The Wrestling Doctor 04.15.08: The WWE Tag Team Scene

Posted by W.S. Thomason on 04.15.2008

The Wrestling Doctor holds the WWE’s best pairs while the division coughs.

THE WRESTLING DOCTOR: THE PRESCRIPTION FOR WHAT AILS
Welcome to The Wrestling Doctor, a new weekly feature where the troubles of professional wrestling will be thoroughly examined and then offered a practical prescription. You may not agree with the assessment, but hopefully the column will open up a new dialogue on the state the business that consumes far too much of our time.

I want to begin by thanking everyone for the huge response to last week's column, both good and bad. I probably will not answer many emails personally, but I will review the general spirit of the responses each week in…

THE SECOND OPINION
The consensus seems that Don West should go, Kevin Nash should take his place, Mike Tenay should tone down, Impact should periodically go on the road, and the six-sided ring is the greatest thing since the Polio vaccine.

A big egg on my face for confusing Disney and Universal Studios Orlando. I have not been to Orlando since 1985, but that is no excuse for not double-checking my erroneous idea that Disney and Universal were under the same corporate umbrella. I maintain my position that, be it Disney or Universal, the association hurts TNA's wrestling credibility. While wrestling has roots in early 20th century carnivals, the demographics of those events and the contemporary theme park ilk are quite different. A wrestling ring of any number of sides does not belong in the same zip code as anyplace identifying itself as a heart of family fun.

Some excellent points were raised regarding TNA's budgetary needs and the talent advantage of a limited travel schedule. I would prescribe Las Vegas as a way of meeting these needs. Vegas' array of halls and arenas would allow TNA to switch venues as the live audience grows, and the company could associate with a major casino to offer travel packages. The world's most transient population would give Impact a wider audience than even Orlando. Vegas worked well for the AWA until the booking went south and the talent went east. Plus Sin City carries an edge that Orlando does not, an advantage TNA needs in crafting an identity away from sports entertainment.

I do believe that the booking of TNA is their main problem, but I wanted to look at other issues with the product since Russo is the equivalent of a corner fire hydrant for us IWC dogs. I am going to hold a position throughout this column that booking is the easiest aspect of a wrestling company to change. Companies have radically done so dozens of times in the past with great success. Those in charge simply have to be on board, and right now it seems doubtful that the TNA brass see any real need to change creative direction.

I do not believe that the six-sided ring helps TNA, yet most readers disagree, but hey – a new patient is on the table. Actually, two of them.

THIS WEEK'S PATIENT: THE WWE TAG TEAM SCENE
In 1998, Eric Bischoff – faced with the task of producing five live hours of television each week – decided to retire the WCW Tag Team Titles and use tag bouts only as devices to further singles angles. His reasoning was that he needed to spread talent around Nitro and Thunder instead of having four guys committed to essentially one match or storyline each broadcast. The unwillingness of many top WCW talents to work live Thursdays, as well as the stress of having to stretch the writing out over five hours every week, made the decision understandable from a practical point of view. It was a disaster from a fans' perspective. The WCW tag belts were first switched back and forth between makeshift tandems of top singles wrestlers before settling on the dream team of Rick Steiner and Kenny Kaos. The sheer awesomeness of that duo led to the championships being vacated for four months. The pay-off for the loss of a competitive tag-team division was such intriguing matches as Stevie Ray vs. Steve McMichael, Wrath vs. Kendall Windham, and Norman Smiley vs. Jerry Flynn (which I saw live).

You now have a minute to go find those mat masterpieces.

WCW was contending with slipping ratings in the intense Monday Night Wars and Bischoff confused a symptom – tag team wrestling – with the real problem. Producing five hours of compelling, live programming each week is extremely difficult to do without aspects of the product becoming stale. The tag team belts eventually returned, but WCW's numerous other problems preventing the company from pushing the division as they had earlier in their history.

PROBLEM DIAGNOSIS: THERE'S A TAG TEAM SCENE IN THE WWE?
If you have ordered a pizza, cooked dinner, or grabbed a beer regularly during Raw over the last two years you may not be aware that the World Tag Team Titles are still on the brand. The WWE tag team scene has suffered since the addition of the ECW program in June 2006. Five hours of programming each week is nearly as big a problem for McMahon as it was for Bischoff. The WWE cannot voluntarily scale back from their television commitments without a significant loss of revenue and risking investor fears over stock prices, and they have failed to evenly distributed talent as they did at the beginning of the brand split. Five hours of weekly television has once again taken its toll, and the tag team division has borne the blunt of the glut.

The major difference between WCW's predicament in 1998 and the WWE's now is that McMahon is not in a talent race with another company capable of stealing away large numbers of his workers. The WWE has a healthy developmental system, a strong revenue flow with cash reserves, and more talent on the main roster than WCW. They do have the resources to devote to strengthening the tag team division. They just need a place to start.

THE PRESCRIPTION (PART A): RECREATING INTEREST
The WWE's tag team ranks are too thin for two sets of tag team titles. The WWE does not need to throw together a bunch of new duos to flush out the field. A few fresh pairings would help, but what really is needed for the division to be built around one set of titles on one brand. The fans need a reason to care about the tag team belts, and in order for that goal to be accomplished, there needs to exist an impression that the wrestlers competing actually value the titles. What I will suggest is that the WWE move the tag team titles exclusively to the Smackdown / ECW wing of the company and focus on rebuilding the division through an efficient use of existing talent and TV time. Raw is frontloaded enough that it does not need a set of tag team titles. The Divas are occupying the spots where the tag team division would best fit. McMahon will not reduce the Divas TV time, so it makes sense to leave the focus of those segments to the ladies and shift the struggle for tag team domination to the other brands. We can be sure that we will get plenty of couplings each week from the Cena / Triple H / Orton / Michaels / JBL / Jericho / Umaga pool to keep the concept fresh in the minds of Raw viewers.

