Every tag team must have an end game in mind whether wanting to stick together in the long term or eventually find singles success. Some duos believe they could be better off on their own after finding success together. The best-case scenarios show the results for Edge & Christian, the Hardy Boyz, and a few other select few teams.
Most breakups will see one wrestler thriving and the other struggling like with The Rockers or Harlem Heat. However, there have been a few instances of both wrestlers flopping after the split. Find out which wrestlers dealt with the worst-case scenario of the team ending.
10 Rusev Day
The run of the Rusev Day group saw Rusev teaming up with Aiden English with Lana as their manager. Fans cheered them during the peak of the “Rusev Day” chants from the crowd every single week despite WWE not pushing them hard.
The split came when English turned on Rusev and claimed that Lana was making a pass at him. Neither wrestler benefited from the breakup and the angle had little interest. WWE ended up dropping the ball with Rusev's momentum and final chance at a top spot.
9 The Hype Bros
Another team to get little faith in the booking from WWE saw the Hype Brothers struggling. Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder had little crowd support by the time they broke up on Smackdown following their NXT run.
The end came when Rawley turned on Ryder to move forward with a heel character. Ryder not achieving much singles success was not a surprise, but Mojo had bigger plans from WWE that just never worked out as he’s still treading water today.
8 The Bella Twins
WWE put a lot of effort into the Bella Twins splitting up during the big Brie Bella vs Stephanie McMahon match. Nikki Bella betrayed her sister to end their tag run by helping Stephanie defeat her twin sister in the biggest match of Brie’s career.
The feud between Nikki and Brie created some of the worst WWE television in recent memory. WWE bailed on the feud after just three months. Brie reunited with Nikki to help her defeat AJ Lee to win the Divas Championship. Nikki had the best run of her career with Brie at her side again.
7 Rybaxel
Paul Heyman representing both Ryback and Curtis Axel led to them having a fun little run together as a tag team. Fans came up with the team name of Rybaxel that was used by both men when referencing the name on social media.
CM Punk feuding with both heels during his run as a main event face gave them some momentum moving forward. WWE instead opted to split them up in a backstage segment with both men agreeing they needed to go their separate ways. Ryback and Axel both struggled on their own and neither are in a major promotion today.
6 Prime Time Players
WWE tried to find success with Darren Young and Titus O’Neil both teaming up for a fun stint together. The Prime Time Players had a short first run that ended with O’Neil attacking Young to turn heel and end the tag run.
Both wrestlers struggled on their own to make WWE regret the decision of having them in singles roles. The Prime Time Players reunited for a stronger run together as they won the WWE Tag Team Championship as faces before once again regretfully splitting up.
5 The Dudley Boyz (WWE)
TNA did a good job splitting up Bubba Ray and D-Von to give them strong singles runs later in their careers, but WWE completely dropped the ball many years earlier. Vince McMahon wanted the Dudley Boyz to move into singles roles following the original 2002 brand split.
The character revamp of Reverend D-Von laid an egg and made WWE realize how bad of a mistake they made. Bubba was not doing much better on his own as he ended up in another tag team with Spike. WWE reunited them after six months and never split them up for the rest of their run.
4 American Alpha
American Alpha looked like one of the most promising new tag teams coming up from NXT in 2016. The Smackdown brand selected Chad Gable and Jason Jordan together from NXT to become part of their tag division in the brand split.
WWE did push them to win the Smackdown Tag Team Championship, but it was a quick run with management giving up on them. The team ended when Jordan moved to Raw as Kurt Angle’s son. Jordan struggled with the push and an injury has seen his career likely end for good. Gable is still trying to find his footing in WWE with lackluster results.
3 New Age Outlaws
WWE tried splitting up the New Age Outlaws twice with horrible results for both Billy Gunn and Road Dogg. The first time saw D-Generation X members all going their separate ways with Gunn winning the 1999 King of the Ring tournament and flopping with the push.
Road Dogg received a new role the second time after Gunn’s injury wrote him off television. WWE tried to pair Road Dogg with R-Truth under the name of K-Kwik in 2000, but fans didn’t react as positively to it. The flop saw Road Dogg getting released and Gunn moving into another tag team with Chuck Palumbo.
2 Stardust & Goldust
The Rhodes brothers teamed up to find success together feuding with The Shield and The Authority. Fans loved the incredible moment of Cody and Dustin celebrating with Dusty after getting their jobs back, but the duo eventually changed it up.
Cody becoming Stardust led to the breakup with Stardust turning into a singles heel character. The run completely tanked and played a huge role in Cody requesting his release from WWE. Dustin remained in a lower card role as Goldust until also getting his release to join Cody in AEW.
1 Big Cass & Enzo Amore
NXT fans expected Big Cass & Enzo Amore to become the most popular tag team on the main roster. Both wrestlers worked perfectly together with Cass as the athletic big man and Enzo as the charismatic talker on the microphone.
Enzo receiving heat backstage led to WWE ending the tag team faster than expected in a little over a year following lackluster results. WWE ended up firing both wrestlers for disciplinary reasons as they remain two of the biggest flops in recent memory.