Booking a WWE Tag Team Tournament for 2014

There is no doubt that the WWE tag team division is among the hottest things going in the company. It wasn't long ago that it was not the focus of the company and suffered in the background. 

Team Hell No was undoubtedly the team that gave back credit to the belts due to the popularity of the team and awesome matches they put on. They were a look into the future, which has now become the present.

Since then, we have gotten great teams such as The Shield, The Brotherhood (Cody Rhodes and Goldust), The Real Americans, The Usos and the Wyatt Family. Every which way you match up the teams, they have consistently put on top-notch matches. 

To keep them in the spotlight, the WWE would be wise to put on a high-profile tournament, similar to the Jim Crockett Memorial Cup, which featured amazing tag team matches that could start the push of certain tandems.

So, starting in 2014, the WWE should feature an all-important tag team tournament with some type of trophy at the end of it. That trophy could also be the stamp of approval when it comes to tag teams that will win the actual belts somewhere down the road.

Here are the 16 teams that could participate in the tournament.

Heel Teams

Team	Member 1	Member 2
The Real Americans	Antonio Cesaro	Jack Swagger
The Wyatt Family	Luke Harper	Erick Rowan
Los Hijos de Sangre	Hunico	Camacho
Rybaxel	Ryback	Curtis Axel
The Shield	Roman Reigns	Seth Rollins
3MB	Heath Slater	Drew McIntyre
The Ascension	Konnor	Viktor

Face Teams

Team	Member 1	Member 2
Show and Mysterio	Big Show	Rey Mysterio
The Brotherhood	Cody Rhodes	Goldust
Primetime Players	Titus O'Neil	Darren Young
Los Matadores	Diego	Fernando
The Usos	Jimmy Uso	Jey Uso
International Airstrike	Justin Gabriel	Tyson Kidd
The American Pitbulls	John Cahill	Eric Philbin
The New Age Outlaws	Road Dogg	Billy Gunn
Truth and Woods	R Truth	Xavier Woods

Round 1

• Big Show and Rey Mysterio vs. The Brotherhood
• Los Matadores vs. The Real Americans
• International Airstrike vs. Los Hijos de Sangre
• The Primetime Players vs. 3MB
• The Usos vs. Rybaxel
• R Truth and Xavier Woods vs. The Ascension
• The American Pitbulls vs. The Shield
• The New Age Outlaws vs. The Wyatt Family

The opening round would have eight matches. Obviously with most booking, you want to have an equal number of face and heel teams, though you can notice there are nine face teams and seven heel teams.

The first matchup would be between the tag champs The Brotherhood and their current "rivals" Big Show and Rey Mysterio. They could continue their series of sportsmanlike matches, as they have been having. 

After about a 15-minute match, Mysterio and Big Show will have been dominating most of the action. As Mysterio goes for the seated senton, Goldust, the wily veteran, could reverse that and roll them up to advance. You could either have Big Show turn heel again (yawn) or continue for them to be sportsmanlike and end their competitive series.

The next match would be between The Real Americans and Los Matadores. Los Matadores are a comedy team, and nobody really takes them seriously, even though they just had a win over Cesaro and Swagger. So, they will be enhancement talent, as The Real Americans are a more well-regarded team.

After about five to seven minutes of handled aggression, Cesaro would Cesaro Swing both men, throw Fernando out of the ring and then finish Diego with the Neutralizer in an impressive showing. That would set up a next round date with the brothers Rhodes.

After that, a match between the high-flying duo, International Airstrike, and Hunico and Camacho, now sporting the name Los Hijos de Sangre (Blood Brothers), would take place. This matchup is made because Kidd and Gabriel have both had amazing matches with Hunico in the past. Camacho, as usual, would be the powerhouse of the group.

Give this match about 10-12 minutes, as Hunico and either guy from International Airstrike could put on a great show. However, after some great back-and-forth action, the Mexican duo would resort to some cheap stunts.

On his knees, Hunico would about to be put in a hold by Justin Gabriel when Hunico kind of shoves the referee away to hit a low blow. This allows Hunico to roll him up while the ref returns to make the pin, holding Camacho's hand in the corner for leverage. A cheap win from a sneaky heel team.

