Exposing The Myth: Tag Team Wrestling Doesn’t Draw Money

For the longest time, wrestling fans have heard how tag team wrestling simply doesn't draw money.

Let's face it, regardless of how many stars a match gets or how many people lose their mind on social media, so much of the wrestling business is still obviously dictated by having acts that your audience is willing to pay cold, hard cash for - be that in ticket sales, merchandising, PPV buys, or just tuning into your TV product each and every week.

Largely down to the insistence of Vince McMahon, it's been turned into a common belief that tag team wrestling isn't all that important. We've heard time and time again how McMahon is hesitant to showcase tag tandems in a meaningful way, and we've all seen with our own eyes how tag teams rarely get to be positioned as main attractions in WWE - and when the industry leader takes that approach, that can trickle down through the rest of the profession.

The thing is, tag team wrestling can be a massive draw when done well and when allowed the chance to be featured in a big-time spot on the card. To merely see a tag division as an afterthought that can never put an ass on a seat is naïve at best, completely idiotic at worst.

With that in mind, here's why tag team wrestling can always, always, always draw a wrestling promotion money.

Before getting to the brass tacks as to why tag team wrestling could and should be a focal point of any and all wrestling companies - and yes, that even includes those 'sports entertainment' places - it's time to serve up a brief history lesson of just how and where tag team wrestling came about.

The general consensus is that the origin of tag team wrestling dates back to the late 1940s and early '50s. Those first tag bouts consisted of two teams of two facing off in the squared circle, with tags being required in order to allow a teammate to enter the match.

San Francisco is viewed as the first area to properly showcase tag team bouts, and that was then followed by six-man contests where each side was made up of three partners. This may all sound extremely familiar and formulaic right now, but at that time a tag team match was seen as a huge deal.

In the years since then, tag team wrestling has been about the bond between two people, the mechanics and chemistry shared by those two, and being able to pull together to overcome an opponent. Usually, there'd be matching ring gear at least, but the world of tag wrestling has been changed so much since then - with this aspect of the wrestling world becoming merely a plot point to start rivalries or eventually launch singles superstars in recent years.

But in Team vs. Team tag action, there is still so much value.