WWE Survivor Series 2016: Raw Defeats SmackDown in Tag Team Match

In a battle for tag team supremacy, Raw's five best pairings defeated the five best teams SmackDown had to offer Sunday night at Survivor Series with Cesaro and Sheamus standing tall.

WWE described how the match ended: 

Cesaro was the clear star of the match, and Wrestling Inc. hoped this was a sign of things to come: 

Cesaro would tweet his thoughts on the outcome: 

Raw put together an impressive squad led by Raw tag team champions The New Day and filled out by The Club, Sheamus, Cesaro, Enzo Amore, Big Cass and The Shining Stars.

SmackDown countered with a strong team of its own anchored by SmackDown tag team champions Heath Slater and Rhyno along with American Alpha, The Usos, The Hype Bros and Breezango.

While neither side had the best chemistry due to in-fighting, there was arguably more concern about the red brand's tag teams managing to get along.

That is in spite of the fact that The New Day attempted to rally the troops in a Braveheart-like style on an episode of Raw that emanated from Scotland, according to WWE Universe on Twitter:

Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods have long been marked men during their record-breaking title reign, and they recently engaged in feuds with Gallows and Anderson as well as Cesaro and Sheamus.

Gallows and Anderson haven't made many friends during their short time on the main roster, as they ran down most of their teammates and have had major issues with Enzo and Cass in recent weeks.

Perhaps the biggest problem of all, though, was the internal strife between Cesaro and Sheamus, as they still haven't completely meshed.

As evidenced by the following tweet, the Celtic Warrior had little confidence entering Survivor Series that Raw would be able to get the job done:

Although the lack of togetherness wasn't quite as pronounced on SmackDown, they had some trust issues in their own right.

Chief among them was the rift between American Alpha and The Usos. Their problems date back to the SmackDown Tag Team Championship tournament during which The Usos snapped and injured Chad Gable's knee.

They were forced to put that aside when they joined forces at Survivor Series in the name of brand supremacy, but such heinous acts aren't easily forgotten.

Both Survivor Series teams had to overcome major adversity Sunday, and in the end, it was Raw that managed to find common ground most effectively.

The victory was reinforcement that the red brand boasts the elite tag team talent in WWE, but don't expect that camaraderie to last long, as The New Day remain everyone's top target in Raw's tag division.

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