WWE Tag Team Championship
From Freepedia
The World Wrestling Entertainment Tag-Team Championship is the tag-team championship currently being contested for on the World Wrestling Entertainment's SmackDown! brand, exclusively.
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History
The original WWE Tag Team Championship (sometimes referred to as the WWE World Tag Team Championship) was one of the older WWE championship title belts. However, the Brand Extension meant that only one promotion 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.
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.
Facts and trivia
Image:HeidenreichAnimal.jpg Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit defeated Rey Mysterio & Edge on the October 20th 2002 at the WWE No Mercy pay-per-view in a Tournament Final Match to become the first team to win the WWE Tag-Team Championship.
Three teams have held the titles twice, Team Angle/The World's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin), Los Guerreros (Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero, Jr.) and The Basham Brothers (Doug Basham and Danny Basham).
Eddie Guerrero has held the titles on four occasions, (twice in Los Guerreros, once with Tajiri, and once with Rey Mysterio. He was also the first to win the title with various partners.
The Dudley Boyz are the only team to have held the titles along with any other tag-team title, having held the World, WCW and ECW tag-team title as well. Many others have also held those titles, but not with the same partner throughout.
Current champions
On October 25th, 2005, MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro) defeated Road Warrior Animal and Heidenreich for the WWE Tag Team Championship at a SmackDown! taping in San Francisco.
See also
| World Wrestling Entertainment Tag-Team Champions | |
|---|---|
| Angle/Benoit | Edge/Mysterio | Guerreros (E. Guerrero/C. Guerrero) | Team Angle (Haas/Benjamin) | E. Guerrero/Tajiri | World's Greatest (Haas/Benjamin) | Guerreros (E. Guerrero/C. Guerrero) | Bashams (Doug/Danny) | Scotty/Rikishi | Haas/Rico | Dudleyz (B. Dudley/D. Dudley) | London/Kidman | Duprée/Suzuki | Van Dam/Mysterio | Bashams (Doug/Danny) | Mysterio/E. Guerrero | MNM (Nitro/Mercury) | LOD (Animal/Heidenreich | MNM (Nitro/Mercury) | |
