Tag Team Wrestling, Where Have You Gone?

Tag team wrestling used to be one of the highlights of the WWE. Now, unfortunately, it's an afterthought, a space filler, a title that no longer seems to hold the weight that it used to, and I'm not sure why Vince McMahon has lost interest in the tag team titles.

For this article, I've focused on the WWE World Tag Team championship titles since the other ones aren't very old and were created for the brand split on Smackdown in 2002 with Edge and Rey Mysterio being the first title holders.

The first title holders of the World Tag Team championships were Dick "The Bruiser" and The Shiek 37 years ago in 1971. Since its creation, the title has changed hands 168 times, up to the current title holders Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase.

And while the titles are on the line this coming Sunday at Unforgiven, this makes only the second time the titles have been on the line this year—the first time was back in June at The Night of Champions. The titles didn't even make an appearance at Wrestlemania.

What we are lacking here are good tag teams and some respect for the titles. In 1972, the first Asian team of Tanaka and Fuji held the titles. In 1980, the first Samoans held the title—aptly, their team name was The Samoans.  Then in 1983 the first black tag team champions of Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas.

These titles have represented the WWE and their diversity and ability to showcase talents that my not have always gotten the spotlight.

The first explosion of tag team wrestling, in my opinion, came about in 1985 when Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Shiek held the titles. Who can forget the singing of the Russian national anthem and "Russia No. 1, Iran No. 1, USA hack-too!"?

With these two we saw the same year Windham and Rotundo, Beefcake and Valentine, all wear the gold. Then in '86 we got one of my all-time favorites, The British Bulldogs holding the titles. In '87 the legendary Hart Foundation and Strike Force, with Demolition taking the belts in '88. The Killer Bees were a great tag team of the '80s as well, but never held the gold.

The '90s brought a new breed of champs, good but definitely a reflection of the changing times. The Nasty Boys and Legion of Doom in '91 and the rest of the '90s had champs like Money Inc, The Steiners, The Quebeccers, and The Smoking Guns.

Rounding out that decade, we had The New Age Outlaws, who had a huge following as part of DX, and The Acolytes as part of the Undertaker's entourage.

Then the second coming of tag team wrestling occurred in the new millennium! The Dudleys, Too Cool, Edge and Christian, Right To Censor, and The Hardys took over television and the Pay Per Views.

Giving us TLC, table matches, the con-chair-to, and by far the best three-way tag matches you had ever seen. They raised the bar for the likes of Rosey and Hurricane, Hurricane and Kane, and Jericho and Bennoit taking the championship matches to another level.

Sadly, this did not last—recently we've seen true tag teams like Duece and Domino, Cryme Tyme, and The Highlanders get some attention only to fall off the radar once more. This Sunday has Cryme Tyme finally getting their Tag Team Title shot, and quite possibly this could be the resurgence these titles need.

Bring back the Highlanders, reform Deuce and Domino—heck, bring back Kai and Tai! And bring back great tag team wrestling!