WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP (WWE)

The 'World Tag Team Championship' is a professional wrestling tag team championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. It is the original world tag team title of WWE. Currently, it is exclusive to the RAW brand.

Contents

History

Current champions

See also

References

External links

History

The World Tag Team Championship was originally known as the 'World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) World Tag Team Championship'. Following the title's introduction in 1971, Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler became the inaugural champions on June 3. Then, in 1979, the name of the promotion was changed to World Wrestling Federation, thus the title was renamed the 'World Wrestling Federation (WWF) World Tag Team Championship'. The title began to be referred to as simply the 'WWF Tag Team Championship' for short in the mid 90s.^[1]
In March 2001, the World Wrestling Federation purchased World Championship Wrestling. Following this, the "Invasion" storyline was orchestrated, in which WCW was ultimately dismantled. On the conclusion of the "Invasion" at Survivor Series 2001, the WCW Tag Team Championship and the WWF Tag Team Championship were unified in a Steel cage match when the WCW Tag Team Champions, The Dudley Boyz, defeated the WWF Tag Team Champions, The Hardy Boyz. As a result, The Dudley Boyz were named the last WCW Tag Team Champions and became the new WWF Tag Team Champions.
After the WWF/WWE name change in 2002, the championship was subsequently referred to as the 'World Wrestling Enterainment (WWE) Tag Team Championship'. Then, during a period of open free agency after the Brand Extension, RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff was able to sign the Tag Team Champions to the RAW brand after they had originally been drafted to the SmackDown! brand. As a result the Tag Team Championship became exclusive to the RAW brand, thus leaving the SmackDown! brand without a tag team title. Following Bischoff's actions, SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon introduced a new WWE Tag Team Championship and commissioned it to be the exclusive tag team title for the SmackDown! brand. With the introduction of the World Heavyweight Championship on the RAW brand after the WWE Championship was moved to the SmackDown! brand, the Tag Team Championship on RAW was now being referred to as the 'World Tag Team Championship'. This was done so that the names of both tag team titles would mirror the names of the top championships on their respective brands. However, when the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship switched brands during the 2005 Draft Lottery, neither of the tag team titles were renamed.

Current champions

The current champions are Paul London and Brian Kendrick, who are in their first reign as a team. They defeated Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch for the title at a September 5, 2007 house show in Cape Town, South Africa.^[2] They are only the second tag team to have held both the World and WWE Tag Team Championship belts, the first was the Dudley Boyz. However, WWE has yet to acknowledge the change on the title histories section of their web page and on their RAW superstars page. ^[3]

See also

★ WWE Tag Team Championship

★ List of World Tag Team Champions (WWE)

★ List of World Tag Team Championship reigns by length

References

1. WWF World Tag Team title defended on RAW through 1997
2. Raw House Show Results: 9/5 - Cape Town, South Africa ('Tag Titles')
3. http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/worldtagteam/

External links

★ World Tag Team Title History