWE has to elevate themselves to the top.
With the move towards a more child-friendly company, it only seems likely that big name, commercially marketable stars like Cena, Hardy and Triple H will continue to go from strength to strength in the new WWE, forgetting where they got their start, while the new generation, without the benefit of indie training territories, low- and mid-card titles, and a more competitive and intelligent-adult-aimed wrestling scene, are left floundering in obscurity.
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They need to reunite DX again, that would bring ratings. This time why not make DX what it used to be back in 1997 and 1998.
edge & christian, the hardys, taker and kane… so many options, cant just get it into the works…. btw, mark henry is really getting a push.
What sucks is that WWE can’t have DX and the kid’s initiative
at the same time or you would be stuck with a crappy version of DX
WOW Great Article Harris,
I totally agree with this. The tag team titles helped so many “NOW” main eventers to where they are. Hardy, Edge, even The icon sean micheals with the rockers. Factions is another great way to bring new talent to main stream events. Putting guys with veterance makes the Green wrestlers look like they are ahead of the game compared to most rookie wrestlers. I think Randy Ortan would have never made it this far with out the help of evolution. Adding personnel lessons from Triple H and Natch to your resume isn’t something to laugh about. It makes him one of the most dangerous stars to deal with. The exact angle they are using with him. In my opinion there should be alot more of this so we can set up the next line of main eventers.
Ryan, there is no way to make DX what it was in 1997 and 1998. Only HHH and HBK are still with the company, no-one else of original DX.
But, teams like Edge and Y2J are good ideas. Would like to see more of those.
Ryan, As much as I would like to see that happen too, there is but one problem. If they were to bring back DX it would be bitter sweet for the fact that yes one of the greatest tag teams/factions would be back, but they would be the version that we saw in ‘06 and ‘07. One main factor for that would be for the fact that Shawn Michaels has changed his ways and would not agree to pull the stunts that he did back in ‘97. However, I do agree that it would be awesome to get the good ol’ D Generation X back. And I have to say (off subject) I really want to see a reunion between Edge and Christian!
Scarlett, good article. I agree with pretty much everything you had to say. Hopefully they can somehow develop a rebirth of the tag team division. Unfortunetly that doesn’t just happen overnight so we’re just going to have to hope and prey that it happens sometime within the next couple of years.
Okay, first off.. The Rock was in the faction Nation Of Domination and never really did any tag-team work. I don’t recall hime winning a tag-team belt untill he was with Manking (The Rock ‘N’ Sock Connection) By which point he was a star anyway. I’d like to add Stone Cold to the list of people elevated by tag team wrestling though, with Brian Pillman as the Hollywood Blondes back in WCW maybe the best tag-team to of never happened. I think the main problem with tag-teams as of late is they can’t put together a good match on a regular basis. The basic format is.. One member gets isolated for most the match, the tag is teased for most of the match building up anticipation, then the tag is made, all heck breaks loose followed by a few twists and a team wins. These days the tags are allowed to be made willy nilly. Unfortunately DX is coming back around Survivor Series time, as they have booked a DX tour of Europe instead of the normal Survivor Series tour. So, yes of course it will be the watered down version, but the watered down version wasn’t entirely bad and Shawns Christian beliefs being played into it made some entertaining scenes. That is another reason real DX will never happen due to Shawn refusing to be apart of unChristian like shenanigans.
I agree that bringing back DX in the WWE’s current climate would be a mistake. Their reuniting in ‘06 was bad enough. It was entertaining for the first few weeks, with Triple H impersonating Vince etc, but I found the build up to it was better than the end product. They will never be like they were in the beginning.
Eric: I agree that Edge and Chris Jericho were a good team. They both have similar styles, started with the company at around the same time, and was an unexpected coupling. More tag teams like this would be good.
Brandon Wallace: And Edge and Christian reunion would be awesome! Once Edge has returned from injury would be a good time, as he could come back as a face and their childish antics would appeal to the kid’s audience.
dx is 1 of the most entertainig tag teams ever but i would like to see n.w.o. back in bussiness the wolfpack like the old wcw days bring back buff bagwell hes buff and hes got tha stuff lol /
I have to agree with Shane. Pairing Vets with Rookies is the way to go. There’s no reason why WWE has all that talent just standing around not being utilized. Also,I think a team of Benjamin/MVP could be good for business.
Bringing back DX won’t solve the problem at all. There needs to be new blood in the division so that some of these young guns can get some exposure.
I watched this week’s Raw last night and was very disappointed to see Carlito turning on Primo. As if, like we’ve just discussed in the comments on this article, we need another tag team bust-up. I, for one, was a big fan of the Colons, as Primo would be nobody without Carlito and Carlito has trouble cementing himself as a successful singles wrestler. And to top it all off, Legacy was put in a compromising position with Ted DiBiase Snr. making them face off against each other as guest host. While I don’t think that will do any detrimental damage to the Legacy faction, what happens to the Colons remains to be seen…