The 17 Best Trios Teams In WWE History

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Tag team wrestling has had its ups and downs in WWE with tag team wrestling sometimes being treated as an afterthought. However, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn defeated The Usos on WrestleMania 39 Saturday in the main event to win the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship. That was a great advert for tag team wrestling. In WWE, there have been factions that have featured three wrestlers and they have worked like a well-oiled machine. Some of the greatest trio teams in WWE history have been highly successful with championship reigns, and some have been dominant with long runs at the top.

Highlights

WWE has a rich history of trios teams, with groups like The Freebirds and The Von Erichs popularizing the concept in the past.
Many trio teams in WWE have been highly successful, with championship reigns and dominant runs at the top.
Trios teams like MNM, Team ECK, and The New Day have showcased excellent chemistry and achieved great success together in WWE.

WWE has fully embraced the idea of trios teams, but unlike promotions like New Japan, where they have their titles to fight for, WWE keeps it within the tag team ranks. This is done using what WWE calls the Freebird Rule, a rule named after the most famous trios team of all time.

While The Freebirds never worked more than a hiccup in WWE, they are WWE Hall of Fame superstars and popularized the idea of a three-man team, rather than a larger faction. They joined other trios teams like The Von Erichs in World Class and Russians in the NWA to make that form of wrestling popular and set the template for what fans can see today.

UPDATE: 2023/08/29 07:30 EST BY TEVON KING

Tag team wrestling has had its ups and downs in WWE with tag team wrestling sometimes being treated as an afterthought. However, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn defeated The Usos on WrestleMania 39 Saturday in the main event to win the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship. That was a great advert for tag team wrestling. In WWE, there have been factions that have featured three wrestlers and they have worked like a well-oiled machine. Some of the greatest trio teams in WWE history have been highly successful with championship reigns, and some have been dominant with long runs at the top.

17 MNM

The trio of Melina, Joey Mercury, and Johnny Nitro worked exceptionally together on SmackDown. Melina managed Mercury and Nitro to three WWE Tag Team Championship reigns. Sometimes, the trio would compete in mixed six-person tag team matches.

Melina improved in the squared circle, and she won the WWE Women's Championship once in 2007 after MNM reunited in late 2006. The trio had good chemistry together, and they were one of the top tag teams in the Ruthless Aggression Era with Melina as their manager.

16 Damage CTRL

At SummerSlam 2022, Bayley returned to WWE after spending a year on the sidelines with a serious knee injury. She didn't come back on her lonesome as Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky returned alongside her and Damage CTRL was born.

All three women are talented, and the combination of Kai and Sky won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship twice. They've competed on the biggest stages, and at SummerSlam 2023, Iyo Sky cashed in her Money in the Bank briefcase on Bianca Belair to become the new WWE Women's Champion which bolsters Damage CTRL's credibility as one of the top factions in WWE.

15 Team ECK

Edge and Christian won their first of seven WWE World Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania 16. However, the real-life best friends got Kurt Angle on board with Edge and Christian bringing out another side to the Olympic Gold Medalist who was still serious but had a comedic side.

Angle won the WWE Championship for the first time at No Mercy 2000, and there was a point where the three were champions simultaneously. The trio combined in six-man tag team matches and they worked as a cohesive unit. Moreover, Angle helped Edge and Christian regain the WWE World Tag Team Championship from The Undertaker and The Rock in December 2000.

14 Mexicools

The Mexicools remain some of the worst-used Latino superstars in WWE history. However, the trios' team included three of the best Latino superstars of their generation in Psychosis, Juvi Guerrera, and Super Crazy.

However, WWE had them dress up in coveralls, ride lawnmowers to the ring and made them stereotypical Mexican wrestlers. Despite this, every time they wrestled, they turned in fantastic matches and deserved so much more than WWE gave them.

13 Lucha House Party

Lucha House Party isn't around in WWE anymore. Kalisto is the most successful member of the group, a former U.S. Champion who was also a tag team champion with Sin Cara in NXT.

However, his partners are great too, with Gran Metalik, a former star in CMLL, and Lince Dorado, a star in Chikara, before making his way to WWE.

12 Legacy

Legacy had more than three members a couple of times, but the team was mostly three men — all second-generation superstars. Randy Orton led the group with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr., working by his side.

They were not as successful as they could have been thanks to this being just a way to give world champion Orton some lackeys, but Rhodes and DiBiase were tag team champions and were a threat while they were on the same page.

11 Too Cool

The formation of Too Cool in early 2000 saw them become of the hottest acts in the Attitude Era. The trio consisted of two second-generation wrestlers in Rikishi and Grand Master Sexay, and Scotty Too Hotty was the third member of the group. They were an entertaining act, and one of their memorable moments came in the 2000 Royal Rumble match when all three members danced in the ring together.

They competed in six-man tag team matches, and they scored a huge win over the Radicalz in their pay-per-view debut at No Way Out. Championships came their way with Scotty and Grand Master beating Edge and Christian for the World Tag Team Championship, and Rikishi won the Intercontinental Championship a month later. Too Cool was a great trio team, and although Rikishi's heel turn failed, he got a brief run in the main event title picture.

