Create some tag teams with the WWE lot stuck in limbo

[TheBigBoot]

This is about putting two guys together that you think could work as permanent fixture though as they are doing little else. Like The New Age Outlaws, Miz and Morrison or Beer Money and The Motor City Machine Guns established themselves as genuine teams.

 

The Hollywood Blonds are another good example of that.

 

I mentioned Bourne and Barretta before and the more I think of that the more I think it could work a treat. I also said about Dolph and Swagger as a 'Minnesota Stretching Crew' type team but with Dolph obviously looking like he has a bright singles future now I can't believe I didn't think of the half of The MSC still available with Shelton Benjamin. I really like that idea of 'The All Americans' they've already donned pretty similar garb as each other before too and would obviously don those again for this gimmick.

 

I'd be in favour of Bourne/Barretta if they gave them a proper push. If they ended up just as JTTS for a year before getting split up in the draft, then one of them gets released it wouldn't work. A high flying pretty boy team with a proper push behind them could absolutely still get over though if people were given enough reason to care.

 

I'm surprised they didn't try Benjamin/Swagger around late 2009 when Swagger's push seemed to have 'ended' out of nowhere and he was getting owned by The Miz. I'd have expected them to want to groom the next heel team for when ShowMiz (which was always on borrowed time) ended and Harts/All-Americans in 2010 would have surely been more appealing than Harts/Usos. Of course they gave Swagger the World Title push out of nowhere so maybe they had planned ahead, but that came across as kind of 'last minute' at the time.

 

Quality idea. I can't see them keeping the Southern badass head case gimmick though. Not very child / WWE friendly are they with their Confederate flag shorts and springboard shooting star to the outside moves! I think they

[Richie Freebird]

Regarding the gluing together of parts of each of the wrestlers names to form the name of the team; I think it sounds like a cheap temporary measure and not a proper team.

[diamond_dust]

I think something could be done with Percy Watson and Zack Ryder.

Johnny Curtis could do well with Curt Hawkins or Tyler Reks

Danielson and Regal as a teacher student thing as Danielson will probably fall down the card now faster than a Zach Gowen down stairs.

Barretta and Yoshi

If turned heel again Morrison could work with McIntyre.

I liked Otunga and Truth on NXT 1 as well give them a proper run as a tag team. Even the entrance looked liked a team even though they were doing thier own thing.

*Edit - Richie they were regualrs for TNA around 02/03 back when guys like Jason Cross were on the shows every week too.

[Richie Freebird]

*Edit - Richie they were regualrs for TNA around 02/03 back when guys like Jason Cross were on the shows every week too.

 

Thanks for that mate.

 

I

[RJ Impact]

Some guys work better with someone to play off of, a few ideas.

 

Zack Ryder & The Dudebusters: Couldve been like X-factor a lower midcard group, they've got similar goofy gimmicks, Ryder could be the 'legend' teaching the rookies the ways of the wwe.

 

'Bro's Im a former no1 contender to the wwe & ecw title, a tag champ AND I was in the main event of wrestlemania 24(with edge)' that kinda stuff would be fun, since croft is gone then just barretta.

 

I like the idea of Barretta & Bourne, a decent highflying team, matching tights, new music as they say simples.

 

Daniels & Bateman have good chemistry so they should explore that.

[TheBigBoot]

Yeah, it was back in the old Asylum days of TNA that I saw the Briscoes. They weren't really my cup of tea back when I last saw them but they were still very young and at least they looked/wrestled like a proper tag team which is something I appreciate so I'd be willing to give them another shot if they were to tone down their style a little bit once they got to the major leagues, especially since it sounds like they have a stronger personality now.

 

Speaking of NWA:TNA: for as much as it seemed everyone but their hardcore fans hated the company back then one thing TNA had was a pretty good tag team division for its first couple of years, with Diamond and Swinger being the highlight for me.