After that, a matchup between the impressive Primetime Players and modern-day Job Squad team of 3MB would meet up. Not much explaining needs to be done here, Titus O'Neil and Darren Young put a quick whooping on the air-guitar players, with O'Neil gaining the pinfall with his finisher. That win gives them Los Hijos de Sangre in the quarterfinals.

Next up is The Usos vs. Rybaxel. The Usos are one of the best tag teams in the company right now, while Rybaxel has been a spring together team of two former Paul Heyman guys looking for something to do.

Have Ryback dominate most of the match with his power moves and ferocity. However, once the hot tag comes, The Usos would dump the now tagged-out Ryback out of the ring for Jey to hit with a suicide dive. From there, Jimmy would hit the Superkick on Axel, nail the Superfly Splash and win the 10-minute match in an impressive comeback.

Facing The Usos would be the winners of R-Truth and Xavier Woods against a mystery team. That team ends up being the NXT tag team champions The Ascension, made up of Konnor and Viktor.

The Ascension are a heel team that could do very well in the WWE, so giving them a dominant win in their debut would set them up for future success. Have them be extra brutal with the fun-loving duo of Truth and Woods, beating them brutally in about five minutes when the Ascension hits the Fall of Man combo move on Truth for the pinfall.

Next up would be another debuting team in the form of The American Pitbulls taking on The Shield. This is obviously a huge mismatch, but it's a great way to try and make the Pitbulls credible without hurting The Shield.

The Pitbulls would be getting in some offense, but taking a beating for a good part of the match. However, when Rollins looks like he's about to finish off John Cahill, CM Punk's music goes off and he runs towards ringside. Rollins and Reigns, both in the ring, run to the ropes where Punk is and get in a shouting match, allowing Cahill to rollup Rollins quickly and escape with the win.

This would be a way to further the Shield and CM Punk's program, while giving the American Pitbulls a huge win in their debut. Of course, you have to make sure that even though it's acknowledged Punk caused the distraction that led to the end, the Pitbulls were competitive and took advantage of the situation.

The last match would be between the eerie Wyatt Family and the all-time favorite duo of The New Age Outlaws. Of course, the point of this match is for an all-time great team to put over the monster heels, as the Outlaws are barely able to muster offense. The end comes when Harper nearly decapitates Road Dogg with a Discus Clothesline, sending them into the next round against the American Pitbulls

Round 2

• The Brotherhood vs. The Real Americans
• The Usos vs. The Ascension
• The Primetime Players vs. Los Hijos de Sangre
• The American Pitbulls vs. The Wyatt Family

Kicking off the second round would be a barnburner between the Rhodes brothers and The Real Americans. As you have noticed recently, every time these guys have a match, it is fantastic to say the least.

Give this match around 20 minutes to wrap up. It is not only a treat for the fans, it would surely be a masterpiece of modern American pro wrestling. Of course, you can't have the champions out of the tournament this early, so they would prevail during a last-minute, chaos-filled part in the ring where Rhodes would eventually nail Swagger with the Cross Rhodes.

Next up would be the former title challengers The Usos and the young, yet impressive Ascension. Again, we are trying to establish The Ascension as a dominant heel team, so they are going to be given 10 minutes, but they are going to dominate a good portion of it.

During a chaotic ruckus in the ring, Jey would take Viktor outside the ring with a clothesline and follow him out there. That will prove a bad decision, as it leads to Viktor destroying him with a DDT. Inside the ring, Jimmy witnesses that and is concerned when he turns right into a huge finishing move by Konnor, giving The Ascension the massive win.

The third quarterfinal between the Primetime Players and Hunico and Camacho has some great similarities. Hunico and Darren Young are the quicker, smaller teammates, while Camacho and Titus O'Neil are the powerhouses of the team.

After some great back and forth action, Hunico and Camacho again look to make this a dirty win. However, while the Hunico and Camacho are illegally double teaming Young in the corner, the ref is distracted and holding O'Neil back. Seeing the direness of the situation, O'Neil bulls his way through the ref (doesn't take a bump though) to take Camacho outside the ring.