10 The Brood

In 1998, Edge, Christian, and Gangrel all made their in-ring WWE debuts, and the trio joined forces as The Brood. The Brood's entrance captivated the audience as they emerged from the fiery depths of hell on stage which was a great visual.

The Brood should have lasted a lot longer together but joining the Ministry of Darkness on the February 1, 1999 edition of Raw did them little favors. They were over on their own, and they were barely booed despite being associated with Undertaker's faction. Nevertheless, Edge and Christian went on to become one of the best tag teams in WWE history, and both went on to win multiple WWE world championships.

9 Team Xtreme

One of the best things to happen to Lita was to distance herself from Essa Rios and they struck up a partnership with the Hardy Boyz. The Hardy Boyz and Lita were collectively known as Team Xtreme. The aerial maneuvers in their repertoire won fans over, and they were unquestionably one of the most popular groups in the Attitude Era.

Occasionally, they would team together in an intergender six-person tag team and feud with the likes of the Right to Censor over championship gold and the Radicalz. Team Xtreme's chemistry was great since the Hardys were brothers, and Matt was dating Lita at the time. All three benefitted from their time together as they became successful when they went their separate ways.

8 Evolution

Evolution, in its original form, was a four-man faction, a modern-day Four Horsemen when they first appeared. In this format, they were not considered a trios team at all. However, that changed in 2014 when Batista returned to WWE and turned heel, joining his former partners again.

In this iteration, Evolution was Triple H, Batista, and Randy Orton, and they operated as a proper trios team. Their reunion was in part due to fans rejecting Batista as a babyface and in part to give the best trios team in WWE at the time, The Shield, some rivals to face. The Shield won the feud, but the two trios teams put on some of the best matches in WWE at the time.

7 Team Angle

Team Angle was similar to Legacy, in that it was a world champion taking on two younger members to work as his lackeys. However, this trios team was a lot more successful than Legacy. Angle was, at the time, working at the top of his game and was a great champion.

Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas were a great tag team and won the tag team titles, competing on an elite level with anyone they faced. These three were almost unstoppable when they were working together.

6 Sanity

Sanity was a missed opportunity for WWE. Eric Young was a massively talented star who was perfect as the psychotic, almost cult-like leader of this faction of men who just wanted to destroy things.

The trios' team even overcame an early obstacle when they lost Sawyer Fulton. What resulted was Young, Killian Dain, and Alexander Wolfe ran all over NXT with Nikki Cross by their side. WWE called Sanity up to SmackDown but had nothing to do with them and broke the group up.

5 The Wyatt Family

To understand how big the Wyatt Family was, there was an episode of Monday Night Raw where the trios team of The Wyatt Family and the trios team of The Shield ended up in the ring together. The entire arena went nuts at the thought of this battle.

Unlike The Shield, The Wyatt Family was the cult leader Bray Wyatt leading his two men, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, into action. Braun Strowman eventually joined them, but he was more of a bodyguard than a member. Wyatt, Harper, and Rowan were almost unstoppable.

4 The Bloodline

In the past, Roman Reigns and his cousins The Usos have teamed up sporadically but this iteration of the three members of the Anoa'i Family is far better. This time they are heels, and they are called the Bloodline. Roman Reigns is enjoying a record-breaking run as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. The Usos were record-breaking Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions with their reign lasting 622 days.

All three surpassed their fathers in terms of their careers, in-ring, and mic skills. The Bloodline is a dominant force on SmackDown, and they are one of the all-time great trio teams when they compete together in six-man tag team matches. The Usos may have acknowledged the Tribal Chief as the Head of the Table but they are "The Ones" and worked as a cohesive unit until the trio broke up in the spring of 2023.

3 Demolition

The trios' teams have a long history in WWE, and one of its most popular was the '80s team Demolition. While many fans of the NWA felt that Demolition was a ripoff of the Road Warriors, the team ended up standing on their own in the legacy of the industry.

Originally, Demolition was a tag team of Smash and Ax, but thanks to injuries to Ax, a third member arrived in Crush, and they worked as a trios team until they finally split up.

2 The New Day

The New Day WWE Tag Team Champions Cropped

The best active trios team in WWE today, and one of the best in the history of the industry, is The New Day.

When the trios' group started, fans didn't catch on immediately to Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E, but when fans came around, the trios' group ended up rising to the top of WWE. The New Day has been together for seven years and counting and has held 11 tag team titles, using the Freebird Rule.

1 The Shield

Arguably, the most popular trios team in the history of professional wrestling is The Shield. The three men arrived from NXT to help CM Punk and serve as villains, running over the entire roster. But they very quickly proved that they were meant for more than just being CM Punk's minions.

For most of the early years of their career, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose were unbeatable as a trios unit. They also had great success as solo stars, and all three men went on to win world titles over their careers. As a trios team, The Shield vanquished both the Wyatt Family and Evolution before breaking up.