World Tag Team Championship (WWE)
World Tag Team Championship | |||||||||||||||||||
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Details | |||||||||||||||||||
Promotion | WWE | ||||||||||||||||||
Brand | Raw | ||||||||||||||||||
Date established | October 3, 2002 | ||||||||||||||||||
Current champion(s) | Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth) | ||||||||||||||||||
Date won | April 6, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||
Other name(s) | |||||||||||||||||||
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The World Tag Team Championship is a men's
The championship was originally established as the WWE Tag Team Championship on October 3, 2002, and the team of
As a result of the
History
From 1971 until 2002, WWE's original World Tag Team Championship was the primary men's world tag team championship of the professional wrestling promotion. Following The Invasion storyline, WWE's roster doubled in size due to the influx of wrestlers from the former promotions, World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling. As a result, WWE introduced the brand extension in March 2002 to divide its roster between the Raw and SmackDown! brands where wrestlers would exclusively perform on their respective weekly television programs. The original World Tag Team Championship initially became exclusive to SmackDown!, but was later reassigned to Raw, leaving the former without a tag team title. As a result, SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon introduced the WWE Tag Team Championship and commissioned it to be the tag team title for the SmackDown! brand on October 3, 2002. She also announced that the inaugural champions would be determined from an eight-team tournament. At No Mercy on October 20, 2002, the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit defeated Rey Mysterio and Edge in the tournament final to become the inaugural WWE Tag Team Champions.[1]
On October 17, 2007, SmackDown! and
Following the reintroduction of the brand extension in July 2016, reigning champions
At
During the May 20, 2022, episode of
In the main event of
At WrestleMania XL Night 1 on April 6, 2024, The Judgment Day (Finn Bálor and Damian Priest) defended the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship in a Six-Pack Tag Team Ladder match in which both sets of championships had to be retrieved for the match to end. As a result, the championships were split with Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth) winning the Raw Tag Team Championship while A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory and Grayson Waller) won the SmackDown titles.[13] A week later on the April 15 episode of Raw, the Raw Tag Team Championship was renamed as the World Tag Team Championship with a new set of championship belts.[14] The SmackDown Tag Team Championship was then renamed as the WWE Tag Team Championship with its own new set of belts on the April 19 episode of SmackDown.[15]
Inaugural WWE Tag Team Championship Tournament (2002)
The WWE Tag Team Championship Tournament was a tournament held to crown the inaugural WWE Tag Team Champions for the SmackDown brand. It concluded at No Mercy on October 20, 2002, and was won by the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit.[16]
Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
Los Guerreros | Sub | |||||||||
Mark Henry and Rikishi | ||||||||||
Los Guerreros | ||||||||||
Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle | Pin | |||||||||
Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle | Sub | |||||||||
Billy Kidman and John Cena | ||||||||||
Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle | Sub | |||||||||
Edge and Rey Mysterio | 22:03 | |||||||||
Reverend D-Von and Ron Simmons
| Pin | |||||||||
Billy and Chuck | ||||||||||
Reverend D-Von and Ron Simmons | ||||||||||
Edge and Rey Mysterio | Pin | |||||||||
Edge and Rey Mysterio | Pin | |||||||||
Brock Lesnar and Tajiri | ||||||||||
Brand designation history
Following the events of the
Date of transition | Brand | Notes |
---|---|---|
October 20, 2002 | SmackDown | Championship established as the WWE Tag Team Championship for SmackDown after the World Tag Team Championship became exclusive to Raw. Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit became the inaugural champions at No Mercy. |
November 13, 2007 | ECW | The WWE Tag Team Championship moved to John Morrison and The Miz, members of the ECW brand, defeated Matt Hardy and Montel Vontavious Porter to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. However, as part of a talent exchange agreement between SmackDown and ECW, teams of either brand could challenge for the title.
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July 20, 2008 | SmackDown | The WWE Tag Team Championship returned to John Morrison and The Miz to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. The talent exchange agreement was still in effect during this time.
