What WWE Must Do to Revitalize the Tag Team Division

Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart and Edge are three legendary wrestlers who have two things in common. One, they are all in the WWE Hall of Fame. Two, they all got their big break in the company starting out in tag teams. 

There are a lot more wrestlers who either started out in tag teams and went on to have amazing singles careers or worked best in a tag team throughout their careers. The point is, there is a significant place in WWE for tag team wrestling. 

However, based on the way the division has been beaten down over the last decade, you would not know that tag team wrestling still exists. 

Sure, there are belts to prove that there are tag teams still around in WWE, and there are a few singles stars with nothing to do who have been paired together to give them something to do, but there is still a mountain of work to be done to repair the division. 

People who love tag team wrestling should be glad with the report from Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via Wrestling Inc), which says Triple H wants to focus on building more teams.  

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Some people who have worked closely with Triple H believe that when he gets more power in WWE, we will see more focus on the tag team division, putting the Divas division on the back-burner even more.

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The key to the plan is when Triple H gets more power, as Vince McMahon is not close to relinquishing his stranglehold over the company. 

So how do you go about rebuilding a division that has been as close to buried as you can get without actually being declared dead?

Simply putting two people like Kane and Daniel Bryan or Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio together does not signal a momentous shift in the way that the tag team division works. Anyone can look at storylines to realize that those teams basically came about because the creative team didn't know what to do with them on their own. 

Here are the steps that must be taken to bring back the days of the Hardy Boyz, Edge & Christian, the Dudley Boys, the Rockers, Legion of Doom, Hart Foundation, etc. 

ESTABLISH TEAMS

In the world of WWE booking, two wrestlers are just thrown together for no reason whatsoever and put in a tag team title match because someone has to be fighting for those shiny gold belts. 

Not surprisingly, no one in the audience or watching at home on television cares. You have to give the fans a reason to care about the division by proving that teams are legitimate, can put on great matches and will be given time to build a reputation. 

You have to start at the bottom with tag teams and let them work their way up. It is no different than trying to create a new singles star, which WWE seems to be doing with Ryback.

Give new teams a strong push, give the audience a reason to care about what they are doing, and let fans know this is going somewhere. 

DEPTH

Another big problem facing the tag team division in WWE right now is there just aren't many teams to give you a variety of feuds. I am talking about true tag teams, not people like Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow in matches together. 

Other than the Usos, Primo & Epico and the Prime Time Players, how many real tag teams are out there in WWE right now? Kofi Kingston and R-Truth? 

You need to have more than just a handful of teams in order to build a division. People aren't going to want to sit in front of the television for the 1,237th match between the Usos and PTP. 

Variety is the spice of life, and right now there isn't any in the WWE tag team division. 

HIGH-PROFILE MATCHES

It is unfair to expect a tag team match in WWE to live up to the TLC matches between the Hardys, Dudleys and Edge & Christian, but just the idea of WWE putting tag teams in a big-match situation would work wonders. 

Of course, this is dependent on the first two ways to revitalize the division coming to fruition. You can't just throw random tag teams into a TLC match, because that isn't going to draw.

It's like what WWE does with gimmick pay-per-views: They don't make sense other than the calendar says it is time to do them. 

If WWE is able to find the right two or three tag teams to put in a situation where they can have a big, marquee match at a premium pay-per-view, they should do so.

STICK WITH THE DIVISION

This is really a company-wide problem for WWE, not just a tag-team related issue. The company does so many start-stop pushes with its stars that the only people who beneftitted in the last five years are John Cena, Randy Orton and CM Punk. 

Even if WWE tries to start something with a tag team, they shouldn't stop just because there is a poor one-week ratings trend or the reactions from the live audience aren't exactly what you want. 

It takes time to get fans invested in what you are doing. That goes double for a division that you have buried for so many years no one is even aware it still exists. 

If you want to revitalize the division, make a conscious effort to push it. Give teams a real storyline that you are going to give a proper beginning, middle and end. 

Even if it doesn't launch one or both teams into the stratosphere, which is likely because it is really hard to do, at least there is a chance it could happen. 

If the teams aren't even being given a chance to do it, there is no way anyone will win. When that happens, you get what WWE has right now: Nothing. 

CONCLUSION

It is not easy to create stars in WWE. It takes a lot of factors going in the favor of someone to really become a building block the company can build around. 

Tag teams have an even bigger disadvantage because you need both cogs in the machine working for it to happen. But that doesn't mean WWE should just abandon the division altogether, which is what has been happening for years. 

Not everything has to be about building towards a singles run for a star. The odds of a tag team churning out another Michaels, Hart or Edge is incredibly slim. 

There is a place in the WWE world for tag team wrestling. It is a great foundation for the company that it has just tossed aside like yesterday's garbage. 

Wrestling fans are very forgiving people. They will welcome back tag team wrestling if they are given a reason to care about it again. The ball is in WWE's court; we just have to see if it will do anything with it. 

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