WWE: Adding Tag Titles to SmackDown Live is Smart Idea

WWE SmackDown’s tag team division has found its purpose thanks to the company’s decision to introduce a second pair of tag titles for the blue brand.

One of the issues for SmackDown after the draft was that the show had a tag team division but no tag titles. With American Alpha having been drafted to SmackDown, it made little sense to bring such an exciting young duo to a show without a prize for tag teams.

General Manager Daniel Bryan addressed this issue on the August 9th edition of WWE Talking Smack, by announcing SmackDown will have a pair of tag titles at some point in the future. Bryan also emphasized the importance of building up the show’s tag team division before introducing the titles.

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Introducing a second pair of tag titles from SmackDown is a smart decision because it gives the show’s tag team division a purpose for existing. The blue brand’s current tag division is made up of six teams, but a majority of these duos are young and have not been on the main roster for a long time.

It is also a smart idea to build up the tag division before introducing a new pair of titles. The WWE can use this opportunity to reestablish teams like The Ascension and The Vaudevillains, as legitimate tag team title contenders.

When The Ascension made their main roster debut on SmackDown in 2014, they defeated The Miz and Damien Sandow. The duo looked impressive and was booked well over the next few weeks.

The Ascension managed to build up a winning streak and It really seemed like the WWE were handling the duo correctly. Things started to go downhill after the WWE had the team do a segment with the NWO, The New Age Outlaws, and the APA.

The three retired teams beat up The Ascension and made the young duo look really weak. This segment made The Ascension lose all the credibility they had as future tag team title contenders.

The duo also had their unbeaten streak snapped by Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns after they were disqualified. This was followed up by a pin-fall loss to The Prime Time Players a week later.

The next few months were not kind to The Ascension. They continued to lose matches on both SmackDown and Raw and their matches on pay-per-views were only featured on the pre-show.

The Ascension started out strong on the main roster. The duo eventually got lost in the shuffle after they started being booked poorly. The same thing could be said about The Vaudevillains.

The duo of Simon Gotch and Aiden English were one of the most exciting heel tag teams in NXT. When they made their main roster debut on SmackDown in April, they defeated The Lucha Dragons in convincing fashion.

The Vaudevillains were later placed into a tournament to determine the number contender for the tag titles. They picked up a win over Fandango and Tyler Breeze and later defeated The Usos in the semifinal round. At Payback, The Vaudevillains took on Enzo Amore and Big Cass in the finals of the tournament, but the match had to be stopped due to a legitimate injury to Amore.

About a month later, The Vaudevillains got a shot at the tag titles in a match against The New Day, but were unable to come out victorious. The team suffered another setback after they lost to The New Day again, in a fatal four-way tag team at Money in the Bank.

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The Vaudevillains continued to struggle for the next few weeks and even lost to Goldust and R-Truth on Raw, in a match that barely lasted two minutes. Things were not going well for The Vaudevillains before the draft, but now that they are on SmackDown, the WWE has an opportunity to revive their careers.

It is clear that the WWE has had a difficult time turning heel tag teams from NXT into stars on the main roster. These young teams start out strong, but are later relegated to jobber status thanks to poor booking decisions by the company.

Now that SmackDown has a reason for having a tag division, they can use this opportunity to build up American Alpha as superstars. The duo of Chad Gable and Jason Jordan are one of the most athletic and entertaining tag teams in the world.

American Alpha made their main roster debut on the August 2nd edition of SmackDown, where they defeated The Vaudevillains. Gable and Jordan also picked up a win over a pair of local talent the following week. During that match, The Hype Bros, The Vaudevillains, and The Ascension came out to ringside to stare down American Alpha.

After the match, the four tag teams started brawling and knocking each other out of the ring. American Alpha took down The Vaudevillains and was the last team standing after the brawl.

SmackDown’s tag team division seems to be heading in the right direction. They don’t have the immediate star power that Raw’s tag division currently has but they are definitely working on it.

By building up teams like American Alpha, The Vaudevillains, and The Ascension, SmackDown can become the show that develops young wrestlers into stars. Monday Night Raw might have tag teams that are over with fans now, but Smackdown has the opportunity to build the stars of the future.

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Daniel Bryan’s decision to build up SmackDown’s tag team division before introducing a pair of tag titles is a smart decision. Building up these teams into superstars will make the new tag titles seem much more prestigious than they would be if they were introduced right away.