AEW Tag Team Division

General
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Is the AEW tag team division the deepest tag team roster in the history of professional wrestling?

Jurassic Express
The Young Bucks
ReDragon
FTR
Luca Bros (Penta & Fenix or Penta & Pac)
Darby Allin & Sting
Bryan Danielson & Jon Moxley
Proud & Powerful
The Acclaimed
House of Black
2.0
Private Party
Top Flight
The Gunn Club
Best Friends

And that was even before the Hardy’s made their debut tonight as a tag team in AEW. I can think of various points in wrestling history where a company has had a couple of really hot teams (WWE Attitude era, TNA at times, NJPW, NXT).

But never has a company had such a deep roster of really good tag teams. The challenge for AEW is obviously balancing them. There are so many combinations we haven’t seen yet and a lot of championship contenders. It’s an embarrassment of riches.

Are there any matches yet that AEW haven’t done that you really want to see? My out of the box idea is House of Black vs Allin & Sting. I think they could tell an incredible story in that match.

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You actually forgot a few - Men of the Year, Dark Order, Varsity Blondes, TH2 and Anderson/Johnson.

But yeah I think this tag division is by far the deepest and best of all time.

I think the late-80s WWF was really good for tag teams too. You had Demolition, Hart Foundation, Brain Busters, etc.

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I guess you can also add the Hardy Boyz.

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80s WWF had:
The British Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, Demolition, Legion of Doom, The Killer Bees, The Bushwhackers, The Fabulous Rougeaus, Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff, The Dream Team, The Islanders, Los Conquistadores, The Mega Bucks, Powers Of Pain, The Young Stallions, The Mega Powers, Strike Force, The Bolsheviks, The Rockers, Brain Busters, American Express, Colossal Connection, Twin Towers, Jumping Bomb Angels…no ive never heard of them either.

But realistically how many of them ever looked like theyd get a title run?

I could actually see every team on the AEW roster winning a belt at sometime or other

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I did mention the Hardy’s in my post.

And in regards to the comparison to the 80’s WWF if AEW is the best tag division in 40 years that’s hardly an insult.

One thing I do want to mention (and maybe this should be in the unpopular opinion thread) but I don’t want to see Trios titles introduced. I think there’s already the perfect amount of titles in AEW. And I like that all the tag teams are focused on one prize.

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Yeah I kinda agree, its just making a title for titles sake.
I like when a team of 3 mix it up and wrestle with different people - is it called Tornado rules or something.
I wouldnt be against a trios tournament, possibly as a TV special kind of like old school Survivor series which I loved…I know I’m in the minority.

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I have mixed feelings about a trios title. I agree that too many titles in a company diminishes the value of the titles and the champions who hold them. Add to the fact that the trios title in NJPW is my least favorite title in the company. The only positive to me is AEW’s roster. I would love to see Kenny and the Bucks hold the title for a while and they’ll be no short of challengers, figuring the amount wrestlers in AEW.

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They basically already did that last year when Omega was world champion and the Bucks were the tag team champions. The storyline of summer 2021 was the Elites dominance. Which is a much greater achievement and a lot more rewarding from a storyline perspective.

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The late 80s WWE tag team is really good. Hart foundation, bulldogs, rockers etc.

This tag division is really good but unfortunately a lot of it comes down to the young bucks. They are by far the most polarizing team of all time.

Some people love them, and some people can’t stand them. There’s similar to a Steph Curry where you just jack a bunch of threes perhaps even though it doesn’t make sense thinking they will go in. Their matches aren’t really matches from a psychology standpoint they’re just a bunch of random high spots that don’t make any sense within the context of a fight. It’s just super kicks and high spots. They have the odd good match that everyone can enjoy such as Omega and Page , but a lot of the match’s lack any psychology and it’s just super kick, big high spot fall down and get back up and do it again.But if you like flippy shit then you will like it.

Anyway the problem is a young bucks are so prevalent on that Tag Team scene that it does bring it down a few notches if you don’t like them. However you can’t deny the quality of some of those teams such as FTR etc.

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Even when the Young Bucks were the champions I personally never felt they dominated the division though. There are so many tag teams featured every week that the Young Bucks matches or segments made up only a small portion of the show.

I know that some people really dislike them. But as you mentioned if the Young Bucks aren’t your cup of tea then instead there’s always been alternatives like FTR or SCU or Eddie & Mox or any number of other teams at various points throughout AEW’s couple of years of existence.

