Wrestling has evolved a hell of a lot over the years, transforming from what was sacredly defended as a “real sport”, to the larger than life cartoon like characters to it’s new image of sports entertainment. Through each of these eras we have seen new styles of matches come and go, casket matches, hell in a cell, inferno, hardcore and strap matches are just a small few of some of the good, the bad and the down right stupid. So where exactly has tag team wrestling gone? I know a lot of you are already thinking that I must be stupid as we see tag team wrestling on a regular basis on Raw and Smackdown!, what I am really talking about is the days when teams were just that, teams, not guys thrown together because the creative team can’t come up with anything new for them as singles wrestlers, or because it will push a storyline/feud or two all in one match. Looking back over the years we can see men who made their careers in tag teams and went on to have very successful singles careers, but only after literally years of remaining loyal to the tag team division. Back in the 80’s and 90’s we saw tons of tag teams that only had their eye’s set on becoming the reigning tag team champions, The Hart Foundation, The Legion of Doom, The Steiner Brothers, Demolition, The Midnight Express and The British Bulldogs are only a small few of the many teams we saw during these times. The Tag Team Titles actually had some meaning back then, they were a symbol of status, they were an achievement to be proud of, now they are merely a symbol that you don’t have a singles push at the moment. Remember when Demolition were the Tag Team Champions, we had The Hart Foundation, The Rockers, hell even teams like the Bushwackers battling it out night after night, with each victory they would move that one step closer to gaining a shot at the belts they coveted.

Now Compare that to now days, there is no where near the amount of serious tag teams around, instead we have guys like Booker T and Rob Van Dam holding the Raw Tag Team Titles, and Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty with the Smackdown! Titles, now while I am actually a fan of both Booker and RVD they belong in the singles division and in the upper mid-card area, not a as a tag team, let’s face it, once they lose the belts it’s more than likely that we will never see them team up regularly, unless of course it further pushes a storyline. Rikishi and Scotty on the other hand, well putting it bluntly, I am no fan of Rikishi’s and Scotty quite honestly belongs in the Cruiserweight Division. Let’s take a look at the serious contending teams at the moment.
The Dudley Boys: The only reason they are back together is because the creative team had trouble getting these guys over as singles wrestlers, in other words Triple H buried Bubba’s push and D-Von’s character never had a hope in hell at getting over as religion and wrestling don’t mix well.
La Resistance: Put together to get heat during the war on Iraq situation, nothing more than a cheap way to get ratings and build some very instant heel heat. Look back in your WWF history and see just what it did for Sgt: Slaughter during the Gulf War. These guys are actually very talented and could be a very dominant team, the problem is that their current gimmick can’t last forever and unfortunately it will more than likely haunt them if they do end up changing gimmicks as the fans have a tendency to remember things we are supposed to conveniently forget.
Cade and Jindrak: A new tag team that is having a lot of trouble getting over with the fans, these guys are boring and need some kind of image make over or gimmick before the fans will accept them as members of the WWE roster, let alone as possible Tag Team Champions.
The APA: Only reason they are still together is because Bradshaw had trouble fitting into singles competition, so they brought Faarooq out of retirement to at least give Bradshaw something to do as for whatever reason McMahon and the backstage management like him.
The Basham Brothers: While they are actually quite a good team they just seem to have a lack of personality, surely I can’t be the only one that thought their run as the Tag Champs was kind of boring.
Haas and Benjamin: In my opinion the best tag team that the WWE has at it’s disposal, the only problem is that the WWE management has already been discussing which one of the two has the biggest future as a singles wrestler plus the match upo we saw of them on Smackdown! this past week leads us to believe this team’s life will be cut short.

As you can see things have changed drastically over the years and REAL tag team wrestling seems to be a dieing trend in the world of wrestling. To further prove the point we can now see that the APA is dead with the recent firing of Ron “Faarooq” Simmons and now with the new roster draft that will no doubt split some teams up.