WWE: Power Ranking All the Unified Tag Team Champions

It's no secret that tag teams aren't exactly at the forefront of WWE programming these days. Generally there are only two or three teams active at any given time, and the tag titles get passed around like brownies at a Radiohead concert.

Thirteen teams have held the unified tag titles since they were unified at WrestleMania 25 (in a dark match, I might add), some fairing better than others.

So, let's rank these 13 teams and see who did the belts some good, and who was simply keeping the belts warm.

13. John Cena and David Otunga

If you can believe it, John Cena is a four-time tag champion, and three of the four reigns have lasted less than a week.

These two answered an open challenge from Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes at Bragging Rights, winning the titles only for Barrett to order they surrender them the following Raw to teach Otunga a lesson. It was a pointless reign that only existed to get John Cena wrestling at Bragging Rights, and give Nexus members some freebee title reigns.

12. John Cena and the Miz

It saddens me that a title reign that lasted about 10 minutes is not at the bottom of this list, but I put this one above Cena/Otunga because it did serve some purpose for the feud. That said, this was still pretty stupid and the titles were essentially a prop to make Miz look better.

It doesn't get much worse than when Miz beats the tag champs on his own.

11. David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty

Our current champions clock in at No. 11 on this list, as they were probably only given the belts because WWE wanted them off Big Show and Kane. Sadly enough, they're probably the next-most credible team right now.

David Otunga holding a title is always bad news, and the two really have no chemistry with one another. These two really haven't shown us much lately, and until they do, they're another weak pair of champions.

10. Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes

What do you do when you have two guys you want to keep on TV but can't think of anything to do with them? Give them the tag titles of course!

These two won a tag team turmoil match at Night of Champions 2010, entering last to eliminate Evan Bourne and Mark Henry, and held the belts for a little while before dropping them to the Nexus.

Two guys who employed basic heel tag team moves, these two weren't terrible, but were another case of two guys keeping the belts warm.

9. Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater

For whatever reason, WWE has seen fit to give these guys three tag team title reigns, and I have no idea why. Heath Slater is an incredibly unimpressive performer, and really offers nothing to anyone. I'm a huge fan of Justin Gabriel, but putting him in random tag matches is not the best way to utilize his talent.

Being in the right place at the right time pretty much gets you the tag belts, as these two not only held the title three times, but had lengthy reigns for each one.

8. Big Show and Kane

During their battles with the Corre, Big Show and Kane managed to win the tag titles from Gabriel/Slater. Their title reign wasn't particularly memorable, but Kane is always entertaining and the fans respond to the two.

Not much to say; a fairly safe but forgettable run for these two veterans before dropping their titles to the New Nexus.

7. Show-Miz (Big Show and the Miz)

I'm not sure what it is, but it just seems like when WWE has nothing for you, they put you into an angle with the Big Show. Such was the case around WrestleMania 26, when The Miz and Big Show battled John Morrison and R-Truth in the first televised WrestleMania tag title match in four years.

That was pretty much the only reason these two were paired: to get all four of these men on the card. A watered down Jeri-Show, these two made a decent impact but were also quickly forgotten.

6. Edge and Chris Jericho

A lot of people marked out when Edge and Chris Jericho entered the tag title match at the Bash and became tag team champions. Two of the top wrestlers in WWE joining forces was an exciting prospect, and a lot of people thought these two could really rebuild the tag division.

Unfortunately, an injury to Edge stopped this dream team from getting very far, but just for the two men involved, it's a memorable alliance nonetheless.

5. Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov

I may be in the minority here, but I like this pairing, mostly because they've been an actual tag team. They've built up to them teaming up, and since then they've stuck together and committed to being a tag team in WWE, which is more than can be said of any team before this one.

Santino is undeniably entertaining and Kozlov is a legitimately threatening partner. They won the belts from Gabriel and Slater thanks to a John Cena assist, and held the belts for an impressive couple of months.

4. The Hart Dynasty

With Tyson Kidd being the last member of the famous Hart dungeon and DH Smith being the nephew of the late Davey Boy Smith, both these men have tight-knit connections with the Hart family. Starting on ECW, these two eventually managed to defeat the team of Show-Miz to win the tag titles.

These two had some chemistry in the ring, coming up with several unique tag maneuvers and sequences. DH Smith's power combined with Kidd's grappling technique made these two a dangerous team that had a running time of over a year. Eventually they were split up and haven't really done much since, but while these two were together they were a very impressive tag team.

3. D-Generation-X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels)

Two of the greatest stars WWE has ever seen, Triple H and Shawn Michaels reunited in 2006 and were an on-again off-again alliance until HBK's retirement in 2010. Only once during that time did they win the tag team championships, defeating Jeri-Show for the belts at TLC.

Their actual title run wasn't particularly memorable, and they didn't defend the belts that often, but it was a nice last stand for two guys reaching the end of their run as full-time WWE superstars.

2. The Colons (Carlito and Primo)

These two Puerto Rican brothers were the original unified tag team champions, defeating John Morrison and The Miz to cap off an amazing feud at WrestleMania 25 (a match that was never aired on the show—come on, WWE). Carlito and Primo showed incredible chemistry as a team, wrestling four-star matches on a regular basis during their run.

If you missed it, I recommend looking up some of their SmackDown matches with Miz and JoMo.

Edge and Chris Jericho ended their reign a few months later, but Carlito and Primo will always be known as the superstars who unified the WWE tag team championships.

1. Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and Big Show)

What do you do when you need to get a lower-tier belt some credibly? Call Chris Jericho of course!

After replacing his injured tag partner Edge with the Big Show, Chris Jericho and his new partner held the titles for more than half a year, having memorable feuds with Legacy, Carlito and Primo, MVP and Mark Henry, Cryme Tyme and DX. Not in years were the tag titles defended at PPVs with such consistency, and the matches were usually given 8-12 minutes apiece.

It was definitely the most memorable tag title reign in recent years.

Seeing as the two were on different brands, the team split immediately after losing the belts, but during their run Jeri-Show stepped out of the main event and showed a real commitment to helping the younger teams get over, and for that they will be remembered.

Conclusion

So there's how I see the previous unified tag team champions stacking up against one another. You'll notice most of the top teams were earlier ones and that the Corre and Nexus representatives were ranked low. Honestly, these teams just offer nothing unique as champions, while guys like the Hart Dynasty, Jeri-Show and the Colons did.

I'll probably rank some of the other champions later, but for now I hope you enjoyed my list.