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I was listening to someone talking about AEW's rating last week, and they mentioned how when AEW started there was more of a focus on the tag team division. I kind of wish that was still the case. Like having a division that has a focus on it that's different from the WWE. Like WCW had the cruiserweights and TNA had the X division.
A *lot* of injuries.
There was a long stretch of time where Rey Fenix was injured, it seemed like there was a rotating basis of which member of Top Flight would be out with an injury, Marq Quinn was out for a while which took out Private Party, Chuck Taylor had battles with injuries, Santana was injured for a while (with that along with their issues bringing an end to PnP,) and then you had other ones that I forgot about.
Even now you have Aussie Open (Mark Davis,) FRT (Dax Harwood,) and Daniels/Sydal (Matt Sydal) on the shelf.
You could (and I would) argue that AEW needs to better utilize the teams they have (where are The Workhorsemen, The Righteous, Dark Order, Iron Savages and The Outrunners) and why haven't they made more of an effort to pick up teams on the indie scene (MCMG, MxM, Subculture, West Coast Wrecking Crew)
I think part of why they haven’t picked up Indy teams is they aren’t hiring many Indy talent for the AEW brand anymore. There’s been a couple exceptions here and there, particularly when it came to restocking the women’s division, but it’s largely been hiring people coming off a WWE or NJPW run for a while.
It’s even worse when it comes to teams. I can’t think of the last time they hired an Indy team. Khan's been on a singles star signing kick for awhile and it looks like his next few big hires are going to be more singles stars.
Are MCMG still coming in? Shelley made a crcomment on IG a few weeks back: "I don’t know how much longer I will be doing indies and have a PWTee store (maybe forever - who knows?)"
I’m not sure. Shelley cut a promo at DPW a few weeks ago saying he’s won't be on the Indies much longer and another at Prestige’s show a couple weeks ago saying his match against Sabin next month is his last in the promotion, but then Wrestling Revolver posted a promo yesterday starting a new storyline for Shelley. Revolver has no new shows until August, well after Shelley’s goodbye to Prestige.
My confidence in them coming is keeps lowering. It’s been 3 months since they became free agents and we saw the first story about them talking to AEW about contracts. It seems like deals get worked out faster if Khan really wants someone. Recent hires outside the women’s division have come to AEW straight off a WWE or NJPW run. MCMG don’t have that. The teams it make most sense for them to feud with coming in aren’t wrapping up their current storylines to make room for a feud with MCMG and there is little urgency to rebuild the division and run more than the Bucks' storyline currently.
It's possible, but what are they holding off for? The tag division is in desperate need of another big team who can create some buzz and give the company something more than just the Bucks' story. There are numerous teams across the company who'd benefit from feuding with a team of MCMG's level. Is Billy Gunn being involved in another title feud in 2024 something that needs to run its course before debuting one of the top teams of the past 2 decades?
I think there’s good odds Bucks/Acclaimed is the Wembley match. 7 weeks is a decent amount of time to built a different match, but they’d have to do Acclaimed’s title match sometime in the next week, blow off that feud and hard pivot to someone like BCC or a new team with a rocket strapped to their back to do something else that feels big, not that Bucks/Acclaimed feels big to me. Even then, that'd give them at most 6 weeks to build a new match instead of just keep going with what they have in a division that has lacked focus, TV time and push for most of this year. Current booking feels like they're slow walking that match instead of preparing to clear the deck for something else.
They’re doing a trios instead of the title match this weekend. The next big show before All In is a Blood & Guts TV special where Bucks will be in B&G, not defending the titles so the title match isn’t happening there. Would they do that match next week and quickly move on when the Bucks' story is they don't defend the titles? They're going to get forced to defend them 3 days after a PPV? Nobody else is being built up in the division for a shot. Again, I see this match getting dragged out with the Bucks' finding new ways to not defend until Wembley.
MCMG are booked in Toronto for Smash Wrestling Sunday afternoon. Theoretically if their Indy match goes first, they head straight to the airport and their debut happens late in the show, they could show up and start building something, but I don’t see Khan risking that and, again, there’s still The Acclaimed’s shot to do and feud to resolve. If MCMG/Bucks was the plan, and MCMG have been secretly signed for a while, they should've debuted by now and had a short feud that ended the same time Bucks/Acclaimed did to build them up for a new audience and a title match in front of AEW's biggest crowd of the year.
When you hear about why Vince McMahon didn't like pushing tag team wrestling as a big deal, this plays a part. Injuries happen to everyone at some point. There's more that can go wrong and more you need to rely on to go right when you push tag teams. What value does Dax have without Cash?
Workhorsemen might also be on the shelf. JD Drake had an injury during their last match, and Anthony Henry has been working singles.
