Tag Teams

After looking through my previous 'match of the day' picks, I realised that I haven't put a tag team match in there yet. Obviously, it's early days and it'll definitely happen, but this also got me thinking of how I view tag team wrestling...

I think that the more and more I listen to JR's (Jim Ross) podcast, the more I'm becoming an old man about my wrestling. A great example of this is agreeing with his view that heels should be heels (cheating, and generally being hated by all fans, as is the job description). Along the lines of this old-school thinking is my view on tag teams. For me, tag teams should be actual teams; they should dress in the same attire (or colours), have a common goal, and, ideally, have a team name. More often than not, this doesn't happen.

Maybe this is just my view and it's been happening forever and I've been blind to it.

When I was growing up, I remember great teams such as The Legion of Doom, The Rockers, The Hart Foundation and The Natural Disasters (maybe not on everyone's list, but at least they had things in common and all the factors that I listed before). Now we have a few 'proper' teams, such as The Usos, The Wyatt Family and... and... I'm at a loss to list more.

Maybe I'm being picky, but Rybaxel (Ryback and Curtis Axel) and Goldust/Stardust don't quite cut it for me. In both cases, they are TWO individuals that have been thrown together because creative had nothing for them. Proof of this is their current best-of-157 that they seem to be having on weekly TV. In the past, this 'throwing guys together' had a purpose, and maybe it still does; one of the great teams I mentioned earlier, The Hart Foundation, were originally formed as there was nothing for Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart to do. Throw in Jimmy Hart and this team's future wrote itself. Sadly, that same spark hasn't been seen since between two individuals floating in the wind.

There's also been several pairings of individuals for the purpose of furthering a feud. Stone Cold and Shawn Michaels were tag team champions; Stone Cold and Undertaker were, too; rivals Kane and Big Show also captured the gold. My reason for including these examples is that there were two individuals, thrown together, that, somehow, became 'the men' of the tag division at that time.

I realise that to further these feuds, these makeshift teams needed something big to emphasise their demise, and continue their feud, but winning the tag team gold each time from proper teams isn't the way to go, is it? Surely, this weakens the tag division each time? It's probably cool years later to say "did you know that despite having great matches and great rivalries, these two guys were tag team champions with each other, too?", but at the time it says that anyone can team together for a week and beat these other sh*tty tag teams that have been working together for months/years.

Other than being black, what made Kofi and Truth a team?

I read a couple of Brandon Stroud's (uproxx.com) columns on Raw and NXT, and one of his beefs just lately has been proper tag teams losing to two guys that have been thrown together. Not just two guys that have been thrown together, but two guys that struggle to coexist, but STILL manage to pull off the win against guys who apparently SPECIALISE in this type of wrestling.

It's somewhat different on the UK scene, as a show or promotion doesn't have the luxury of having a weekly TV spot. Therefore, if you're a tag team guy then, generally, you're a tag team guy for a long, long time. Teams such as The Alpha Males, Bhangra Knights, London Riots, Magnums and Hunter Bros., are generally booked as a team for the tag team match of a particular show. All these teams have the characteristics that I mentioned earlier in this post.

@jimmosangle