WWE Tag Team Championship
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The WWE Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag team title. It is currently exclusive on World Wrestling Entertainment's SmackDown! brand.
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[edit] History
The original WWE Tag Team Championship (usually referred to as the World Tag Team Championship) was one of the older WWE championship title belts. However, the Brand Extension meant that only one brand would have the tag belts as only the WWE Undisputed Champion and the WWE Women's Champion could appear on both shows. At the start of the brand extension, the team of Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo, the champions at the time, appeared on SmackDown!, but, during a period of "open free agency" in the WWE, RAW general manager Eric Bischoff managed to secure the services of Christian and Lance Storm, the champions at the time. When the period of free agency ended after an edict by Vince McMahon, SmackDown! found themselves without a tag title belt.
Shortly afterwards, SmackDown! general manager Stephanie McMahon created a new tag team title belt for SmackDown! teams, originally known simply as the "SmackDown! Tag Team Championship", with the inaugural champion being determined from an eight-team tournament. Despite the odds, the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, who were feuding against each other at the time, managed to win the inaugural championship defeating Rey Mysterio & Edge on October 20, 2002 at the 2002 No Mercy pay-per-view in a tournament final to become the first team to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.
With the separation of the WWE Undisputed Championship to the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship, the two Tag Team titles took on the identities of their corresponding heavyweight belts - thus, the former WWE Tag Team Championship on RAW was renamed the World Tag Team Championship, while the belt on SmackDown! bore the name of the older title. However, the lineage of the older belt remained on RAW. In 2005, with the draft exchanging the two heavyweight champions John Cena and Batista, neither belt was renamed.
[edit] Statistics
| Record: | Record holder: | Record number: | Notes: |
| Most reigns as a team | MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro) | 3 | N/A |
| Most reigns as an individual | Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio | 4 | Guerrero and Mysterio won the titles together in early 2005. Before this, Guerrero won the titles twice with Chavo Guerrero and once with Tajiri. Mysterio held the titles with Edge, Rob Van Dam, and after the reign with Guerrero, Batista. |
| Longest reign | Paul London & Brian Kendrick | 203 days | Beat MNM for the record. |
| Shortest reign | Edge & Rey Mysterio | 12 days | Edge also shares the shortest reign as a World Tag Team Champion (with Christian). |
| Oldest individual champion | Road Warrior Animal | 45 years | Won title with Heidenreich |
| Youngest individual champion | René Duprée | 20 years | Won title with Kenzo Suzuki. Also youngest individual World Tag Team Champion. |
| Heaviest Champions | Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty | Total weight: 609 pounds | The second heaviest were the Dudley Boyz who weighed in at 585 pounds. |
| Lightest Champions | Paul London and Brian Kendrick | Total weight: 370 pounds | The second lightest champions were Paul London & Billy Kidman who weighed in at 390 pounds. |
[edit] Trivia
- The Dudley Boyz are the only team to have held the tag team titles from SmackDown!, RAW, WCW and ECW.
- MNM hold the record for most days as WWE Tag Team Champions with 294 days in the 3 title reigns together surpassing Charlie Haas' old record of 229 days as champion
- Eddie Guerrero and Batista also held singles titles during their WWE Tag Team Championship reigns. Guerrero held the WWE United States Championship while Batista held the World Heavyweight Championship. This, in fact, led to a first for SmackDown!, on September 23rd, 2003, when Eddie Guerrero defended both championships in one night. He and tag team partner Chavo Guerrero (as Los Guerreros) defeated Matt Hardy & Shannon Moore to retain their belts, and later on in the show Eddie successfully defended his US Championship against Charlie Haas.
- The titles have only changed 4 times as a result of a non-One Fall Match.
[edit] Current champions
Paul London and Brian Kendrick defeated MNM for the titles at Judgment Day 2006. This is Kendrick and London's first reign as champions together. However, this is London's second reign individually (he held it one other time with Billy Kidman) and Kendrick's first title in WWE. On October 14, 2006 London and Kendrick became the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions of all time, surpassing MNM's previous record of 145 days.
[edit] See also
- List of WWE Tag Team Champions
- List of WWE Tag Team Championship reigns by length
- World Tag Team Championship (WWE)
- World Tag Team Championship
[edit] External links
| Current WWE championships and accomplishments |
|---|
| Promotion championships |
| RAW championships WWE | Intercontinental | World Tag Team | Women's |
| SmackDown! championships World Heavyweight | United States | WWE Tag Team | Cruiserweight |
| ECW championships ECW World Heavyweight |
| Developmental territories |
| Ohio Valley Wrestling championships OVW Heavyweight | OVW Television | OVW Southern Tag Team | OVW Women's |
| Deep South Wrestling championships DSW Heavyweight | DSW Tag Team |
| Other accomplishments |
| Royal Rumble | Money in the Bank | King of the Ring (SD!) | Diva Search |
