The Unified WWE Tag Team Championship was the name used by the professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for the following two world tag team championships, which were unified but kept active with separate title histories following WrestleMania XXV on April 5, 2009 until August 16, 2010:
- World Tag Team Championship, established in 1971 and originally exclusive to the Raw brand.
- WWE Tag Team Championship, established in 2002 and originally exclusive to SmackDown.
The championships were generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition. The titles were consolidated back to the original WWE Tag Team Championship while the World Tag Team Championship was retired in August 2010.
History[]
In late 2008 and early 2009, WWE Tag Team Champions The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) feuded with the World Tag Team Champions John Morrison and The Miz, with the two teams exchanging victories in non-title matches and retaining their respective titles against each other. On the March 17 edition of ECW, it was announced that at WrestleMania XXV both teams would defend their titles against each other and the winning team would hold both titles. The Colons defeated Morrison and Miz, and thus unified the titles into the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship.
During its unified state, the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship was available to any of the WWE brands. Because of this, the champions could appear on either Raw, SmackDown or ECW. On the August 16, 2010 episode of Raw, the retirement of the unified title was confirmed with the physical representation of one set of championship belts presented to then-champions The Hart Dynasty (David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd). WWE confirmed the retirement of the World Tag Team Championship in favor of continuing the lineage of the WWE Tag Team Championship. All title history after August 16, 2010 ceased for the World Tag Team Championship while the WWE Tag Team Championship's linage continued.
Reigns[]
The final champions were The Hart Dynasty (David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd), who were in their first reign. They won the titles from ShoMiz (The Big Show and The Miz) on the April 26, 2010 edition of Raw. After the retirement of the World Tag Team Championship, the duo continued to serve as the WWE Tag Team Champions until their loss of the titles at Night of Champions on September 19, 2010. The longest title reign since becoming unified was Jeri-Show (Big Show and Chris Jericho) at 140 days and the shortest reign was Chris Jericho and Edge at 28 days. However, Jericho holds the record for the longest reign by an individual wrestler at 168 days. Shortly after Jericho and Edge won the championships from the Colons, Edge suffered an injury that kept him out for an extended period of time; Jericho was allowed to choose a partner to defend with and chose The Big Show, with whom he held the titles for an additional 140 days.
See also[]
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- World Tag Team Championship (WWE)
- WWE Tag Team Championship
- 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.