Knee-jerk reactions to the post-Shakeup Raw and SmackDown tag team divisions

Before we dive in to any analysis, here’s a look at each brand’s division post-Superstar Shakeup...

Raw

The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor)
Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar)
Beauty and The Man-Beast (Rhyno and Heath Slater)*
Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango)
Deleters of Worlds (Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt)**
Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler**
The Miztourage (Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas)**
The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder)
Titus Worldwide (Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews)**

Past/Possible teams: American Alpha (Chad Gable and Jason Jordan)*, Big Show and Kane*, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder*, The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins)*, The YEP Movement (Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn), lots of Cruiserweights should they ever decide to intermingle the divisions

SmackDown

Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows*
The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus)*
Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan)*
The Colons (Epico and Primo)*
The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods)*
Rusev Day (Aiden English and Rusev)
SANitY (Killian Dain, Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young)
The Usos (Jimmy and Jey)*

Past/Possible teams: Sunil and Samir Singh (still listed on this roster, but likely to be moved over to Raw when someone realizes they forgot to move them)

* Former main roster tag team champions
** One or both members have been a tag champ, but not with current partner

• The NXT mark in me wants to believe Raw is set-up for The Revival, AoP and Tyler Breeze to show the world what they can do (finally in the case of Dash, Dawson and Prince Pretty). The cynic/realist in me fears they’re going to job to bigger singles stars put together as teams.
• Team Red also has a deeper bench of mid-card and main event level talent which can be put together relatively quickly for a tag run.
• So it makes sense that it’s easy to predict a lot of Wyatt/Hardy vs. McIntyre/Ziggler in our Monday night future. Which might be great!
• For example, look what that kind of pairing did for Cesaro and Sheamus, who join a line-up of multi-time titleholders on Tuesday nights.
• Seriously, SmackDown is set-up to really feature tag wrestling if its so inclined. The concern I see on the blue brand is “who’s gonna lose?” Outside the former Shining Stars/Matadors, that is. Some fans are going to be unhappy when their favorite team is getting beat up by whoever is in the process of being elevated.
• And, again... the big NXT nerd over here is already fretting that’ll be the Nikki Cross-less SAnitY and Aiden and Ru.
• Oh, and The Good Brothers, who seem destined to get bounced from former Bullet Club leader to former Bullet Club leader without ever really aligning with either.
• SmackDown’s solution to the potential problem they might be giving us too much Usos/New Day seems to have been to line-up a ton of quality opponents for the two to face instead. Which... I don’t think anyone’s going to argue with that.

Overall, while SmackDown’s looks more impressive at a glance, there’s potential in both scenes. The key to both will be giving multiple teams time and wins to establish/reinforce depth. Not sure how the decision to move the duos who already have credentials to the shorter show will make that easier, but maybe they have a plan.

Or not.

Let us know what you think, Cagesiders! And don’t forget to chime in on the post-Shakeup women’s division here and men’s scene here.