Wrestling: 15 Teams That Can Save Tag Team Wrestling

I have to make a confession: I'm a big fan of tag teams.

I grew up in a time that featured the Midnight Express, the Rock and Roll Express, the Super Powers of Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff, Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson, the Road Warriors, Demolition, the British Bulldogs, the Hart Foundation, the Rockers, Strike Force, the Steiner Brothers, Harlem Heat, etc.

This was a time where tag matches were the main event of shows. It's also a time that younger wrestling fans probably find hard to believe.

These days, for the most part, tag team matches are only slightly ahead of women's matches in the pecking order. Sometimes, they're not even that high.

However, there is actually reasons for hope for a tag team fan like myself.

Between World Wrestling Entertainment starting to show more of a focus on tag team wrestling, TNA Wrestling getting a big tag boost in 2012, Ring of Honor (which has the best tag division) getting in more homes with their new television deal and Dragon Gate USA developing new tag teams, things are looking up.

Granted, with every step forward, there is a step back.

The team that has had to hold tag team wrestling together in the mainstream, Beer Money, seems to be nearing the end of their run.

Luckily, there looks to be plenty of teams ready to take the torch, and plenty of feuds that can get tag team wrestling back to the level that made me such a fan.

Tyson Kidd and Daniel Bryan

As a big fan of tag teams, one thing I've learned is that some of the best teams are comprised of two guys that had great matches as opponents.

Look at the original Midnight Express, Public Enemy, Sabu and Rob Van Dam, as well as Kevin Nash and Scott Hall.

When I look at Daniel Bryan and Tyson Kidd, I see the potential for another great tag team made out of two good rivals.

Both men are about as technically sound as you can find in the WWE; they compliment each other well and look like a perfect match for the next team I'm about to mention.

I definitely see some Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson in these two. 

Air Boom

While their name is a definite drawback (THIS was the name that was voted on by the fans? Was the voting done only in elementary schools?), you can't deny the talents of Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne— collectively known as *shudder* Air Boom.

The high-flying duo harkens back to a day of white-meat babyface tag teams like the Rock and Roll Express and the Rockers. Considering the success those teams had, there's nothing wrong with that at all.

It's the best usage of Bourne (who really never has gotten far as a singles wrestler in WWE) and Kingston (who has done everything as a singles wrestler in WWE but win a world title—which probably isn't happening), so hopefully they'll keep the team together a long time.

However, a babyface tag team is only as good as their opponents. Kidd and Bryan would make for a good challenger. 

This next team will make another.

Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger

If Air Boom is the new Rock and Roll Express, then Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger are definitely the next Midnight Express.

Granted, no one should ever confuse Vicki Guerrero with Jim Cornette.

You wonder if Michael Hayes or Jim Ross are having some input here as both were present for those great Express matches.

If you're going to have a high-flying babyface tag team like Air Boom, you want a team opposing them that will keep that team grounded and get the heat.

Both Ziggler and, especially, Swagger are experts at this.

A long-term team with Ziggler and Swagger would also do wonders for Swagger, whose career has floundered since he was world champion.

A long, impressive tag team run could do for him what it did for the Beer Money duo of James Storm and Robert Roode—make people forget an abysmal singles run so that you can try another one later on.

Kings of Wrestling

The team that dominated one of the hottest tag team divisions for a year in Ring of Honor is now heading to the WWE.

Well, reportedly.

Claudio Castagnoli is already there in the WWE developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling, under the new name of Antonio Cesaro. Chris Hero hasn't arrived, but is expected to.

While either man would do well as singles wrestlers, when called up to the main WWE roster, they have a chance to make a bigger impression as a tag team.

Hero and Cesaro are a team that compliments Ziggler and Swagger—especially with Swagger and Cesaro squaring off as opposing powerhouses.

A tag team division based around the Kings, Air Boom, Kidd and Bryan, and Ziggler and Swagger is one with a great foundation.

Ink Inc.

While not as technically skilled as the teams that have been listed so far, Ink Inc. has something else going for them—a very unique look.

Teams like the Road Warriors, Demolition, Powers of Pain and the Natural Disasters also weren't technically sound, but their looks took them a long way.

Ink Inc. aren't powerhouses like those teams, but their counter-culture look fits well in this day and age where there are plenty of people that take the tattoo and piercing route.

The team should get even more popular in the coming weeks with a new addition.

However, if you have a team with a counter-culture look, you need a team that screams conservative as their opponents to make a good rivalry.

Can TNA produce that team?

