Being perfectly honest, the RAW Tag Team division has been in absolute shambles for quite a while now. It’s crazy to think that it is the way it is, because, before 2018, it had one of the best tag team rosters in the world, let alone in WWE. It was filled with a mix of top tag teams, comprising of legends, WWE veterans and young up and coming teams.
There was a lot of fresh blood in the division, but then, WrestleMania 34 happened. WWE decided that since there were no plans for Braun Strowman in the main event scene at WrestleMania, they would put him up against Cesaro and Sheamus. There was supposed to be a Battle Royal to crown the #1 contenders to the RAW Tag Team titles held by Cesaro & Sheamus, and Braun Strowman interfered and ended up eliminating every single team, effectively burying the tag team division.
He was told that he had to have a partner, and it was a mystery as to who, with fans naturally going wild with speculations. Perhaps it was Bobby Lashley, who was fully expected to return at that point. Or perhaps it was someone else. What no one saw coming was that it would end up being 10-year old Nicholas, the son of referee John Cone who would be Strowman’s partner.
The burial of the RAW Tag Team division was complete, as Strowman and the 10-year old Nicholas defeated the world-class Cesaro & Sheamus to become RAW Tag Team Champions. While it was a good WrestleMania moment, it meant nothing on the long-run, because the titles were vacated the next day.
Earlier that night at WrestleMania, an unlikely alliance was formed between Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt. Once bitter rivals, Wyatt would return to help Hardy win the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. A newly formed tag team, they would go on to face The Bar at Saudi Arabia and become the new RAW Tag Team Champions.
While them being crowned champions were fine, this period of time was where the real problems began for the RAW Tag Team division. The very best teams from the red brand were moved over to SmackDown Live, essentially gutting the roster of its best teams. This included Cesaro & Sheamus, who would go on to join the SmackDown roster which already had The New Day and The Usos.
Even Gallows & Anderson were moved to SmackDown Live. While it seemed like a promising move, they weren’t and still aren’t utilized at all on the blue brand. While Hardy & Wyatt remained popular champions who got good reactions, their run wasn’t meant to last long, and they would end up dropping the titles to Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas, who reformed as The B-Team after breaking off from The Miz (who moved to the blue brand too).
Their run was even portrayed as nothing but a pure fluke, and they would quickly be dethroned by the temporary tag team of Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler. It seemed like a great direction at the time, but this would begin a series of hot-potatoing of the RAW Tag Team Championship.
After a failed attempt, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins got a RAW Tag Team title shot on the very night of Roman Reigns‘ leukemia announcement. They won the titles, only for Ambrose to immediately turn on Seth Rollins and brutalize him. This began their feud, and without Ambrose’s assistance, Rollins had to single-handedly defend the RAW Tag Team Championship against AoP.
Naturally, AoP won with relative ease. After that, it was Chad Gable & Bobby Roode‘s turn to win the titles. They hadn’t even been together too long, and were clearly put together because there were no other plans for them. It all coincided with the announcement of All Elite Wrestling and then the rumors of The Revival asking for their WWE releases.
This created a lot of buzz about The Revival, who unsurprisingly ended up winning the RAW Tag Team Champions in February 2019. All of this just goes to show the chaos that the RAW Tag Team division has been for the last year or so. From burying the tag teams to the entire division to temporary tag teams winning the titles, to the titles being used as a prop for other stories, there was a 5-month gap between Hell in a Cell and Fastlane where the RAW Tag titles weren’t defended at all on PPV.
It just goes to show that the division was a clear afterthought for creative for the past twelve months. WrestleMania is a pivotal time because it determines the direction going forward. With the Superstar Shake-up looming and more exciting tag teams entering the fray, WWE has the opportunity to right their wrong and evenly balance out the two tag team divisions.
There needs to be a clear-cut plan to make sure that both RAW and SmackDown’s tag divisions aren’t neglected, because there is a whole pool of talent, and multiple teams waiting to break out that are severely underutilized. It’s the perfect time to make the change, and it’ll make the product a whole lot more exciting.
