Why The WWE Women’s Tag Division Was Never A Success

Australian Cinephile

If you think new champs will revitalise division, you haven't been paying attention.

Transcript

00:00Right, let us just be honest for one second, because mostly due to the powers that be,

00:04ever since the Women's Tag Team Championships did become a thing in 2019,

00:08they haven't really been utilized in the best possible fashion.

00:12And that has nothing to do with those who wear the gold around their waist,

00:16but much like the men's tag division, if you get into some kind of wrestling duo in WWE,

00:21you're always going to get treated as second fiddle.

00:23It has now hit a massive iceberg, given that the current champs,

00:26Naomi and Sasha Banks, have walked out of the company and it has led some people to say

00:30that the Women's Tag Team Division has failed.

00:34Why is why.

00:41I shall divide this into a handy list of reasons, because why not it is YouTube.

00:46And at the very bottom of all of this is the Hug and Boss Connection.

00:50Because Sasha Banks and Bayley are so damn passionate about what they do,

00:53they wheeled these titles into existence.

00:56They looked around the wrestling landscape and said,

00:58hey, why can't we have some Women's Tag Team Championships on the show?

01:02And given that they were then crowned the first ever champions,

01:06they decided they were going to take it and do what they could.

01:08Now, it certainly made more sense back then, because WWE had a much deeper roster,

01:12and we'll talk about that in just one second.

01:15Because essentially you had bodies you could just put together and go,

01:17ta-da, we've made a tag team.

01:19And what happened is that they won these titles in February,

01:23and then they lost them two months later in April.

01:25Now, this was at WrestleMania, so I suppose at least had some gravitas,

01:28but it went to the IIconics, and we all remember what happened when

01:32Billie Kay and Peyton Royce did win them.

01:33It was like, well, I didn't see that coming.

01:36That didn't tie into the story at all.

01:38Now, look, I thought the IIconics were great,

01:40but the problem here is that you could have kept these on Sasha Banks and Bayley

01:44for up to a year, and then one, people have gone,

01:47wow, I should care about these things,

01:49but also two, when they did lose them, you'd be like,

01:51oh, I can't believe it, that's 12 months of my life.

01:54So doing it this way was just a bit meh.

01:57That's what people did, they went meh.

01:58Because it didn't really give them any kind of emotional connection,

02:00which brings us into point two, the use of NXT.

02:04So the other things we were told after these things were born

02:06is that they could be defended on Raw,

02:08they could be defended on SmackDown,

02:10and they could be defended down in NXT.

02:12Do you know how many times this actually happened

02:15in WWE's developmental brand?

02:18Three times in two years.

02:19Now, this seems crazy,

02:20because it was in the middle of WWE having a ratings war with AEW,

02:24so why wouldn't you want to get some of your major stars

02:26and put them on NXT?

02:28And the absolute confusing part is the third time we did do this,

02:32afterwards, William Regal went,

02:34you know what, I don't want none of that shenanigans,

02:36we're just going to make our own tag team titles.

02:39So do you know what it did to the original pair?

02:41It diminished them once again.

02:43And again, no, you don't do this every week,

02:45because it's the law of diminishing returns,

02:46but you would have got such a good symbiotic relationship here.

02:50That's right, I'm using the big words,

02:51because one, it would have bolstered NXT,

02:54but also two, it would have allowed you

02:56to have done a bunch of crazy unique things

02:58with a set of championships that you weren't doing

03:01with the other championships,

03:02and then blah, blah, blah,

03:04makes these ones feel special.

03:05I know special isn't a word,

03:06but damn it, I am just ranting and raving,

03:08which actually brings us to our next point,

03:11the fact that at one stage,

03:13we had Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax as our champions,

03:17and do you know what Nia Jax was more interested in?

03:21Reggie.

03:21I mean, seriously,

03:22those two just lost and lost and lost and lost,

03:25because Nia would be going,

03:26Reg, I love you,

03:27and I get that WWE does this kind of silly stuff all the time,

03:30but we were still in a period where, once again,

03:33we were trying to establish these two titles

03:35as things that we should care about,

03:37but now we were being told,

03:39no, ignore that, ignore this wrestling prize,

03:42we want you to look at this relationship.

03:43So we'd actually decided that distractions were more important,

03:47which brings us to another problem,

03:49the fact that there weren't many ideas.

03:51Because it started well,

03:52because these belts got defended on three straight pay-per-views,

03:55but in the 39 pay-per-views,

03:57or premium live events that followed,

03:59they only turned up on 11 if we don't count the kick-off show.

04:03And we don't, because WWE doesn't, so why should we?

04:05So there's an appearance ratio of less than 30%,

04:08and while I totally agree,

04:09you don't have to defend these things week in, week out,

04:11or month in, month out,

04:13that wasn't what was going on here,

04:15and actually what was happening,

04:17is that WWE would wake up one day and go,

04:19oh, I forgot about it again.

