The history of World Wrestling Entertainment is littered with tag team titles reigns that will drop jaws, not for their quality or length, but for the stupidity behind them. The rise of the Attitude Era brought with it a sudden and blatant disrespect for the titles that had previously been worn by great duos like the Hart Foundation, British Bulldogs, Demolition, the Wild Samoans and the Valiant Brothers. Luckily the Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian and the Dudley Boyz brought legitimacy and credibility to the titles, working awe-inspiring matches involving tables, ladders and chairs, but their runs did not erase the fact that WWE Creative had slowly begun changing the way that they utilized the straps. The titles became props in stories, traded back and forth with little rhyme or reason, the only excuse being to demonstrate just how little like their was between the champions. That mindset nearly destroyed tag team wrestling in the new Millennium. When the writers did focus on legitimate teams, they were rehashes of legendary teams like the Legion of Doom or, worse yet, two singles stars thrown together out of a lack of anything else better to do. At a time when WWE is trying to rebuild tag team wrestling, with tandems like Tyson Kidd and Cesaro, the Usos, the New Day, Los Matadores, the Ascension, Lucha Dragons and the Prime Time Players making up a solid division of hungry and motivated workers, take this stroll through WWE history and relive past instances of WWE's failure to properly book tag teams and the worst champions the company has ever produced as a result.
Erik Beaston is a freelance pro wrestling writer who likes long walks in the park, dandelions and has not quite figured out that this introduction is not for Match.com. He resides in Parts Unknown, where he hosts weekly cookouts with Kane, The Ultimate Warrior, Papa Shango and The Boogeyman. Be jealous.
