What makes a real tag team" To be a real tag team, a team should have at least 3 of the following five qualities: 1. A name 2. Matching or similar attire 3. A combined entrance and/or weight 4. Double team moves and/or finisher 5. Long-term partnership But none of this matters without the essential sixth quality: 6. Chemistry

What is not necessary, though, is singles wrestling ability. A wrestler doesn't have to excel by himself to excel in a team.

Where did it all go wrong" The demise of Real tag team wrestling in the WWE

Cast your mind back to late 2000, or early 2001 - the peak of modern tag team wrestling. The greatest tag team rivalry of modern times, perhaps of all-time, was recovering from the first Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match, and the tag division was going very well indeed.

Aside from the Big Three teams (Edge & Christian, the Hardy Boyz and the Dudley Boyz), there was also the APA, T&A, Too Cool, Kaientai and the Right To Censor faction, with The Mean Street Posse also hanging around on Heat. Towards the end of 2000, Lo Down was formed, the Radicalz reformed, and we had the first incarnation of the 3-Live Kru in K-Kwik and Road Dogg. Each one of these teams was either a Real tag team or had the potential to be (i.e. Lo Down, who had no hope once Tiger Ali Singh started managing them, and K-Kwik & Road Dogg, whose team dispersed when Road Dogg was fired). Nothing, it would seem, could mess this division up. Even adding Rhyno and Spike to the E&C and Dudley stables respectively did nothing but good things (the two of them, plus Lita, helping make TLC II arguably better than the first match). So where DID it all go wrong"

There are three possibilities:

1. The aftermath of WrestleMania X-Seven --- By the big show (no pun intended), the division was slightly different. Aside from Rhyno, Road Dogg and Spike, the Mean Street Posse had disappeared to OVW, never to be seen again, Lo Down had faded into nothingness, Chris Benoit had left the Radicalz, and T&A were no more, although Albert was now in a new group named X-Factor. After 'Mania, it was slightly chaotic. Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H had formed an alliance, and soon won the World Tag Team titles from Undertaker & Kane, later to lose the belts to Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho. During this time, the major tag team battles involved main-eventers, and there was little room for Real tag teams. The Dudleyz and E&C were still around, but involved in minor rivalries or storylines like the Spike and Molly saga. The Hardy Boyz had taken a foray into singles action, with Jeff competing in the Light Heavyweight division and Matt reigning as European Champion. X-Pac was also a Light Heavyweight Champion in this time, making X-Factor slightly pointless, even more so when Justin Credible joined the Alliance (more on that later). APA was barely wrestling, Kaientai were resigned to Heat or Metal, and the Radicalz now comprised of Saturn & Malenko. Too Cool had split due to a Scotty 2 Hotty injury and Grand Master Sexay's firing, and Right To Censor had faded away. This was the first nail in the proverbial coffin for tag team wrestling, but there could have been hope had it not been for...

2. The Invasion --- When the WCW/ECW Alliance was formed, it meant there were twice as many wrestlers in the company, and this meant that to fit them all on the shows, singles stars had to be partnered together, meaning less room for Real tag teams. The return of ECW plus WWE defections into the Alliance meant break up of teams like X-Factor (who lingered as a duo before X-Pac disappeared in October 2001) and Edge & Christian. Theoretically, the Invasion could have been good for the tag team division - it brought along new teams like Palumbo & O'Haire and - albeit very briefly - Kronik. But it also brought the WCW Tag Team Titles, and over the following few months it all became very confusing. It's difficult to remember who was which tag champion when and for how long. But this does not matter, as many tag team champions during the Invasion were of the two-singles-guys-randomly-together persuasion as opposed to an actual tag team, whether it be for storyline purposes (see The Rock & Chris Jericho) or for convenience (DDP & Kanyon, Booker T & Test, Big Show & Spike Dudley, Lance Storm & Hurricane etc). Real tag teams had to settle for being in the background a lot of the time, and teams at the forefront didn't get a whole lot of chance to become a better team before the Invasion ended.

3. The Brand Extension --- Once the Invasion was over, and the dust had settled, it was time to get back to business-as-usual. Unfortunately, most Real teams had either broken up (E&C), had one member leave (Kaientai), or disappear from RAW and SmackDown! for periods of time (the Hardyz). This, along with the still unfortunate problem of there being twice as many wrestlers as pre-Invasion, meant that many tag teams that were around between the Invasion and the brand extension were again of the two-singles-guys-pushed-together variety, examples being Spike & Tazz and Albert & Scotty.

The Hardy Boyz, Dudley Boyz, APA, and the newly-formed Billy & Chuck were basically all that remained of Real tag teams (there was the nWo, but the less said of that the better). Any chance of resurgence in the division was stopped by the brand extension.

The Dudleyz and APA were broken up, and Billy & Chuck (along with the World Tag Team Titles) went to SmackDown!. This was odd, as they were just about the ONLY team on the show.

In my opinion, the brand extension was the death of the Real tag team. Tandems barely teamed for more than a year, often being broken up just to add another feud to a show, and although some teams with real potential appeared, like 3-Minute Warning and the World's Greatest Tag Team, it was not to be. Even the addition of a second Tag title didn't help. The tag team division in the WWE was dead. Or maybe not...

By early 2004, the division had been rebuilt and was beginning to gather momentum again, with the FBI, Cade & Jindrak, WGTT, Kyo Dai, La Résistance, etc. But then came a Draft Lottery, and somehow all these teams managed to be broken up in one way or another, and the division went down the drain. Again.

Even now, WWE seems not to understand that two singles stars randomly put together do not a great tag team make. Some recent tandems such as Rob Van Dam and Rey Mysterio are entertaining in the short term, but when you see them you think of two singles guys teaming together. WWE tends to use the Tag division as somewhere for wrestlers to go when nobody can think of a storyline for them (Rob Van Dam & Booker T, René Duprée & Kenzo Suzuki, Rhyno & Tajiri, etc). When they latch onto something good tag-wise, the team is unceremoniously broken apart for no clear reason other than to repeat the "former partners now enemies" storyline. Let's have a look in more depth at the current tag team scene in the company.

The Current Tag Team Division In The WWE - not a patch on its former self

RAW

SmackDown!

The Rejuvenation - Tag Team Wrestling in TNA