10 Recent Tag Team Splits That Ruined Each Member’s Career
Breaking Sad.
Times are hard for tag teams. Despite a middling effort in recent years to breathe life back into a struggling doubles division, it seems as though Vince McMahon's old attitude towards the tandems has re-emerged, with more modern units ending in listless dissolution than heroic triumph.
No partnership is immune. As has often been the case with every aspect of WWE's output in recent years, NXT has been a healthy breeding ground for several untapped talents to find their feet in a mutually beneficial pairing, only for the main roster to squander or sacrifice the overall presentation in favour of two grossly inferior singles careers.
Attitudes may always fluctuate on the matter. As Bruce Prichard revealed on his 'Something To Wrestle' podcast, the biggest motivator is unsurprisingly cold hard cash. It really is 'all about the money', as Vince would biliously bang on about during his mid-2000s insecure spell. Paying two guys for a match instead of four is an economically sound decision, even if it downgrades fan interest in the short term and hamstrings talent development in the long.
It's becoming increasingly common too for performers to fall hard and fast upon splitting from their partner. Gone are the days of a famed duo breaking off into bigger and better things, or even a Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels taking a solo trip to the very top. Far from offering new potential, only scorched earth remained once the bomb dropped on these duos.
10. The Prime Time Players
When The New Day's mammoth 483 day reign with the WWE Tag Team Titles came to a close in December 2016, it ended a lingering discussion on the last pair to hold the belts before them.
Becoming more of a weird trivia note rather than a duo etched in history by virtue of their victory, the Prime Time Players had traded the titles with Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods already before the talented trio embarked on their incredible stint following their SummerSlam 2015 victory.
By the time Cesaro and Sheamus unseated The New Day, Darren Young and Titus O'Neil had long separated, but neither had remotely enjoyed success on a par with their relatively preferable times together.
Forming out of necessity on the morbidly entertaining NXT Redemption in 2012, Young and O'Neil had only just finished fighting one another in a seemingly endless feud before O'Neil turned heel immediately after their blowoff match. Forging a common bond, the pair ended up on the main roster, but faltered quickly and separated in 2013 after a beleaguered year. The subsequent feud sucked, and a Young ACL tear halting proceedings ultimately favoured both.
If their first rancid post-split feud hadn't highlighted how much better they were as a unit, the second one confirmed it. Reforming in 2015, the pair won, then successfully defended the titles on consecutive pay-per-views, but a second severance (alongside several deeply unrewarding matches) in 2016 killed the team for good.