The tag team division in today's WWE is not very impressive. Outside of The New Day, who are not only a great tag team but one of the most entertaining things about the WWE right now, there really is not much to get excited about. The Usos and Dudley Boyz have become stale, Los Matadores and The Ascension are relegated to the C shows and The Lucha Dragons are kind of going their own separate ways. Thankfully Enzo and Cass have found their way to the main roster to inject some much needed life into the division.
It hasn't always been that way though. The late '80s through the early 2000s had an amazing amount of talent in the division. There have been many tag teams to garner a large fan following, from The Hart Foundation to The The New Age Outlaws, as people would come out in droves to watch their favorites. There was a time when the tag teams were arguably the best part of the show. In the WWE today. that is unfortunately not the case as they push their heavyweights to the moon but forget about storytelling.
The World Tag Team Championship was first introduced in 1971. In 2002, when the WWE introduced the brand extension, the WWE Tag Team Championships were introduced so each show could have a champion. In 2009, the two titles were combined and in 2010, WWE retired the World Championship Belts in order to continue the lineage of the current WWE Tag Team Championship belts. Nobody has held the title more than Edge who has 14 total reigns. Demolition holds the record for most days as tag team champions with 698 combined days. But we already know about them. So, let's look at the top 15 forgotten tag team champions!
15 15. Deuce 'n Domino
The son of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and brother of current WWE Diva Tamina, Deuce Shade, and his tag team partner, Domino, made their debut on SmackDown in January of 2007. They wore leather jackets, greased their hair back and, within four months, they defeated the longest reigning champions since The Attitude Era, Brian Kendrick and Paul London, to win their one and only title. Their reign lasted just over four months before they dropped the belts. This team disbanded in June of 2008 and Deuce went on to be embarrassed by Randy Orton and Legacy on Raw before he was released in June of 2009. Domino remained on SmackDown as an enhancement talent before being released in late 2008.
14 14. The 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Jannetty
Marty Jannetty finally won the title that eluded him when he was a member of one of the greatest teams of all time with Shawn Michaels, The Rockers. January of 1994 saw him team with The 1-2-3 Kid and defeat The Quebecers for the WWE Tag Team Championship. They would only hold the titles for seven days before dropping them back to The Quebecers at a house show. That would be the only time Marty would hold the tag team titles while in the WWE. The 1-2-3 Kid would go on to win the belt one more time with Bob Holly and then two more times with Kane when he returned to the WWE as X-Pac.
13 13. The Holly Cousins
During The Attitude Era, Bob and Crash Holly would unofficially be known as The Super Heavyweights. They were billed at weighing in at over 800 pounds and Crash would carry a scale to the ring with him. They had a very short fifteen day title run in 1999 when they defeated the legendary Rock 'n' Sock Connection. Bob Holly already had a formidable career with WWE, while Crash became a 22-time Hardcore Champion. If you're wondering how he won the belt so many times, it's because they had implemented the 24/7 rule, which led to the belt being defended at an airport and fun house against people like referees, road agents and other wrestlers (mainly The Mean Street Posse).
12 12. Hurri-Kane
After a short run on SmackDown in 2002, where he was the Cruiserweight Champion, Hurricane Helms was traded to Raw. Once he arrived on Raw. he joined forces with Kane to win the Tag Team Championship from Christian and Lance Storm, The Un-Americans. They held the titles for only three weeks before losing them back to Christian, this time with a different partner in Chris Jericho. Helms would go on to win the tag titles once more with his sidekick Rosey before dropping The Hurricane gimmick and reverting back to his real name, where he would go on to be the longest reigning Cruiserweight Champion in SmackDown history.
11 11. Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie
Mick Foley had many runs with the tag team belts, some of which were pretty significant for one reason or another. He was a tag champion with Stone Cold Steve Austin as Dude Love and he also formed The Rock 'n' Sock Connection with The Rock, giving us one of the more memorable tag teams of all time. In between those two monumental tag teams, he also enjoyed some success with another tag parter, Terry Funk. In 1998, he would join with 'Chainsaw Charlie' as Cactus Jack to win the belts from The New Age Outlaws in a dumpster match at WrestleMania XIV, only to lose them back to The Outlawz the next night on Raw.
10 10. Billy Kidman and Paul London
Billy Kidman was already a record breaking Cruiserweight Champion, holding that belt seven times, when he teamed with a fresh faced rookie named Paul London. In July of 2004, they beat The Dudley Boyz for the titles and went on a 63 day run with the belts before losing them when Kidman turned heel on his partner, as he stopped before doing a Shooting Star Press and simply left the ring area. Kidman would soon be out of the WWE only to return as a trainer and then move on to his current role as a producer. Paul London would team with Brian Kendrick to form a very entertaining tag team that would hold the title belts for 331 days.