 

Looking at the WWE.com roster pages I think the following could work as teams: Heel version of Chris Masters and Justin Gabriel as a top tier Power & Glory/Vicious & Delicious style team of guys who like posing and use a Superplex/450 Splash combination as their finisher; Sean Morley and R-Truth as a couple of conspiracy theory obsessed disgruntled veterans who seek 'the truth' after years of being held down by the man; Christian and Heath Slater as an annoying heel team; and I would rehire also Trevor Murdoch and pair him up with Husky Harris as an old school brawling team.

 

Add those to the aforementioned Regal and Goldust, Swagger and Benjamin, Mysterio and Bourne, Trent Barretta and Curt Hawkins, FBI and A-Train and Tomko teams and you've got the makings of an exciting division there whilst still leaving just enough guys left over to keep the singles division strong.

 

Base it around eight of those ten teams feuding with each other, have the two others there to do jobs and it pretty much books itself. I think I'd keep Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston out of the tag division for the time being since I could see them getting lost in the shuffle even more than they are now.

[ShortOrderCook]

Bumping this sucka from earlier in the year as it seems WWE might be giving this a crack. They certainly seem to be looking to establish Bourne and Kingston as a full-on tag team and getting serious about Tag wrestling again. Which makes for a happy purplemonkeydishwasher.

 

So, i assign this task to you crazy kids again. There's been a bunch of releases since i originally started the topic deeming a fair few suggestions void but, now that they've actually done this with one of the suggestions by a poster with Air Boom, i thought it might be interesting to see who you lot throw together now things have changed a little bit. Be good to be as realistic as possible, with guys that really are up to nothing and could find life in being part of the tag division.

 

I previously suggested Swagger and Ziggler if Dolph wasn't going to be pushed as a legitmate singles star and i have a feeling this could be in the works, at least temporarily as a reluctant partnership at odds and looking to outdo eachother and impress more than the other, before leading to the team falling apart completely and facing eachother, possibly with a turn for Dolph. They'd certainly make for ideal first opponents and challengers to Boom Air, considering the recent history of Dolph with Kofi and Swagger with Bourne to boot, while the rest of a tag division is built up in the process.

 

So who else would you guys go for? Somebody made a joke suggestion earlier in the thread of Barretta and JTG together to call them 'CrymeBusters'. As ridiculous as that is, i kinda love the idea of the two of them being dorkish, corrupt, jobber cops and playing a similar dynamic to the Young Ginger Cop and Robot Cop duo in Futurama. Who plays who should be obvious. Is JTG still with the 'E? If not i like the idea of Hawkins and Barretta together too. Actually is Hawkins still employed too?

[Statto]

I previously suggested Swagger and Ziggler if Dolph wasn't going to be pushed as a legitmate singles star and i have a feeling this could be in the works, at least temporarily as a reluctant partnership at odds and looking to outdo eachother and impress more than the other, before leading to the team falling apart completely and facing eachother, possibly with a turn for Dolph.

 

I'd very much like this to happen, I think they'd make a good team. All-American Perfection is an awesome name, too. And they could have one of those mash-up themes WWE like to do, but I'm thinking more along the X-Pac/Kane lines than Jerishow, with just the intro of Swagger's leading into a big shout of "Perfection!" and away they go.

[ShortOrderCook]

Yeah, if they started donning the same or at least similar tights while the team coexisted (this would be per order of Vickie though as they should always be at slight odds or with tension constantly simmering, in my mind) then i think they'd at least look utterly tremend as a team aesthetically.

 

Edit:- They'd also provide great ammunition for insults for their opponents, calling them the most forgettable World Champions of our generation, which in itself could lead to petty arguments and one-upmanship between them.

[PunkStep]

They could change Dolph's surname to Jagger, then they could name the team...yeah you know where I'm going with this.

[LaGoosh]

I would go with Swagger & McIntyre, they looked good on Raw together earlier in the year. And it means Vicki can have Dolph as her singles star and them as her tag team.

 

Also, I would put Tyson Kidd & Primo together with Matt Stryer doing his Jerry Maguire type act he did as Kidd's manager on Superstars earlier in the year.

 

JTG and Yoshi Tatsu would be a good odd-ball team with potential for the type of borderline racist comedy the WWE enjoy doing.

