Hawkins and Archer: The Epitome of What Is Wrong With WWE Tag Teams

Curt Hawkins and Vance Archer both know a thing or two about tag team wrestling. Both men have, at one point in their careers, held tag team gold.

Hawkins, most recently, was one-half of WWE Tag Team Champions with his fellow "Edgehead" Zack Ryder during the summer of 2008. The two hold the notable distinction of being the youngest tag team champions in WWE history.

The "American Psycho" Vance Archer, as Matt Striker likes to call him, is a two-time NWA Tag Team Champion.

He was known as simply as Dallas during both championship runs with his kayfabe relative, Kid Kash, during the early days of Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling.

Archer, then known as Lance Rock, also formed a somewhat successful team with Jimmy Rave in TNA known as "The Rock 'N Rave Infection."

These two also know a thing or two about how difficult it can sometimes be to get over as a singles wrestler on the biggest stage in the wrestling world. Neither Hawkins nor Archer has really been able to stand out on their own in WWE.

Despite the best attempts of WWE creative to push Archer as a monster heel during the dying months of the ECW brand, he never did much to solidify his status as a member of either Raw or Smackdown once ECW was put to rest.

Hawkins faded into developmental after splitting with Ryder and was nearly forgotten before his recent return to WWE television.

So what does WWE do with two hungry young wrestlers who aren't quite ready for the singles spotlight? They lump them together as a team and hope some magic happens.

It's hard to blame WWE for doing this. The tag team division has been in dire straits for some time now and the creative staff finally seems to be making an effort to rebuild the tag roster.

The Hart Dynasty, currently the Unified Tag Team Champions, are the most established team in WWE these days. They have the look, the talent and the potential to be a great tag team.

The major downside of this is that they are still a relatively new team in the WWE landscape and they are already the most established duo.

The Dudebusters have been a major flop as a team thus far. WWE tried to push them and then suddenly stopped. They have not been on Smackdown for weeks and can currently be found competing, often in one-on-one matches, on Superstars.

The Usos are new to WWE and are still very green. They definitely have the potential to develop into a force in the tag team division as they mature.

As of now, they seem to be the only team on the roster that even poses a threat to the Hart Dynasty.

With such a lack of depth in the tag team scene, it does make sense for WWE to at least make an attempt to create new teams by randomly putting wrestlers together.

This strategy is often hit-or-miss though, especially when enough time and effort is not given towards establishing the new team.

This seems to be the unfortunate case of Hawkins and Archer. They were paired together and told to "make an impact" in order to earn contracts on Smackdown.

Apparently, a few wins over "local talent" and a couple of beatdowns of MVP and Christian was enough of an impact to accomplish their goal.

They picked up their biggest victory to date on the July 9 edition of Smackdown by defeating the team of Matt Hardy and Christian.

The win was somewhat tainted by the fact that Christian abandoned his partner, essentially making the contest a handicap match.

Since then, we have not seen a glimpse of Hawkins and Ryder on Friday night.

If WWE really wanted to make this new duo into a force to be reckoned with, perhaps giving them some more TV time or maybe even a shot at the Hart Dynasty would help do the trick.

After all, what better way to make an impact than by going after the champions?

Instead, Hawkins and Archer are thrown into meaningless matches and given a minuscule amount of time to develop or mesh as a unit.

For being a team that was randomly thrown together, there is potential there. At the very least, they could turn into a major threat within a sparse tag team division.

Too little effort, not enough time. Seems like the story of tag team wrestling in WWE hasn't changed all that much after all.