Predicting the Futures of Prominent WWE Tag Teams

Daniel Bryan’s injury prior to April’s WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view opened a door for WWE's tag team division. 

Instead of being relegated to a little-watched pre-show bout, Cesaro and Tyson Kidd versus the New Day filled the pay-per-view slot scheduled for the WWE Intercontinental Championship match and surprised everyone by being one of the night's best matches, as argued by Bleacher Report's Mike Chiari.

Cesaro and Kidd and the New Day showed that the tag team division can still produce compelling matches when given a chance.

That hadn't been the case for months. Since last year, when the WWE broke up the Shield, the Wyatt Family and the Dust Brothers, the tag team division has been an afterthought in the eyes of the company.

Booking decisions with the debuts of New Day and the Ascension didn’t help advance the idea that the tag team division was worth caring for, and then Jey Uso’s shoulder injury eliminated the division’s best pairing. Teams competed on lesser WWE Network programming such as Main Event and Superstars instead of the company’s flagship TV shows, Raw and SmackDown.

The only team that stood out during that time, Cesaro and Tyson Kidd, was one formed when WWE Creative didn’t seem to have a plan for those two gifted yet underutilized Superstars. Now, the WWE has some momentum in the division.

Both on the WWE main roster and in WWE NXT, the company’s developmental organization, tag team wrestling is in the midst of a revamp. How WWE Creative decides to book these teams will go a long way toward deciding whether tag team wrestling is experiencing a true renaissance or if this surge is merely a flash in the pan.

Each of the current teams can be grouped into one of three categories:

Contenders: Teams that will remain a force in the WWE tag team division for the foreseeable future and could be slated for a push to hold the WWE Tag Team Championships.

Pretenders: Pairs that will continue to work the division in WWE, mainly helping contenders advance stories.

Tossups: These teams have the potential to be in either of the two preceding categories but are largely dependent on how the WWE decides to move forward with them.

It’s time to do some predicting and look at where the current crop of WWE and NXT tag teams could be headed over the next few months.

Note: This list is examining active teams. Therefore, the Usos are not included. Jimmy and Jey aren’t going anywhere. Once Jey returns from rehabbing his shoulder—he’s expected to be out for six months—they will resume being contenders in the tag division for a long time.

The New Day: Contender

The current WWE tag team champions, as Bleacher Report’s Big Nasty wrote, have developed into a great heel team—it just took WWE a while to realize that’s what they were. Since embracing that role, a new day has blossomed.

A gimmick can only get you so far, though. The in-ring talents of the New Day's members, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods and Big E Langston, truly make them a force in the tag team division. Any combination of the three would be good enough to compete on a nightly basis with the rest of the division.

Together, though, they can run the division if given the chance. So far, so good, but they need help from the rest of the teams below them.

The potential Freebird Rule—which might come into play during WWE Payback in their 2-out-of-3-Falls Match with the Brass Ring Club—adds a unique element. The WWE hasn’t utilized the rule since 2006, when the Spirit Squad held the belts for an impressive 216 days.

The New Day should mirror that success—if not consecutively, then at least cumulatively. There are too many possibilities with this team to have them be also-rans.

Brass Ring Club: Tossup

After carrying the division for the first half of 2015, Cesaro and Tyson Kidd are at a crossroads. Does the WWE keep the former tag team champions together to continue their feud with the New Day, or is it time to allow these two dynamic wrestlers the chance to succeed on their own?

The case could be made either way. Both could be top individual wrestlers and spin off in separate directions. For example, Kidd could head toward the United States Championship and Cesaro could enter the Intercontinental Championship picture.

As singles wrestlers, neither has been given a push to realize greater rewards. As relayed by Bleacher Report's Ryan Dilbert, WWE CEO Vince McMahon infamously told Stone Cold Steve Austin that Cesaro didn’t have the charisma to be a top-flight champion with the company. Kidd’s rise—he competed for the World Heavyweight Championship at the 2012 Money in the Bank pay-per-view—was stalled by injuries before joining his current tag team partner.

Logic says Cesaro and Kidd will remain paired until the WWE’s true top babyface team, the Usos, get back in the ring together. After that, we could see these two competitors reaching for the brass ring on their own.

