The Run-In #11

When I was a little youth, it was my cousin who was one-month older than me that got me into pro wrestling. We always fashioned ourselves as the Road Warriors – I’d be Hawk, him Animal. We’d jack our My Pet Monster stuffed animals up, hitting the Doomsday Device off of his top bunk and all of that. Back then, the tag team scene was a thing of beauty: you had the Midnight Express, the Rock N Roll Express, the Fabulous Freebirds, the Steiner Brothers, the Rockers, the Killer Bees, the Bushwhackers and plenty more. Something happened over the last couple of decades, and tag team wrestling is a thing that the WWE doesn’t even bother with. Sure, there are Tag Team Champions (R-Truth and Kofi Kingston, if you didn’t know) in the WWE, and guys like the Prime Time Players are getting some heat with their gimmick, but really, what happened?!

I was actually surprised when I heard that Darren Young and Titus O’Neil got a name like the Prime Time Players. I was the same way when Kofi and Evan Bourne became “Air Boom”. We just came off of Primo and Epico, who dressed the same (and had the same personality), and even won the gold, but never got a proper gimmick. Or time to flesh themselves out. Other teams like The Usos, who have a spectacular entrance and great ring skills but no development. Hell, the Hart Dynasty had the lineage of Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith AND Jim Neidhart, but never really got a proper push, even at a time where Bret had a program running with Vince leading to WrestleMania! Why is it that WWE Creative is shunning this division?



I wish I knew. You would think that one of the easiest ways to get a lot of the young talent acclimated with the life on the road and putting on big matches for the crowd would be to work with a partner, be it as heels or faces. Guys like Bret, Shawn Michaels, Scott Steiner, Booker T and many more achieved fame within their respective tag teams before breaking out into their own singles careers. And they had fun matches and rivalries within those tag teams! Remember the Hardy Boyz? Would Jeff or Matt been bigger stars today without the groundwork laid as a team within the WWE?



I’d love to pinpoint when this trend shifted. I’d say it had to be the Monday Night Wars between Raw and Nitro. They needed big matches, and the easiest way to book multiple feuds was to have top singles wrestlers involved in tag team matches, particularly with guys they were not aligned with or got along with (think The Rock and Mankind in the Rock & Sock Connection). The WWE has no problem with stables, but whenever it comes to sustaining any kind of angles or programs with tag teams, it’s almost a guarantee that it will go nowhere these days. Or that one guy will get fired. Or both guys will just languish on Superstars.



I will forever harp on the wealth of talent that’s untapped within the WWE. The Fatal Four Way at No Way Out to determine that #1 Contenders for the Tag Title was a step in the right direction, but this week the Prime Time Players weren’t even on TV! They have what could be a hot angle and the back and forth on twitter to at least TRY a legit program, too. If it doesn’t work, that’s fine! That’s what trial and error is about. But with so many decorated teams coming through the ranks, and a paltry number of teams to really make things work. Hell, instead of writing these wack segments, add some more tag team bouts into the weekly shows. I’m saying!

And don’t even get me started on the state of the manager!

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