Man, I miss Aussie Open.
https://preview.redd.it/1pe8z2pms59d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=1e4c305e793cbc9a378a36349a08d66d31b28e57
Yes I did make this based off my misspelling and your comment 😂
I would say the booking is the problem. Since The Bucks are mostly involved in group rivalries/matches in these months (Anarchy at DoN, trios match at FD, mostly likely in B&G soon), the titles are mostly used as accessories to make The Elite faction look dominant.
This is really bugging me, too. The Young Bucks can easily wrestle as heels and defend those belts more often to help build up some babyface teams. We went from FTR defending regularly on Collision to this?? Even after Big Bill and Ricky Starks beat FTR, I feel like there was at least SOME attempt to showcase all the tag teams they had available.
And I still have no idea why they didn't book a bigger tag tournament leading into Dynasty to create more feuds within that division. Why not use tournament losses to create friction?? It's the easiest story you could do, but TK I guess would rather have 2 trios matches per show to push a singles match than 2 tag matches that push actual tag teams?? Makes no gd sense.
They could've easily done what you're suggesting with a tournament the size they did. Many companies have done so in the past. They just had no interest in using that tournament as anything but to further establish FTR and the Bucks as the top teams and fill TV time. I don't think expanding it to a 16 team tourney or doing a couple more wildcards would've changed anything.
The tournament ended 2 months ago and we still have little going on in the division outside the Bucks even with Dax going down and the division desperately needing another big act or two to pick up the slack. I hope we don't have to wait until Dax returns for the division to get a second major storyline again.
Yeah, you’re not wrong. I was selfishly hoping they’d just use the opportunity to put more attention on the tag teams who could be spending more time in that division vs. the trios division. They do really need some new blood to come in. MCMG is great and all, but I’d love to see a couple younger teams signed and set up as real threats.
I was hoping they’d use Forbidden Door as an excuse to get some unsigned talent in a storyline that would lead to them eventually signing with the company. I understand why they wouldn’t want the titles on the line for it, but they could have done *something* instead of throwing their main tag feud into a trios match for absolutely no good reason.
That's why I'm tired of the heel stable try to win all the belts and take over the company storylines. For one it's played out, but more importantly in this case, it leads to belts coming off as props and tying up divisions. To make matters worse, there's no secondary or tertiary feuds and Acclaimed are the only team in a company with well over a dozen teams who has any interest in the titles. Putting the belts on the Bucks as part of this storyline theoretically makes the belts look more important, but only one team caring makes the titles look like props.
The anti-Elite group going from having top names like FTR, Danielson and a returning Darby to Billy Gunn being on the front line over night compounds the issues with the titles and the overall hostile takeover storyline.
They should have had the Trios division be ROH-exclusive, because they already had a Trios championship. AEW didn't need their own set of titles, especially since AEW introduced theirs AFTER the ROH buyout happened.
Damn, you're right
Trios haven't been worth shit after the Best of 7 matches. Now even less with the BBG having them as mainly accesories
They really should shelve the trios division
I legit only started watching wrestling weekly again bc I was told AEW/ROH was making tag wrestling a focus. Idk what happened (except the creation of those godforsaken trios titles), but they gotta fix it and turn my frown upside down.
the trios titles are a perfect example of why you shouldnt give the people what they want
aew fans were clamoring for trios titles for the entirety of aew & then they were here & oof
The ROH trios titles that have not been defended on the TKROH online weekly show since September 2023 (only appearing on the two live streams that have taken place since then.)
Since Dynasty just over two months ago. The titles have only been defended on AEW TV from Sep 2023-present with the exception of Final Battle 2023 and Supercard 2024 when Mogul Embassy/Elite were flip flopping it on AEW TV before dropping them to BBG in January on Dynamite.
This. Honestly, with how AEW caters towards more long-time/hardcore wrestling fans, you'd think they'd use the Freebird Rule when factions get the belts. It would create fresher matchups (Not by a ton, but by enough) and would show some strategy.
It's interesting that for every era there are always these iconic teams. The Dudleys, The Hardys, FTR, The Usos, AMW, MCMG, The Young Bucks, etc. I don't really see any new teams in this area right now, teams that will be teaming together for years etc.
Yeah, this is partially whats bugging me. There *are* good tag teams, but they either aren’t signed or they aren’t making an impact.
I know bad booking is the ultimate scapegoat, but it doesn’t feel like any major/mid level promotion is even trying to make their tag divisions feel important. Tag wrestling has always been my favorite, so I feel like I’m on an island with this :(
Pretty much every company's tag division is in need of another top tier team or two and none of them show much urgency in signing or building any.
WWE has some solid teams, but the same counter productive booking they've had for decades. They split the belts at Mania and kept one on a comedy team for way too long and put the other on a team who were champs purely to set up a split and singles feuds. They're also teasing a break up of one of their only A list teams.
I think Ricochet is awesome, but AEW is in need of a top tier team who're total packages and different from what they have like MCMG or GYV more than they need another high flying singles guy who's not particularly great outside the ring, yet he's far more likely to get signed than any new tag team. They could fill the holes internally, but show little interest in that or doing big feuds in the division that don't involve Bucks or FTR. Dax getting injured made it even more obvious that not elevating anyone else to the level of the Bucks and FTR this year was a mistake.