Lucha Dragons: Contenders

When the Lucha Dragons debuted on Monday Night Raw on March 30, there was an immediate buzz surrounding them. Their high-flying lucha libre style invigorated the San Jose crowd. WWE saw something in the former NXT Tag Team champions—enough to feature them every Monday night for a month.

Following a loss to the New Day in a No. 1 Contenders match on the April 20 edition of Monday Night Raw, the Lucha Dragons have barely appeared on TV. This is a mistake that needs to be corrected.

For the flaws that Sin Cara and Kalisto have as individual wrestlers—they do miss a few spots and aren’t strong on the mic—their dynamic as tag team partners cannot be undersold. They are the most exciting team in the company and bring an energy that isn’t equaled in the division.

We could see the Lucha Dragons back in the title picture as soon as this month at the recently announced Elimination Chamber special.

Los Matadores: Pretenders

The last time anyone saw Los Matadores, they were losing to the aforementioned Lucha Dragons on Smackdown. Before that, Diego and Fernando hadn’t been on basic programming for a month.

As Bleacher Report’s Ryan Dilbert noted: “We're not supposed to take Los Matadores seriously. They are cartoon bullfighters with a cartoon mascot.”

It’s a shame, really. Prior to the matador gimmick, these two were Primo and Epico, former WWE tag team champions who were reliable workers. Since then, they’ve become fodder for the likes of RybAxel, the Real Americans, and the Prime Time Players.

A rumored split with mascot El Torito, according to The Bryan and Vinny Show on F4WOnline.com (h/t PWMania), certainly wouldn’t hurt, but it definitely won’t help. It seems that the most likely place you’ll get to see Los Matadores will be on WWE Network programming.

Prime Time Players: Tossup

Titus O’Neil and Darren Young present an interesting case. On one hand, they have been nothing special in their short time together, with their most significant accomplishment being a title shot against the Shield at 2013’s Night of Champions pay-per-view.

On the other hand, like many tag team pairings of late, a case could be made that they’ve never been given a proper chance. They’ve been treated like a comedy act, inserted into skits and squash matches at house shows.

They’re a prototypical tag team pairing: O’Neil is the muscle, and Young is the more athletic workhorse. They have good chemistry together and work the mic well. They could equally make runs as heels or babyfaces, which helps the tag team division.

Giving these two a chance to wrestle some meaningful matches would help flesh out their direction. Based on their promo on the most recent edition of Monday Night Raw, it seems the direction of this team is still in flux.

While the Prime Time Players talked of their championship aspirations, they continued their comedy routine with a New Age Outlaws shtick. Let’s hope their act is more wrestling than comedy, otherwise they’ll end up looking like the next team on this list.

Curtis Axel & Damien Sandow: Pretenders

On the surface, pairing Curtis Axel and Sandow could have the same effect for them that it did for Cesaro and Kidd. Two underutilized wrestlers getting a chance to work off each other and attain some minor success together could lead to bigger and better things.

Both are skilled wrestlers and can cut a good promo. Unfortunately, each has been saddled with long-term impersonator gimmicks: Axel’s Hulk Hogan impersonation should have ended shortly after Wrestlemania 31, while Sandow should have been allowed to be himself following his excellent promo on the April 27 episode of Raw.

Instead, Macho Mizdow is running wild with Axelmania, and this team-up gimmick has all the makings of a bad long-term pairing WWE Creative won’t kill.

Either as themselves—if Axel and Sandow even remember who they are anymore) or as Macho Mizdow and Axelmania, it doesn’t seem like they’ll be more than cannon fodder for the rest of the tag team division.

Luke Harper and Erick Rowan: Contenders

When the WWE broke up the Wyatt Family in the fall of 2014, only Bray Wyatt had any semblance of direction. That left Luke Harper and Erick Rowan to find new paths. Neither accomplished much, as even Harper’s Intercontinental Championship reign felt uninspiring.

While they haven’t officially reunited, Rowan and Harper appear to be on the same page following their appearance on May 11’s episode of Raw.

This is both good and bad news for the tag team division. It’s good news because these two are so good together that splitting them up never made sense. It’s bad news for the rest of the company’s tag teams because Harper and Rowan would almost immediately vault into the No. 1 Contenders slot in the division.

