Tag Teams Can Bring 205 Live To Life

When you’ve been thinking about wrestling as long as I have, your original opinions can evolve into something completely different.

I used to be obsessed with match quality. Now, I don’t care about great matches without an interesting story. My favorite wrestlers used to be smaller guys like Chris Benoit & Eddie Guerrero because they did cool moves. Now, my favorite wrestler is Braun Strowman because he beats the crap out of people. I used to be one of those guys that complained about people that didn’t watch all forms of wrestling & immerse themselves in the genre. Now, I’m one of those guys that can’t find time for much else other than WWE. In fairness to me, WWE didn’t have a Network back then. They also had Katie Vick & HLA, two things that thankfully have no place in 2018.

There are some opinions that have stood the test of time. One of them is this: I’ve never seen a need to add more championships. Whenever a company wants to add a new one, I wonder why they want to do that when they can’t properly book the ones they have. They’re just adding more belts to the useless ones they already have, and soon enough the new belts will be useless too. You might be able to trick fans into thinking things will be different for a couple of months, but soon enough the truth will become clear.

There is one exception to this rule, and it goes back to my days as a young wrestling fan. It’s one of the things that Larry Csonka & I formed a bond over. Tag team wrestling.

One of my favorite things about watching 1980s wrestling is the insane amount of tag teams involved. The WWF tag team division was so deep in the late-1980s & early-1990s that the Rockers never had a run with the championship…and there was no real reason to get upset about it. There were so many good tag teams around that Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty could get lost in the shuffle & still provide hours of entertainment. Prime Time Wrestling is filled with tag teams that never really got a sniff at the straps but are still fondly remembered today.

WCW had World tag team championships & U.S. tag team championships. The introduction of the U.S. belts made sense for a couple of reasons: they had a huge roster with a ton of teams, and the first champions were Ivan Koloff & Krusher Khruschev. The Cold War was almost over, but they were still working it to get heat. With Nikita Koloff holding the U.S. Heavyweight Championship at the time, the Communists had all of our gold. At least until Nikita turned capitalist & buddied up with Dusty Rhodes. They eventually became the workrate straps for the Midnight Express & Fantastics to feud with, so that was fun.

Towards the end when WCW ran out of viable tag teams it got a little ridiculous. Ron Simmons & Big Josh? Dick Slater & The Barbarian? You’re grasping for straws at that point. The U.S. straps were deactivated so they could focus on the new NWA World Tag Team Championships, which were unified with the WCW ones pretty soon after.

The following years were tough times for fans of tag team wrestling. Especially in WCW, where co-holders of their tag team championships included Judy Bagwell, Kenny Kaos & Shawn Stasiak. Decision-makers like Eric Bischoff & Vince McMahon were more interested in pushing singles stars & only saw tag teams as a mean to create those. Basically, once Bret Hart & Shawn Michaels got over on their own after leaving the Hart Foundation & the Rockers, bookers thought that meant every tag team had a singles star waiting to break out. This wasn’t always the case, but it led to tag teams having a very short shelf-life.

There was one shining moment for those of us that yearned for the days of multiple tag team championships. In February 2001, WCW ran a tournament to crown Cruiserweight Tag Team Champions. This seemed a little odd at the time, as WCW was up for sale & the future of the company was anything but certain. It filled TV time and the matches were generally fun, so I suppose it served its purpose. Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo won the tournament, then Billy Kidman & Rey Mysterio Jr. won the belts from them eight days later on the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro.

The WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championships only lasted eight days. For years, fans of cruiserweights & tag team wrestling hoped the combination of the two would return. It seemed unlikely. WWE’s cruiserweight singles division was such a disaster towards the end of its run that the odds of even that coming back were pretty long. Then boxing & UFC demonstrated the viability of lower weight divisions. Their biggest stars with the best fights & most personality were nowhere near the heavyweight division.

It was time for the cruiserweight division to get another shot. The CruiserWeight Classic, a critically-acclaimed series with standout matches, was a step in the right direction. The early days of 205 Live, where many of the CWC performers were shoehorned into traditional WWE tropes while playing second fiddle to the likes of Alicia Fox, were a step in the wrong direction. The program began to find its focus with Enzo Amore on top as champion & giving the other wrestlers a sense of direction. Once Enzo left, it was time for another man to give the program a direction.

General Manger Drake Maverick has proven to be the change that 205 Live can believe in. His Cruiserweight Championship Tournament has been quite the success so far, with new talent from NXT like Roderick Strong & Buddy Murphy impressing with their performances. British friends like Tyler Bate & Mark Andrews have also received opportunities. Maverick’s presentation on-screen, combined with the switchover to Triple H from Vince McMahon as Lord Overseer, has us online folks feeling good about the direction of the show.

It’s going to take time to win everybody over. Most of SmackDown’s live audience (which isn’t exactly immense most weeks to begin with) is still leaving before or during the show. I don’t expect that to change anytime soon in most markets. First impressions are lasting, and the first impression the new cruiserweight division left on the average WWE fan wasn’t great. The cruiserweights & the creative team are going to need to work long & hard to turn it around.

One way to do it? A tag team championship.

More titles usually aren’t a good thing. In this instance, it is. The singles championship has given everybody a sense of purpose. A tag team championship would give rise to new alliances & new performers, while showcasing them in their ideal environment. Akira Tozawa & Hideo Itami looked pretty good together this week. The contingent of Kalisto, Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik could use a target. Drew Gulak & Tony Nese’s on-again off-again friendship could lead them towards the gold. Strong & Murphy are both tag team standouts, so it would be a good reason to keep them around.

Crown a new Cruiserweight Champion at WrestleMania, then start the business of finding some Tag Team Champions. Then 205 Live will truly be alive.