| WWE Tag Team Championship | |
| Currentholder: | The Bloodline |
| Won: | August 2, 2024 |
| Created: | August 23, 2016 |
| Promotion: | WWE |
| Brand: | SmackDown |
| Mostreigns: | As tag team (7 reigns):
As individual (7 reigns): |
| Longestreign: | The Usos (5th reign, 622 days) |
| Shortestreign: | The New Day (7th reign, 3 days) |
| Oldest: | Shane McMahon |
| Youngest: | Dominik Mysterio |
| Heaviest: | The Wyatt Family (810lb combined) |
| Lightest: | The Mysterios (375lb combined) |
| Pastnames: |
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The WWE Tag Team Championship is a men's professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the SmackDown brand division. It is one of two male tag team championships for WWE's main roster, along with the World Tag Team Championship on Raw. The current champions are The Bloodline (Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga), who are in their first reign, both as a team and individually. They won the title from previous champions
(Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) on the August 2, 2024, episode of SmackDown.
The championship was originally established as the SmackDown Tag Team Championship on August 23, 2016, and Heath Slater and Rhyno were the inaugural champions. It was introduced for the SmackDown brand as a second title for tag teams in the promotion to complement the previous WWE Tag Team Championship, which became exclusive to Raw in the 2016 WWE Draft following the reintroduction of the brand split and renamed as Raw Tag Team Championship. From May 2022 until April 2024, both titles were held and defended together as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, with each maintaining their individual lineages. Under the Undisputed banner, both titles simultaneously became the first tag team championships to be defended in the main event of WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania, which occurred as the main event of WrestleMania 39 Night 1 in April 2023. The titles would again be defended in the main event of a pay-per-view and livestreaming event at Night of Champions the following month. The titles were then split at WrestleMania XL in April 2024 with the SmackDown Tag Team Championship subsequently renamed as the WWE Tag Team Championship with the Raw title becoming the World Tag Team Championship.
During WWE's original brand split (2002–2011), in which the professional wrestling promotion divided its roster into "brands" where wrestlers were assigned to exclusively perform on each brands' respective weekly television program, the men's world tag team championship of the SmackDown brand was the previous WWE Tag Team Championship, which was established in 2002 to be the counterpart to the promotion's original World Tag Team Championship, which was designated to Raw. At WrestleMania 25 in April 2009, the titles were unified as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, although both titles remained independently active until August 2010 when the original World Tag Team Championship was deactivated in favor of the WWE Tag Team Championship, which then became the sole tag team championship in WWE, available to both brands. The first brand split then ended in August 2011.[1] [2]
In July 2016, WWE reintroduced the brand split and during the 2016 draft, reigning WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) were drafted to Raw, leaving SmackDown without a tag team title. 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; the WWE Tag Team Championship was subsequently renamed Raw Tag Team Championship.[3] An eight-team tournament was then scheduled to determine the inaugural champions, culminating in a final match at Backlash on September 11, 2016.[4] [5] [6] The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno defeated The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) in the tournament final to become the inaugural champions.[7]
In 2019, WWE's developmental territory NXT became the promotion's third major brand when it was moved to the USA Network in September, thus making the NXT Tag Team Championship the third major tag team title for men in WWE.[8] However, this recognition was reversed when NXT reverted to its original function as a developmental brand in September 2021.[9]
During the May 20, 2022, episode of SmackDown, reigning SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated reigning Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) in a Winners Take All match to claim both championships and become recognized as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions. WWE had billed the match as a championship unification match; however, both titles remained independently active.[10] The Usos had defended both titles together across both brands as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, but on a couple of occasions in early 2023, they also defended the titles separately.[11] [12]
In the main event of WrestleMania 39 Night 1, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defended the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship against the team of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. This subsequently made both the Raw and SmackDown titles the first tag team championships to be defended in the main event of WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania. At the event, Owens and Zayn defeated The Usos to become champions.[13] The titles would again be defended in the main event of a pay-per-view and livestreaming event at Night of Champions the following month on May 27 when Owens and Zayn retained the titles against The Bloodline (Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa).[14]
At WrestleMania XL Night 1 on April 6, 2024, The Judgment Day (Finn Bálor and Damian Priest) defended the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship in a Six-Pack Tag Team Ladder match in which both sets of championships had to be retrieved for the match to end. As a result, the championships were split with A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory and Grayson Waller) winning the SmackDown Tag Team Championship while Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth) won the Raw title.[15] On the April 19 episode of SmackDown, the SmackDown Tag Team Championship was renamed as the WWE Tag Team Championship with a new set of title belts.[16] This came just a few days after the Raw Tag Team Championship was renamed as the World Tag Team Championship with its own new title belts.[17]
† When Chad Gable suffered a storyline injury after defeating The Usos, American Alpha were removed from the final. The Usos then defeated The Hype Bros at Backlash in a second chance tag team match to replace American Alpha in the final.
When the championship was first introduced as the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, they featured the same physical design as the 2010 to 2016 version of the previous WWE Tag Team Championship (which became the Raw Tag Team Championship), with the differences being that the leather straps were blue as opposed to the former's original black and the plates were silver as opposed to the former's original copper. The renamed Raw Tag Team Championship belts were then updated on December 19, 2016, with silver plates on red straps to bring both sets of titles in line with each other. While all other WWE championship belts were updated to feature customizable side plates for the champion's logos, the Raw and SmackDown tag titles were the only championship belts in the promotion that lacked this feature.[4]
In conjunction with the SmackDown Tag Team Championship being renamed as WWE Tag Team Championship on April 19, 2024, the belts also received a new design. The updated design resembles the title belts of the original World Tag Team Championship used during the Attitude Era and the 2002 to 2010 version of the previous WWE Tag Team Championship belts used during the Ruthless Aggression Era. Unlike WWE's other championship belts of the modern era, which have three plates (a centerplate and two side plates), the WWE Tag Team Championship has five gold plates on a black leather strap. At the center of the center plate is a globe with the WWE logo over it. Above the globe at the top of the plate is a crown, while below the globe are two black banners. The first black banner says "TAG TEAM" written in gold while the one below that says "WRESTLING CHAMPIONS", also written in gold. On the opposing sides of the globe are griffins facing inwards. Filigree fills in the rest of the plate, which has an ornamented border. Like all of WWE's championship belts, the two inner side plates feature a removable center section which can be replaced with the reigning champion's logo; the default side plates feature the WWE logo over a globe. The two smaller outer side plates have a shield design with two wrestlers grappling.[16]
See main article: List of WWE Tag Team Champions. As of,, overall there have been 33 reigns between 22 teams composed of 41 individual champions, and one vacancy. The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno were the inaugural champions. The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) have the most reigns at seven, both as a team and individually, and their seventh is the shortest reign for the title at 3 days (2 days as recognized by WWE); during their first six reigns, Big E was also recognized as champion under the Freebird Rule. The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) have the longest singular reign at 622 days for their fifth reign, and they have the longest combined reign as a team at 1,002 days, while individually, Jey has the longest combined reign at 1,011 days (1,010 days as recognized by WWE). 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.
The current champions are The Bloodline (Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga), who are in their first reign, both as a team and individually. They defeated previous champions
(Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) on the August 2, 2024, episode of SmackDown in Cleveland, Ohio.[18]