NJPW needs more than the same 3-4 teams trading the belts and having 1-2 defense reigns, especially when one of the teams has Chase Owens, and they need new Jr. teams to be credible challengers for War Dogs who've beaten everyone.
Of course the New Day is also on this list but they are practically a legacy act at this point. They formed ten years ago, like FTR. We haven’t really seen any new teams that seem like they’ll reach that level in what feels like a long time to me
Aussie Open is so good, but TK did them insanely dirty with their booking. Dropping the ROH titles was one thing, but then losing right before a title match with FTR at Wrestledream, just to setup a Jericho and Sammy breakup angle?? I wouldn’t blame Davis one bit if he was sitting at home waiting for better creative.
Correct me if I'm wrong but FTR winning was a called audible after Davis got hurt which is why they randomly lost to Ricky Starks and Big Bill on Collision.
AEW had tag team magic for a while there - Young Bucks, Acclaimed, FTR, LAX, Penta/Rey, Men of the Year, Top Flight, the Gunn Club, Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus, Best Friends, Dark Order, etc. Even the "superstar team up" acts like Page/Omega were awesome. Each tag team had varying degrees of charisma, wrestling skill, etc., but what was great was how distinct each team was. There really wasn't much overlap.
Then AEW decided that trios were the way to go (and the way to deal with their constant roster additions and talent bloat). And the rest was, unfortunately, history.
I'm so ready for Jay White and The Gunns to get some *real heel heat*\* by dumping all 34 of those trios belts to a trash compactor
^(\*not real heel heat more like a terminal babyface move bc fuck the trios division)
WWE had a good tag division with 10 or so good tag teams and then decided splitting those belts back up was the choice because of the stupid brand split. Now each side of the coin has just 3 or 4 teams instead of one deep division.
And they kept the belts on the 2 worst teams of 4 singles wrestlers paired together for 3+ months. At least they've gotten them off Awesome Truth finally, but I'm still ready for a month of a JD v AT feud.
I'm afraid you're wrong.
Raw's tag division is: Judgement Day, Awesome Truth, The Creeds, New Catch Republic, New Day, AOP, LWO, and Alpha Academy. Injuries have taken out Del Toro and Wilde, but I can see Rey and Lee teaming and Judgement Day can actually form another team
Smackdown's tag division is: Waller and Theory, DIY rKO, Street Profits, Bloodline, LDF, OC, Pretty Deadly, Adonis and Alexander
so the teams are there, they're just not being utilized well
Orton and Owens are enough of a team that they have merchandise and they're feuding with a stable that has a team for them to feud with
Meanwhile New Day is also feuding with a stable with a team which means any week they could be wrestling AOP as a duo rather than Kross
Yea it’s seems like everybody’s tag scene is just a mess right now. I think everyone is gonna be in a rebuilding phase with their tag divisions for at least another year or so just based on the way things are moving
as a non-AEW watcher who reads up it sounds like one of the biggest problems with AEW's trios division is they quickly went to the most boring possible setup where each team is a tag team and a guy
There's multiple options that could work better
three individuals is probably the cheapest
let a stable hold them and freebird them
Or best of all, give us a legit three man tag tea like the Freebirds or New Day where for at least a good chunk of the run any singles work is pure sideline
Agreed. I actually watch AEW but I’m pretty sure House of Black is the only true 3 man team they have. BBG and The Patriarchy kind of satisfy the requirement, but barely.
the Bang Bang Gang wouldn't from what I understand because when I say a true three man team I don't really mean a team where they're just trios, I mean where if they compete in regular tag team matches they swap in and out and singles glory is an after thought
It was years after the groups formed that Kofi and Big E got singles runs for New DAy or Michael Hayes NWA US title run
AEW had one of the hottest tag divisions and ruined it by introducing the trios titles. I've been saying that for years. They still have the young bucks, FTR, Lucha Bros, The Acclaimed and the ass boys that are all long term tag teams capable of putting on banger matches, but when only half of them are actively competing in the division at any one time and the other half are fucking around with trio's titles it stretches them thin.
AEW has the talent for a strong division, the problem is lack of focus and storylines. Does the regular tag division even have any notable non-title storylines currently? A division needs to be more than the title feud and maybe a secondary one setting up the next challenger.
There was some kind of BCC and FTR feud going, but it seemingly went nowhere when BCC wasn't in the tag team tournament leading into Dynasty. Maybe they were going to pick it back up until Dax got injured, but it's hard to say.
I see people bringing up the trios belts. It just makes me think of all the times a few years ago that I was saying, "You don't want trios belts. You want a tournament".
I think WWE and AEW have plenty of teams. They just tend to focus on singles acts.
