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| The J Factor |
Simon Gallagher |
Are the days of 'genuine' tag teams well and truly numbered?
The recent state (in both senses of the word) of WWE’s tag team division has been one of the most contentious issues amongst wrestling fans for a long while now. Since WrestleMania 25 last year, the majority of the company’s ‘proper’ tag teams have taken a sidestep while the newly merged Unified Tag Team Titles have been draped around the waist of WWE’s main event and upper mid-card stars instead. JeriShow (Chris Jericho and Big Show), D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) and now ShowMiz (Big Show and The Miz) have all held the titles over the past ten months, leaving the likes of Cryme Tyme and The Hart Dynasty clutching at very small straws for anything else.
In fairness, such a move has given the tag title scene a new lease of life by having its focus on bigger stars, as well as giving superstars like Big Show and The Miz a chance to show off their in-ring and mic talent; however, the shift in attention can only be short-term at best. Jericho has already been placed back into the World Title picture and FSM doubts it’ll be before long Miz and Big Show concentrate on their own single career, especially with Miz holding the US Title as well. That being the case then, you have to wonder what WWE’s long-term vision for the tag titles is and why’ve we reached the point where it takes combinations of mid-carders and main eventers being thrown together in favour of ‘proper’ tag teams to get the belts over at all…
The obvious advantage of putting two established names together to form a tag team is that the fans are already familiar with them, so there’s little need to get them over – once the eventual split happens (which is practically inevitable these days), both stars can move on to do their own thing without much risking of one failing. As such, it could be that WWE isn’t investing so heavily in its ‘proper’ tag teams for the exact opposite reason: once the time comes for the pairing to go their separate ways, the success of one half almost always comes at price of failure for the other. And let’s face it, no-one wants to wind up being a tag team’s Marty Jannetty…
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 54 of FSM - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders and Barnes & Noble, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
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