At the TLC pay-per-view, this Sunday, Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt defeated Heath Slater and Rhyno to become the brand new SmackDown Tag Team Champions. Following their victory, there was speculation that the Wyatt Family will defend the titles under the ‘Freebird Rule’ and a recent report by WWE.com confirms it.
The other member of the Wyatt Family, Luke Harper, had a notable influence in turning the Championship match in favour of the Wyatts. The speculation about instituting the Freebird Rule started following the post-match segment, where both Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton handed the SmackDown Tag team Championship to Harper.
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Per the Freebird Rule, which was introduced by the WWE Hall of Famers The Fabulous Freebirds, “a faction that holds a championship can assign any of its members to defend the title at any given time.”
As a result, this news confirms that Luke Harper is now sanctioned as one of the SmackDown Tag team Champions, despite the fact he didn’t participate in the official title match. Harper can now defend the belt, along with Randy Orton or Bray Wyatt in any matchup for the Championship.
As Erick Rowan is sidelined due to an injury, he is not considered as one of the Champions, despite being a member of The Wyatt Family.
Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt became the sole survivors for Team Smackdown at this year’s Survivor Series, which earned them an opportunity to battle the American Alphas to become #1 contender for the tag team gold. Watch their match below:
After conquering the American Alphas, the Wyatts went on to defeat their next target, the then-Champions Slater and Rhyno, to become the second ever SmackDown Tag team Champions.
The current RAW Tag Team Champions The New Day have also been defending their titles under the Freebird Rule. Although Kofi Kingston and Big E won the belts at Summerslam 2015, Xavier Woods has successfully defended the gold on multiple occasions, with either of the other two.
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