 

They should also put Gabriel & Slater back together. They are great wrestlers but kinda' useless as singles stars.

 

Trent Beretta and Curt Hawkins

 

Zack Ryder and William Regal/Santino Marella

[HarmonicGenerator]

It's all well and good to put Barreta and Hawkins, or Tatsu and JTG, or Regal and Santino together (just to use some of LaGoosh's examples) but to kickstart the tag division itself, you need teams of established people further up the card. A division full of Ryders and Rekses and Kidds is something for the wrestlers to do, but it creates the impression that the tag division is something for people so far down the pecking order they can't even get a singles match on Superstars.

 

This is why Air Boom, if it lasts more than a couple of months (I'm doubtful), will be a really good thing. Two over, relatively high up guys teaming together, as a team. The Ziggler/Swagger suggestion above would have this same effect. A couple more teams of this ilk, like Slater/Gabriel (why did they break them up anyway? Fucking madness, they could have been a great long-term team, and achieved more than either will do apart. Put them back together, someone, please!) or Rhodes/DiBiase, would be a good number of steps closer to having a proper tag division again.

 

If they were to bring in new people to be a tag team, or repackage a pair of wrestlers (Reks and McIntyre? Former Nexi?) then you can't just chuck them on TV and hope, like they tend to do these days (mind, they do that for new main-eventers or new singles wrestlers too). Either establishing them as legitimate/a threat - so have them beat loads of people and get consistent TV time, rather than do an Usos and give them a title shot, which they lose, then another title shot, which they lose, then another title shot, which they lose, then nothing for six months.

 

Or, put them within a big angle or alongside a top star. I wonder if Haas/Benjamin would have done so well as a team if they hadn't been Team Angle first. Nexus is another example - the Otunga/Sheffield team could have had loads of shelf-life even after the big angle was over. Even without Sheffield's injury, if the group hadn't become divided, directionless, leaderless and expendable so quickly, teams like Harris/McGillicutty would have done quite well.

 

Or, they'd have done the same thing they've done with Gabriel/Slater and the Hart Dynasty, which is to create a really good team dynamic, establish a recognisable team that's slowly getting over as a unit, then split them up for no reason and do very little with either man individually.

 

Anyway, I think my point was that tag teams have got to look like they belong in the top half of the card in order to do well, and teaming up a load of guys who never get on RAW or SmackDown anyway, like Barreta or Tatsu or JTG or Primo, isn't going to do much to facilitate that.

[Horrorshow]

Kane and Nash: Jew$ the Bo$$

Barrett and A-Ry: Limey O' Riley

[LaGoosh]

Good points Harmonic.

 

However if they put lower level wrestlers in a tag team and give them promo time, backstage segments, storylines and proper fueds they won't seem so small time anymore. They could promote it as "young and hungry new generation of tag teams want to give birth to a new age of tag team wrestling" or something.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Good points Harmonic.

 

However if they put lower level wrestlers in a tag team and give them promo time, backstage segments, storylines and proper fueds they won't seem so small time anymore. They could promote it as "young and hungry new generation of tag teams want to give birth to a new age of tag team wrestling" or something.

 

True. But even with all that, if the only people around for them to beat are other lower-level teams, the whole thing will be seen as lower level. If all they'd had in 2000 was Kaientai, Lo Down and the Hollys, it wouldn't matter how much time they gave them, nobody would have been fussed about tag team wrestling, just like when it was Cryme Tyme vs. Hart Dynasty every week for a hundred years - and while E&C, the Hardys, the Dudleys and so on were all fairly unestablished, there were clearly some major future stars amongst them (3 future world champions at last count), and more importantly they were able to mix with and wrestle the big time names sometimes - look at E&C getting the rub off Kurt Angle (or even the Acolytes with Undertaker in the Ministry, though both those guys were kind of 'known' already) or Too Cool teaming with The Rock, and you have to wonder... if they were getting started today, their only interaction with top stars would be getting beaten by Cena in Handicap Matches.

 

Young-and-hungry's great, but you need to pair them with established-and-over to elevate them to the next level.