Tag team wrestling in AEW needs some improvement

When All Elite Wrestling started in 2019, the tag team division was one of the pillars of the promotion. Fans loved that the company put an emphasis on pitting the best teams in the industry against one another. At some point, this changed and now the division isn’t seen in the same light. With the titles around the waists of The Young Bucks, it looks like the next feud will feature The Acclaimed and FTR. Don’t everybody roll their eyes at once, the collective response is a call for the tag team division to get better booking.

Are The Young Bucks one of the best tag teams in wrestling history? Yes. Is FTR a throwback to the heyday of tag team wrestling that fans love? Yes. Are The Acclaimed a beloved duo, even with calls to split Anthony Bowens away from Max Castor? Yes. But AEW’s tag team division is so much more than just these groups. While AEW does a good job booking tag team matches across its three weekly shows, none of them get enough of a considerable push that amounts to anything long-term.

Take a duo like Private Party. Many expected them to get a nudge up the ladder, especially as they were getting featured on television more frequently. That never happened, as they are back to taking more defeats than victories. This is the second time that anticipation for this duo was met with throwing water on the fire.

Other teams like The Righteous, The Outrunners, and even a great duo like Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita are struggling to break through. Without any of these teams getting any momentum, it is no wonder that the booking consistently goes back to one of the three teams mentioned in the opening. There’s almost no one else to go to.

The situation doesn’t improve much when talking about the trio’s division. Fans clamored to see six-man tag team action in AEW and the promotion delivered. For a moment, that division was hot with teams like The Elite, Death Triangle, and House of Black putting on amazing matches on a weekly basis. But the rest of the division wasn’t built out and interest in top contenders waned. The odd booking decision surrounding Bullet Club Gold didn’t help the situation and even though the titles are on The Patriarchy, they feel like they are in much of a holding pattern.

Wrestling fans love tag team action. This is the division that helped launch the careers of some of the best performers in the history of the industry. All Elite Wrestling did an excellent job highlighting groups of performers on a nightly basis, but that practice changed. It is time for the company to get back to basics.