Fantasy-Booking Fresh Tag Team Duos in WWE and AEW

Credit: WWE.com

The Young Bucks just topped the PWI Tag Team 50 for 2021, further proving they are one of the best tandems in the modern era.

Alongside The Usos, The New Day and The Lucha Bros, among others, there are always amazing teams in professional wrestling, but sometimes they feel few and far between.

Particularly in WWE, tag teams come and go all the time. For every Los Lotharios, there are four or five teams that split after every draft. Even in All Elite Wrestling, where the division is much more celebrated and a good portion of the roster has at least one person they can call a friend, there's room to grow.

Some pairings are worth trying, and others just seem like natural fits that should be explored.

Let's look at some ideas for tag teams that could be made in AEW and WWE to help freshen things up.

At the moment, Carmella's doing rather well in a tag team alongside Queen Zelina Vega, as the two recently dethroned Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. to capture the Raw Women's Tag Team Championship.

Unfortunately, it doesn't feel as though they won the titles to reflect how great a team they are. Rather, it seems more that it's because they were the best options to take the belts while WWE focused more on splitting up Super Brutality, if only for the sake of doing something different.

Vega's Queen character is vain, just as Carmella is, but they don't seem to click and get along. Why should they care about one another instead of themselves? A better fit for Carmella would be Jinny from NXT UK, who has her own ego and talks about her beauty but also goes by the moniker of The Fashionista.

WWE could easily play it off that Carmella's face mask was designed by Jinny, who makes it her mission to protect beauty where she sees it. 

Since Jinny is now dating Walter, who has been long rumored to be moving to the main roster, this could be the perfect way to bring her into the fold too. And since she has failed to win the NXT UK Women's Championship so many times, it seems she's done all she can do on that brand.

A fresh start on a new show would do wonders for her career, and working with Carmella to learn from her would be an added benefit.

Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Malakai Black already has a stable name in The House of Black, but no members of the faction have been established.

In order to counteract powerful groups such as The Pinnacle, The Inner Circle, The Elite and The Dark Order, Black would need more than just one tag team partner.

Two underlings who have no direction and could get a boost from this are Chaos Project's Luther and Serpentico. They are evil, so they would fit with this branding.

The Butcher, The Blade and The Bunny don't fit well in The Hardy Family Office, which is better suited for Private Party and TH2. And Abadon would be the perfect representative for the women's division considering her whole shtick is that she's creepy.

Black could also manipulate people to turn darker. The Nightmare Family could lose someone such as Lee Johnson to represent a future prospect being corrupted, and PAC is already known as The Bastard and could be persuaded to leave Death Triangle and be a No. 2 for the group.

While speaking to Alex McCarthy of TalkSport, Black also alluded to the possibility that Buddy Matthews could join him if he were to sign with AEW.

Credit: WWE.com

Kairi Sane teamed with both Io Shirai and Asuka to create The Sky Pirates and The Kabuki Warriors, respectively, but we've yet to see what Shirai and Asuka could do together.

Asuka is at a point in her career when she's done nearly everything she could do, while Shirai has done everything she can in NXT and is more than ready for a run on the main roster.

Since WWE might be hesitant to go straight into pushing The Genius of the Sky to the top, teaming her with Asuka would allow for a slower burn that would also let her be a focal point of the tag team division.

Then, a few months down the road, Shirai could start her singles journey and climb those ranks to what would likely be a Raw or SmackDown Women's Championship reign.

First, though, these incredibly talented performers would make magic together, and they could rejuvenate the women's tag team division based solely on their in-ring skills.

Credit: All Elite Wrestling

So much has been made of the Forbidden Door and AEW's partnerships with other promotions, but one aspect that hasn't been tapped into is the idea of an invasion from one of these outside forces.

While it would be a bigger deal for AEW to face the biggest and best names in Impact Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling or the National Wrestling Alliance, what if it were Game Changer Wrestling that took the first shot?

Much like how ECW played the part of the rebellious hardcore underground promotion in opposition to WWE in the 1990s, GCW could do the same for AEW, and there's no better man for the job of the faction's leader than Joey Janela.

The Bad Boy has remained a major part of GCW during his time in AEW. Arguably, he seems to be a better fit there than in Tony Khan's promotion, where he's seen little success, which could be the driving force of the feud.

Names such as Nick Gage and Matt Cardona could be involved, as well as regulars like Jimmy Lloyd, Effy, Allie Katch, AJ Gray, Matthew Justice and Mance Warner. Maybe Marko Stunt could even turn on Jurassic Express to join Janela's team.

At first glance, this may seem like a confusing pairing. But who would have thought Randy Orton and Riddle would work so well as RK-Bro?

Assuming no drastic changes are in the works, Sami Zayn's character is weasel-like. He's more than capable of getting the job done in the ring when he's a babyface, but he regularly finds himself humiliated as a heel and unable to win unless he's cheating.

The Great Liberator could use a big man as backup, which is a role Mace is the best equipped for on the SmackDown roster. He could develop his character in such a role, which has been missing somewhat during his time with the blue brand.

Standing alongside Zayn could inject some personality into Mace, who could be an effective heavy for his new teammate.

Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Brian Cage and Lance Archer are too well-known, too big and too talented to have been sitting around for months with little to do. If AEW isn't going to give them a singles push anytime soon, they might as well start looking for a tag team partner. And they might not find anyone better than each other.

Who could stop Cage when he's tagging alongside someone who nearly always eviscerates someone on his way to the ring before destroying his opponent?

Considering Archer's "everybody dies" catchphrase and how angry the two seem to be all the time, AEW could even call them Rage & Cage. It's hokey, but with the right spin on it, fans could get on board.

The Murderhawk Monster even endorsed teaming with Cage (as well as Jade Cargill) via Twitter, which The Machine seems fully on board with.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.