American Alpha Win WWE Smackdown Tag Team Titles
Former NXT Tag Team Champions claim main roster gold.
The final Smackdown Live of 2016 played host to a major title change as Jason Jordan and Chad Gable of American Alpha defeated Wyatt Family members Randy Orton and Luke Harper for the blue brand's Tag Team Championships.
The show opened with a four-way elimination match pitting The Wyatt Family against American Alpha, The Usos, and Rhyno and Heath Slater. The inaugural champions were the first eliminated, as Heath Slater botched a jump from the top rope and took a superkick and a pin from Jimmy Uso. At that point, The Usos and American Alpha revisited their rivalry, but American Alpha came out on top when Gable rolled up Jey Uso for the pin.
The second elimination brought The Wyatt Family in for the first time, and their freshness allowed them to dominate the challengers. Orton and Harper got the heat on Gable for a long time, but he finally tagged Jordan, and Alpha evened the score. After fighting off interference from Bray Wyatt, though, Jordan took a DDT from Orton and the RKO looked to follow, but Gable made the save. Alpha soon took Harper out of the match, then hit the Grand Amplitude on Orton for the win.
This championship marks the first main roster titles for American Alpha, who won the NXT Tag Team Titles at TakeOver: Dallas earlier this year.