6 Ups And 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Aug 16)

1.12-Man Showcase Makes Things Difficult For The Tag Division

The Usos Vaudevillains American Alpha Ascension Hype Bros
WWE.com

It's cool that WWE want to create a second set of tag-team titles exclusively for SmackDown Live. This makes sense, because there are so many duos on the blue brand that it'd be a shame if they had nothing to fight for. Sadly, in trying to showcase the fledgling division WWE convoluted things.

American Alpha are the undoubted stars of the tag scene on SmackDown, and they teamed with The Usos and The Hype Bros on this week's program. Their opponents came in the form of The Vaudevillains, The Ascension and Breezango. The number of bodies in the ring made things challenging.

Chad Gable and Jason Jordan did end up standing out, but it would have been better to see individual tag-team bouts than squishing every team into the one match. WWE must develop characters in the tag picture, something that's hard to do when meaningless brawls break out every week. It was fine as a one-off, but this division needs more care.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.