How AEW Built The Perfect Tag Team Division

This was tremendously clever heel work; the divide and conquer tactic FTR have perfected so well between the ropes adapted to the post-match. They cut the ring in half like no other team. Now, with one excellent d*ckhead tactic, they are close to cutting Kenny Omega and Hangman Page in half, too.

Contrast last night's superb closing angle with the way in which the Young Bucks attempted to congratulate Hangman Page and Kenny Omega on the road to Revolution. The Bucks seemed to celebrate as if the Elite were a united front. Page, visibly, thought "F*ck that". This was about him. FTR didn't take the beer out of his hand to remonstrate with him; they put a beer in his hand to celebrate with him. Maybe Page was just happy that somebody finally got it.

That people will interpret this angle differently is what elevates into art. AEW's tag team division is the closest we've come to prestige television, much less great wrestling television.

This follows a tremendous angle from two weeks ago in which FTR and the Bucks both used spike piledriver variations in stereo to at once underscore their philosophical differences - think of the origins behind the Meltzer Driver name, and why FTR have adapted their version - and their shared mutual respect. Tag team wrestling, an afterthought in the mainstream, often struggled or didn't care to tell stories outside of title programmes. With FTR Vs. the Young Bucks mystery, AEW with one programme is essentially booking two non-title programmes at once, emulating in the narrative the unparalleled thrill of tag team wrestling's multiplied in-ring drama.

In the background, beneath that intoxicating three-way storyline, AEW has quietly worked away at the guts of the division and its marvellous range.

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