Tag team wrestling in WWE has had its’ high and low periods of time, but now fans of the big company have NXT as well. The Ascension has dominated the NXT tag team division since winning the titles in October of 2013, while three different tag teams on WWE’s main roster have held tag team gold.
Let’s take a moment and investigate each brand’s tag team division in full. On the main roster in WWE are the champions the Usos, The Wyatt Family’s Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, Rybaxel, Goldust and Stardust and even R-Truth and Xavier Woods. I would include Los Matadores, but one of them is currently injured and they were not seen regularly anyway. The Usos and Wyatt Family are currently feuding over the titles. Harper and Rowan are former NXT tag champions and it seems like it’s only a matter of time until they capture the main roster titles. Rybaxel and the Rhodes brothers seem unable to wrestle anyone else these days. Every show it seems like they have a match. The Rhodes brothers are former champions and with Cody’s new Stardust gimmick, it could lead them to another title reign. Rybaxel and R-Truth and Xavier Woods (who rarely appear on WWE programming) are the jobbers of WWE’s tag team division. Never expect to see them win the titles.
In the meanwhile, NXT has a similar number of tag teams in their division. As said earlier, the Ascension hold the titles and they were most recently feuding with Kalisto and El Local. The two teams squared off at NXT’s Takeover special event. Kalisto is brand new to WWE and NXT, while El Local is portrayed by Ricardo Rodriguez. These two lucha libres are super fun to watch and certainly deserve a run with the titles at some point. Enzo Amore and Colin Cassidy have been on NXT for a while now, but Amore is just returning from injury so they need a little time to get back into the groove. Then, we have some new teams. The Legionnaires, which includes Sylvester Lefort and Marcus Louis haven’t been exposed to the NXT enough just yet. Jason Jordan and Tye Dillinger seem like two guys that were just thrown together. Finally, the Vaudevillians. Aidan English was holding his own as a singles star in NXT, but just like that he found the perfect partner in Simon Gotch. If the current tag team champions were babyface, the Vaudevillians would immediately be feuding with them.
While both divisions have their hierarchy of tag teams, NXT’s division has a lot more potential. WWE’s main roster only has three potential champions in Usos, Wyatt Family and the Rhodes brothers. NXT’s division has The Ascension, Kalisto and El Local, as well as the returning Amore and Cassidy, Legionnaires and Vaudevillians. The whole point of NXT is to develop characters and help wrestlers get to the next level in their careers. You don’t see that as much in WWE. The main roster’s tag team division would immediately get a lot more interesting with the addition of some of these up and coming tag teams.
What are your thoughts on the tag team divisions of WWE and NXT? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Seth Guttenplan is a math and computer technology teacher for special education students in New Jersey. In his free time, Seth writes about wrestling for Camel Clutch Blog and SEScoops. Follow Seth on twitter @sethgutt
