World Tag-Team Championship

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Image:Wweworldtagteambelts.gif The World Wrestling Entertainment's World Tag-Team Championship is the WWE's original tag-team championship and is now exclusive to the RAW brand.

1 History
2 Facts and trivia
3 Current champions
4 See also

History

After the WWE split into two brands, WWE RAW and SmackDown!, the WWE's original WWE Tag-Team Championship was made exclusive to the SmackDown! brand as the tag-team champions, Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo, were drafted as a tandem by Vince McMahon.

During the title's brief history on SmackDown! it was held by the tandems of Rikishi and Rico, regained by Billy and Chuck, won by Hulk Hogan and Edge, and then by Lance Storm and Christian. During the summer of 2002 Storm and Christian left SmackDown! and joined the RAW brand, bringing the tag-team title with them and making it de facto RAW-exclusive.

Shortly thereafter, SmackDown! general manager Stephanie McMahon announced that a tag team tournament would be held to determine a new champions for a SmackDown!-exclusive tag-team championship. The new title was named the WWE Tag-Team Championship, while the older belt on RAW belt was renamed to the World Tag-Team Championship so that each tag belt would be named consistently with respect to the respective show's heavyweight belt (the World Heavyweight Championship on RAW and the WWE Championship on SmackDown!). Towards the end of 2002 new belts were designed to differentiate the two nearly-identical championship belts, with each show having various parts that were colored to match the show's colors (red for RAW and blue for SmackDown).

The current name of this title, like the World Heavyweight Championship it is named after, does not have the WWE prefix attached to it -- it is simply known as the "World Tag-Team Championship".

Facts and trivia

The team of Ax and Smash (Demolition) hold the record for the longest World Tag-Team title reign. They held the tag-team championship from March 27, 1988 to July 18, 1989-- approximately sixteen months.

Owen Hart and Yokozuna hold the record for the shortest championship reign; after regaining the titles from Diesel and Shawn Michaels on September 25, 1995, following a technicality (recognized as a separate tag team title reign from their earlier reign that started on April 2), they lost the titles to The Smokin' Gunns in under an hour. They barely beat out Edge & Christian, who won the titles on March 19, 2001, and proceeded to lose them again less than two hours later.

At Survivor Series 2001 the WCW World Tag Team Championship was unified into it, when the Dudley Boyz defeated the Hardy Boyz in a steel cage match. This was not the first time the WCW and WWE (then known as the WWF) Tag Team Championships were held by the same tag team, however, as The Undertaker and Kane held both the WWF and WCW World Tag Team championships after winning the former at SummerSlam 2001, also in a cage match.

Billy Gunn and Edge have the record for, individually, the most World Tag Team Championship reigns, ten. Gunn held the title three times with Bart Gunn, five times with Road Dogg Jesse James, and twice with Chuck. Edge held the title seven times with Christian, once with Hulk Hogan, and twice with Chris Benoit. Edge has also been a one time WWE Tag Team Champion with Rey Mysterio, bringing his total up to eleven.

The Dudley Boyz hold the record for the most team acquisitions of the belts, each being crowned champions eight times. They are also one time WWE Tag Team Champions.

When Triple H won the World Tag Team Championship at Backlash in 2001, it made him the second Grand Slam Champion in WWE History.

Only two teams ever won both these titles and the WCW World Tag Team Championship, while WCW has not owned by WWE: the Steiner Brothers and The Nasty Boys. After the purchase of WCW by WWE both titles would be at some point held by teams like Undertaker & Kane, Hardy Boyz, and the Dudley Boyz. The Road Warriors also won the NWA World Tag Team Titles while in WCW as well as the WWE tag tiles titles.