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April 5, 2009 | N/A | At Unified WWE Tag Team Championship . Both titles remained active and were defended on any brand.The World Tag Team Championship was decommissioned in August 2010, and "Unified" was dropped from the name. |
July 19, 2016 | Raw | Reintroduction of brand split. WWE Tag Team Champions . |
Belt designs
The original design of the title belt when it was introduced as the WWE Tag Team Championship featured a design that was similar to the 1985 to 2002 version of the original World Tag Team Championship, with gold plates on black straps. It featured a similar center plate with an eagle and crown designs alongside a blue globe at the center. On top, it featured the company's scratch logo on a blue background. The gold text in the blue ribbon read "World Wrestling Entertainment" while the bottom read "TAG TEAM" in a blue background and "CHAMPIONS" in blue text. The inner side plates were gold and featured two wrestlers grappling with the WWE logo at the top on a blue background, while the outer side plates were simply the company logo on a blue background.[21]
In August 2010, the WWE Tag Team Championship received a redesign, replacing the previous design that had been used in tandem with the original World Tag Team Championship to represent the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship since April 2009. The belts were on black straps with copper plates. Taking inspiration from Greece, the center plate was dominated by two Spartan helmets facing outward and it was encircled with a meander pattern. At the top of the center plate was the WWE scratch logo and at the bottom was a banner that read "Tag Team" on one line and "Champions" below that; above the Tag Team banner read "World Wrestling Entertainment" in small print. On both sides of the center plate were two side plates. The inner side plates featured the WWE scratch logo and were encircled with the meander pattern, while the outer side plates featured a single Spartan helmet facing inward.[22] In August 2014, the belts, along with all other pre-existing championship belts in WWE at the time, received a minor update, replacing the scratch logo with WWE's current logo that was originally used for the WWE Network that launched earlier that year in February.[23] According to well-known belt maker Dave Millican, who designed and created the belts, he wanted to go with either nickel, silver, or gold for the plates, but WWE, in particular Stephanie McMahon, wanted copper to do something different that was not done elsewhere.[24]
In August 2016, after the reintroduction of the brand split and the creation of the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, the WWE Tag Team Championship was renamed to Raw Tag Team Championship. The belts then received an update on December 19 that year to reflect the name change. They featured the same physical design, but the plates were silver and the straps changed to red, countering the silver plates on blue straps design of the SmackDown Tag Team Championship belts. While all other WWE championship belts were updated to feature customizable side plates for the champion's logos, the Raw and SmackDown tag titles lacked these features.[25]
On the April 15, 2024, episode of Raw, in conjunction with the Raw Tag Team Championship being renamed to World Tag Team Championship, the championship belts received a new design. At the center of the plate is WWE's logo placed over a globe, similar to the World Heavyweight Championship and Women's World Championship belts, albeit with a red background and placed on a shield flanked by two griffins in a similar manner to a coat of arms. Above the globe is a banner that reads "WORLD TAG TEAM" while below the globe is another banner that reads "CHAMPIONS", both in silver and with a red background. The plates are on black straps with metal endplates, and gold divider bars separate the center plate from the two side plates. The side plates are now customizable with the reigning champions' logo; the default side plates feature the WWE logo on a red globe.[14]
Reigns
As of April 25, 2024, there have been 93 reigns between 71 teams composed of 102 individual champions, and one vacancy. The team of Cesaro and Sheamus and The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) have the most reigns as a team at four, while individually, Kingston and
The current champions are Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth), who are in their first reign as a team, while individually, this is the fifth reign for Miz and second for Truth. They won the title from previous champions The Judgment Day (Finn Bálor and Damian Priest) in a Six-Pack Tag Team Ladder match[f] on Night 1 of WrestleMania XL on April 6, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They won the title as the Raw Tag Team Championship and it was renamed as the World Tag Team Championship on April 15, 2024.[14]
See also
Notes
- ^ In tandem with the original World Tag Team Championship.
- WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship.
- Freebird Rule.
- Freebird Rule; Big E was split from the team in the 2020 WWE Draft.
- Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, were defended separately in this match, with the SmackDown Tag Team Championship won by A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory and Grayson Waller).
- Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, were defended separately in this match, with the SmackDown Tag Team Championship won by A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory and Grayson Waller).
References
- General
- "World Tag Team Championship title history". WWE. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
- "Raw Tag Team Championship title history". WWE. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
- Specific
- ^ a b "Raw Tag Team Championship".
- ^ Medalis, Kara (2009-03-17). "Extremely lucky night". WWE. Retrieved 2009-11-26.
- ^ "WWE Tag Team Champions def. World Tag Team Champions (New Unified Tag Team Champions)". WWE. Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ^ Schadler, Kyle (February 12, 2012). "Abandoned: The History of WWE's World Tag Team Championship, Pt. 2". Bleacher Report. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
- ^ "Triple H Discusses NXT as a Third Brand, Putting Talent in a Position to Succeed, More – 411MANIA". www.411mania.com.
- ^ Currier, Joseph (December 3, 2021). "Preview and Predictions for 'NXT WarGames'". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
- ^ Fiorvanti, Tim. "WrestleMania 34 recaps and results: Ronda shines in debut, Taker returns, Charlotte stops Asuka, new champs galore". ESPN. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
- ^ Barnett, Jake (March 20, 2022). "5/20 WWE Friday Night Smackdown results: Barnett's review of Smackdown Tag Team Champions Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso vs. Raw Tag Team Champions "RK-Bro" Randy Orton and Riddle in a unification match, Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn, Xavier Woods vs. Butch". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
- Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
- Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
- ^ Powell, Jason (April 1, 2023). "WrestleMania 39 results: Powell's live review of night one with Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles, Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley for the Smackdown Women's Title, Austin Theory vs. John Cena for the U.S. Title, Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio, Seth Rollins vs. Logan Paul". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on April 2, 2023. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
- ^ Powell, Jason (May 27, 2023). "WWE Night of Champions results: Powell's live review of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn vs. Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles, Brock Lesnar vs. Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins vs. AJ Styles for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Bianca Belair vs. Asuka for the Raw Women's Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on May 27, 2023. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
- ^ Powell, Jason (April 6, 2024). "WrestleMania XL results: Powell's live review of night one with The Rock and Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes, Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch for the Women's World Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
- ^ a b c Lambert, Jeremy (April 15, 2024). "New WWE World Tag Team Championships Presented To R-Truth And Miz On 4/15 WWE Raw". Fightful. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
- ^ Lambert, Jeremy (April 19, 2024). "New WWE Tag Team Titles Given To Austin Theory And Grayson Waller On 4/19 WWE SmackDown". Fightful. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
- ^ "Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit's first reign". WWE. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
- World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
- ^ Sitterson, Aubrey (2009-04-27). "Judgment is coming". WWE. Retrieved 2009-12-14.
- ^ "History of the World Tag Team Championship: Carlito & Primo". WWE. Archived from the original on April 8, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
- ^ a b Babos, John. "WWE Raw & Smackdown Live Spoilers: WWE Raw Rebrands 2 Championship Belts Following Smackdown Live's Lead!". Www.insidepulse.com. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
- ^ "WWE SmackDown Ruthless Aggression Tag Team Championship Replica Title Belt". WWE. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
- ^ "Bret "Hit Man" Hart presents The Hart Dynasty with the new WWE Tag Team Championships: Raw, August 16, 2010". WWE. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
- ^ Graser, Marc (August 15, 2014). "WWE Rebrands With New Logo Tied to Digital Network". Variety. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
- 411Mania. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
- 411Mania. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
External links
- Official World Tag Team Title History
- Media related to Wrestlers as the WWE Tag Team champion at Wikimedia Commons