I’ll keep this quick today, gents and gentiles, as I know we all have holiday festivities to get to.
It’s myth debunking time! There are three complaints that the internet generally seems to have about tag teams and WWE. They are as follows: 1. WWE doesn’t have a tag team division anymore (true), 2. WWE doesn’t value tag teams/the tag team titles (partially true), and 3. WWE doesn’t care about/regularly have good tag team matches (patently false). Let’s look deeper.
Point 1 is inarguable. WWE absolutely doesn’t have a tag division that is maintained. At any time, there are four or so regular teams who are mostly present to take up a few shots at house shows and be fed to main eventers. This is a far cry from not only the past of WWE itself, where teams like the Killer Bees, Fabulous Rougeous, the Young Stallions and the like were undercard teams beneath the Hart Foundation, British Bulldogs and Demolition, but other wrestling companies in America today, notably, of course, TNA and ROH. This position is unassailable and fans assume that 2 and 3 must logically follow, but are generally incorrect.
The tag titles and specific tag teams are valued extremely highly, at least in cycles. Currently, we’re at an ebb with the belts, but that doesn’t mean that the belts and specific teams aren’t regularly important to the company. Most recently, the belt held most importance when Big Show and Chris Jericho used it as a device to run rampant on two shows. The belts also held importance to Nexus in their power grab, and were intermittently important when Legacy did the same. Looking back, around once every two years, for a good period of time, the titles hold importance. Of course, that doesn’t always mean the teams matter, which is the next interesting point.
One of the best draws in WWE in recent years, at least in terms of merchandising, was a tag team. I refer to Degeneration X, who are often used as an example of how WWE views tag teams as just a collection of individuals who are preferably on their own. Proof here is given as the aforementioned JeriShow faced D-X on television in their major encounters, but not PPV. That’s actually outright missing the point, however, which brings us to #3.
WWE doesn’t seem to believe tag teams draw on PPV, even if the tag teams involve such stars and office favorites as Triple H and Shawn Michaels. So, if not on PPV, how then is point three wrong? On PPV isn’t the only product that WWE presents. Look at television regularly – the most promoted matches on most Raws are huge tag matches involving members of major feuds. These get the most air time, heaviest push, and due at least partially to when they air, the highest ratings. Also, often, these matches end up being quite good (last week’s Miz/Swagger vs. Riley/Mysterio, a few weeks ago Miz/Truth vs. Cena/Riley, too). Said matches are better than most PPV fare, and a good deal of PPV main events.
WWE might not think you’ll pay for a great tag match, so don’t regularly push it as a division, but they do know you’ll watch, and appreciate, for free without tuning away. Tag teams, or at least tag team matches are still important in WWE; their role has just changed.
