WWE Tag Team Championship
WWE (formerly the WWF, WWWF, and its predecessor, Capitol Wrestling) has maintained at least one primary tag team championship since 1958 (except for a two year interim between 1967 and 1969). Whenever brand division has been implemented, separate primary tag team titles have been created or allocated for each brand.
Overview of titles
# | Name | Years |
---|---|---|
1 | WWWF United States Tag Team Championship | 1958 – 1967 (became WWWF property in 1963) |
2 | WWF International Tag Team Championship | 1969 – 1971, 1985 |
3 | World Tag Team Championship (WWE) | 1971 – 2010 |
4 | WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship | 1991 |
5 | WCW World Tag Team Championship | 1975 – 2001 (became WWF property in 2001) |
6 | WWE Raw Tag Team Championship | 2002 – present |
7 | NXT Tag Team Championship | 2013 – present |
8 | WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship | 2016 – present |
9 | WWE United Kingdom Tag Team Championship | To debut in 2018 |
History
Capitol Wrestling set up its first tag team championship, the United States Tag Team Championship in 1958. When Capitol seceded from the National Wrestling Alliance in 1963 and became the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), the championship became the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship. In 1967, WWWF World Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino teamed with Spiros Arion to win the belts. Due to Sammartino being the world champion, the team vacated the tag titles which were then abandoned.[1]
For two years, the WWWF had no tag team championship until The Rising Suns (Toru Tanaka and Mitsu Arakawa) arrived in the promotion in September 1969 with the WWWF International Tag Team Championship which they claimed to have won in a tournament in Tokyo in June of that year. This became the WWWF's tag team title until 1971, mostly being held by The Mongols.[2] When they left the WWWF, taking the titles with them, the promotion established their own original world tag team championship, the WWWF World Tag Team Championship. In 1979, the promotion became the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and the tag titles were shortened to WWF Tag Team Championship until 1983 when they were renamed WWF World Tag Team Championship.
By 1988, wrestling magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated was calling for the establishment of a secondary WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (modelled on the WCW United States Tag Team Championship) due to the glut of tag team competition in the promotion.[3] This never took place, but in 1991, WWF-affiliated promotion UWF Japan introduced the WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship, claimed by the team of Perro Aguayo and Gran Hamada. This title was abandoned when the affilaition ended that same year.[4] Similarly, back in May 1985, Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura beat Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis in a tournament final in Japan for a revival of the old International Tag Team Title of 1969-1971, only for the title to be abandoned again when New Japan and the WWF fell out in October
In 2001, the WWF bought rival company WCW, acquiring the WCW World Tag Team Championship, among other titles, which was defended on WWF programming until that year's Survivor Series, where the WCW World Tag Team Championship was unified into the WWF World Tag Team Championship.[5]
After WWF's initial brand extension in the spring of 2002 and the renaming of the company as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the tag titles became the WWE Tag Team Championship and champions Billy and Chuck were drafted to the SmackDown brand. That following summer, however, The Un-Americans (Christian and Lance Storm) defeated Billy and Chuck for the titles, moving the championship to the Raw brand where it was renamed World Tag Team Championship, effectively leaving the SmackDown brand without a tag team title. As a result, then-SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon introduced a new WWE Tag Team Championship and commissioned it to be the tag team title for the SmackDown brand.[6]
Both titles were unified in 2009 and were collectively referred to as the "Unified WWE Tag Team Championship" while officially remaining independently active until the World Tag Team Championship was formally decommissioned in 2010,[5][6] leaving the newer title as WWE's only tag team championship. As a result of the 2016 draft, the championship became exclusive to Raw and was renamed the Raw Tag Team Championship, and SmackDown created the SmackDown Tag Team Championship as a counterpart title.[7] In addition, WWE's developmental brand NXT established its own Tag Team Championship in January 2013. The Raw, SmackDown, and NXT tag team titles are WWE's three currently active tag team championships. Another tag team championship, the United Kingdom Tag Team Championship, is set to debut in 2018 for WWE's new NXT UK brand.
Championships
Active primary championships
- WWE Raw Tag Team Championship, originally called the WWE Tag Team Championship, the current tag team title for the Raw brand
- WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship, the current tag team title for the SmackDown brand
- NXT Tag Team Championship, the current tag team title for the WWE developmental brand NXT
- WWE United Kingdom Tag Team Championship, an upcoming tag team championship for WWE's NXT UK brand, debuting in 2018
Retired primary championships
- World Tag Team Championship (WWE), used from 1971 to 2010, was briefly known as the WWE Tag Team Championship in 2002
- WWF International Tag Team Championship, used from 1969 to 1971
- WWWF United States Tag Team Championship, established in 1958, used in WWWF from 1963 to 1967
Other tag team championships
- WWF Women's Tag Team Championship, the retired tag team title of the Women's division, used from 1983 to 1989
- WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship, a short-lived tag team title which appeared in UWF Japan in 1991 [4]
- WCW World Tag Team Championship, established in 1975, became WWF property in 2001 and retired later that year. Previously the primary tag team championship of Jim Crockett Promotions and World Championship Wrestling
Longest championship reigns with a primary title
The New Day, Demolition, The Fabulous Kangaroos, The Mongols, and The Ascension all retain the specific records for each of their respective titles held. At present, The Usos hold the specific record for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at 182 days for their third reign.
# | Team | Title | Reign | Length (days) |
Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | The New Day | WWE Raw Tag Team Championship | 2nd | 483 | |
2 | Demolition | World Tag Team Championship (WWE) | 1st | 478 | |
3 | The Fabulous Kangaroos | WWWF United States Tag Team Championship | 3rd | 409 | |
4 | The Valiant Brothers | World Tag Team Championship (WWE) | 1st | 370 | |
5 | The Mongols | WWF International Tag Team Championship | 1st | 368 | |
6 | The Ascension | NXT Tag Team Championship | 1st | 364 | WWE recognizes The Ascension's reign as lasting 344 days due to tape delays. |
7 | Mr Fuji and Professor Tanaka | World Tag Team Championship (WWE) | 1st | 337 | |
8 | Paul London and Brian Kendrick | WWE Raw Tag Team Championship | 1st | 331 | WWE recognizes London and Kendrick's reign as lasting 334 days due to tape delays. |
9 | Dr. Jerry Graham and Luke Graham | WWWF United States Tag Team Championship | 1st | 321 | |
10 | The British Bulldogs | World Tag Team Championship (WWE) | 1st | 294 |
References
- ↑ "United States Tag Team Title (Capitol/WWWF)". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
- ↑ "WWWF/WWF International Tag Team Title". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
- ↑ "Too much talent - It's Time For A WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship" - Pro Wrestling Illustrated December 1998
- 1 2 "10 championships you never knew existed in WWE". WWE.
- 1 2 "WWWF/WWF/WWE World Tag Team Title". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- 1 2 "WWE Tag Team Championship". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ↑ "WWE Smackdown Tag Team Title". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved 19 March 2018.