WWE Tag Team Division: Rebuilding a Decayed Division

To even say WWE has had a tag division over the past few years is a stretch of the imagination. Having a team co-hold a championship and the occasional title defense does not a division make.

The WWE tag team division disintegration history is the subject of a future GuysNation article, and if you don’t believe the division is a shell of its former self (or at least less exciting than the division in TNA Wrestling), just consider the “build up” for tag title matches in the last 8 months alone (the disintegration history spans years, not just months).

The focus of this article is on how to make the WWE tag division better, so you don’t necessarily have to agree how low it has sunk to agree with the rest of this article. 

Current Teams

The Champs: Big Show & Kane

Though it started another team and built feuds to determine which teams are viable options  as a somewhat random pairing, the duo of Big Show and Kane is really starting to grow on me.

Typically I like my tag teams to have somewhat matching attire and a team name, I wouldn’t change that about Show and Kane. I don’t see this pairing as a long term option for either of these guys, but as a partnership to help put overfor future champions, they do quite nicely.

The Corre: Justin Gabriel & Heath Slater

The former champs were a decent pairing, but the fact that they’re both smaller guys made them less credible when standing across the ring from Big Show and Kane.

Justin Gabriel is a potential future star as a singles competitor, so he probably should have been paired with either Wade Barrett or Ezekiel Jackson, competitors with vastly different in-ring styles, instead of Slater, who has a similar style (and lesser skills).

The other option would’ve been to pair up Heath Slater with Zeke or Barrett. The Slater/Gabriel pairing is probably the worst they could’ve done with the four-man team if they were considering any sort of long-term viability.

Santi-Koz: Santino Marella & Vlad Kozlov

They had some novelty as a pairing due to their good chemistry out of the ring, but WWE didn’t do enough to establish them as a pairing with their in-ring attire, a serious feud (should’ve-been feud with the Usos because of Tamina & Santino? Consider the ball dropped), or even some double-team moves.

The writing is on the wall that this team is practically dead.

The Usos

WWE doesn’t even believe this is a viable duo, so why should we?

I can’t remember the last time they were involved in something (though admittedly I don’t watch Superstars), but the draft moved them to Smackdown, so there’s still a chance the writers will find a reason to keep them around.

Teams We Need: Celtic Connection

Because of the recent draft, Sheamus finds himself on Smackdown no longer with the United States Championship, and Drew McIntyre is on RAW without much hope of being a part of the main event scene.

Neither is doing anything currently, and they’d be a great option to be paired up.

How, might you ask?

Since pay-per-views are conducted with both brands, have them meet up, share some similarities, and then have them decide to pair up and go after the tag titles due to interactions on RAW/Smackdown/ another pay-per-view with the current champs.

If the champs can be on separate shows, why can’t challenging teams?

Drew McIntyre was, at one point, the Chosen One, right? You’d think he’d be able to petition Vince McMahon to be allowed to compete on both shows to become the No. 1 contenders with Sheamus.

Teams We Need: Woo Woo Too Cool 2k11

Not that anything on RAW is going to get any significant attention aside from the guys involved in the main event scene, but Zack Ryder and JTG would be a perfect team, with my apologies to Primo Colon (who has been teaming up with Long Island Iced Z in the past).

My guess is that most of the readers of this article either don’t remember the original incarnation of Too Cool or are trying to forget Scotty 2 Hotty and Grandmaster Sexay.

Zack Ryder and JTG are both cool guys with an odd -couple style and enough exciting offense to be a fun tag team to watch.

If WWE is interested in getting Primo Colon involved in something instead of the seemingly inevitable “future endeavoring”, this could be a new age version of the Freebirds style tag team where any two of the three guys could be an option to be competitors for a WWTC2k11 match.

Teams We Need: CM Punk and Husky Harris of New Nexus

Though Husky Harris is the one member of New Nexus to not return from his head punt courtesy of Randy Orton, I still like the way his style meshes with CM Punk more than any of the other members of New Nexus.

And let’s face it, Husky Harris doesn’t have a ton of time on the mic to carry a promo by himself right now. Husky has displayed the necessary “you lead, I’ll follow” attitude to play second fiddle to CM Punk unlike David Otunga or Mason Ryan (who’s got one foot out of the proverbial New Nexus door as it is).