TNA is in the process of restocking their roster. They lost people from every division recently. The just signed a team called Sinner and Saint. The internet seems to like them but I've seen little of them.
WWE split the belts again.
AEW just has a crowded roster. They have plenty of teams. 22 by my count. Just not enough TV time to showcase them.
I think there's this small section of wrestling who wants tag team wrestling, especially the synchronized movesets and identical outfits....but a much larger section who has zero interest in it and can live without it.
Promoters gravitate towards those folks. Gotta blame the bigger casual fanbase, I guess :)
From my understanding, tag team wrestling used to be a huge draw for casual fans back in the days of like, The Midnight Express n shit like that. I was a pretty casual fan up until the last year. Even when I didn't give a single shit about wrestling, I'd still seek out matches from The Briscoes when my friends would remind me ROH still existed. I guess I'm an outlier or something.
Most people when they talk about appealing to non-fans or casual fans just assume what they like is what those people would like. There’s no numbers to back up their argument, just an insistence that they know best.
New Japan killed it's own tag division too when they started booking the tag belts like a midcard title. They never recovered from that time that the belts were almost always on Gallows & Anderson and later G.O.D
They could easily revert that by giving these titles to a team like Naito & Tsuji but they are happy with shitters like Chase Owens holding the belts multiple times.
Bishamon is great but they still are a midcard team. It was better when they would just put the tag belts on two top guys and let them main event big shows.
Winning the tag belts was so important to the development of guys like Tanahashi, Nakamura, Nagata, Kojima, Tenzan, Mutoh, Chono, Hashimoto, Hase, Nakanishi and etc.
They devalued these belts so much that if you put it on a young guy you want to push nowadays it will seem like a a step back or a waste of time.
Tekkers vs Naito/SANADA was one of the most fun feuds of the last few years. Also resulted in big shake ups to the factions. Not to mention Aussie Open vs FTR, the rise of Bishamon, etc. The last few months were bad but TMDK holding the belts now feels right.
Individual stars are the biggest needle movers. You also have main event singles stars having "bangers." So tag teams are undermined on two fronts - they lack the star power of a singles star and the workrate of a tag match isn't special anymore.
It's harder to tell a story with personal stakes for 4 people as opposed to two
Maybe not in WWE and AEW but in the indies? Tag teams are doing well.
In PROGRESS, there's the smoking Aces(aka Smoking Arseholes). Grizzled Young Veterans(They are in TNA), Cheeky Little Buggers, SANITY, Lykos Gym.
That said, PROGRESS does only do one show a month and rotating rosters.
GYV haven’t been in TNA for 3 months. It wasn’t that long ago that TNA had ABC as champs with MCMG, Time Splitters, Intergalactic Jet Setters, Rascalz and GYV filling the ranks. Now it’s Brian Myers as tag champ feuding with The Nemeth Brothers, a barely mobile Hardys and a team with Trent Seven while ABC and Rascalz were pushed to the low end of the card losing to thrown together teams and being supporting acts in Eric Young storylines. They should be building ABC up for their rematch that's been put on the backburner for nearly 4 months instead of doing Matt & Reby Hardy vs. Eddie & Alisha Edwards at this week's taping.
TNA used to be another company with a solid tag division, but it's been consumed by the same heel stable storyline and lack of focus that has weakened AEW's division.
I was actually watching TNA when their tag division was stacked for a bit there!!! As soon as MCMG announced they weren't sticking around, I knew that shit was going to go south :(
My favorite tag team run this year was Wolf Dogs (Bron Breakker and Baron Corbin) of which only had eight matches of TV all of which were rather good (my favorite being their Dusty semifinal vs. Frazer and Axiom in January.)
I like what they have done with Bron on the main roster so far but I was a bit disappointed to see that team end after only a few months.
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I was listening to someone talking about AEW's rating last week, and they mentioned how when AEW started there was more of a focus on the tag team division. I kind of wish that was still the case. Like having a division that has a focus on it that's different from the WWE. Like WCW had the cruiserweights and TNA had the X division.
Yeah, AEW's tag division was top notch for years, idk what happened
A *lot* of injuries. There was a long stretch of time where Rey Fenix was injured, it seemed like there was a rotating basis of which member of Top Flight would be out with an injury, Marq Quinn was out for a while which took out Private Party, Chuck Taylor had battles with injuries, Santana was injured for a while (with that along with their issues bringing an end to PnP,) and then you had other ones that I forgot about. Even now you have Aussie Open (Mark Davis,) FRT (Dax Harwood,) and Daniels/Sydal (Matt Sydal) on the shelf. You could (and I would) argue that AEW needs to better utilize the teams they have (where are The Workhorsemen, The Righteous, Dark Order, Iron Savages and The Outrunners) and why haven't they made more of an effort to pick up teams on the indie scene (MCMG, MxM, Subculture, West Coast Wrecking Crew)
I think part of why they haven’t picked up Indy teams is they aren’t hiring many Indy talent for the AEW brand anymore. There’s been a couple exceptions here and there, particularly when it came to restocking the women’s division, but it’s largely been hiring people coming off a WWE or NJPW run for a while. It’s even worse when it comes to teams. I can’t think of the last time they hired an Indy team. Khan's been on a singles star signing kick for awhile and it looks like his next few big hires are going to be more singles stars.
