The formation of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships in 2019 was met with a lot of praise and excitement, with fans thrilled at the continued advancement of the women's division. However, with the situation surrounding Sasha Banks and Naomi leaving the company without reigning champions and rumors that WWE might not be bringing them back, it would not be the first time they have abandoned a women's tag team division.
WWE have always had a strange relationship with history. As they have pushed themselves as the flag-bearers of the 'Women's Revolution', there has been plenty of criticism towards their selective approach to company history. In some cases, some aspects just aren't discussed at all. One of those relics seemingly lost in the narrative was a creation from the company's new direction under the ownership of Vincent K. McMahon; the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships.
WWE Introduces the Women's Tag Team Championships
The WWE Women's Tag Team Championships officially came into existence in 1983. Their time in WWE came about as part of a much larger shift in the wrestling industry. After Vince McMahon bought WWE from his father in 1982, he was quick to shape the company in his image. With an eye towards dominating the national stage, McMahon withdrew the WWE from the NWA in 1983, cutting all ties to the organization.
In 1984, two women joined WWE, Princess Victoria and Velvet McIntyre. At the time, they were the reigning NWA World Women's Tag Team Champions, with the rights to the belts actually belonging to The Fabulous Moolah. WWE purchased the rights to the belts, rebranding them as the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships, separating them from their previous lineage, but keeping the physical belts the same. The NWA wouldn't have their own women's tag belts again until a revival in 2021.
Victoria and McIntyre made their WWE debut as a team in May 1984, recognized as the first WWE Women's Tag Team Champions upon their start in the company. They made several successful defenses on television, but a piledriver from Despina Montagas ended up breaking Princess Victoria's neck later that year, ending her in-ring career. Velvet McIntyre was then paired with Desiree Peterson, though the belts would soon disappear.
The WWE Women's Tag Team Championships Travel the World
McIntyre and Peterson only defended the belts once, beating Peggy Patterson and Penny Mitchell in December 1984. After that, the belts were suspiciously absent from all WWE programming until late 1986, returning around the waists of Judy Martin and Leilani Kai, The Glamour Girls. The duo had supposedly won the titles at a show in Cairo, Egypt, though there are no reports of any such event ever happening. In actuality, Desiree Peterson's departure from WWE is the real reason for her and McIntyre losing the belts, with WWE then doing as they pleased with the belts.
Reintroduced to WWE television in November 1986, the championships would become synonymous with the rivalry between The Glamour Girls and The Jumping Bomb Angels, Itsuki Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno. First colliding on an episode of Prime Time Wrestling in June 1987, The Glamour Girls versus The Jumping Bomb Angels became a regular match-up on WWE's house shows, as well as making a handful of appearances on TV. The feud also spilled into the women's 5-on-5 Survivor Series match later that year, with the championships finally being defended on pay-per-view at the 1988 Royal Rumble.
The Rumble saw the Jumping Bomb Angels finally claim the belts from Martin and Kai in a 2-out-of-3 falls match. The Jumping Bomb Angels' reign saw more of the same, their feud with The Glamour Girls continuing, such that they were the only opponents the Angels had as champions in WWE. Just two months after the Royal Rumble, the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships made their final appearance on WWE programming, a successful defense from the Angels over Martin and Kai in the Philadelphia Spectrum. But, the belts would have one last ride.
The feud between the two teams extended into Japan, with one last title match between the two sides occurring in All Japan Women, the legendary joshi promotion. Yamazaki and Tateno had both been products of AJW, and it was only right that they brought their richest prize back to their home company at least once. The match headlined an event in Ōmiya, Saitama, taped for AJW's television output in June 1988. In just under twenty minutes, The Glamour Girls defeated the Japanese duo by countdown, beating the referee's count by a split-second, becoming the first and only two-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, as well as the last champions.
The Glamour Girls, nor the Jumping Bomb Angels, would tag in the WWE again, with the belts never appearing on WWE programming again. Whilst the belts certainly enjoyed some success with the feud between these two teams, their time in the WWE was doomed from the start. The company struggled to maintain a presence for a women's singles belt throughout the 1980s, so a women's tag division had no real hope at that time.
In the modern day, there is some feeling that the company have failed yet again with the same concept, and that the recently introduced Women's Tag Team Championships should be done away with. WWE is rife with stories of underutilized talent and ideas not given enough time or care. Could a women's tag division become one that they drop the ball on twice?