FanPost

Tag Team Weekly Roundup and Power Ratings: The tag title pictures still appear blurry

WWE.com

We’re about three weeks from WWE’s biggest weekend of the year with WrestleMania and Stand & Deliver, yet the tag titles matches still seem pretty much up in the air.

The WWE men’s belts, still unified, are part of The Bloodline’s story, but more a background element until Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens almost certainly team up to take The Usos’ gold. At this point, however, the titles are secondary to the babyfaces trying to avenge their difficulties with the stable. But obviously anybody ending the historic run of The Usos will be a very big story beat – as will Sami and KO finally casting their lot together. That it hasn’t happened yet is realistic, given all the water under the bridge, but we’ll have to see what brings Kevin around.

With the women’s tag championships, however, remain shrug emoji. On top, we have Becky Lynch, which is great, and Lita, which is nice but she’s essentially a part-timer. And they’re in a six-woman tag match in WrestleMania, which also gives Trish Stratus and Damage CTRL something to do, but not with the gold on the line. The rumors of Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler having a title match make sense except they didn’t do anything to advance it this week. Whether this has something to do with Ronda’s injury or it’s yet another case of rumors being wrong has yet to be seen.

In NXT, we have Gallus and Pretty Deadly probably finally having a title match. But it might not be set up for Stand & Deliver. And whom are we supposed to root for? Gallus has heretofore been heels, although PD is acting more heelish – but also (deservedly) getting big pops. Maybe they do a match next week and something happens leading to a multi-team at S&D. This might make more sense and get other deserving acts in on the action. Most notably this refers to The Creed Brothers, but potentially Indus Sher, Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen, Schism, Tony D’Angelo and Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo, Edris Enofe and Malik Blade and perhaps others could put together a fun ladder match. The good news is having many options.

On the women’s side, the focus is on the champs where Fallon Henley doesn’t trust partner Kiana James. Fine enough, but nobody seems particularly interested in taking advantage of this dysfunction. The red-headed Scottish witchy duo of Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre are focused on former champs Kayden Carter and Katana Chance. The only other regular team in the division, Ivy Nile and Tatum Paxley, are on a losing streak and thus wouldn’t make sense in the title picture. NXT has time to figure this out, but not a lot of pieces in play.

We can expect the bookers to sort this all out, but having some compelling stories with title matches would be nice.

The following Tag Team Power Rankings take into account wins, power and placement of segments, recentness of appearances, creative direction and momentum for teams and factions.


WWE Tag Team Power Rankings through March 10:

1. The Bloodline (last week: 1)

Pro: Still holding all the top men's unified titles. Jey Uso made his decision and broke millions of hearts but this continues the best story in wrestling.
Con: Took a couple of losses on Raw, with Sami Zayn beating Jimmy Uso clean and Solo Sikoa losing to Kevin Owens via DQ. Plus Cody is now in The Usos' business.

2. Becky Lynch and Lita (2)

Pro: Still women's champions, now apparently slotted into a six-woman tag match at WrestleMania.
Con: This still feels like it was booked more for a ‘Mania moment than on the long term.

3. Judgment Day (3)

Pro: Went to SmackDown and won a six-man tag. Rhea Ripley looks every bit like the right choice to take women's gold, and the faction still feels very important.
Con: A distraction by Edge led to Finn Balor losing to Johnny Gargano.

4. Gallus (4)

Pro: Still the NXT men's tag champions, and stood tall over their #1 challengers this week.
Con: Still need something to do for Stand & Deliver, and that's unclear.

5. Fallon Henley, Kiana James, Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen (5)

Pro: Fallon and Kiana are still the women's tag champs, and things are looking up for Brooks.*
Con: * Except he clearly didn't send Kiana those roses.

6. Viking Raiders (not ranked)

Pro: Picking up an impressive win over Braun Strowman and Ricochet.
Con: Still not likely to get a shot at gold any time soon.

7. Creed Brothers (8)

Pro: Teamed with Bron Breakker for a big Roadblock win.
Con: They seem overdue to get back in the tag title scene.

8. Schism (not ranked)

Pro: Joe Gacy picked up a win on Andre Chase and looks like his group will win the program against The U.
Con: Probably need something interesting to do to stay relevant, especially since Ava Rayne hasn't had a TV match yet.

9. Alpha Academy (not ranked)

Pro: Chad Gable winning a match is always a good time.
Con: But MMM still has their eyes on adding Otis (O-tisse?) to their stable.

10. Pretty Deadly (9)

Pro: Still have an NXT tag title match.
Con: Gallus ran them off pretty easily on this week's show.

Best tag segment of the week: Cody coming out to help Sami could, in hindsight, be a big moment in terms of the trio (once KO is on board) to end The Bloodline's dominance. But we'll have to see.

Grade: C+

Still lacking clarity on what's happening with too many titles.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.