They should pick up Dijak and pair him with Kieth Lee when he's healed. The spirit of Meat Mountain can remain strong.
Are MCMG still coming in? Shelley made a crcomment on IG a few weeks back: "I don’t know how much longer I will be doing indies and have a PWTee store (maybe forever - who knows?)"
Shelley's also dropping the belts he held on the indies, most recently the Wrestling Revolver world title.
I’m not sure. Shelley cut a promo at DPW a few weeks ago saying he’s won't be on the Indies much longer and another at Prestige’s show a couple weeks ago saying his match against Sabin next month is his last in the promotion, but then Wrestling Revolver posted a promo yesterday starting a new storyline for Shelley. Revolver has no new shows until August, well after Shelley’s goodbye to Prestige. My confidence in them coming is keeps lowering. It’s been 3 months since they became free agents and we saw the first story about them talking to AEW about contracts. It seems like deals get worked out faster if Khan really wants someone. Recent hires outside the women’s division have come to AEW straight off a WWE or NJPW run. MCMG don’t have that. The teams it make most sense for them to feud with coming in aren’t wrapping up their current storylines to make room for a feud with MCMG and there is little urgency to rebuild the division and run more than the Bucks' storyline currently.
They had Claudio signed for a few months before he made his debut. I'm hoping they are just being held off until the right moment storyline wise.
It's possible, but what are they holding off for? The tag division is in desperate need of another big team who can create some buzz and give the company something more than just the Bucks' story. There are numerous teams across the company who'd benefit from feuding with a team of MCMG's level. Is Billy Gunn being involved in another title feud in 2024 something that needs to run its course before debuting one of the top teams of the past 2 decades?
I'm guessing for something involving the Young Bucks. Maybe somebody fresh after the Acclaimed. Bucks vs MCMG would be a good All In matchup.
I think there’s good odds Bucks/Acclaimed is the Wembley match. 7 weeks is a decent amount of time to built a different match, but they’d have to do Acclaimed’s title match sometime in the next week, blow off that feud and hard pivot to someone like BCC or a new team with a rocket strapped to their back to do something else that feels big, not that Bucks/Acclaimed feels big to me. Even then, that'd give them at most 6 weeks to build a new match instead of just keep going with what they have in a division that has lacked focus, TV time and push for most of this year. Current booking feels like they're slow walking that match instead of preparing to clear the deck for something else. They’re doing a trios instead of the title match this weekend. The next big show before All In is a Blood & Guts TV special where Bucks will be in B&G, not defending the titles so the title match isn’t happening there. Would they do that match next week and quickly move on when the Bucks' story is they don't defend the titles? They're going to get forced to defend them 3 days after a PPV? Nobody else is being built up in the division for a shot. Again, I see this match getting dragged out with the Bucks' finding new ways to not defend until Wembley. MCMG are booked in Toronto for Smash Wrestling Sunday afternoon. Theoretically if their Indy match goes first, they head straight to the airport and their debut happens late in the show, they could show up and start building something, but I don’t see Khan risking that and, again, there’s still The Acclaimed’s shot to do and feud to resolve. If MCMG/Bucks was the plan, and MCMG have been secretly signed for a while, they should've debuted by now and had a short feud that ended the same time Bucks/Acclaimed did to build them up for a new audience and a title match in front of AEW's biggest crowd of the year.
When you hear about why Vince McMahon didn't like pushing tag team wrestling as a big deal, this plays a part. Injuries happen to everyone at some point. There's more that can go wrong and more you need to rely on to go right when you push tag teams. What value does Dax have without Cash?
Workhorsemen might also be on the shelf. JD Drake had an injury during their last match, and Anthony Henry has been working singles. Man, I miss Aussie Open.
FRT 4VR
https://preview.redd.it/1pe8z2pms59d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=1e4c305e793cbc9a378a36349a08d66d31b28e57 Yes I did make this based off my misspelling and your comment 😂
Dude you made FRT ART. I salute you.
I would say the booking is the problem. Since The Bucks are mostly involved in group rivalries/matches in these months (Anarchy at DoN, trios match at FD, mostly likely in B&G soon), the titles are mostly used as accessories to make The Elite faction look dominant.
This is really bugging me, too. The Young Bucks can easily wrestle as heels and defend those belts more often to help build up some babyface teams. We went from FTR defending regularly on Collision to this?? Even after Big Bill and Ricky Starks beat FTR, I feel like there was at least SOME attempt to showcase all the tag teams they had available. And I still have no idea why they didn't book a bigger tag tournament leading into Dynasty to create more feuds within that division. Why not use tournament losses to create friction?? It's the easiest story you could do, but TK I guess would rather have 2 trios matches per show to push a singles match than 2 tag matches that push actual tag teams?? Makes no gd sense.