Motor City Machine Guns

TNA's tag team division will be in dire need of a team to be the face of it as Beer Money looks to be leaving the full-time team ranks.

Luckily, they should get just that in 2012 when Chris Sabin returns from injury and the Motor City Machine Guns reunite.

Without a doubt, the Guns need to be the face of tag team wrestling in TNA. In a time where tag team wrestling hasn't been as popular, the Guns and Beer Money changed that perception with a terrific five-match series in 2010.

They've also been successful merchandise sellers—killing the belief tag team wrestling doesn't draw.

Much like Ink Inc., the Guns need a good opponent to have another rivalry like the one with Beer Money.

The answer to both teams problems is already in TNA

British Invasion

Doug Williams and Brutus Magnus should be the top heel tag team in TNA, and should have been from the day Beer Money went babyface.

No offense to Mexican America, but the British Invasion simply has more to offer.

Not only are they the perfect foils to the two top babyface tag teams in TNA in Ink Inc. (perfect conservative team to frown on Ink Inc.'s piercings and tattoos) and the Motor City Machine Guns (perfect ground-based tag team to combat the Guns high-flying style—another potentially great series for the Guns), but they are UK talents, where TNA is pretty successful.

With a big tour of the UK coming soon, it would probably be smart of TNA to have the British Invasion in the thick of the tag title picture instead of just the focus of the company's international TV show, Xplosion.

Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team

It's rare these days for tag teams to stay together for long periods of time. Most see the bigger dollar signs that come from being a star singles wrestler.

The tag teams that do stay together tend to be brother tag teams like the two I'll be discussing shortly.

However, Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin are the exceptions to the rule. Two guys that could probably have great singles success, but have opted to stay together in the tag team ranks.

Their dedication paid off in 2010 when they signed with Ring of Honor and are now the tag team champions and the faces of the most competitive tag team division in pro wrestling.

With Ring of Honor recently debuting their new weekly television show on the Sinclair Broadcasting Group family of networks, Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team have a chance to show that they are deserving of the name.

They've already had solid matches with the Kings of Wrestling and the Briscoes. A feud with the All Night Express seems to be inevitable.

With teams like Future Shock, the Bravados and the Young Bucks in Ring of Honor as well, don't be surprised if Haas and Benjamin have a few classic tag matches in their future.

Young Bucks

When the Young Bucks put their Generation Me days in TNA behind them, no one could have expected that they'd get a big boost from it—much less from one of the wrestlers in TNA that they never faced.

However, that's what happened when Rob Van Dam called out the Young Bucks in an interview for not shaking his hand, a staple of wrestler protocol backstage. 

After the Young Bucks had a tryout with WWE, both WWE commentator (and one of Van Dam's best friends) Booker T and wrestler Golddust backed up Van Dam's claim.

The Bucks were not signed by WWE and returned to Ring of Honor, where they have turned that alleged refusal to shake hands into a key part of their image.

Of course, Ring of Honor is home to the Code of Honor where wrestlers shake hands before and after the match. The Bucks have refused to follow this code so far since their return to Ring of Honor and have become solid heels due to it.

The cocky refusal has great potential in feuds with Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team and Future Shock—teams that do abide by the code.

I guess the Young Bucks TNA run wasn't all bad.

All Night Express

These days, tag teams are so rare in wrestling that you rarely get to see teams grow and develop, and also make the climb up from the opening match to the main event.

Ring of Honor fans have been lucky enough to see this with Rhett Titus and Kenny King, the All-Night Express.

Once just the sidekicks for former ROH star Austin Aries, the All Night Express have come into their own, making huge leaps and bounds in the past year.

This is mainly due to their title match with the Kings of Wrestling where they showed they could hang with the best, and, even more, because of their feud with the Briscoes when ANX showed they weren't just the athletic pretty boys and went to war in First Blood, Street Fight and Ladder War matches.

As the ANX/Briscoe feud winds down, the last hurdle for King and Titus to climb is with Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team and to win the ROH world tag team titles.

Fans seem to be looking forward to that day.

The Briscoes

The OG's of Ring of Honor.

The six-time tag team champions, the Briscoes, have faced some of the best tag teams over the years from Austin Aries and Roderick Strong, CM Punk and Colt Cabana, AJ Styles and the Amazing Red to the American Wolves, Kevin Steen and El Generico, the Motor City Machine Guns and the Kings of Wrestling.

They've done it in street fights, cage matches and two of the three Ladder Wars in ROH's history. The skills and abilities of the Briscoes is without debate.