Hunico is distracted by the scuffle taking place between O'Neil and Camacho, not realizing Young has come to. He then walks into a Gutbuster, allowing The Primetime Players to advance.

The last quarterfinal between the Wyatt Family and The American Pitbulls sees the monster heels against the new face team. Unfortunately for the Pitbulls, they are running into a buzzsaw.

Though they show signs of resilience and skill, the Wyatt Family pretty much dominate the 10-minute match. At the end, while Philbin looks to be making a comeback, Bray Wyatt jumps on the apron to distract Eric Philbin who unfortunately walks into a Discus Clothesline from Luke Harper. This ends their run, but the announcers put them over as a team to watch out for despite the distraction and lsos.

Round 3

• The Brotherhood vs. The Ascension
• The Primetime Players vs. The Wyatt Family

The semifinals will see the first matchup between the current champions, The Brotherhood, and two for-sure future champions in The Ascension. 

The match would be given about 15 minutes to play out. With about three or four minutes left, Cody Rhodes would get injured to a point he cannot compete anymore. The doctors would walk him to the back while Goldust is left to face the two vultures. Unable to control their aggression and listen to the referees orders, The Ascension get disqualified after severely beating down Goldust.

This loss not only allows the champs to make it the finals, it shows the brutality and "loose cannon" nature The Ascension has. They may lose, but they look strong going forward. They will certainly be in the title picture going forward.

As for the Rhodes brothers, we start to see some dissent. Goldust confronts his young brother about leaving the match with his injury. He cites times where he was hurt but stayed in the ring. We start to see Goldust's rage toward his brother coming to the surface, which will pop up later.

The other semifinal would be a fairly competitive match that gets the Wyatt Family over the vastly athletic and more quick Primetime Players. It is a good back-and-forth match that shows a fun clash of styles.

Toward the end, everything breaks down. O'Neil follows Harper to the outside of the ring while Erick Rowan and Young continue to battle in the ring. As O'Neil gets to the outside, Bray Wyatt destroys him with a running crossbody. Meanwhile, in the ring, Rowan is able to gain the pinfall after nailing Young with his giant splash.

That sets up the finals of the tournament.

Finals

• The Brotherhood vs. The Wyatt Family

The background of this match could be that the Wyatts challenge the Rhodes brothers to make this winner takes all, having the Rhodes put their tag titles on the line as well as the tournament championship.

We are reminded of the recent dissent that Cody and Goldust had following their semifinal, something that will be re-explored in this bout. However, for now, it seems like everything has cooled down.

In a 15-20 minute match, we see a great back-and-forth between two of the best teams around. Like most tag matches, it breaks down at the end.

Goldust and Harper are scuffling when Cody goes for a Disaster Kick on Harper. Harper ducks, which allows Cody to accidentally nail Goldust in the chin. Harper then takes Cody to the outside of the ring, while Rowan, the real legal man, picks up the scraps, nailing the big splash on the lifeless body of Goldust for the titles and the tournament championship.

The Wyatts pose over Goldust holding the belts and make their way to the back, while Cody comes back in to check on his brother. Goldust lays Cody out, beats him down and sets him up for Shattered Dreams. He nails that, turning heel and giving them their much coveted match at WrestleMania.

Later on, Bray Wyatt could cut a promo, throwing away the tournament trophy saying something to the effect of not worshiping false idols. We won't see the trophy again until next year's tournament.

Conclusion

This tournament not only crowned a tournament champion, but established new tag team champions, created an intriguing feud for WrestleMania and built up some new teams.

The fans got to see an oldie-but-goodie team in The New Age Outlaws wrestle. They saw the debuts and promising futures of The Ascension and The American Pitbulls. They saw the continuation of The Shield and CM Punk's program.

This tag tournament could advance many storyline and push new stars. It also establishes how stacked the division is. This would show the most stacked tag division since the Attitude Era and late Ruthless Aggression Era.

What do you think? Comment below on what you liked and what you didn't like.