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WWE Tag Team Championship Match
The New Day (c) vs. The Usos
The latest chapter in the on-again, off-again feud between these two teams takes place at tomorrow's event, traditionally the second biggest WWE extravaganza of the annum. The winners will lay an early claim to being the top WWE tag team of the year 2016.
The Road to Royal Rumble
At the last WWE pay-per-view, TLC 2015, The New Day retained their tag straps in a showstealing three-way ladder match against The Usos and The Lucha Dragons, thanks to the trombone tossing interference of Xavier Woods.
The next night on Monday Night Raw, The New Day briefly lived up to their names for once by extending an olive branch to their TLC opponents. Woods apologised for his dirty tactics, whilst putting over the match they had together at TLC, leading to all three members of The New Day to offer their hands to their rivals in a sign of newly found respect. However, after they shook hands, The New Day reverted to type by gloating about their victory, leading to The Usos and The Lucha Dragons to team up and lay them out with their finishers in an unsportsmanlike 4-on-3 attack.
On Dec. 21st Monday Night Raw, the odds were in The New Day's favour as they faced The Usos in a 3-on-2 handicap match. Despite the numbers disadvantage, The Usos still came out on top when Jey reversed a rollup by Woods for the upset win. It was a night of double celebrations for The Usos as they also won the Slammy Award for Tag Team of the Year, which was another source of consternation for The New Day over the following weeks.
However, it wasn't until three weeks later on Raw that the paths of The Usos and New Day would cross again, this time in a non-title match. The Usos were victorious again thanks to the returning Chris Jericho distracting Kofi Kingston by snapping Xavier Woods' trombone in two, allowing Jey Uso to roll up Kofi from behind for the three count.
After The New Day paid tribute to the dearly departed Francesca The Trombone on this week's Raw, they gained a slice of vengeance for this heinous act when Big E pinned Jey Uso in a singles match with the Big Ending thanks to Xavier Woods' distraction. However, on the go-home edition of Smackdown The New Day weren't so lucky, as they were defeated by The Usos and Dolph Ziggler after Woods was knocked silly by a triple superkick.
What's at stake?
The Samoan twins are looking to become WWE Tag Team Champions for the third time in the last two years. Another lengthy title reign would make them one of the most successful tandems in WWE history. Obviously The New Day will do everything in their power to stop The Usos from achieving such legendary status.
Indeed, they are rightly miffed that they didn't win a Slammy Award for their dominance of WWE's tag team division last year, holding the belts far longer than any other duo. A victory here would prove The New Day right and the fans wrong for snubbing them in the online polling, which would be even sweeter after the devestating loss of Francesca from their lives.
Don't forget Cagesiders to watch this match live on the WWE Network at 8 ET and follow our live Royal Rumble coverage for our immediate reaction and all the news coming out of the event!