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The WWE tag division has been heavily criticized by both detractors and fans for years now. The company has a habit of building up a team the WWE Universe is genuinely interested in, only to fumble at the goal line.
It happens so often some wonder if it's on purpose. We've seen many duos and trios that were seemingly on the verge of stardom only for WWE to completely halt their momentum or break them up.
Back in 2020, we saw WWE put the IIconics and the Riott Squad in a match, where the losing team would break up. Not a single fan wanted either result, and it stands as one of the weirdest creative decisions they have made in the past year.
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Today we'll be looking at similar decisions and teams that were never the same after the fact. We're counting down six tag teams that WWE didn't give enough time to flourish. The first pick may be controversial, but hear me out.
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#6. Former WWE SmackDown Tag Champions American Alpha
Alright, so after this spot there's going to be a rule regarding tag titles on the main roster. If a team has won the RAW or SmackDown Tag Titles, they're disqualified from the list...except for American Alpha.
Honestly, I debated going with American Alpha or Authors of Pain here, because both fit the same narrative. Despite winning gold on their respective brands, neither duo were together on the main roster long enough to matter. American Alpha seemed to be one of two teams destined to build up SmackDown's tag division.
Alongside The Usos, it looked like Chad Gable and Jason Jordan were going to be the main focal points for the tag titles. They would end up winning the belts in December of 2016 after beating the Wyatt Family, Usos, Heath Slater and Rhyno in a Four Corners Elimination Match.
Unfortunately, the reign only lasted three months before the belts were shifted to The Usos. Soon after, Jason Jordan was moved to RAW to be Kurt Angle's illegitimate son, leaving Chad Gable on SmackDown to team up with Shelton Benjamin.
American Alpha was a standout team in NXT, and many considered them a new version of the Steiner Brothers. Fans thought they'd be major players in the tag division for years. Unfortunately, that weird Kurt Angle story came up and split up what could've been one of the greatest tag teams of the modern era.
#5. The Riott Squad
I know it's weird to put this group on here. Considering how long they were around, some may consider this an inappropriate pick. However, they were start-stopped and broken up so many times that WWE never truly gave them a chance.
The group formed in 2017, broke up two years later when Liv Morgan was drafted to SmackDown, and Sarah Logan was released before they could reform in 2020. They were constantly feuding with the IIconics and were always on the edge of winning the tag titles.
Seriously, the WWE Women's Tag Titles seemed tailor-made for the Riott Squad, especially by the time it was just Liv Morgan and Ruby Riott on the roster. Heading into WrestleMania 37, the WWE Universe was hoping to see the real-life friends capture the gold.
Instead, Ruby Riott was released, leaving Liv Morgan as a singles competitor.
#4. Former WWE Superstars Enzo and Cass
WWE's main roster has a bad habit of bringing up beloved tag teams and turning them on each other or running them into the ground. The night Enzo and Cass debuted on RAW was pure magic.
Fans in attendance came unglued as their music hit, and Enzo Amore came stutter-stepping out behind his gigantic friend Big Cass. Being a post-WrestleMania crowd, it was full of the most hardcore fans the company had. Thankfully, they knew every bit of the act. Those that didn't watch NXT knew exactly what to do when RAW came to their town.
Enzo and Cass were over. Genuinely over. Even when Enzo got hurt and Cass had to go solo for a bit, the man always got a great reaction because fans wanted to see these two succeed.
And a little over a year after their debut, WWE split them up. Cass attacked Enzo, and Enzo moved to 205 Live where he'd be WWE Cruiserweight Champion. It pretty much spelled the end for Cass's chances at the top, as it was a break-up that nobody wanted to see. They should've been tag team champions, but WWE never got the courage to pull the trigger.
#3. TM-61
There was a team that nearly caught the wrestling world by storm. A duo that wowed a lot of NXT fans back in 2016, Nick Milller and Shane Thorne had been working together for six years. In the 2016 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, TM-61 made it to the finals before losing to the Authors of Pain in a stellar tag team bout.
A pretty unfortunate injury took Thorne out for most of 2017. When they returned, Thorne and Miller quickly turned heel. The wild high-flying tandem that took Akam and Rezar to the limit wasn't the same team fans were seeing in 2018. They'd toned things down significantly.
By the time 2018 came and went, Nick Miller had left WWE, leaving Shane Thorne by himself. Thorne would eventually join the main roster as Slapjack for RETRIBUTION. TM-61 was a rare case where the NXT brand itself failed to capitalize on something.
It was a pretty huge misstep for the brand that, in most other cases, hit the nail on the head with its tag team division in the past seven years.
#2. Heavy Machinery
Why did WWE put Heavy Machinery through the worst break-up of all time? What was the reasoning behind this? Otis and Tucker were involved in one of the hottest angles of 2020 thanks to the former's romantic interest in Mandy Rose.
Heavy Machinery was an incredibly popular team in NXT, and that love spread to the rest of the WWE Universe when they came to the main roster. While Otis seemed to be the main star, Tucker proved himself to be a great big man in his own right.
Yet, for some reason, WWE just decided to split the team up. Otis won Money in the Bank in 2020, but Tucker turned on him at Hell in a Cell to cost him the case. The reasoning was generic in the worst way. "He was the star but I was carrying him." Stuff like that.
We didn't even get a real payoff. There was no match after the break up, because Tucker was moved to RAW while SmackDown kept Otis. It felt like WWE's creative team was told right in the middle of Heavy Machinery's run that they were giving up on them. Tucker went on to win the 24/7 Championship twice, but not much else before being released.
Otis? Well, he's working with Chad Gable as part of Alpha Academy. Two WWE stars, leftover from two tag teams that should've been at the top of the world, mishandled for seemingly no reason.
#1. Former WWE Stars The Ascension
Remember The Ascension? Remember when Konnor and Viktor ran roughshod all over NXT, demolishing any tag team unfortunate enough to stand in their way?
Think back to all those good times and try to forget that WWE buried them immediately upon their debut on the main roster. If you think Karrion Kross going 1-2 in his first three week is bad, it really isn't. Yeah, those losses are unfortunate, but you know what's worse? Every single legendary tag team coming together to call a team "rip-off Road Warriors" and beat them down before their winning streak.
At that point, it didn't matter how many wins they put together. We had JBL consistently calling them "fake" tough guys, claiming the APA, New Age Outlaws and other teams would run through them if given a chance. Considering JBL tended to side with heels while on commentary, it was weird that he was going after Viktor and Konnor like that.
WWE seemed dead set on ruining the image of the former NXT Tag Champions before they could even get off the ground, and that's exactly what they did. Despite their wins, WWE called them losers over and over again. They are, still, the longest reigning NXT Tag Champions of all time. Nobody's come close to their 364 days.
Yet on the main roster they were treated like trash. There was no reasoning behind it, either. Despite sticking together for six years on the main roster, WWE pegged them as nobodies from the word "go." It's really unfortunate, because they could've been a major force to be reckoned with in a tag division that, at that time, was pretty poor.
