Secret Weapon: Tag Team Wrestling Is Having a Revival in AEW

The first segment of Wednesday's AEW Dynamite ended with five tag teams in the ring, a smorgasbord of weird facial hair, weirder haircuts, tattoos, pink cowboy shirts and outstanding wrestlers clobbering each other in an alpha-dog display of mutual machismo.

FTR, newly rescued from WWE, started the night by dispatching The Butcher and The Blade in a match the announcers referred to multiple times as "smashmouth." It was an old-fashioned slobberknocker of a bout combining hard-hitting action with FTR's penchant for '80s cosplay. They borrowed concepts from Power and Glory, the Midnight Express and the Four Horsemen en route to a debut win, announcing their presence in a palpable way that was much more powerful than any podcast appearance.

"That's one of those matches where there's a winner, but both teams won," Chris Jericho said on commentary. "... Four guys beating the crap out of each other in the best possible way."

Remarkably, business managed to pick up after the opening-match banger, as the heart and soul of AEW, The Young Bucks, made their way to the ring in an attempt to mark territory and establish turf.

"My name's Matt. This is my brother Nick," Matt Jackson told FTR. "We've been carrying tag team wrestling solely on our backs for the past decade-and-a-half. We're the best tag team in AEW. We're The Young Bucks. It's so nice to meet you."

The two teams have been circling each other for years now, with the artists formerly known as The Revival serving as a regular punching bag on the Bucks' YouTube show "Being The Elite" and the tag team specialists returning fire in a number of media appearances.

Now, in AEW, no longer separated by an unbridgeable promotional gap, the two teams can finally settle their business where wrestling business is supposed to be settled—in the ring.

That it's one of the most anticipated matches in the entire sport right now is in itself an indication of the remarkable job AEW has done breathing life into the dying art of tag team wrestling. In WWE, despite glowing praise from their legendary predecessors like Arn Anderson, The Revival floundered on the big stage, rarely managing to make it past opening-act status.

In a way, that's not their fault at all.

In WWE, no matter how talented the performers, tag team wrestling simply doesn't matter. This year, The Street Profits, thanks in large part to the coronavirus, have become the first team since 2015 to hold the Raw Tag Team Championship longer than 100 days. In 2019, those belts changed hands eight times, a hot potato with no meaningful impact on, well, anything at all.

AEW, by contrast, has a wealth of riches, with FTR joining the Bucks, Lucha Brothers, Private Party, SCU, Jurassic Express, Proud and Powerful and so many others in a division that never fails to deliver when called upon. On top sit Kenny Omega and Adam Page, gifted singles wrestlers who also happen to be an outstanding, championship-caliber duo.

WWE's decision to exit the battlefield when it comes to tag team wrestling has allowed AEW to corner the market on some of the very best performers in the entire world. Not only do these teams fill time on every card with remarkable action, but the audience has also been taught to care about them and knows that they matter.

It may seem like a small matter, but WWE has spent most of the modern era telling fans that tag team wrestling doesn't matter a bit in the big picture. AEW has emphasized it instead, and the result has been a renaissance that hasn't been equaled since the glory days of the NWA on Superstation TBS when legends like The Rock 'n' Roll Express and Road Warriors ruled the roost.

It's too early to say whether the rivalry between FTR and The Young Bucks will go down in the annals as one of the best in wrestling history. But, at the very least, they'll be given an honest shot at it. And that's more than a tag team could have hoped for in a long, long time.

Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.