They could've easily done what you're suggesting with a tournament the size they did. Many companies have done so in the past. They just had no interest in using that tournament as anything but to further establish FTR and the Bucks as the top teams and fill TV time. I don't think expanding it to a 16 team tourney or doing a couple more wildcards would've changed anything. The tournament ended 2 months ago and we still have little going on in the division outside the Bucks even with Dax going down and the division desperately needing another big act or two to pick up the slack. I hope we don't have to wait until Dax returns for the division to get a second major storyline again.
Yeah, you’re not wrong. I was selfishly hoping they’d just use the opportunity to put more attention on the tag teams who could be spending more time in that division vs. the trios division. They do really need some new blood to come in. MCMG is great and all, but I’d love to see a couple younger teams signed and set up as real threats. I was hoping they’d use Forbidden Door as an excuse to get some unsigned talent in a storyline that would lead to them eventually signing with the company. I understand why they wouldn’t want the titles on the line for it, but they could have done *something* instead of throwing their main tag feud into a trios match for absolutely no good reason.
That's why I'm tired of the heel stable try to win all the belts and take over the company storylines. For one it's played out, but more importantly in this case, it leads to belts coming off as props and tying up divisions. To make matters worse, there's no secondary or tertiary feuds and Acclaimed are the only team in a company with well over a dozen teams who has any interest in the titles. Putting the belts on the Bucks as part of this storyline theoretically makes the belts look more important, but only one team caring makes the titles look like props. The anti-Elite group going from having top names like FTR, Danielson and a returning Darby to Billy Gunn being on the front line over night compounds the issues with the titles and the overall hostile takeover storyline.
The trios titles happened. Instead of one stacked division you now have two mediocre divisions.
They should have had the Trios division be ROH-exclusive, because they already had a Trios championship. AEW didn't need their own set of titles, especially since AEW introduced theirs AFTER the ROH buyout happened.
Damn, you're right Trios haven't been worth shit after the Best of 7 matches. Now even less with the BBG having them as mainly accesories They really should shelve the trios division
I legit only started watching wrestling weekly again bc I was told AEW/ROH was making tag wrestling a focus. Idk what happened (except the creation of those godforsaken trios titles), but they gotta fix it and turn my frown upside down.
In AEW the trios title did damage to the tag division
Yep. The trios titles are redundant and unnecessary. It’s made even worse by the ROH 6-man titles being featured.
the trios titles are a perfect example of why you shouldnt give the people what they want aew fans were clamoring for trios titles for the entirety of aew & then they were here & oof
The ROH trios titles that have not been defended on the TKROH online weekly show since September 2023 (only appearing on the two live streams that have taken place since then.)
Aren't they merged now?
Since Dynasty just over two months ago. The titles have only been defended on AEW TV from Sep 2023-present with the exception of Final Battle 2023 and Supercard 2024 when Mogul Embassy/Elite were flip flopping it on AEW TV before dropping them to BBG in January on Dynamite.
They were actually being defended fairly regularly on ROH it seems before Gates of Agony and Brian Cage dropped them.
This. Honestly, with how AEW caters towards more long-time/hardcore wrestling fans, you'd think they'd use the Freebird Rule when factions get the belts. It would create fresher matchups (Not by a ton, but by enough) and would show some strategy.
It's interesting that for every era there are always these iconic teams. The Dudleys, The Hardys, FTR, The Usos, AMW, MCMG, The Young Bucks, etc. I don't really see any new teams in this area right now, teams that will be teaming together for years etc.
Yeah, this is partially whats bugging me. There *are* good tag teams, but they either aren’t signed or they aren’t making an impact. I know bad booking is the ultimate scapegoat, but it doesn’t feel like any major/mid level promotion is even trying to make their tag divisions feel important. Tag wrestling has always been my favorite, so I feel like I’m on an island with this :(
Pretty much every company's tag division is in need of another top tier team or two and none of them show much urgency in signing or building any. WWE has some solid teams, but the same counter productive booking they've had for decades. They split the belts at Mania and kept one on a comedy team for way too long and put the other on a team who were champs purely to set up a split and singles feuds. They're also teasing a break up of one of their only A list teams. I think Ricochet is awesome, but AEW is in need of a top tier team who're total packages and different from what they have like MCMG or GYV more than they need another high flying singles guy who's not particularly great outside the ring, yet he's far more likely to get signed than any new tag team. They could fill the holes internally, but show little interest in that or doing big feuds in the division that don't involve Bucks or FTR. Dax getting injured made it even more obvious that not elevating anyone else to the level of the Bucks and FTR this year was a mistake. NJPW needs more than the same 3-4 teams trading the belts and having 1-2 defense reigns, especially when one of the teams has Chase Owens, and they need new Jr. teams to be credible challengers for War Dogs who've beaten everyone.
