WWE: Is It Time to End the Tag Team Division?

I hate being negative.

I’m typically not one of those "cup half-empty" fans, always complaining, stressing, or being thoroughly disgusted at what pro wrestling tends to give us on a weekly basis.

It’s not that I don’t criticize, let’s get that much straight right now.  As a Featured Columnist, it’s my job to be critical of what WWE gives me at times, and when I am, I attempt to resolve my issues with it by presenting my opinion here, and trying to reach a somewhat satisfying endpoint.

In other words, I have a beef, and I try not to pull my hair out over it.  Like now.

What’s my problem?  WWE tag team wrestling.  I know what you’re thinking.

“What tag team wrestling?”

Good one.  You guys are sharp.

Again, I know, it’s being negative, and perhaps it’s a sign of my defeatist attitude about the topic, but I have reached the point that I am now beginning to ask the question:

Has the time come to end the tag team division in WWE?

Let’s face it, we have given this division all the slack in the world over the past several years.  We have made every excuse under the sun, everything from “there aren’t enough real tag teams,” to “the tag teams they have just aren’t given enough time to get better.”

Enough.  I can’t take it anymore.

The thing is, the blame does not necessarily lie directly with the tag teams themselves.  If these Superstars are doing their part, by working together, killing it on the mic, and shining in the ring, then they are doing everything they can.  They have held up on their end.

But when Vince McMahon doesn’t care enough about tag team wrestling to really put the WWE promotional machine behind it, then there is no chance of survival for any duo who may be aspiring to be the next legendary tandem.

Take the Usos, for example.  

Jimmy and Jey are the sons of Rikishi, and represent the next generation of Samoan Superstars in WWE.  They have great chemistry, they look good in the ring, and it seems as though they should be reigning as champions atop the tag team division.

They have never held the WWE Tag Team Championships.

Granted, Jimmy was arrested for DUI in Florida back in September of last year, and there is no defending that, for any reason.  

But the Usos have been in WWE since May of 2010.  And, the tag team division was as weak as it is now, and yet they were not given a title run before Jimmy’s run-in with the law, or since then.

This is not to put the Usos on a pedestal, or insist that they should be given the titles.  We’re not talking about the Road Warriors here, who drew money, and flat out brought it every time they were in the ring, regardless of what company they worked for.

But, Jimmy and Jey are an actual unit.  They were not thrown together, created out of necessity, by Vince McMahon.  They represent the traditional pro wrestling tag team, and that has made no difference in the slightest.

The men who are currently wearing the gold, Epico and Primo, are similar to the Usos, inasmuch as they are family.  The cousins, like Jimmy and Jey, are young, full of fire, and anxious to entertain when they’re in the ring.

But the biggest difference between the two teams is that while the Usos have never held the WWE Tag Titles, after nearly two years, Epico and Primo won the belts after tagging together only two months.

Can you say inconsistency?

Historically speaking, the WWE Tag Team Championships are either placed on two upper level Superstars, unlikely partners, as a way to create heat between them for a match down the road, or, the belts are thrown to the first tag team within thirty feet of Vince McMahon.

The main exception in recent memory is Air Boom.  Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne were just two singles wrestlers, whose styles happened to mesh quite well, and WWE made a go of it.

They were over, and it worked, until Bourne’s wellness policy violations occurred, and Kingston found himself without a partner.  This is another example of the fault lying with the Superstar, rather than with Vince himself.

Many fans are likely doing what they have always done when it comes to tag team wrestling in WWE.  They’re just rolling with the punches, believing that at some point, it will get better.

After all, WWE tends to go in cycles, maybe that’s what we’re seeing here.  All the company needs is one great team, one combination who will catch fire, and finally help the division return to some of the magic that it held back when Jeff and Matt Hardy, who came out of nowhere, were leading the tag team renaissance in the early 2000s.

That sound about right?

At the risk of being called the negative doomsayer, I have to be honest and say that I, for one, am no longer holding on.

I’m done.

Because, while the WWE Tag Team Titles end up on Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov, I can’t help but think about Edge and Christian.

When David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty walk around with the gold, begging to be noticed and respected as a real tag team, I think back to the Dudleys.

And, when Big Show, who should have been working for the WWE Championship, is getting more than one run with the tag team belts with two different partners, I stop and remember the pride that the aforementioned Hardys took in their matches, and doing all they could to put over the championships.

I suppose many fans were all spoiled by the teams that ran in WWE back during those days, as those guys respected the art of tag team wrestling, and wanted the division to thrive on the highest level possible.

The fact is, some of us were spoiled already, thanks to the NWA.  

The Midnight Express, the Horsemen, The Rock ’n’ Roll Express, the Fantastics, the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, The Fabulous Freebirds, Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood and, of course, The Road Warriors—all of these teams took it seriously.  They respected the division, and worked for a promoter, Jim Crockett, who recognized the value of tag team wrestling.

Go ahead, tell me, it was a different day.  Tell me that the business has changed since then.  Vince McMahon and WWE are all about creating singles Superstars, highlighting their individual achievements, and pushing them to the very top.  Tag team wrestling is simply not on the WWE agenda.

Then why do the belts still exist in the first place?  What’s the point?

Epico and Primo defended the WWE Tag Team Championships against the Usos, Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel, at WrestleMania 28, in a dark match.

Why?  Because the card was so loaded?  Because the night was all about John Cena vs. The Rock, and Triple H vs. The Undertaker?  

WrestleMania should be about the top money performers, no doubt.  But why are the tag team champions not afforded the same spotlight as the other titleholders?  Why can’t the tag teams be elevated back to that main-event level that they once enjoyed?  Does the fault lie with the men wearing the straps, or the man who put them in those positions in the first place?

I believe we all know the answer to that one.

If the belts remain for tradition’s sake, then I say, forget the tradition.  Those championships mean as much to me now as the Divas Title does, and believe me, that’s a discussion that we as fans have all had many, many times in the past.

There is no focus on tag team wrestling, and there likely never will be again.  At least not in WWE.

So, yes, this time, the cup is half-empty.  At least for me.

How about you?