No, WWE Won't Fix Its Tag Team Division...Yet

Just a week into their run, the Motor City Machine Guns are Tag Team Champions on Smackdown. No, WWE won't fix its tag team division off the back of this or any other win. That is because it's never been about a lack of talent. Ever so briefly, there was a point in time when the tag team titles felt as if they were on the rise in status within WWE.

From 2017 to 2019, the WWE titles on Smackdown were in a great spot. Around that same time, if not a bit later, the World Tag Team titles on Raw were creating more buzz on TV since their inception in the early 2000s. Again, the titles on both Raw and Smackdown got a lot more exciting in around 2021 or 2022 and kept that momentum until early 2024. Throughout that time, legendary tag teams like The New Day and The Usos were forged. Solid matches from guys like Sheamus, Cesaro, FTR, and Chad Gable were commonplace. Some of WWE's top guys, like AJ Styles, Randy Orton, Sami Zayn, and Cody Rhodes, were even competing for the straps. The titles have yet to keep momentum because they are often relegated to bad slots, middling champions, and sacrificed for main event feuds.  

It is a Pre-show or a No-Show for the Tag Team champions.

Since WrestleMania 40, when the titles were split, the men have not defended their WWE tag team titles. Women, who share just one set of belts, have appeared more often, albeit marginally. However, these teams are usually thrown together without any logical connection. It is why, sadly, the answer is no: WWE won't fix its tag team division. Doing so would require them to have the titles defended. Recently, even the events that have featured the tag team champions wrestling are for something other than the titles or in tag matches. The lack of defenses is a source of frustration and concern for the future of the division.

If the tag team champions are going to be treated as a unit, like serious champions, then they need to perform on the big stages. That doesn't seem likely in the near term. The Triple H era has cut the PLE size extensively, to the point where being a mid-card or women's champion is far from a guaranteed spot. This is to make the shows shorter overall. There are mixed views on that strategy forward and a lot of other downsides and upticks that need to be unpacked as well. The reality, though, is that it is the strategy going forward. A tag team title match getting a slot on a 5 or 6-match card is going to be as long as the singles roster is just so stacked with popular talent.

The tag team champions have stopped being top talent.

Think for a moment again about the Motor City Machine Guns. Five days into a WWE run, they defeated a revamped Bloodline for the titles. It was in service to another story, which will be discussed a little later.

However, the main issue here is, who are the MCMG really? Many fans, myself included, do know who they are and what they have done. Others do not. Both men are older than 40 years and have had a long and storied wrestling career before their WWE debut as a team. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley are not going to be long-term fixtures in WWE; the clock deems that nearly impossible. Yes, both rosters have older stars, but most of them at least established themselves with a WWE audience first.

MCMG has some hot momentum now, but they are unlikely to become true mainstays in the pantheon of WWE greats. There is a non-zero chance they will start competing more in TNA as part of that growing partnership than they do on Smackdown. On Raw, Judgment Day, missing two of its three hottest members is holding onto the titles yet again after not being particularly interesting for a few months. That, too, is in service of another act, but that, again, is not the point.

The titles have, for nearly a year, been under the hands of acts that are new or otherwise not overly connecting with fans. It is currently hard to remember which reign number the current Women's tag team champions are on. They win and lose the title so frequently that each reign loses all meaning. It's doing neither now and has been inconsistent for years. At its peak, these titles were being defended by top prospects or contended for by legendary talents.

WWE Tag Teams don't have a story to finish.

What is Judgment Day doing with the tag team titles? They are fighting with their old members, who are not eligible to win those belts as a team. With the Wyatt Sicks returning and solidifying their penchant for retribution on the many Judas acolytes in wrestling, they seem poised soon to take down that group and possibly win the titles. What that means, in the meantime, is that those belts continue collecting dust in a mixed-gender feud involving talent who are not the current tag team champions. On Smackdown, it means that a team with no momentum and only two weeks of development is holding the titles. That isn't nearly enough time to get more than a few minutes of airtime a week.  

When WWE does have tag team champions with some popularity or purpose, like Finn Balor or The Bloodline, they throw them into other feuds that don't involve defending their belts. When teams like MCMG or A-Town Down Under win the titles, they fall into obscurity as the actual stories happen around them. WWE has yet to book a successful tag team feud for the titles since WrestleMania 39. Every move before and after that one has seemed to reinforce the idea they don't want to. If the feud doesn't make the talent compelling and the titles prestigious, then it's not going to feel like one to follow, as opposed to the genuinely great things WWE is producing right now.

How can WWE fix its tag team division?

The zenith of the tag team title scene is probably WrestleMania 39. The night one main event was a tag match for the title between four of the company's biggest stars that year. They had a long and compelling feud told over months, and both teams were established and well-known; the pairings weren't at all random in the context of WWE's booking.

No, WWE won't fix its tag team division back to those levels without a change. Firstly, there needs to be more crossover for wrestlers in the divisions. Superstars with solid singles credentials need to be booked in title fights. Secondly, WWE needs to find ways to make the title feel more sporting. Let the tag titles become something of a rarity if they can't get on TV anyway. Frequent tournaments could incentivize teams to form and join the division, if only for a little while. That may give it less time on screen or story development, but it provides the belts some momentum and prestige. That is as good a place to start as any.