The athletic big men can compete with any team on the roster. They don’t need to work the microphone or have a mouthpiece to get over with the crowd. These two can compete in the ring and simply let their skills talk for them.

A reunion with Bray Wyatt, suggested by Bleacher Report’s Donald Wood, might actually hurt this team’s chances of attaining team gold. As Wood states: “The return of The Wyatt Family would allow Harper and Rowan to fight Wyatt’s battles for him.” That equates to more Bray Wyatt angles and fewer spots for Harper and Rowan to shine.

Hopefully, these two become mainstays in the tag division before long.

The Ascension: Tossup

Former NXT tag team champions the Ascension are treading water on the main roster when they should be flourishing. Viktor and Konnor are a perfect grouping of young talent. How they’ve been used in WWE thus far has been terrible.

Unlike former NXT standout Neville, who’s been booked to perfection by WWE Creative, the Ascension was billed as not only a championship-caliber tag team but a Hall of Fame-worthy pairing while taking out local talent for their first month on the roster.

Their gimmick was ridiculed by fans and commentators such as JBL, who was the tag team’s harshest on-air critic. That led to a beat down by the Ghosts of Tag Teams Past on the January 19 episode of Monday Night Raw.

Their win against the New Age Outlaws at the Royal Rumble failed to give the team any credibility with fans. Apparently, it didn’t resonate with the WWE brass, either. According to CageMatch.net, the Ascension has been on an 11-match losing streak on TV and at pay-per-views. To make matters worse, Konnor and Viktor can’t even win at house shows.

It shouldn’t be this way. If WWE Creative would let these two dial back the Wasteland gimmick, they could have two brawlers who would make a very good heel tag team. If the Ascension continues this path, we might not be looking at pretenders but has-beens on the main roster.

The Vaudevillians: Pretenders

Now we get to the NXT portion of this list, starting with the most theatrical of the entrants. Aiden English and Simon Gotch have very unique personas that play very well on TV and in promos. Their gentlemanly style gives way to ruthless aggression in the ring, and the two work well together.

However, as the Ascension has proved, over-the-top gimmicks don’t necessarily work on the main roster. The Vaudevillians aren’t large men. Nor are they agile like the Lucha Dragons, their former NXT rivals. But they’re entertaining and technically sound, which gives them a leg up on the other two NXT teams on this list.

As for their status: They would most definitely breathe some life into the division and be hugely entertaining. However, they won't make it to the main roster any time soon or be championship material.

Blake and Murphy: Pretenders

While Blake and Murphy, the current NXT tag team champions, are a good tag team, there is nothing particularly special about them as a duo.

This isn’t a knock on their abilities—it’s just that in the world of professional wrestling, there needs to be something more. Being good technical wrestlers doesn’t land you the headline act. Just ask Cesaro.

Thus far, the duo’s only angle has been the pursuit of NXT Diva Carmella, who has spurned their advances. They’ve shown little personality to go with their solid, though not spectacular, tag team action.

If there’s something more on the horizon for these two, they’re going to have to develop it down in NXT.

Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady: Tossup

The Realest Guys in the Room are the wildest of wild cards when it comes to the future of WWE’s tag team division. This team will either win the WWE Tag Team Championships one day or they’ll never make it to the main roster.

And it all falls on the shoulders of Enzo Amore.

Amore is a master on the microphone, cutting some of the best promos heard since a guy named Dwayne Johnson roamed the squared circle. But for as good as he is unleashing a verbal assault on his opponents, he’s too raw inside the ring.

Even with more than two years in the NXT system, Amore continues to struggle in spots. His movement isn’t natural. Nor is it graceful. He has a tendency to oversell moves, making his actions almost comical. He came to WWE with no wrestling experience, so you have the give the guy credit, but sooner or later, it’s got to sink in. Otherwise, he’s more manager than wrestler.

That might not be a bad thing. After all, Paul Heyman has forged a career out of working the mic. Colin Cassady has made such strides during his time with NXT that the legendary Hulk Hogan took to Twitter, saying that Big Cass “is just a big dollar sign” and wishing he "had a heel like him during my run.”

Whether this team sinks or swims all falls on Amore. Nonetheless, expect both of these guys on the main roster. The question is whether they’ll be taking their act on the road together or separately.