WWE Vengeance 2011: Why Air Boom Is Quickly Reviving Tag Team Wrestling

The 2011 edition of WWE's Vengeance pay-per-view got underway with a fast-paced, high-impact match for the WWE Tag Team Championship, which saw current champions Air Boom—Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne—defending against United States champion Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger.

The match was so much more than a high-quality opening match to get fans excited for the rest of the show. It was an example of how truly exciting tag team wrestling once was and how, in a few short months, Air Boom has revitalized what had become a dying art.

The Rock and Roll Express. The Midnight Express. The Brisco Brothers. The Hart Foundation. The British Bulldogs. The Rockers.

All of these teams are responsible for fueling the art of tag team wrestling. These teams exemplified tandem wrestling and made tag teams as vital to any show as singles superstars. Tag teams allowed two wrestlers with little chance of succeeding as singles competitors the opportunity to form a duo with another star like themselves and, as a result, some of the greatest tag teams in wrestling history were born.

Tag team wrestling presented a completely different match psychology for those fans tired of, quite frankly, watching the same stories told between two single wrestlers. Tag teams brought with them exciting tandem maneuvers and feuds the fans could become engrossed in.

Some time around 2005, however, Vince McMahon and his company came to the conclusion that every star on the roster had to be bigger than life, and as a result, there was no room for tag teams, other than those thrown together and featuring two mega, main event stars teaming together for a night or a few weeks to set up a match between themselves.

As 2011 approached, it became more and more evident that tag team wrestling was on death row. With only a few select teams, such as Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater and David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty still in existence, the future looked anything but bright for the once proud division.

Then, as summer crept up on the wrestling business, rumors circulated around the internet that Triple H had expressed interest in backstage circles of reviving tag team wrestling.

A fan of the mid-to-late 80s National Wrestling Alliance product, Triple H had undoubtedly grown up on the Midnight Express versus Rock and Roll Express rivalry and was also exposed to the Fabulous Freebirds, the Superpowers duo of Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, and the Road Warriors. He likely remembered the great matches that resulted between these teams, some of those matches overshadowing even the top singles contests.

Enter Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne.

For years, Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne have been considered breakout stars in WWE. They are exciting young stars that have the ability to get fans into their matches based on their athleticism and high-flying, high-risk move sets.

But by the summer of 2011, they had hit a plateau. With the Raw brand becoming ever-so-crowded by main event-level stars, it became apparent that there was little for either man to do in singles competition. So they were made a tag team, and within a few weeks, they defeated the previously-mentioned Otunga and McGillicutty to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.

Since that moment, the duo—named the God-awful Air Boom by the WWE Universe—have been a shot of adrenaline in the previously-dying tag team division within WWE. Like the Rockers and the Rock and Roll Express, Air Boom has captivated fans with their exciting move sets, double-team maneuvers and high-flying assaults.

They have brought a legitimacy back to the titles and, with victories over The Miz and R-Truth and Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger, have climbed up the ladder to become one of the more popular acts in the company. Above all else, it has allowed the two stars to remain relevant when, in all likelihood, they would not have had they remained singles competitors.

With Air Boom, Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger, The Miz and R-Truth, the blossoming duo of Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks, and the Usos populating the tag team division, there is no reason not to believe that the renaissance of tag team wrestling could be just around the corner...unless Vince McMahon suddenly changes his mind and drops it all together again.