WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship

The inaugural SmackDown Tag Team Champions Rhyno (left) and Heath Slater (right)

Following the reintroduction of the WWE brand extension and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, then-WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day were drafted to Raw, leaving SmackDown without a tag team championship. Over the course of the following month, SmackDown general manager Daniel Bryan stated that he wanted to build up the tag team division before introducing a championship. Immediately following SummerSlam on the August 23, 2016 episode of SmackDown Live, Bryan and SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon introduced the SmackDown Tag Team Championship (Raw's title was subsequently renamed).[1] An eight-team tournament was then scheduled to determine the inaugural champions, culminating in a final match at Backlash on September 11, 2016.[2][3][4] The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno defeated The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) in the tournament final to become the inaugural champions.[5] In 2019, WWE's former developmental territory NXT became the promotion's third major brand when it was moved to the USA Network in September, thus making the NXT Tag Team Championship the third major tag team title for men in the WWE.[6]

When the belts were introduced, they featured the same physical design as the Raw Tag Team Championship, with the differences being that the leather straps were blue as opposed to the former's original black and the plates were silver as opposed to the former's original bronze. The Raw Tag Team Championship belt design was updated on December 19, 2016, with silver plates on red straps to bring both sets of titles more in line with each other. While most of WWE's other championships have been updated to feature customizable side plates for the champion's logos, the Raw and SmackDown tag titles have yet received this update and also lack a nameplate, which is only featured on the United States Championship belt.

As of June 17, 2020, overall there have been 19 reigns between 12 teams composed of 23 individual champions, and one vacancy. The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno were the inaugural champions. The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) have the most reigns at six, both as a team and individually. The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) have the longest singular reign at 182 days for their third reign, and they have the longest combined reign at 381 days (380 days as recognized by WWE). The team of The Miz and Shane McMahon and The Hardy Boyz (Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy) are tied with the shortest reign at 21 days (although WWE recognizes 20 days for The Hardy Boyz). The oldest champion is Shane McMahon, winning the title at 49 years old, while the youngest is Jason Jordan when he won it at 28.

The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) are the current champions in their record sixth reign, both as a team and individually; they defend the title under the Freebird Rule.[7][8] They won the titles when Big E, representing the team in a triple threat match, defeating Jey Uso (representing The Usos) and then-co-champion The Miz (representing himself and John Morrison) on April 17, 2020 in Orlando, Florida during the live broadcast of SmackDown.

• Tag team championships in WWE

• Official SmackDown Tag Team Title History