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WWE Tag Team Division: It’s Been a While Since Teams Have Been Fun

By Michael Whitlow

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When’s the last time the WWE tag team division has been something you’ve wanted to see on an episode of Monday Night Raw? The return of The Dudley Boyz was just the exclamation point on what has been a fun up-and-coming period for the division.

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Personally, I really question how big of a wrestling fan you really are if you didn’t explode out of your seat when the pyro hit the stage and The Dudley Boyz made their triumphant return to WWE in Brooklyn a few weeks ago.

For myself, not only did the return for Bubba and D-Von have that awesome nostalgic feel that older wrestling fans crave, it sparked what has been a fun period for the WWE tag team division.

The Dudleyz, along with a one-night return of Edge & Christian last week, and the funniest trio I’ve ever seen on television — The New Day — the division hasn’t been this exciting since … well, when was the last time this division was this fun?

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There have been some teams that fans have been invested in, but the vibe of the entire division wasn’t completely there. The Usos (before Jey’s injury) always had fast-paced matches that fans could connect to, while Tyson Kidd and Cesaro (before Kidd’s serious neck injury) were getting over in the hardcore wrestling fan community. The division was making progress, but injuries set it back.

When you glance at the tag team title reigns over the years, there have been some interesting teams (even the older version of D-Generation X had a title run), but the division as a whole? The sizzle hasn’t been there in roughly a decade, when the Raw and SmackDown brands were separated and you weren’t watching the same stars on both shows every week.

Prior to the 2007-08, tag teams in WWE were able to develop. The days of MNM, London and Kendrick, the Hollywood duo of Morrison and Miz, and even a star-packed duo of Edge and Randy Orton made for entertaining television with their intense rivalry with DX. After that period of time, we’ve seemingly seen teams that were thrown together in the tag team division.

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    • Fast forward to today: The New Day owns the gold and the crowds with every musical piece played by Xavier Woods, The Dudleyz are back in WWE, Los Matadores are appearing to head towards a re-brand (which was needed for them), the Lucha Dragons are a big plus with the younger audience à la Rey Mysterio, and the Prime Time Players have connected well with crowds since their reunion.

    (Although there’s nothing set in stone by any means, rumors are circulating about The Hardy Boyz heading for their return to WWE at some point next year too.)

    Even down in NXT, the brand is in the process of completely a huge tag team tournament in the honor of Dusty Rhodes that’s set to finish next month at the next TakeOver event.

    The important thing to remember with tag team wrestling is letting tag teams develop and build storylines. The booking for The New Day has been perfect. They’ve grown from three choir boys that everyone despised to three pompous heels that walk around with a sense of humor and know they’re better than everyone else. (Let’s be honest, they are. Big E. literally ate a kazoo on television.)

    As hot as The New Day was before The Dudleyz returned to WWE, the best thing that could have happened to them was Bubba and D-Von returning home. The duo is 24-time(!) tag team champions for six different companies and have an insane amount of knowledge with tag team wrestling to pass on to the rest of the division.

    Sure, some of us in the wrestling community are never really satisfied with the product. (Don’t look at me like that. You don’t like 78 straight Sheamus-Randy Orton matches, followed by the same robotic promo from John Cena either.)

    But, the WWE tag team division is something that we all can get behind and mark out to each week.

    Next: Monday Night Raw Preview for Sept. 14

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