As amazing as it is, the WWE has seemingly begun to refresh its tag team division. This is without a shadow of a doubt a response to the strength of the TNA tag team division.
The TNA tag division is amazing; any writer on Bleacher Report should know this fact quite well. The rise of the WWE tag division begin as early as Wrestlemania 25, though it seemed to die with the breakup of Miz and Morrison. But, the fact that WWE may be trying to give it life again became apparent right after The Bash.
For a long time the tag team division in WWE has been absolute garbage but there are some clues to it rising again. just take a brief look:
1) The Unified Titles
There were a whole slew of articles about how unifying the WWE tag team champion and the world tag team championship may breathe life into the division. This was the earliest move of the WWE in attempting to refresh their tag division.
Indeed it may be working to the advantage of the WWE as there aren’t four teams striving to get two belts, but one.
The very nature of the belts makes the division seem more competitive as the belts can be defended on Raw, Smackdown, ECW and even sometimes on Superstars. This gives a lot of diversity especially considering it makes a tag team on ECW worthwhile.
The belts are still unified, but there are separate title belts which clues that they might be separated again. Hopefully, this isn’t until the tag team division is a bit stronger.
2) New teams
WWE has recently put together some new teams. The most recent was William Regal and Vladimir Kozlov, who will hopefully stay together, and Edge and Jericho. At this point neither team has been seen often, and in any case not tagging together regularly.
The Hart Dynasty became a team recently, and their move to Smackdown definitely cements their team.
3) The New Wrestlers
Recently WWE has been picking up quite a few new wrestlers, including some brilliant international prospects, which you can read more about in my last article.
One of the more interesting prospects is Sheamus. I feel it may be a sin and holding him back from his potential, but sticking him with Finlay in an all-Irish team is definitely possible and may give him a little more potential.
A tag team consisting of Dos Caras Jr. and his cousin Sicodelico Jr. is also a major possibility that may add to the division.
4) Exposure Of The Established Teams
This development is seen on Raw more than anywhere else as the teams on Raw are actually given time to cut a promo. The Colons are perhaps one of the strongest teams in WWE right now. They won the WWE tag team championship in September of 2008 then went on to unify this title with the World tag titles at Wrestlemania 25, although they would lose both at The Bash.
Priceless/Legacy are also one of the stronger teams mainly due to an association with Randy Orton.
Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes share in Randy’s promo time and as a result get a lot of exposure. They are also solid in the ring. They are two-time world tag team champions.
The Hart Dynasty falls somewhere between being an established team and a new team. They have potential being the latest incarnation of the Hart Foundation, one of the greatest tag teams in WWE history.
They also have something in their favor which is not seen in a lot of teams today, that being Natalya in their corner. We have not seen their full potential and they would rarely have tag matches on ECW, but with their move to Smackdown we’ll sonn see what they have to offer as a team.
Cryme Tyme is rarely seen these days but maybe they will start to have more of a role soon. That being said, having them win a match or two would be nice.
5) Main Eventers in the Tag Team Division
This is where we really start to see a turn in attention to the Unified Tag Team titles. The Main Eventers I am referring too are, of course, Edge and Chris Jericho.
They managed to take the titles from The Colons after getting inserted into The Colons match with Priceless.
Edge and Chris Jericho are arguably one of the most credible teams to hold the tag titles in a long time. They are excellent workers and are both strong on the mic. Having them hold the tag team titles may be the boost the tag team division needs.
The tag team division in WWE is far from being close to TNA’s, but it’s starting to look up.
Edge and Chris Jericho are really the kicker here.If WWE has them keep the titles for a while it will strengthen the entire division. Their presence will attract attention to the tag team titles and I think the audience will be bound to pay more attention to teams put up against them.
Only time will tell what happens, we just have to sit back and watch.
Anyone who wishes to take a better look at the international talent mentioned read this:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/210222-international-talent-wwes-future
(I apologize for the poor image due to the issue with uploading photos I couldn’t use a better one)