The WWE Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag team championship in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on the SmackDown brand. It is the eighth overall male tag team championship to have existed in the WWE. The title is one of two tag team championships for WWE's main roster, along with the World Tag Team Championship on the Raw brand.
Unveiled on the August 23, 2016 episode of SmackDown Live, it was created to be the counterpart title to the then-WWE Tag Team Championship, which became exclusive to Raw as a result of the 2016 WWE draft. That title was subsequently renamed after the crowning of the inaugural SmackDown Tag Team Champions, Heath Slater and Rhyno.
History
Following the reintroduction of the WWE brand extension and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, then-WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day were drafted to Raw, leaving SmackDown without a tag team championship. Over the course of the following month, SmackDown general manager Daniel Bryan stated that he wanted to build up the tag team division before introducing a championship. Immediately following SummerSlam on the August 23, 2016 episode of SmackDown Live, Bryan and SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon introduced the SmackDown Tag Team Championship (Raw's title was subsequently renamed). An eight-team tournament was then scheduled to determine the inaugural champions, culminating in a final match at Backlash on September 11, 2016. The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno defeated The Usos in the tournament final to become the inaugural champions.
When unveiled, the championship belt design was nearly identical to the Raw Tag Team Championship, with the differences being that the leather straps were blue as opposed to the former's original black with a different stitching pattern, and the plates were silver as opposed to the former's original bronze. The Raw Tag Team Championship belt design was updated on December 19, 2016, with silver plates on red straps to bring both sets of titles more in line with each other.
On the April 19, 2024 edition of SmackDown COO Triple H and SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis called then WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory & Grayson Waller) out to the ring where the championship was renamed the WWE Tag Team Championship and new belts were given to Theory & Waller.
2016 Tournament
It was announced on the August 23, 2016 edition of Smackdown in Uncasville, Connecticut that a tag team tournament would take place to determine the new champions.
Reigns
The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno were the inaugural champions. The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) hold multiple records with the championship: they are tied with The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) for the most reigns at three, they are the longest-reigning champions at 182 days (183 as recognized by WWE) for their third reign, they have the longest combined reign at 329 days (331 days as recognized by WWE), and they are tied with The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Randy Orton) for having the shortest reign at 23 days (24 days as recognized by WWE for both teams). The oldest champion is Shane McMahon, winning the title at 49 years old, while the youngest is Dominik Mysterio when he won it at 24.
See also
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- Champion history - History of the wrestlers who have held the belt.
- Title matches - Matches in which the title was defended.
- Champion gallery - A gallery of all champions.
Belt gallery
