How Triple H Revitalized WWE’s Tag Team Division

Highlights

• WWE thriving under new leadership with Triple H prioritizing tag teams, giving them more time and importance.
• Tag teams once stars in WWE Golden and Attitude eras, created memorable moments with Hardy Boyz, Dudleyz, Edge & Christian.
• Vince McMahon’s disinterest led to years of neglect for tag teams, but with new direction, exciting teams like Usos are dominating.

WWE is arguably doing its best business ever, as a new era begins for the company. Much of that success comes down to Paul “Triple H” Levesque. With Vince McMahon finally forced out of the company, and Endeavor taking over with Triple H put in charge of the creative direction, WWE has thrived, with great matches and exciting storylines giving fans what they want to see but in unpredictable fashion. Cody Rhodes is now the face of the company, midcard titles like the Intercontinental and United States Championship mean something again, and the tag team division, which Vince didn’t care about, is thriving more than ever.

Tag Teams Once Did Big Business In WWE

Tag Team Stars Were As Popular As Singles Wrestlers

• The Hart Foundation, the British Bulldogs, and Legion of Doom were stars in WWE.
• Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels both started out in WWE tag teams
• The Attitude Era was highlighted by the Dudleyz, Hardys, and Edge & Christian

In the Golden Era of WWE, ruled by the likes of Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior, tag teams were treated like stars as well. Some stayed together for years, like the Legion of Doom and Demolition. Others used their success to catapult one of their members to singles glory, as the Hart Foundation did with Bret Hart, the British Bulldogs did with Davey Boy Smith, and the Rockers did with Shawn Michaels.

Tag teams became even bigger during the Attitude Era. It wasn’t just “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple, H, and the Undertaker we were tuning in for, but the wild chaos of the tag team division as well. The wars between the Hardys, the Dudleyz, and Edge and Christian were the peak of tag team greatness. As big as Jeff Hardy and Edge would get on their own, they would always be linked to the teams they came from. Sadly, somewhere along the way, everything changed.

Vince McMahon Wasn’t A Fan Of Tag Team Wrestling

WWE Tag Teams Often Got Little Time In The Ring

• The Ruthless Aggression and PG eras didn’t create many tag team stars
• Vince McMahon saw tag teams as an added expense
• The New Day managed to become one of WWE’s greatest tag teams

Starting with the Ruthless Aggression era, tag teams began to fade. MNM and La Resistance were a few of the teams who found championship gold, but they were treated the same. These were midcard stars who were given a few minutes to shine, but it was rare that anyone in those teams broke out. Instead, they were treated like something that Vince McMahon had to show against his will.

On the It’s My Wrestling Podcast, Charlie Haas, who worked in Ruthless Aggression era tag teams with Shelton Benjamin and Rico, blamed the decline of tag teams on Vince, saying:

“Vince doesn’t like tag team wrestling. He looks at it as an added expense, as paying for an extra guy on the road, extra guy in the hotel room. He really doesn’t like it, and he changed a lot of it over the years.”

Sure, eventually, going into the PG era, a team found success here and there, especially the New Day, but for many years, tag teams were built of big name singles stars, like Daniel Bryan and Kane getting together, Randy Orton joining forces with Edge, or Chris Jericho tagging with the Big Show. If you were a tag team specialist, you were better off somewhere else like TNA.

Triple H Treats Today’s Tag Teams With Respect

WWE Recently Split The Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships

• The Usos have dominated WWE’s tag team scene
• WWE split the tag team titles at WrestleMania 40
• Awesome Truth and A-Town Down Under were given new title belts

In the last few years, as Vince McMahon’s power began to fade, a few tag teams began to take hold in WWE. The Usos dominated the tag team division as the Undisputed Tag Team Champions, with a big assist from the greatness of the Bloodline story. Before them, Randy Orton and Matt Riddle’s RK-Bro team was one of the most entertaining parts of Raw. The Alpha Academy was fun too, and though they were a faction, the Judgment Day had variations of tag teams.

With Vince McMahon out, Triple H has really put an importance on tag teams. That’s seen not only in them being given more time, but bringing back the Authors of Pain, or putting two NXT legends, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa, back together as DIY. This became especially noticed when, at WrestleMania 40, the Undisputed tag titles were broken up, with R-Truth and the Miz, as Awesome Truth, taking Raw gold, and the fun pairing of Austin Theory and Grayson Waller, A-Town Down Under, took the blue brand belts. This change gives more teams a chance to compete for the top prizes, making them a priority once again. If that wasn’t great enough, those ugly belts are going away as well, with Triple H presenting the new, beautiful looking World Tag Team Championships to Awesome Truth on Raw, and the WWE Tag Team Champsion to A-Town Down Under on SmackDown.

The tag team division isn’t perfect. It’s a shame to see the Street Profits taking a backseat and the Authors of Pain haven’t done a lot since returning, but then you look at the emergence of Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate as New Catch Republic, or listen to the shock from the crowd whenever the Creed Brothers pull off some insane move, and it says so much. Because Triple H cares about tag teams, the crowd cares about them again too. It’s only going to keep getting better. Hopefully it will for the women as well.