10 Glaring Problems WWE Must Solve Before SummerSlam 2021

3. Tag Title Torpor

WWE mess
WWE.com

WWE have been devaluing tag team wrestling for years - arguably since ten-year-old Nicholas won the belts alongside Braun Strowman at WrestleMania 34 - and RAW and Smackdown's tag title scenes have seldom felt less vital.

Look at what happened immediately before and after Wrestlemania 37 for proof. AJ Styles and Omos disappeared for a month after winning the straps (because nothing says a company values a title like taking its holders off TV for weeks at a time - isn't that right, Asuka?), and the Smackdown straps didn't even make it to the Show of Shows, instead being contested on free TV days before the PPV.

The most damning indictment of how WWE treats its tag teams can be seen in the company's baffling misuse of the Viking Raiders, however. A world-renowned tag team that dominated NXT before arriving on the main roster, the Raiders spent months doing ill-fitting comedy before disappearing for seven months due to injury. Unfortunately, since returning to TV last month the once-intimidating duo have become just another pair of bodies, with Erik and Ivar last seen padding out the ranks in Miz and Damian Priest's non-zombie lumberjack match.

Sigh. Nothing makes a man think "What am I doing with my life?" more than having to type the phrase "non-zombie lumberjack match".

Contributor
Contributor

Hello! My name's Iain Tayor. I write about video games, wrestling and comic books, and I apparently can't figure out how to set my profile picture correctly.