Where does SmackDown’s tag division go next?

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Zack Ryder had knee surgery on Thursday, and that means the Hype Bros are no longer the number one contenders for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. It’s unfortunate for Ryder, obviously, but it’s also unfortunate for the tag division on the Tuesday show. While SmackDown has done a solid job of building up their tag unit, between turning the Usos heel and creating the team of Heath Slater and Rhyno and finally putting together a Wyatt Family capable of winning the tag straps, there is still something missing, something that’s even more noticeable with Ryder now on the sidelines.

There just aren’t enough face teams in the division right now, and with heel champs, this is an issue. Slater and Rhyno were just tag champs and already lost their rematch, and look like they’re set to feud over whose fault it is. American Alpha has been pushed to the side again and again, but intentionally so as to build anticipation for their eventual win: the whole reason the Hype Bros became number one contenders in the first place was, presumably, to give Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton a face team to devour in preparation for eventually facing Jason Jordan and Chad Gable down the road. After those teams, that’s it for faces: The Ascension, the Vaudevillains, the Breezango, and the Usos are all heels.

This is a hole SmackDown could fill with faces on the roster who aren’t doing a whole lot at the moment, of course. Kalisto, Apollo Crews, Jack Swagger, and Ryder’s partner, Mojo Rawley, are now all sort of sitting around with nothing to do at the moment. Rawley saying he’ll temporarily find someone else to get hyped to take on the Wyatts would be a way to move things along without exposing the lack of babyface depth in the tag division. There’s no harm done in taking a loss to Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt, two terrifying main event talents who hold the tag belts, so this might be the best course of action for SmackDown until it’s time for American Alpha to finally do their thing.

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