American Alpha Wins Tag Team Turmoil Match at WWE Elimination Chamber 2017
American Alpha prevailed in a Tag Team Turmoil match Sunday at Elimination Chamber to retain the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships.
Chad Gable and Jason Jordan beat out The Usos, The Ascension, Heath Slater and Rhyno, The Vaudevillains, and Breezango to keep the straps.
Things were looking bleak for American Alpha after they eliminated The Usos. Jimmy and Jey Uso continued beating down Gable and Jordan following their elimination.
The Ascension arrived to pick up the pieces and quickly hit Jordan with the Fall of Man. Gable broke up the pin to keep American Alpha alive.
Eventually, Gable neutralized Konnor, which allowed him and Jordan to deliver Grand Amplitude to Viktor. Jordan added the finishing touches by preventing Konnor to re-enter the ring and save his partner. WWE showed Gable and Jordan holding their tag titles:
Wrestling Memes gave The Ascension a "good job, good effort":
Bleacher Report's Ryan Dilbert and TDE Wrestling thought Konnor and Viktor came out of the match looking pretty bad since they couldn't seal the deal:
Chad Matthews of The Doc Says podcast looked ahead to WrestleMania:
Jordan would tweet a photo after the match:
After defeating the Wyatt Family to become SmackDown tag team champions for the first time and then successfully defending the titles against them, American Alpha took a back seat and weren't featured much on SmackDown programming.
That changed two weeks ago when they cut a promo and essentially begged for competition, as seen in this tweet courtesy of WWE's official Twitter account:
Rather than just one team stepping up to the plate, however, the entire SmackDown tag division went out to the ring, which led to a massive brawl:
The incident prompted SmackDown general manager Daniel Bryan to give every team a title opportunity at Elimination Chamber.
Despite the long odds, Gable and Jordan expressed excitement at the thought of finally receiving a challenge for the championships:
SmackDown's tag team division began with a great deal of promise following the brand split, as Slater and Rhyno won a tournament to crown the first SmackDown tag team champs.
There was also a budding rivalry between American Alpha and the new-attitude Usos, but essentially every team was placed on the back burner.
Although the SmackDown tag scene still suffers from major deficiencies, the fact that the tag teams were allowed to take center stage at Elimination Chamber is a step in the right direction heading toward WrestleMania.
It is difficult to imagine the SmackDown Tag Team Championships getting a significant spot on the biggest show of the year, and conventional wisdom suggests the best hope for them to be part of the card is in a pre-show match.
Due to American Alpha's popularity and entertainment value, though, keeping the belts on them is the smartest possible move.
They showed off their impressive skill set once again at Elimination Chamber, and the onus is now on WWE Creative to find worthy opponents entering the most important time of the year.
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