The WWE has two original tag team match concepts that have been collecting dust for quite some time and that can realistically be used to rebuild interest in the tag team ranks.

Tag Team Turmoil
This match has not been used on pay-per-view since Backlash 2005, so it is fresh. The match can be used to display all of the serious teams in the company to the wider WWE audience and can be booked to showcase the best of each duo. The match can be held at Vengeance / Night of Champions in June, and could be World Tag Titles vs. WWE Tag Team Titles. The winners would then hold both sets of belts, giving the company the option of separating them once the tag team division is reborn or quietly unifying them if they choose. The key will be giving the match the minimum of fifteen minutes that it needs to fully develop. I have my doubts, since none of the pay-per-view ECW Heavyweight Championship matches between C.M. Punk and John Morrison were ever given the 20-25 minutes they deserved. However, the all-championship match card would have the room with the elimination of the cruiserweight title and both tag titles in one match.

I would vote for Morrison and The Miz to initially walk out with the belts. Following Tag Team Turmoil, the WWE should then spend the next five months building up the division on Smackdown, switching the belts a couple of times to create a feel that any team on any night could actually win the gold. This build will lead to…

Survivor Series All Tag Team Match
One of the highlights of the first two Survivor Series cards was the ten-tag team / 20-man elimination match. These bouts were fantastic, largely because of the quality of the participants, but also because of the wide variety of match-ups that could be teased for future angles. The two 10-on-10 matches were approximately 40 minutes each, but there were relatively few rest holds due to the number of wrestlers involved. The concept was abandoned when tag teams were incorporated into the standard four-on-four elimination matches in 1989. Many Survivor Series shows (91, 92, 96, 97, 99, 00) have featured two-team / four-on-four matches, but those matches blended into the rest of the card. Even at the height of tag team wrestling in the Attitude Era, we never got a 20-on-20 or 16-on-16 match-up. This concept has been so long gone that most fans would believe it was brand new. The all-tag team match at Survivor Series would allow the company to highlight all of their teams and cement the competitiveness of the division in the eyes of the fans.

One match can open the door to reestablishing a division. The Big Bossman & Ken Shamrock started off 1999 with the WWE tag titles; within a year-and-a-half, the division was one of the top draws of the company. The tag team scene was so weak at the start of 1999 that the WWE could not even find serviceable opponents for Owen Hart & Jeff Jarrett at Wrestlemania XV. The spring and summer saw the tag team titles move between singles-based combinations like X-Pac & Kane, The Undertaker & Big Show, and The Rock ‘n' Sock Connection. These teams were entertaining, but the tag belts were clearly being used to enhance their singles characters. The WWE solved the problem by taking two nascent teams – Edge & Christian and The Hardy Boyz – and putting them in a ladder match at No Mercy 1999. This bout began the resurgence of tag team wrestling that lasted through mid-2002. The advent of the Dudleys, the re-invention of the Acolytes as the APA, and a merciful injury to Billy Gunn helped to fill out the tag team ranks with high quality tandems. In April 2000 at Wrestlemania, Edge & Christian won the titles over the Dudleys and the Hardys in a triple ladder match. Six months following No Mercy, the tag team division was the talk of the biggest pay-per-view of the year.


THE PRESCRIPTION (PART B): NEW TEAMS
A healthy tag team scene also gives the WWE the advantage of developing new talent and repacking veterans as an efficient way of creating new singles stars. Some of the top talent in the history of the company – Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and Edge – are the products of healthy WWE tag team scenes. Other guys on varying places of the bubble of the top tier – Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Christian, Davey Boy Smith, Owen Hart, Umaga, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison, Rick Martel, Tito Santana, Brutus Beefcake – got their first major WWE exposure in healthy tag team eras.

The WWE has some solid tag teams. Both sets of titleholders – Morrison & The Miz and Holly & Rhodes – have gelled well. Cryme Tyme, Jesse & Festus, and The Edgeheads are over and have great potential. London & Kendrick look to be going in a refreshing heel direction. The only exhausted duo – Cade & Murdoch – looks to be splitting up, and I doubt that we will see The Highlanders any time soon. I am going to suggest two new combinations to better use existing talent and help enliven the tag team scene.

Chavo Guerrero Jr & Carlito share second-generation status, similar size and looks that could be well-blended, and complementary wrestling styles, so they already have elements that initially get guys paired up. Chavo will not be going back to the top of ECW after jobbing to Kane at Backlash, but he is still a respectable worker. He would also benefit from Carlito's help on the mic. I would love to hear how Vince convinced Carlito to stay with the company in order to play second fiddle to Santino and do six months of jobs to Holly & Rhodes. Carlito is a good talker being overshadowed by Marella's superior personality and heat. Carlito's attitude and back stage history will likely prevent him from receiving a sustained singles push. That reality could be changed by a solid, long-term performance in a hard-working tag team.

Paul Burchill & D.H. Smith are both British, need a lot of work, and have no chance of moving up the Raw roster with their current directions. Burchill's character is already getting buried despite being one of McMahon's pet projects. Smith needs to rebuild his backstage reputation after his Wellness Policy violation last fall. He also needs to build his in-ring skills in the comfort of a tag team. With Katie Lea on the outside, Burchill and Smith could be developed along the lines of MNM. But let's not call them The New British Bulldogs (though maybe that would get us a British Bulldogs DVD set).

I would love to hear what pairings readers think would help revive the WWE tag team scene.

The WWE needs to give their tag team talent an opportunity to display their wares in a substantial way while creating new pairings that people really care about. With a little attention and forethought, we could be back on our way to a more balanced WWE.

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