The WWE Tag Team Division Has No Place In Todays Wrestling

By Maurice D. Proffit
Photo Courtesy of http://listas.20minutos.es

Back in the yester-years of the WWE, the tag team division was one of the most respectable and feared divisions in all of pro wrestling. When you thought of WWE and/or WWF tag teams, you automatically think of the likes of Demolition, The Legion of Doom, The Natural Disasters, Money Inc., The Nasty Boys, The New Age Outlaws – the list is practically endless. However, after last week’s Friday Night Smackdown, Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow announced that they will no longer be a tag team.

That’s right, The Rhodes Scholar are no more as a team, and it leads me to ask, is WWE tag team wrestling officially dead?

The current WWE Tag Team Champions are “Team Hell No” consisting of Daniel Bryan and Kane. However, since being the WWE tag champs, the actual titles have been a mere afterthought with the tag team. For the last six to seven months, Team Hell No’s main story line focus was not on who they were defending the titles against, but more so them getting through their therapy session. In addition to the different direction of tag teams, Vince McMahon is looking to splitting up The Primetime Players since Vince is very high on Titus O’Neal and has future plans for him.

Let be honest, have tag teams within the last seven years been fixated, iconic figures in our lives like they were in the 80’s and 90’s? I can answer this for you, no. A main reason why this is true goes back to 2003, when many tag teams were being formulated they were just two singles wrestlers paired up to go against two other singles wrestlers pairing up with each other. This trend has been dominate for over a decade now and either it needs to stop or the tag team division must cease.

Hulk Hogan once stated that “there’s no money in tag teams”, not so much that the fans aren’t willing to pay to see tag teams wrestle, but more so for the men competing in tag teams since they have to split the purse money in four ways. Due to the lower wages, its not the most enticing route to go down when someone is looking to make as much money from the business as possible.

With that said, no one goes to the WWE anymore to be in a career tag team anymore, so maybe the tag team championship titles should disappear. The tag team belts were only physically changed for merchandising reasons so they can have people purchase the replicas, but do not hold any weight what-so-ever in terms of credibility or lineage.

For years, people have voiced their honest opinions about “making the tag team scene relevant again”. But if the fans have difficulty getting behind various wrestlers in the mid card division, then how on earth will the fans get behind a tag team division that will encompass of mid card talent? The last load of actual tag teams in the WWE have consisted of the likes of The Usos, Primo/Epico and The Primetime Players, six guys that the WWE Universe mocks when they come out to the ring to wrestle.

That’s something that never would’ve been done in the Federation years of the WWE. So, whats the point of keeping this dying breed around? Kill the division.

 

Maurice D. Proffit is a Writer for Rant Sports

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