10 Most Bizarre Wrestling Title Lineages

5. WWE RAW Tag Team Championships

Finn Balor Goldberg
WWE

The RAW Tag Team Championships were first created on SmackDown as a title for that show, for one, instantly qualifying the lineage as weird and arbitrary and just wrong-feeling.

Before WWE's apathetic approach to its own history and continuity and naming conventions yielded this curio, the company that doesn't care about tag team wrestling for a few good months there curated the most electrifying doubles divisions in history, presenting some of the most artful lung-bursters in the history of North American wrestling in 2002 and 2003.

Things got real weird after the dusk settled on the halcyon days of the SmackDown Six; the "tag team division" subsequently degenerated into the "do whatever: if there's four of 'em, pal, I couldn't give less of a f*ck" division. This apathetic mentality gave rise to a complete ruination of well-earned prestige, whereby if you emerged from developmental in literally any capacity, you got a run. If you were dogsh*t, you got a run. Heidenreich! Deuce! Kenzo Suzuki!

Some of the teams that followed, man. WWE held the art they had mastered in contempt.

John Cena and The Miz! David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty! Braun Strowman and Nicholas! A child held this professional wrestling championship, and strictly speaking, he wasn't even the worst worker!

On September 5, 2016, what was originally and essentially the SmackDown Tag Team Title was renamed the RAW Tag Team Title after the creation of - for f*ck's sake - the SmackDown Tag Team Title.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!