10 Massively Dubious Wrestling Records
6. The New Day's Record Breaking Reign
On August 23, 2015, The New Day captured the WWE RAW Tag Team Championships from The Prime Time Players at Money In The Bank. They lost the gold to Cesaro and Sheamus at Roadblock: End Of The Line '16 after what WWE trumpeted - or tromboned - as a record-breaking 484-day reign.
This was celebrated on the December 12 edition of RAW. Even Stephanie McMahon allowed herself to get covered in champagne. But the fact that Stephanie - the most protected heel in the history of wrestling - actually made herself look stupid was the only happening without precedent.
WWE claimed, ad nauseam, that Demolition were no longer the longest-reigning World Tag Team Champions. They are; the gold held by Ax and Smash embodied an entirely different lineage, one which WWE abandoned in favour of one created decades later. The straps The New Day wore for that at-times interminable stretch date back to the days of the original brand extension, at which point Demolition were a relic of the past. The first holders were Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit - but WWE were hardly going to acknowledge that. That Ax and Smash were in the midst of a class action lawsuit at WWE's expense was doubtless another factor in this chapter of revisionist history. The primary one, most likely.
The New Day have held this version of WWE Tag Team gold for longer than any other tandem - but an important historical caveat just obscures marketing.