The importance of tag team wrestling can make or break a wrestling card. WWE has always been hit or miss with how they treat the tag division. Vince McMahon was responsible for pushing all-time great teams like the Hart Foundation or the Hardy Boyz, but he also had the reputation for always trying to split up teams to find the bigger singles star.
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This and other variables have played a role in certain duos ending faster than they should have in the biggest promotion. Tag team wrestling can certainly provide depth to improve a product since it remains such a different style of storytelling. WWE unfortunately didn’t take this into account when splitting up these tag teams too soon.
10 Booker T & Rob Van Dam
WWE paired together Booker T and Rob Van Dam as two beloved babyface singles stars in need of something new. Booker and Van Dam were close friends in real life that saw WWE trying to find in-ring chemistry when booking them to win the World Tag Team Championship from Evolution.
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The experiment was done with WrestleMania 20 in mind when they retained the belts in a fatal four-way match. Unfortunately, WWE split them up before they built any long-term credibility together in the following draft. Both men moved to Smackdown, but Booker turned heel for a singles push after he was traded for Triple H.
9 Riott Squad
The Riott Squad had two incarnations with Liv Morgan and Ruby Riott often looking most impressive. WWE reunited those two without previous member Sarah Logan in 2021 for their best chance at tag team success in the women’s tag division.
Morgan and Riott fell short in their tag title matches, despite being a rare established them with chemistry. WWE once again stopped this version of the Riott Squad too soon. This could have been the cornerstone babyface team of the women’s tag division, but the company’s lack of patience hurt that idea.
8 Enzo Amore & Big Cass
The NXT brand started to develop stars for WWE in a way that saw the main roster audience reacting strongly to them when debuting. Enzo Amore and Big Cass were the most beloved and generally over tag team for NXT, despite never winning the NXT Tag Team Championship.
WWE hoped that momentum would lead to a strong run, but variables like injuries and backstage heat doomed their push. Cass betrayed Enzo a little over a year into their main roster debut to end things abruptly. Neither man did well on their own to make fans wonder what could have happened if they stayed as a team in the long-term.
7 The Hart Dynasty
WWE seemed to have a can’t miss idea when they placed together the trio of David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd, and Natalya as the Hart Dynasty. All three had connections to the legendary Hart family with the intent of introducing a new generation over a decade after their predecessors.
The push started off well with Kidd and Smith winning tag gold, and Natalya becoming both a credible manager and wrestler. Bret Hart returning to WWE even boosted their push as faces associated with him. However, WWE felt they reached a peak after a little over a year to end the act that still had some legs.
6 MNM
The debut of MNM on Smackdown with Joey Mercury, Johnny Nitro and Melina saw them instantly getting over as a heel team. MNM scored a massive win becoming the WWE Tag Team Champions over legendary names Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio due to their feud starting as partners no longer getting along.
MNM became the standard of the Smackdown tag team division for a year until the group ended. WWE split them up when Mercury violated the wellness policy rather than just suspending him and reuniting the team thirty days later. MNM had a few reunions, but they ended as a full-time team far too early.
5 American Alpha
The NXT success of Chad Gable and Jason Jordan as American Alpha saw a lot of hype for their main roster debuts. American Alpha received a coveted spot in the 2016 brand split draft as the first names from NXT selected by Smackdown General Manager Daniel Bryan.
Jordan and Gable looked good whenever teaming up and even won the Smackdown Tag Team Championship together. Unfortunately, Vince McMahon viewed Jordan as a hotter prospect than Gable and split them up before new fans could even get used to them. American Alpha could have been a top team of that era with a longer run on the big stage.
4 Diamond Dallas Page & Chris Kanyon
One of the most underrated WWE tag teams actually originated in WCW. Diamond Dallas Page and Chris Kanyon were close friends that loved teaming together as the Jersey Triad with Bam Bam Bigelow. However, WWE also found some success placing them together as a heel duo in The Alliance.
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The Invasion angle featured DDP and Kanyon feuding with The Undertaker and Kane over both WWE and WCW’s tag titles. WWE booked them both poorly, but this was the peak of their runs whenever together. The team ended once WWE stopped viewing Page as a potential star and kept adding WWE names to the WCW and ECW group to push over him.
3 The IIconics
WWE’s women’s tag team division on the main roster has been one of the worst instances of something not reaching its potential in recent memory. Billie Kay and Peyton Royce had tremendous chemistry as best friend heels on the main roster as the second team to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.
Unfortunately, WWE appeared to lose faith during their tag title reign with few moments enhancing their act together. The Iiconics broke up shortly after dropping the belts with neither benefiting from the split. Fans were upset when WWE tried to place Peyton and Billie in new teams after ending their best tag team scenario too soon.
2 Paul London & Brian Kendrick
WWE had a chance to make Paul London and Brian Kendrick an all-time great tag team for years, but they dropped the ball in that respect. London and Kendrick became a breakout babyface tag team on the Smackdown brand with the audience organically supporting their rise.
The WWE Tag Team Championship reign of Kendrick and London lasted almost a full year as a modern record that was eventually topped by New Day. WWE moving the duo to Raw saw their push diminishing. A split led to Kendrick getting a short-lived singles heel push, but they could have been a great team for another few years.
1 World's Greatest Tag Team
The main roster debuts of Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin saw them breaking out as the new proteges of Kurt Angle. World’s Greatest Tag Team became their official tag name, but WWE first called them Team Angle since Kurt was their leader.
Both names featured fans viewing Benjamin and Haas as a credible top tier heel team. Unfortunately, their momentum just caused WWE to split them up faster due to viewing Shelton as a potential star. Benjamin had some great mid-card moments, but he never reached the top of the card to warrant such a great team ending after a little over a year.
