10 WWE Tag Team Champions Less Worthy Than Nicholas
Boy Story 2
Wrestling'll give you an existential crisis if you let it. Just engaging in the product requires a certain respect for many of its unwritten rules considering how recklessly it treats the basic formulas of storytelling and narrative.
The malfunctioning parts within WWE's creative machine are exposed by its own internal engine room - NXT operates with such success by seamlessly welding contemporary in-ring action with the oldest of old school storyline devices. Characters are carefully considered in all of their decisions, almost never acting outside of the rigid personality traits they've gained from their on-screen journey.
The main roster is another 'Universe' altogether. One Monday is often indistinguishable from the next - frustratingly so for those that grew up with WrestleMania main events planned a year in advance every year rather than just when The Rock was free to fit in a John Cena match between box office blockbusters. Undefeated streaks are ended to shock discerning fans rather than stock depleted rosters with newly-made stars. Hardly anybody even is a star anymore - WWE would rather the three initials sell the tickets rather than two main event icons because a brand won't leave you even if human beings do.
It's within this world that young fan (and referee John Cone's real-life son) Nicholas can be plucked from the crowd to become a tag team champion alongside the dominant Braun Strowman at WrestleMania 34. The decision was divisive, but the company has done far more deep-rooted damage to the doubles division in the past...
10. John Cena & The Miz
'The Champ' will come in for quite a bit of flack here, but know that The Miz was just as guilty - if not more so - for callously disrespecting the belts as an excuse for some petty point-scoring over his upcoming WrestleMania foe.
Strange bedfellows because WWE, Cena and Miz dethroned p*ss-weak pairing Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel to win the tag titles on an edition of Monday Night Raw less than 24 hours after The Corre (sic) duo won them at February 2011's Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.
The point of making sacrificial lambs out of the new titleholders before they'd even left the pen? Main event shenanigans of course. Tag belts were there to be f*cked with if it meant Miz could get one over on John Cena. After Corre leader Wade Barrett ordered an immediate rematch, Miz snuck in with a Skull Crushing Finale on his teammate, gifting the belts right back.
The damage to both Slater and Gabriel AND the belts was long done by then of course. Fans cared about none of it, as was the case when the four men in question engaged in two separate heatless matches at the 'Show Of Shows' a month later.