While tag team wrestling was red-hot in the Attitude Era, the emphasis on tag team wrestling waned in the Ruthless Aggression Era. The likes of Edge and Christian were no longer a tag team in the Ruthless Aggression Era, but the Hardys reunited in 2006 for a few months after they split up in 2002, and the Dudleys stuck around until they left WWE in 2005. However, new tag teams were formed with some having fantastic runs as WWE Tag Team Champions, but several makeshift tag teams held the gold with less effect.
The WWE Tag Team Championship was created in the fall of 2002, which is now the Raw Tag Team Championship, and the title featured on SmackDown. The original World Tag Team Championship retired in 2010, but there was a strong lineage of champions who had memorable runs with the gold on Raw.
10 Worst: Edge & Hulk Hogan
Edge is one of the most prolific Tag Team Champions in WWE history as he won a remarkable seven WWE Tag Team Championships with Christian. However, in July 2002, Edge formed a short-lived tag team with Hulk Hogan, and they defeated Billy and Chuck for the WWE Tag Team Championship. It was Edge's eighth Tag Team Title reign and the first one without Christian.
This was a surreal moment for Edge as he idolized Hogan when he was younger. However, their WWE Tag Team Championship reign only lasted a couple of weeks as they dropped the titles to the Un-Americans Christian and Lance Storm at Vengeance 2002.
9 Best: The World's Greatest Tag Team
In December 2002, Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin joined Team Angle alongside the WWE Champion Kurt Angle. Two months later, Haas and Benjamin won some gold of their own after dethroning Los Guerreros for the WWE Tag Team Championship.
Haas and Benjamin had great chemistry together, and they successfully retained the WWE Tag Team Championship in a triple threat tag team match at WrestleMania 19, and they beat Los Guerreros once again at Backlash 2003. They won the WWE Tag Team Championship twice, and they began to call themselves the World's Greatest Tag Team as one of the best tag teams on SmackDown.
8 Worst: Road Warrior Animal & Heidenreich
Road Warrior Animal returned to WWE in 2003 alongside Road Warrior Hawk, but a few months after their brief return, Hawk, unfortunately, passed away. Animal and Heidenreich teamed up two years later and formed a new Legion of Doom. It failed to work as Heidenreich was never going to be able to replace Hawk.
Christy Hemme was their manager and they defeated MNM for the WWE Tag Team Championship at The Great American Bash 2005. They held the WWE Tag Team Championship for three months as they dropped the gold back to MNM in a fatal-4-way tag team match.
7 Best: Kane & Big Show
Kane and Big Show were former rivals in the past, but at Taboo Tuesday 2005 they weren't selected to join John Cena and Kurt Angle in a triple threat match with Shawn Michaels getting the most votes in a WWE Championship match. Nevertheless, Kane and Show overpowered Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch to become the World Tag Team Champions.
They had a dominant run as Tag Team Champions, and they beat SmackDown's WWE Tag Team Champions Batista and Rey Mysterio at Armageddon 2005. However, Kane and Show only put the gold on the line on pay-per-view once but that was a successful title defense against Carlito and Chris Masters at WrestleMania 22. One night later, the Spirit Squad ended their World Tag Team Championship reign.
6 Worst: William Regal & Eugene
William Regal had to look after Eric Bischoff's nephew Eugene, by orders of Bischoff, who was the Raw General Manager at the time. Regal turned face, and he cared for Eugene which saw the two have a good partnership together. On the November 15, 2004, edition of Raw, Regal, and Eugene ended La Resistance's Tag Team Championship reign.
Regal and Eugene held the titles for two months, and their Tag Team Championship reign was underwhelming. Eugene sustained a knee injury in their successful title defense against Christian and Tyson Tomko at New Year's Revolution 2005 and that hampered the progress of holding the titles for longer with La Resistance regaining the titles from them.
5 Best: MNM
MNM is one of the most underrated tag teams in WWE history, and Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro had good chemistry. Melina was their manager, and the trio was exceptional heels. MNM made history as they became the first team to win the SmackDown version of the WWE Tag Team Championship three times.
They defeated Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio for their first WWE Tag Team Championship, and they feuded with the World Heavyweight Champion Batista and Rey Mysterio towards the end of 2005. They traded the titles with the duo, but MNM brought some credibility to the WWE Tag Team Championship. MNM split up after losing the titles at Judgment Day 2006, but reunited towards of the end of the year, but were unable to win the WWE Tag Team Championship again.
4 Worst: Chief Morley & Lance Storm
Lance Storm is an exceptional in-ring technical wrestler, and he won the World Tag Team Championship twice with William Regal. The pair were a brilliant tag team, but Regal's health issues forced Regal to stop holding the title, and Chief Morley replaced Regal as one-half of the World Tag Team Champions.
Morley is a good in-ring competitor but by 2003, he was not at his best. Therefore, their reign as World Tag Team Champions only lasted a week with RVD and Kane dethroning them on the Raw after WrestleMania 19.
3 Best: The Miz & John Morrison
The Miz and John Morrison were tailor-made for each other as they are both good talkers on the mic, and they can work inside the squared circle. On the November 16, 2007, edition of SmackDown, The Miz and John Morrison defeated MVP and Matt Hardy for the WWE Tag Team Championship.
They were champions for eight months, and they defended the titles on both SmackDown and ECW. Their first title defense on pay-per-view wasn't until Judgment Day 2008 which was surprising. A few months later, Miz and Morrison defeated CM Punk and Kofi Kingston on a live event for the World Tag Team Championship. Credit has to be given to both men for making the tag team division feel relevant.
2 Worst: Ric Flair & Roddy Piper
At Cyber Sunday 2006, Ric Flair and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper teamed up to end the Spirit Squad's seven-month stranglehold on the World Tag Team Championship. With the victory, Flair became the oldest Tag Team Champion in WWE history at the age of 57. Hot Rod was 52 at the time, and whilst winning the titles was nostalgic, they did nothing noteworthy with the titles.
The veterans were no longer at the top of their games, but they dropped the titles to former WWE World Champions Rated-RKO on an episode of Raw in November 2006.
1 Best: Paul London & Brian Kendrick
Two cruiserweights in Paul London and Brian Kendrick took the tag team division by storm when they defeated MNM for the WWE Tag Team Championship at Judgment Day 2006. This kickstarted their fantastic 331-day reign with the straps. London and Kendrick captivated audiences with their high-risk style of wrestling.
They deserve a lot of credit as their WWE Tag Team Championship reign was the longest tag team championship reign in the 2000s. One of the highlights of their WWE Tag Team Championship run was when they defeated the Hardys, MNM, and William Regal and Dave Taylor in a fatal-4-way tag team ladder match at Armageddon 2006 in a successful title defense. They almost held the titles for a year but Deuce 'n' Domino ended their title run. Unfortunately, they failed to replicate their success when they moved over to Raw, but they had a short reign as World Tag Team Champions.