The Wrestling Framework 05.13.12: Tag Team Pushes

Welcome all once again to The Wrestling Framework! I am your writer, Aaron Frame.

Two weeks ago I went over what I thought about the guys in WWE that are just kind of floating around and should get a push. And there was some great discussion from you guys. Someone suggested that someone goes over what they would do with a wrestler to change him and I think I’ll take a crack at it next week.

This week, I’m going to take a look at the current tag teams that they have in the WWE tag team division as well as talk about what teams could be created and how they work. I’m excited to get to it, so lets go.

R-Truth and Kofi Kingston

Of course I have to start it off with our current reigning tag team champions. I think there’s a reason they’re the tag champs. And it has nothing really to do with how well they work as a tag team. I believe the reason they’re EVEN a tag team is because creative has nothing for the two and they still want to have them featured in some way. However, they inadvertently created one hell of a tag team. Kofi and Truth have fantastic chemistry in the ring as a team. They’re both super athletic and move around the ring super quick. The only downfall to these guys would be the weird lack of solid characters. We have Kofi who is a…white meat babyface, essentially. I have no other way to explain his character, or lack thereof. Truth, on the other hand, has a very easily described character. He’s bat shit crazy. He talks to an imaginary friend that he takes with him everywhere. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “But Aaron, that seems pretty solid to me!” Well, not to me. It’s pretty closed off to evolution and it’s so one dimensional that it’ll get really old, really fast. I’m not that overly interested to see Truth continue to act like a loony. But I will tolerate it, for now, because the guy is still mildly entertaining. I would like to see them evolve more as a tag team than just be the “you know them, cheer them” kind of team. If that makes sense.

Primo & Epico

I think these two guys have had quite the amazing run as the tag team champions. They have such fantastic chemistry together. Considering they’re from the same family, I guess that is to be expected. It’s kind of a “duh, you fucking moron” type of thing, I guess. They have compelling characters that I would love to see work in to their team dynamic even more. I don’t think they have the solidest team work style they could have. I would like to see them work a tighter style where they keep their opponent in their corner and focus fire on one spot of the opponent(s). Work on their team ring psychology to coincide with their spectacular in ring work. They have so much potential to be a great tag team and eventually branch off to great singles stars. I like the idea of the titles being taken off of them and they getting with A.W. This opens them up to so much more potential greatness in the future. Hell, I actually would be surprised or disappointed if they stayed a tag team through most of their career. I think they could be the newer generations…someone. Trying to remember a high flying tag team that was pretty much always together. I guess the point of them staying together as a recognizable tag team could be compared to that of, say, Road Warriors? Not that they’re on their level or could be. Just the way they stayed always as a tag team.

Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger

This team I have mixed feelings about. They really should both be getting singles pushes, but at the same time they also work so damn well as a tag team. Ziggler is a very technical wrestler with shades of possible high flying speed while Swagger has shades of being technical, but mixes it with a powerful big man style. The similarities between their technical styles helps them gel nicely as a team. Their differences is what makes things a lot more interesting. I think that they could be another team that we could see around for quite a while. But for some reason, it doesn’t look like they’ll even get their chance to shine as a tag team. I don’t know what WWE creative is doing, but they’re dropping the ball big time with this. They could easily have one of the most dominant tag teams ever with Zigg-Swagg. With that loud mouthed woman, Vickie Guerrero, they could so easily become bigger than their being allowed to be. What we need right now is a feud between KingTruth and Zigg-Swagg. That would allow WWE to have four of their top midcard wrestlers on TV in one match. Granted, that would eliminate any chance of a legitimate tag team that deserves that spotlight getting that spotlight. But if they’re not going to do anything with these guys, why not?

The Usos

The Usos are one of those tag teams I was talking about in the last bit. You know, a team that totally deserves the spotlight for the tag team division. I was totally hoping that The Usos and Epico & Primo were going to enter into a solid feud. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I don’t know why they wouldn’t use The Usos at all. Why wouldn’t they want an exciting team with an exciting entrance as one of the representatives of the tag team division? I mean, besides the fact that the ‘E absolutely hates, or just doesn’t even care about, their tag teams. Yet, they continue to keep them around. Why? Why would they waste such great talent like this? Let’s take a look at that entrance. They have this awesome choreographed Samoan dance that they do that just looks cool as hell and always gets me excited every time I see it. Why not have another minority tag team? Not trying to be racist or anything, but take a look at the tag teams they have. They have KingTruth who are black, Epico/Primo who are Puerto Rican (right?), Hunico/Camacho who are Mexican, and Zigg-Swagg who are white (wait…). A Samoan team would fit right in with the rest of them. Samoans have always been a part of the business and wildly entertaining. The Usos are no different in that respect.