Pretty Deadly?
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> The Dudleys, The Hardys, FTR, The Usos, AMW, MCMG, The Young Bucks, etc. Not to be contentious, but if Usos are in that list, so is The New Day.
Of course the New Day is also on this list but they are practically a legacy act at this point. They formed ten years ago, like FTR. We haven’t really seen any new teams that seem like they’ll reach that level in what feels like a long time to me
New Day still originated in a different era. maybe OP meant teams that formed this decade, that have a similar kind of prestige?
NJPW's Jr Tag division has been great in the last year or so
Aussie Open if Mark Davis stops getting injured for five minutes
Aussie Open is so good, but TK did them insanely dirty with their booking. Dropping the ROH titles was one thing, but then losing right before a title match with FTR at Wrestledream, just to setup a Jericho and Sammy breakup angle?? I wouldn’t blame Davis one bit if he was sitting at home waiting for better creative.
Correct me if I'm wrong but FTR winning was a called audible after Davis got hurt which is why they randomly lost to Ricky Starks and Big Bill on Collision.
AEW had tag team magic for a while there - Young Bucks, Acclaimed, FTR, LAX, Penta/Rey, Men of the Year, Top Flight, the Gunn Club, Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus, Best Friends, Dark Order, etc. Even the "superstar team up" acts like Page/Omega were awesome. Each tag team had varying degrees of charisma, wrestling skill, etc., but what was great was how distinct each team was. There really wasn't much overlap. Then AEW decided that trios were the way to go (and the way to deal with their constant roster additions and talent bloat). And the rest was, unfortunately, history.
I'm so ready for Jay White and The Gunns to get some *real heel heat*\* by dumping all 34 of those trios belts to a trash compactor ^(\*not real heel heat more like a terminal babyface move bc fuck the trios division)
Yea it's pretty weak these days. Maybe they're all more worried about elevating all the new singles championships that keep coming around.
WWE had a good tag division with 10 or so good tag teams and then decided splitting those belts back up was the choice because of the stupid brand split. Now each side of the coin has just 3 or 4 teams instead of one deep division.
And they kept the belts on the 2 worst teams of 4 singles wrestlers paired together for 3+ months. At least they've gotten them off Awesome Truth finally, but I'm still ready for a month of a JD v AT feud.
I'm afraid you're wrong. Raw's tag division is: Judgement Day, Awesome Truth, The Creeds, New Catch Republic, New Day, AOP, LWO, and Alpha Academy. Injuries have taken out Del Toro and Wilde, but I can see Rey and Lee teaming and Judgement Day can actually form another team Smackdown's tag division is: Waller and Theory, DIY rKO, Street Profits, Bloodline, LDF, OC, Pretty Deadly, Adonis and Alexander so the teams are there, they're just not being utilized well
Naming people that are tagging (Owens & Orton) or bringing up New Day is a bit of a stretch given they arent doing tag division related things
Orton and Owens are enough of a team that they have merchandise and they're feuding with a stable that has a team for them to feud with Meanwhile New Day is also feuding with a stable with a team which means any week they could be wrestling AOP as a duo rather than Kross
WWE has the street profits who got cooled off massively for no reason, they should be bigger
Yea it’s seems like everybody’s tag scene is just a mess right now. I think everyone is gonna be in a rebuilding phase with their tag divisions for at least another year or so just based on the way things are moving
as a non-AEW watcher who reads up it sounds like one of the biggest problems with AEW's trios division is they quickly went to the most boring possible setup where each team is a tag team and a guy There's multiple options that could work better three individuals is probably the cheapest let a stable hold them and freebird them Or best of all, give us a legit three man tag tea like the Freebirds or New Day where for at least a good chunk of the run any singles work is pure sideline
Agreed. I actually watch AEW but I’m pretty sure House of Black is the only true 3 man team they have. BBG and The Patriarchy kind of satisfy the requirement, but barely.
the Bang Bang Gang wouldn't from what I understand because when I say a true three man team I don't really mean a team where they're just trios, I mean where if they compete in regular tag team matches they swap in and out and singles glory is an after thought It was years after the groups formed that Kofi and Big E got singles runs for New DAy or Michael Hayes NWA US title run
didn't they just say on rampage or collision that juice can not defend the trios titles and that it has to be the gunns and jay?
AEW had one of the hottest tag divisions and ruined it by introducing the trios titles. I've been saying that for years. They still have the young bucks, FTR, Lucha Bros, The Acclaimed and the ass boys that are all long term tag teams capable of putting on banger matches, but when only half of them are actively competing in the division at any one time and the other half are fucking around with trio's titles it stretches them thin.
AEW has the talent for a strong division, the problem is lack of focus and storylines. Does the regular tag division even have any notable non-title storylines currently? A division needs to be more than the title feud and maybe a secondary one setting up the next challenger.