As a long-time fan of CM Punk (his days in Ring Of Honor and TNA Wrestling) , I’d love to see him near the main event, but I’ve resigned myself to that not happening anytime soon.

Teams We Need: David Otunga & Michael McGillicutty of New Nexus

Though Husky Harris is the one member of New Nexus to not return from his head punt courtesy of Randy Orton, I still like the way his style meshes with CM Punk more than any of the other members of New Nexus, and let’s face it, Husky Harris doesn’t have a ton of time on the mic to carry a promo by himself right now. Husky Harris has displayed the necessary “you lead, I’ll follow” attitude to play second fiddle to CM Punk unlike David Otunga or Mason Ryan (who’s got one foot out of the proverbial New Nexus door as it is). As a long-time fan of CM Punk (his days in Ring Of Honor and TNA Wrestling) , I’d love to see him near the main event, but I’ve resigned myself to that not happening anytime soon.

The Strongest Team Money Can Buy

Mark Henry turned heel this Monday night on RAW, and no one seriously thinks he’s a viable contender to take the World Title from Randy Orton.

Why not have Ted DiBiase show up with his trust fund in tow and turn into a two-man stable (group)?

In fact, DiBiase could front the money to guarantee Mark Henry a title shot, and then they could have an agreement whereby they become a tag team if Mark Henry doesn’t win the belt.

Both guys can talk on the mic, both have decent in-ring skills which could easily take care of half a match, they’re different enough stylistically (verbally and athletically) to be a decent team.

DiBiase has been circling the drain for quite a while, and if WWE doesn’t want to give him any singles wins, the least they could do would be to make him interesting.

If they don’t want to pair DiBiase up with Mark Henry, they could do a lot worse than pairing him up with Brodus Clay, who lacks a support system now that Alberto Del Rio is on RAW.

He’s already in the character mold that shows he’s willing and able to be someone’s lacky, and his size and style is a good comparison to King Kong Bundy, which gives long-time fans some nostalgia to the Million Dollar Corporation days.

The Disciples

I realize it’s a terrible name, but if Brodus Clay doesn’t end up with Ted DiBiase, I’d really like to see him with Alex Riley.

The right-hand man of The Miz is now on the opposite show’s roster, and while he’s still helping out on RAW, this tag team could give him something to do on Smackdown. If the Brodus Clay character is as needy-for-a-leader as I believe they intend to be portraying him, having A-Ri take a small leadership role to beef up the personal security team for The Miz on the other show could do some good things.

It could help evolve the Alex Riley character—both as an in-ring competitor and show what he can do on the mic (like they’ve already started doing on occasion on RAW), and it could help build some tension between The Miz and Alberto Del Rio—which could result in two very good options.

ADR and The Miz could have a pay-per-view No. 1 contenders match with both of them remaining heel, or the inevitable face turn by The Miz could occur with this as the impetus for change.

At that point, Alex Riley could either be a face or remain heel… the options abound.

East / West Connection

I realize that both Trent Barreta and Yoshi Tatsu are unproven commodities in WWE, but I’ve seen flashes of exciting ability by both of them.

Barreta has been a GuysNation favorite for a few months now, dating back just slightly prior to the Drew McIntyre / Kelly Kelly storyline which was dropped, and I’ve heard enough of him on the mic to know he’d be a passable leader of the pairing with Yoshi Tatsu.

I’ve read enough Yoshi Tatsu tweets to know that he’s got an interesting side to him that I think Trent Barreta could help expose. If for no other reason, WWE should put these two together as their “filler talent tag team” for Smackdown.

The Hart Dynasty

Really, why did this team break up in the first place? Is WWE planning on getting rid of D.H. Smith? Are they ever going to find a suitable role for Tyson Kidd? Is there any reason to NOT have these two teamed up?

They could each still do singles wrestling stuff from time to time, and they don’t have to be tag champs ever again if that’s not the direction WWE wants to go.

It just seems to make sense that these two should be reunited, since there’s not much else for them to do and it would be a shame for either of them to be “future endeavored”.

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