04:20So when you have that,

04:21coupled with the fact that they barely got on Raw and Smackdown either,

04:24every single fan just goes,

04:26well, why would I invest any time into them?

04:28I'm just going to be disappointed.

04:30I want to make it clear once more,

04:32this wasn't down to the wrestlers.

04:34You have to be given a good concept to begin with.

04:37We just didn't.

04:38I mean, after the Iconics had won them,

04:40they had a few matches that week,

04:41and then they vanished for a month.

04:43Nobody mentioned them,

04:44and nobody told us where they'd gone.

04:46They then came back,

04:47they had two matches,

04:49and they were gone again.

04:50Randomly then, in July,

04:51they held onto their belts via count-out,

04:53and then three weeks later,

04:55they finally dropped them,

04:56which meant all of this was a four-month period,

05:00and there was nothing to talk about.

05:02It was this inconsistency that hurt so much,

05:04and also probably what wound up Sasha Banks and Naomi,

05:07because they had been told,

05:08look, we know you're the tag team champions,

05:09but Bianca Valera is going to take on Naomi,

05:11and Sasha Banks,

05:12you're going to take on Ronda Rousey,

05:14and then you're both going to lose.

05:15And also, we've looked at the calendar,

05:17and no, we don't really know what we want to do with the tag team titles.

05:20And you could easily get away with that, of course,

05:22in fact, they'd probably be some good matches,

05:24but it's just more cracks in the armour.

05:26For example,

05:27do you remember when Eva Marie and Doudrop were a tag team for two weeks?

05:32Before they started to fall out.

05:34We also just fell off a cliff when Shotzi and Knox got called up,

05:37became the number one contenders,

05:38and never got their title match,

05:41and I'm pretty sure that Carmella and Zelina Vega also had a run,

05:45but seriously,

05:46do you remember anything from it?

05:48No, we were never given the chance.

05:50Because sadly,

05:51all we ever did when it came to this area

05:53is beat everybody over the head with a stick

05:56and ask the question,

05:58how can these two people coexist?

06:00And the answer is yes,

06:01they can coexist,

06:02and I know this because I'm looking at them

06:03and they're standing next to each other,

06:05and one of them isn't being sucked into the abyss,

06:07so they are existing within the same universe.

06:10But this was the ongoing story

06:12between Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler,

06:14especially,

06:15and it never went anywhere.

06:16Sometimes they fell out,

06:18then they were friends again,

06:19then they fell out,

06:19then they were friends again.

06:20Sometimes you just looked at each other,

06:22as if they were a cat.

06:23I mean,

06:23the whole thing was built on this,

06:25and we didn't have an endgame for it,

06:27so it meant nothing.

06:28Really though,

06:28aside from the fact that management has never really been into this,

06:31the roster at the moment is so sparse,

06:34I don't understand how you'd have a women's tag team division anyway.

06:36I mean,

06:37even on the men's side,

06:38we put Randy Orton and Riddle together

06:39because we needed some extra bodies that side,

06:41and they are still attending to singles duties.

06:43It's even more ridiculous back on the women's

06:45because nearly every single team who have won the thing

06:49were just thrown together randomly.

06:51I mean,

06:51we've already talked about it.

06:52Like,

06:52we have this tournament coming up soon

06:54to crown new champions,

06:56and who's going to be in it?

06:58It's going to be like a two-round tournament,

07:01and even then,

07:02somebody is probably going to have to join another team

07:04just so we can get the thing done.

07:05And don't get me wrong either,

07:06this can easily be saved,

07:07it just needs a little bit of TLC,

07:09and what we really should do,

07:10given that Raw and SmackDown are always boring ideas,

07:13is look at RK,

07:14bro,

07:14and say,

07:15wow,

07:15they had really good chemistry,

07:17we felt it from the fans,

07:18and we went all in with it,

07:20why don't we go do that with a couple of women too?

07:23So ultimately,

07:24we probably shouldn't have got rid of

07:25Mickie James,

07:26or Chelsea Green,

07:27or Sarah Logan,

07:29or Ruby Riott,

07:30or Ember Moon,

07:31or Nia Jax,

07:32all the IIconics,

07:33I mean,

07:33we could actually do this all day.

07:35It kind of feels like that may have been

07:36a little bit of a mistake,

07:37and we should invite them back.

07:38Ultimately though,

07:39what do I know?

07:40Absolutely nothing,

07:41but I do not want us to give up on this.

07:44Tag team wrestling can be brilliant

07:45when it's done right,

07:47and when it's given a little bit of something,

07:49something,

07:49in order to let it fly.

07:52If we could just do that WWE,

07:54I would appreciate it.

07:55Thank you very much.

07:56Now please do leave a comment below,

07:57and let us know what you think about all of this.

07:59Like the video,

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08:09And look,

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08:14My name is Simon from WhatCulture,

08:15thank you for joining me as always in this.

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