WWE Tag Team Championship History

Mikk · 02-27-2007, 10:52 PM

The WWE Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag teamtitle. It is currently exclusive on World Wrestling Entertainment's SmackDown! brand.

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.

Statistics

<table style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1em 1em; font-family: verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; background-color: rgb(247, 248, 255);" border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td>Record:</td> <td>Record holder:</td> <td>Record number:</td> <td>Notes:</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Most reigns as a team</td> <td>MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro)</td> <td>3</td> <td>First defeating Rey Mysterio & Eddie Guerrero, then Road Warrior Animal & Heidenreich, and Rey Mysterio & Batista.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Most reigns as an individual</td> <td>Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio</td> <td>4</td> <td>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.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Longest reign</td> <td>Paul London & Brian Kendrick</td> <td>282 days</td> <td>Beat MNM for the record. Current Champions</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Shortest reign</td> <td>Edge & Rey Mysterio</td> <td>12 days</td> <td>Edge also shares the shortest reign as a World Tag Team Champion (with Christian).</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Oldest individual champion</td> <td>Road Warrior Animal</td> <td>45 years</td> <td>Won title with Heidenreich</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Youngest individual champion</td> <td>RenÃ© DuprÃ©e</td> <td>20 years</td> <td>Won title with Kenzo Suzuki. Also youngest individual World Tag Team Champion at age 19.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Heaviest Champions</td> <td>Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty</td> <td>Total weight: 609 pounds</td> <td>The second heaviest were the Dudley Boyz who weighed in at 585 pounds.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lightest Champions</td> <td>Paul London and Brian Kendrick</td> <td>Total weight: 385 pounds</td> <td>The second lightest champions were Paul London & Billy Kidman who weighed in at 390 pounds.</td></tr></tbody></table>
Trivia

The Dudley Boyz are the only team to have held the tag team titles from SmackDown!, RAW, WCW and ECW.
Paul London holds the record for most days as WWE Tag Team Champion with 340 days in his 2 title reigns together (with Billy Kidman and Brian Kendrick) surpassing MNM's old record of 294 days as champions, and Charlie Haas' former record of 229 days.
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 23, 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.

Rollcall Of Champions

<table><tbody><tr class="even"><td width="30%">CHAMPION</td> <td width="25%">DEFEATED</td> <td width="20%">LOCATION</td> <td width="15%">DATE</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td width="30%"> Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit </td> <td width="25%">Edge & Rey Mysterio</td> <td width="20%">Little Rock, AR</td> <td width="15%">10-20-02</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td width="30%"> Edge & Rey Mysterio </td> <td width="25%">Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit</td> <td width="20%">Manchester, NH</td> <td width="15%">11-07-02</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td width="30%"> Los Guerreros </td> <td width="25%">Edge & Rey Mysterio</td> <td width="20%">New York, NY</td> <td width="15%">11-17-02</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td width="30%"> Benjamin & Haas </td> <td width="25%">Los Guerreros</td> <td width="20%">Philadelphia, PA</td> <td width="15%">02-06-03</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td width="30%"> Eddie Guerrero & Tajiri </td> <td width="25%">Benjamin & Haas</td> <td width="20%">Charlotte, NC</td> <td width="15%">05-18-03</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td width="30%"> Benjamin & Haas </td> <td width="25%">Eddie Guerrero & Tajiri</td> <td width="20%">Rochester, NY</td> <td width="15%">07-03-03</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td width="30%"> Los Guerreros </td> <td width="25%">Benjamin & Haas</td> <td width="20%">Raleigh, NC</td> <td width="15%">09-18-03</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td width="30%"> Basham Brothers </td> <td width="25%">Los Guerreros</td> <td width="20%">Albany, NY</td> <td width="15%">10-23-03</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td width="30%"> Scotty 2 Hotty & Rikishi </td> <td width="25%">Basham Brothers</td> <td width="20%">Cleveland, OH</td> <td width="15%">02-05-04</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td width="30%"> Charlie Haas & Rico </td> <td width="25%">Scotty 2 Hotty & Rikishi</td> <td width="20%">Kelowna, BC</td> <td width="15%">04-22-04</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td width="30%"> The Dudleys </td> <td width="25%">Charlie Haas & Rico</td> <td width="20%">Chicago, IL</td> <td width="15%">06-17-04</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td width="30%"> Billy Kidman & Paul London </td> <td width="25%">The Dudleys</td> <td width="20%">Winnipeg, Manitoba</td> <td width="15%">07-08-04</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td width="30%"> Kenzo Suzuki & Rene Dupree </td> <td width="25%">Billy Kidman & Paul London</td> <td width="20%">Tulsa, OK</td> <td width="15%">09-09-04</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td width="30%"> Rob Van Dam & Rey Mysterio </td> <td width="25%">Kenzo Suzuki & Rene Dupree</td> <td width="20%">Greenville, SC</td> <td width="15%">12-09-04</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td width="30%"> Basham Brothers </td> <td width="25%">Rob Van Dam & Rey Mysterio</td> <td width="20%">Tampa, FL</td> <td width="15%">01-13-05</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td width="30%"> Rey Mysterio & Eddie Guerrero </td> <td width="25%">Basham Brothers</td> <td width="20%">Pittsburgh, PA</td> <td width="15%">02-20-05</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td width="30%"> MNM </td> <td width="25%">Rey Mysterio & Eddie Guerrero</td> <td width="20%">New York, NY</td> <td width="15%">04-21-05</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td width="30%"> Animal & Heidenreich </td> <td width="25%">MNM</td> <td width="20%">Buffalo, NY</td> <td width="15%">07-25-05</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td width="30%"> MNM </td> <td width="25%">L.O.D.</td> <td width="20%">San Francisco</td> <td width="15%">10-28-05</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td width="30%"> Batista & Rey Mysterio </td> <td width="25%">MNM</td> <td width="20%">Springfield, MA</td> <td width="15%">12-16-05</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td width="30%"> MNM </td> <td width="25%">Batista & Rey Mysterio</td> <td width="20%">Uncasville, CT</td> <td width="15%">12-30-05</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td width="30%"> Brian Kendrick & Paul London </td> <td width="25%">MNM</td> <td width="20%">Phoenix, AZ</td> <td width="15%">05-21-06</td></tr></tbody></table>