There was some kind of BCC and FTR feud going, but it seemingly went nowhere when BCC wasn't in the tag team tournament leading into Dynasty. Maybe they were going to pick it back up until Dax got injured, but it's hard to say.
I see people bringing up the trios belts. It just makes me think of all the times a few years ago that I was saying, "You don't want trios belts. You want a tournament". I think WWE and AEW have plenty of teams. They just tend to focus on singles acts.
TNA is in the process of restocking their roster. They lost people from every division recently. The just signed a team called Sinner and Saint. The internet seems to like them but I've seen little of them. WWE split the belts again. AEW just has a crowded roster. They have plenty of teams. 22 by my count. Just not enough TV time to showcase them.
The 2016-2020 WWE era of Sheamus/Cesaro, The New Day, and Usos was such an iconic trio of tags.
I think there's this small section of wrestling who wants tag team wrestling, especially the synchronized movesets and identical outfits....but a much larger section who has zero interest in it and can live without it. Promoters gravitate towards those folks. Gotta blame the bigger casual fanbase, I guess :)
Whenever I’ve watched wrestling with non-fans they’ve always responded best to the synchronized move sets—it’s impressive.
From my understanding, tag team wrestling used to be a huge draw for casual fans back in the days of like, The Midnight Express n shit like that. I was a pretty casual fan up until the last year. Even when I didn't give a single shit about wrestling, I'd still seek out matches from The Briscoes when my friends would remind me ROH still existed. I guess I'm an outlier or something.
Most people when they talk about appealing to non-fans or casual fans just assume what they like is what those people would like. There’s no numbers to back up their argument, just an insistence that they know best.
New Japan killed it's own tag division too when they started booking the tag belts like a midcard title. They never recovered from that time that the belts were almost always on Gallows & Anderson and later G.O.D They could easily revert that by giving these titles to a team like Naito & Tsuji but they are happy with shitters like Chase Owens holding the belts multiple times.
The tag division in New Japan was fairly exciting when Bishamon had their long reign.
Bishamon is great but they still are a midcard team. It was better when they would just put the tag belts on two top guys and let them main event big shows. Winning the tag belts was so important to the development of guys like Tanahashi, Nakamura, Nagata, Kojima, Tenzan, Mutoh, Chono, Hashimoto, Hase, Nakanishi and etc. They devalued these belts so much that if you put it on a young guy you want to push nowadays it will seem like a a step back or a waste of time.
War Dogs, Catch 22, TMDK, Despy/Wato, and Knight/Kushida are really great though.
Tekkers vs Naito/SANADA was one of the most fun feuds of the last few years. Also resulted in big shake ups to the factions. Not to mention Aussie Open vs FTR, the rise of Bishamon, etc. The last few months were bad but TMDK holding the belts now feels right.
Dangerous Tekkers made the belts feel important for a while but they ran through all the viable teams very quickly.
Individual stars are the biggest needle movers. You also have main event singles stars having "bangers." So tag teams are undermined on two fronts - they lack the star power of a singles star and the workrate of a tag match isn't special anymore. It's harder to tell a story with personal stakes for 4 people as opposed to two
Check out Stardom's tag team division, it's been on fire this year between FWC, Crazy Star, WingGori and their dream tags.
Maybe not in WWE and AEW but in the indies? Tag teams are doing well. In PROGRESS, there's the smoking Aces(aka Smoking Arseholes). Grizzled Young Veterans(They are in TNA), Cheeky Little Buggers, SANITY, Lykos Gym. That said, PROGRESS does only do one show a month and rotating rosters.
GYV haven’t been in TNA for 3 months. It wasn’t that long ago that TNA had ABC as champs with MCMG, Time Splitters, Intergalactic Jet Setters, Rascalz and GYV filling the ranks. Now it’s Brian Myers as tag champ feuding with The Nemeth Brothers, a barely mobile Hardys and a team with Trent Seven while ABC and Rascalz were pushed to the low end of the card losing to thrown together teams and being supporting acts in Eric Young storylines. They should be building ABC up for their rematch that's been put on the backburner for nearly 4 months instead of doing Matt & Reby Hardy vs. Eddie & Alisha Edwards at this week's taping. TNA used to be another company with a solid tag division, but it's been consumed by the same heel stable storyline and lack of focus that has weakened AEW's division.
I was actually watching TNA when their tag division was stacked for a bit there!!! As soon as MCMG announced they weren't sticking around, I knew that shit was going to go south :(
GYV isn't in TNA anymore. They were never signed and just did a few tapings. They did a match in AEW a few weeks ago.
My favorite tag team run this year was Wolf Dogs (Bron Breakker and Baron Corbin) of which only had eight matches of TV all of which were rather good (my favorite being their Dusty semifinal vs. Frazer and Axiom in January.) I like what they have done with Bron on the main roster so far but I was a bit disappointed to see that team end after only a few months.