If WWE Was Being Honest About Tag Team Wrestling

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WWE.com

Bruce Prichard, on his Something To Wrestle podcast, explained Vince’s predictably thoughtless thought process. He doesn’t see why he should have to pay four guys main event money, when he can just pay two. Hence Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov goofing off in yuk-yuk comedy segments. Hence Kane and The Big Show holding the titles in their slow motion years for 34 days in 2011, why not.

Things did improve, in patches, from 2015. The New Day were a very over and very entertaining act that wrestled very entertaining matches. The Usos programme was the best thing to happen on WWE TV in 2017. Ultimately, the feud was an aberration.

Normal service soon resumed.

A preadolescent child would never hold a singles title in WWE. Never. So why did Nicholas capture the RAW Tag Team Title at WrestleMania 34? The main event scene is many things: static, predictable, too often destructive. But you would never see an oblivious goof chancer like Curtis Axel hold the Universal Championship. So why does he currently hold the RAW Tag Team Titles?

Because Vince McMahon is fundamentally disinterested in promoting tag team wrestling, Vince McMahon is fundamentally unable to change, and Vince McMahon has no reason to change.

Under the current framework, no team is getting over. Even winning the RAW Tag Team Championship hardly represents a revival for The Revival. What’s to win? An “accomplishment” at once laughed and sneered at, literally buried within the folds of a suffocatingly meaningless RAW show? SmackDown fares little better in 2018. Champions the Bludgeon Brothers are an easy, alliterative name and a half-baked gimmick table. They carry preposterous mallets around them, wear hysterically dated gear, and they are the act we’re asked to take seriously.

This week, Dave Meltzer awarded a ***** rating to the recent NXT TV match between the Undisputed Era and Moustache Mountain. He perhaps got carried away, but then, so did every f*cker else...

CONT'D...

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!