WWE SummerSlam 2015: Fatal 4-Way Demonstrates Lazy Booking of Tag Team Division

On Monday's Raw, it was confirmed that a Fatal 4-Way match will be contested for the WWE Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam on August 23. The combatants will include The New Day, The Lucha Dragons, Los Matadores and the reigning champions, The Prime Time Players.

While this has clearly been in the cards for weeks, the "feud" between the four tandems up to this point has been subpar, and it has demonstrated just how deplorable of a state WWE's tag team division is currently in.

Creating more combinations of Superstars is a step in the right direction, but that's only part of the process. Sure, it adds depth to the division, but character development is essential in making tag team wrestling as fun as it once was.

The New Day, a tandem that was originally miscast as babyfaces, are undoubtedly among the best acts in WWE today. They're dedicated to their characters and play their parts to perfection, which is why they never cease to elicit a reaction from the audience.

Despite that, they lose more often than not and aren't even the WWE Tag Team champions at the moment. Their short-lived reign came to an end at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, when they were dethroned by The Prime Time Players.

Credit: WWE.com

Furthermore, The New Day are the only team in that Fatal 4-Way that fans truly care to see win. The remaining pairings, while talented, have failed to connect to the crowd due to lack of promo time and progression of their personas.

The Prime Time Players have been long overdue for a title reign for nearly three years, but WWE hasn't done anything to help endear them to the audience other than win meaningless matches. They definitely deserve better, but that doesn't make them strong leaders of a seemingly depleted division.

Upon making their main roster debut the night after WrestleMania 31, The Lucha Dragons were seen as a breath of fresh air in the tag team scene. Although they have the potential to be breakout stars, their TV time has been largely limited, and has thus prevented fans from forming a connection with them.

Last, and certainly least, are Los Matadores, who haven't served any sort of purpose since arriving close to two years ago. Primo and Epico are excellent athletes, but it's evident they're in desperate need of a gimmick overhaul if they ever want to be taken seriously.

All in all, it's a lackluster match because most of the participants have nothing going for them. It's no secret that the tag division has been an afterthought in WWE for several years now, but it shouldn't and doesn't need to be that way.

Back in 2000, there were a handful of dynamic duos, but the three teams WWE built their tag division around were Edge and Christian, The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz. As amazing as their matches were, it was their stories being told that solidified them as stars.

The last real feud we had over the WWE Tag Team Championship was between The Rhodes Brothers and The Shield in the fall of 2013. Fans wanted to see Cody Rhodes and Goldust get their jobs back, leading to their match at Battleground being one of the year's best bouts.

What beef do The Prime Time Players, The New Day, The Lucha Dragons and Los Matadores have aside from beating each other in matches in the past month?

It was only a few short months ago that WWE held a similar Fatal 4-Way tag title match on the WrestleMania 31 Kickoff show, and that was before top teams such as The Usos and Cesaro and Tyson Kidd were put on the shelf. With SummerSlam this year being four hours long, it's fairly likely that this match is on the card merely to kill time.

Throwing tandems together for multi-team matches for the twin titles simply isn't going to cut it anymore. Until WWE starts making an effort to revamp the tag team scene and alter the way they approach it, fans will continue to show little interest in its PPV outings.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is a journalism major at Endicott College. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling, and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.

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