Although I still think the hatred of the Young Bucks is totally overblown. Or the insinuation that their style doesn’t work. Even your own comparison to Steph Curry doesn’t work. Steph shooting threes has won 3 championships. It works. The Young Bucks doing super kicks gets over with the audience. It works. And is much closer to the style of the Rockers than anyone seems to want to admit.

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Yep this is all very true.

I don’t deny that they don’t get over. And I don’t know that Steph has not been effective, although some of those teams of KD were really stacked.

For me personally, I don’t really like that style. I prefer the more hard-hitting realistic style. When you’re doing the same move over and over again followed by a high spot and rinse and repeat for me it lacks the psychology that gets me invested.

Like I could go my whole life and never see another dive and I would be happy.

I say their controversial now not because they don’t get over but because there are a lot of people that don’t like them as well. Contrast that for instance with somebody like in MJF - well you’re not gonna find many people who actually don’t like him as a performer.

The rockers is a very fair comparison. I mean I’m assuming that’s what they’re trying to copy with a lot of their stuff. And yes the rockers did do a lot of high spots. But I felt like the rockers had more psychology in their matches. I feel like a young bucks matches are to set up high spots. Like everything they do is to set up a hotspot, not to win the match. That’s the part that’s lacking for me.

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I think your Steph analogy makes sense from a different perspective. A lot of people hate the way the game has evolved because of Steph. They find it boring to watch guys walk up the court, chuck a 3, walk back, chuck a 3 etc. They miss the intensity the game used to have in the 80’s, 90’s and to a lesser degree 00’s.

With that same comparison, a lot of people don’t like the style the Bucks bring. They feel the Bucks lack believability. One comparison I’ve read quite a bit is that watching the Bucks is like watch ballet, sure you can appreciate the athleticism, but it looks more like synchronized dancing then a believable fake fight.

The comparison though, both Curry and the Bucks have changed the game, some like the change, some don’t.

With that said, I love the Bucks, but I get the argument and I am a firm believer that wrestling is subjective.

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I think we can make this thread even more interesting. Who in these Tag Teams is going to be the Shawn Michaels and who is going to be the Marty Janetty? What I mean by that who is gonna have the more successful singles run eventually.

Jurassic Express - Shawn (Jungleboy) Marty (Luchasauros)
The Young Bucks - Shawn (Nick) Marty (Matt)
ReDragon - Shawn (Kyle) Marty (Bobby)
FTR - Shawn (Cash) Marty (Dax)
Luca Bros (Penta & Fenix or Penta & Pac) - Shawn (Fenix) Marty (Penta & Pac)
Darby Allin & Sting - 2 Shawns here
Bryan Danielson & Jon Moxley - 2 Shawns here
Proud & Powerful - Shawn (Santana) Marty (Ortiz)
The Acclaimed - Shawn (Bowens) Marty (Caster)
House of Black - Shawn (Malakai) Marty (Buddy and Brody)
2.0 - Shawn (Matt) Marty (Angelo)
Private Party - Shawn (Marq) Marty (Isiah)
Top Flight - Shawn (Darius) Marty (Daunte)
The Gunn Club - Shawn (Austin) Marty (Colten)
Best Friends - Shawn (Orange & Yuta) Marty (all the others)

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I agree with most of those I suppose.

Jurassic Express - I agree that Jungle boy might have a more successful singles run. But because of Luchasaurus look he could end up being the bigger and more marketable star. I know a lot of people see a bright future for Jungle Boy as one of the “four pillars.” But he is still the pillar the furthest away from a singles championship run. Sammy and Darby have already held the TNT title. MJF seems like main-event heel championship contender soon. Jungle Boy could be years and years away. By that point he might be seen as “stuck” in the mid-card or a tag-team lifer.

Lucha Bros - I disagree that Fenix is the Marty of the group. Both Pac and Penta are bigger singles stars today than Fenix may ever be.

Top Flight - Prior to Darius injury I would agree with you but Daunte had a really nice singles run while he was out making it a much more difficult choice. Both are good as singles but maybe should just stick together as a better tag team.

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I’m not sure all of those work. In some cases you have 2 Shawn’s I think in many cases you also have 2 Marty’s 2.0 for instance while a decent team I don’t see either breaking out in singles.