9 9. Diamond Dallas Page and Kanyon
WWE's invasion angle (after Vince McMahon purchased WCW) had the chance to be phenomenal, however, it was incredibly underwhelming. Part of the reason was because a lot of WCW stars were under contract with Turner Broadcasting and Vince didn't feel as though it was cost effective to buy them out. DDP, however, was one of the stars that made it over. He was immediately thrust in to a horrible program with The Undertaker where he was made out to be a stalker. During that angle, he teamed with fellow WCW alumni Kanyon to win the belts from The APA, only to lose the belts 12 days later to The Brothers of Destruction.
8 8. Booker T and Test
During the invasion angle in 2001, Test jumped ship to the WCW brand and teamed with Booker T to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. Their title reign last 13 days before they dropped the titles to The Hardy Boyz. A little over a month earlier, Booker T and Test lost the WCW World Tag Team Championship to The Hardy Boyz as well, becoming the only team to ever lose two separate tag team titles to the same team in just over a one month span. Booker T has had a couple of forgettable runs as a tag team champion. He had teamed with both Rob Van Dam and Goldust while a member of the SmackDown roster, but this one may have been the least memorable.
7 7. The Unholy Alliance
1999 was the peak of The Attitude Era and one of the biggest stories that year was The Undertaker and his Ministry of Darkness. In a storyline that would never fly in today's world, The Ministry did a lot of terrible things because of a "higher power" who turned out to be Mr. McMahon. The Corporate Ministry was born out of that revelation and Big Show would team with The Undertaker to form The Unholy Alliance. This team had two forgettable title reigns, one lasting eight days and the other only thirteen. Both reigns were ended by the Rock 'n' Sock Connection.
6 6. The Rock and The Undertaker
When The Undertaker returned from an injury in early 2000, he ditched his Phenom gimmick for that of a biker. Towards the end of 2000, The Rock was feuding with Kurt Angle over the WWE Championship. Angle had formed a stable with the Tag Team Champions, Edge and Christian, called Team ECK. The Rock teamed with The Undertaker on the December 18th episode of Raw to face Edge and Christian in order to continue his storyline with Angle and Team ECK. The Rock and The Undertaker would win the tag team belts only to drop them back to Edge and Christian one day later on a SmackDown taping.
5 5. Too Cool
One of the more popular tag teams of The Attitude Era was made up of a couple of guys who were break dancers. Grand Master Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty would often team up with Rikishi and they became fan favorites for dancing their way down to the ring and after their matches. Their popularity grew to the point that they received a tag team title match against Edge and Christian on the May 29th 2000 episode of Raw. They won the Tag Team Championship that night and would hold the belts for twenty seven days until King of the Ring, losing them back to Edge and Christian in a fatal four way match which also included The Hardy Boyz and T&A.
4 4. Mankind and Al Snow
In 1999, Mick Foley became a New York Times best selling author with his book, Have A Nice Day. One of his favorite topics throughout the book was making fun of his real life friend, Al Snow. Because of the book, their real lives bled onto the TV screen and we got some great backstage segments with Mick teasing Al. The two would defeat The Holly Cousins and reign as champions for six days before Al turned on Mick in the middle of a match against The New Age Outlaws, causing them to lose. He blamed his heel turn on all the jokes made against him in Mick's book.
3 3. John Cena and The Miz
The night after the Elimination Chamber, in February of 2011, the General Manager of Raw placed John Cena and The Miz in a Tag Team Championship match against The Corre. They ended up winning the titles but The Corre were granted an immediate rematch. The Miz turned on Cena and The Corre immediately won their belts back. The total length of this title reign is just under ten minutes, making it the shortest tag team title reign in history.
2 2. The Godwinns
Hillbilly Jim brought in a couple of other hillbillies, along with a pig and a bucket of slop, in the early part of 1996. Henry O. Godwinn and his storyline brother Phineas I. Godwinn quickly became fan favorites. They defeated The Bodydonnas at a house show to win the belts, only to lose the titles seven days later to The Smokin' Gunms when Sunny turned on them. In April of 1997. Henry suffered a broken neck when The Legion of Doom botched their finisher. After the broken neck healed, they turned heel and eventually won the belts again, this time time from The Headbangers. They would lose the belts two days later on Raw to the LOD.
1 1. Men On A Mission
They debuted as a tag team with a rapping manager and became fan favorites almost immediately. Mabel and Mo would go on to defeat The Quebecers for a two day title reign in June of 1994. However, they quickly lost the belts back to The Quebecers and we would see Mable go out as a singles wrestler. Mo would become Sir Mo and act as a manager for Mabel, who went by "King Mabel" after he won the 1995 King of the Ring.