Where New Day Ranks Among Greatest WWE Tag Teams Ever Following Latest Title Win

On Tuesday's SmackDown Live, The New Day defeated The Usos in a Sin City Street Fight to clinch its fourth set of WWE tag team titles. With that win, there should not be any doubt that New Day has earned its spot among WWE's all-time greatest tag teams.

The feud with The Usos this summer has helped elevate tag team wrestling in WWE to heights that hadn't been reached in years through its stellar series of matches on pay-per-view and on SmackDown Live. However, New Day's contributions to the tag team division trace back several years to when it first joined the ranks in 2014.

Although it appeared they were destined to fail as a babyface trio, Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods quickly adapted to their environment and began embracing the boos they were receiving. It wasn't long after that they won over the audience with their eccentric antics and became one of the most entertaining acts WWE had seen in years.

Not only have they brought tag team wrestling into the mainstream with their immense popularity, they have had their fair share of exceptional matches as well. In addition to the recent rivalry with The Usos, New Day has contested classics with the likes of Sheamus and Cesaro, The Lucha Dragons, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, and Cesaro and Tyson Kidd.

As Kingston, Big E and Woods approach their three year anniversary as a trio, it might be time for WWE fans to recognize New Day as one of the most decorated tag teams in the company's history.

Credit: WWE.com

It's no secret that tag team wrestling has largely been overlooked for the better part of the past decade. The division has had its peaks and valleys at times, but it hasn't been a true attraction until just recently thanks to New Day as well as The Usos.

Tag team wrestling arguably had its biggest boom in WWE in the 1980s before becoming an afterthought. That was until The Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian and The Dudley Boyz revived it with their three-way feud in the early 2000s.

All three tandems won countless championships, though Edge and Christian split after only two years. The Hardy Boyz also went their separate ways in 2002, and although they've teamed on-and-off since then, they have found more success as singles competitors.

It might be premature to put New Day in that same conversation right now, but the trio is coming close to matching the number of titles won. Already the team has held the twin titles longer than any other duo ever with a record-setting reign of 483 days, which is unprecedented for this era in wrestling.

Aside from The Usos, New Day has done more for WWE's tag team division than anyone else in the last decade, and the three wrestlers have also proved to be masters of reinvention by constantly changing up their characters throughout their tenure together.

It should be noted that Kingston, Big E and Woods aren't a unit because they wouldn't be successful on their own, similar to teams such as Too Cool and Primo and Epico. In fact, New Day could break up next week and each of them would be viable contenders to either the Intercontinental or United States Championships.

Interestingly enough, that wouldn't have been the case three years ago when they were treading water and rarely on Raw or SmackDown. The New Day stable has not only bolstered tag team wrestling in WWE in a major way, but also provided a platform for its members to become mega stars individually.

Moreover, as iconic as D-Generation X and The Rock N' Sock Connection were, they were never perennial tag team title challengers. New Day, on the other hand, has almost always been in the Raw or SmackDown Tag Team Championship conversation, and when that wasn't the case, the team was either temporarily off television or hosting WrestleMania 34.

Now four-time tag team champions, the sky is the limit for how far the trio can go, and there are still several teams across the WWE Universe and the wrestling world in general New Day has yet to mix it up with. The chemistry that the three of them share continues to grow every week, so it's safe to say WWE's tag team scene would be significantly weaker without New Day.

By no means is New Day on the heels of Demolition, The Legion of Doom or The British Bulldogs on the long list of WWE's most prolific tag teams, but there can be no questioning that it has cemented its place in the annals of history with the incredible career the three men have had up to this point and the legacy they will leave behind.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is an Endicott College alumnus and aspiring journalist. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling, and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.