What is debatable is if there's anything left to do or prove for the team in Ring of Honor?

The brothers from Delaware are currently pursuing their seventh reign as ROH Tag Team Champions—no other team in the company's history can claim more than two.

That makes the record of reigns highly unlikely to be broken.

It would be interesting to see the Briscoes in WWE or TNA. A stable with the Briscoes and fellow beer-drinking country boy James Storm (along with maybe even the female tandem of ODB and Jackie Moore) has all sorts of possibilities, especially with a promotion that is based primarily in the South.

Dark City Fight Club

A team that is currently not in any of the big three promotions—but should be—is the Dark City Fight Club.

The duo of Jon Davis and Kory Chavis are currently the NWA tag team champions. Unfortunately, the days when that had a great deal of meaning is long past.

Dark City Fight Club had a mediocre run in Ring of Honor, mainly due to the lack of top-level competition as the American Wolves, Briscoes, Kevin Steen and El Generico, and the Kings of Wrestling comprised the top tier of the tag ranks, so Dark City really had no chance of cracking that ceiling.

Thus, the duo was stuck in a small feud with the Young Bucks, and with various members of the Embassy before being released.

Dark City Fight Club could be a shot in the arm for a number of promotions looking to add something new to the tag team ranks from WWE and TNA to the Urban Wrestling Federation.

If there's one thing that pro wrestling has shown over the years, everyone loves a bad-ass.

Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano

As mentioned before, tag teams can sometimes come from two guys that are just as good as rivals.

Throughout the independent scene, Johnny Gargano and Chuck Taylor have been both allies and enemies, and have developed a great chemistry as a result.

Currently, best known as two-thirds of the faction known as Ronin in Dragon Gate USA, the duo recently showcased their tag skills as part of the round robin tournament to crown the first Open the Freedom Gate tag team champions.

As shown in the video above, the duo has charisma for days, and are definitely no slouches in the ring as they are put up against some of the best independent talent in the country, and some of the best talent in Japan as part of Dragon Gate USA.

Ronin is the first of the American talent to really make their mark in Dragon Gate, but they certainly won't be the last, courtesy of this next team.

D.U.F.

I mentioned with Ink Inc. that a look of a team can go a long way. In this day of rebellion against the establishment, there is one team that has that look down more than any other.

That team is D.U.F. out of Dragon Gate USA.

The team of Arik Cannon and Sami Callihan (along with recent addition Pinkie Sanchez) has taken the independent ranks by storm as being the team that definitely stands out among the others.

Few can match the duo when it comes to the rebellious counter-culture look and attitude.

If some wrestlers strive to connect with the everyman, D.U.F. connects with the ones the every man looks down on.

The team has gotten additional credibility lately with hardcore legend Sabu getting involved with their issues with young wrestler A.R. Fox.

Vladimir Kozlov and David Hart Smith

This is my wild card.

Both men were let go from the WWE recently after really not being used to their full abilities.

When you have talented athletes, you should hopefully be able to do more than what the WWE did with those two.

Kozlov is a Sambo and kickboxing champion as well as being trained in freestyle wrestling, judo and other mixed martial arts. In WWE, he was the guy who headbutted people and was in a comedy team with Santino Marella.

Smith is also trained in MMA and worked in Japan both before and after his time in WWE.

I could definitely see the two being paired up with a manager and used as a dominant tag team that utilized their skills. A Minnesota Wrecking Crew of Ole and Arn Anderson for a new era.

Again, wrestling fans love badasses, and a duo tapping and knocking guys out definitely fit the bill.

Those Teams That Didn't Make the Cut

I know I left out a few teams on this list.

The biggest omission is probably the TNA Tag Team Champions, Mexican America.

While I think the team has some potential, I just think it'll be too hard for them to escape the shadow of the Latin American Xchange, Hernandez's former team.

With rumors of his contract ending soon, and Homicide out there, you wonder if the temptation to reunite LAX in AAA, ROH or UWF might be too tempting for Hernandez to pass up.

The Uso's are another team that just seems to be missing something. Jimmy Uso being arrested recently for DUI probably isn't helping their cause either.

Kyle O'Reilly and Adam Cole in ROH have had some good outings. I left them out because I can't get past the horrible name "Future Shock" (sorry, Air Boom killed my tolerance) or naming their finisher "Ride the Lightning."

Other teams that deserve some honorable mention include Cheech and Cloudy, and Super Smash Brothers.

So that's my opinion on the pro wrestling tag team scene. What's yours?

What teams do you think are going to make it big and what feuds would you like to see?