Hunico y Camacho

This is a team that has only recently really tagged. I had been wondering if Camacho was going to wrestle or just drive the bike. I can’t say that I was overly impressed because there really wasn’t a whole lot to base a judgement off on. Come to think of it, for all I know Hunico y Camacho have probably tagged on NXT or Superstars. I don’t watch either show because…well, I don’t know. Because it’s not on TV? Probably it. But what I have seen of these men shows promise. I’ve always been a fan of Hunico. He’s a very fast paced and exciting worker that has a lot of talent. And Camacho seems like he’s got quite an extensive big man-type of move set. That right there tells me that Camacho has a lot more talent than I would originally have pegged him for. This team has quite the team dynamic, too. The faster high flying Hunico and the slower yet powerful Camacho makes for a classic team dynamic that is used, but hardly effectively. I think these two men could quite easily be the newest team to show that this team type can work. And I mean work to perfection. I think these guys could easily be entered in to the tag team title picture and used effectively to make the tag team division look good.

Titus O’Neil & Darren Young

You know, I wasn’t overly excited about these guys when I started seeing them on the main show. I’m trying to figure out how best I can explain why I wasn’t a big fan of them. They seemed like they didn’t really have characters. They were acting almost like degenerate frat boys. You know, what I would expect they actually act like. I guess that could be considered a character. But now that I’ve had the chance to watch them a little more, they’ve grown on me. They’re great in the role of obnoxious heels. They act like those immature jerkoffs that you really want to slap because they’re so damn obnoxious. Oh, did I mention they’re pretty good in the ring? Yeah, they’ve been impressing me. They’ve almost got the high-flyer/big-man dynamic, but it’s more of a plain-solid-wrestler/powerhouse dynamic. Darren Young is a pretty solid wrestler. He doesn’t really come off as anything spectacular, but he’s got plenty of time to show what he’s got. I’m hugely impressed with Titus O’Neil. He holds himself well in the ring and looks menacing, powerful, and really intimidating. I think WWE needs to continue to build them up, then keep them on a high momentum to the tag team titles. I would be excited to watch a feud between O’Neil and Young/KingTruth. That would be fun.

What follows is a few ideas for teams that I would like to see/continue to see…

Santino Marella and Zack Ryder

As you may or may not know, I am a huge fan of both men. I tend to really like the comedy type characters and the wacky loveable underdogs. Both men have that. Santino and Ryder both know how to tug at your heart strings and your funny bone. And both have seen a varying amount of midcard success. I said two weeks ago that both men could get a main event push, but if WWE isn’t going to do that, why not push them as a solid midcard tag team? They have a lot more chemistry as a team than I thought they would. When I saw them team, I thought they would conflict with each other. Two big, over-the-top type of personalities could spell disaster for a team. However, these guys knew how to work together quite well. They were able to dial back their personalities just enough that they didn’t clash. Another exciting thing is that both men are fantastic ring workers as well. Ryder usually gets more of a chance to show off his skills, and poor Santino is usually stuck to his splits, hip toss, Cobra routine. But from what I’ve seen of Santino in the past tells me that he can actually wrestle if given the chance. And both men work styles that are similar and different. I don’t know how else to really explain that. I want to see more of them. That’s pretty much the main point.

Lord Tensai and Sakamoto

So, it would seem the Lord Tensai debut was a huge flop. Nobody really cares about him. In fact, as sad as it is for me to say this, he’s almost like a black hole. It’s like the fans don’t really know what to do with him. They don’t know how to react. Should they cheer him? Should they boo him? No, they’re probably not giving two shits because they don’t want to see him. I really had hoped he would get over. I really wish that he would be the one to usher in a little bit of the Japanese style to the WWE. So, now that his singles push is pretty much nil, why not tag him with Sakamoto and let them beat down other tag teams Japanese style? I think they could really bring something new to the table and basically ease the American people in to the Japanese style and open it up to bring in maybe one or two others that can work that unique style. Like I said, since his push is pretty much dying, they need to do something with him. This team would also give us the full on dynamic of quick guy and cumbersome monster. Well, Albert can actually move. He’s pretty agile for a big man. He reminds me a lot of Vader back in the day. I don’t doubt that Tensai could get up on the top rope and hit a moonsault on to his opponents. That would be pretty awesome to see.

And that’s going to do for me this week. Next week, I’m going to try and see what I can do to propose what a wrestler could do or have done to him to make him the next big star. See you guys next week.