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One of the most interesting stories to come out of the 2018 WWE Superstar Shake-Up surrounds the tag team divisions on both Raw and SmackDown Live.
The Raw tag division regularly produced show-stealing matches throughout 2017, largely thanks to The Bar, The Shield and the Hardy Boyz, while the majority of SmackDown Live tag storylines centred around The New Day and The Usos.
However, following this week’s Shake-Up, the only serious contenders to win the Raw Tag Team titles appear to be the Authors of Pain, Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt and The Revival, with Titus Worldwide, The Miztourage, The Ascension, Breezango and Heath Slater & Rhyno unlikely to win the gold any time soon.
As for SmackDown Live, the blue brand has Rusev Day, SAnitY, The Club, The New Day, The Usos, The Colons and The Bar to battle it out for The Bludgeon Brothers’ tag titles.
With so many tag teams on both rosters right now, let’s make five bold predictions about what might occur in the tag divisions over the next few months.
#5 Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens become Raw Tag Team title challengers
While Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are both realistic challengers for the Universal Championship, the villainous duo have just spent three months trying – and failing – to win the WWE title on SmackDown Live, so it would be a little underwhelming to see them involved in a similar storyline on Raw.
Instead, it would be a refreshing change to see the duo join the Raw tag division, which is lacking star power following the Superstar Shake-Up, rather than fight battles for and against each other in numerous singles matches.
Zayn and Owens would be legitimate threats to any of the tag teams currently on Raw, and who wouldn’t want to see them involved in a rivalry with possible new champions Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt?
#4 The Miztourage align with a different Superstar
Remember when Alex Riley was best buddies with The Miz? Once their alliance was over, Riley was forgotten about and he was later released. And remember when Damien Sandow worked side by side with The Miz? Once their alliance was over, Sandow was forgotten about and, you guessed it, he was later released.
Now, Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel are unlikely to be released any time soon, but it’s worth remembering that they had barely been involved on television for two years before their alliance with The Miz began in mid-2017, so both guys will be hoping to move into another storyline as soon as possible.
Assuming they remain tag partners, it’d be a good move by WWE to align them with another Raw Superstar (Elias, perhaps?) to play a similar role to the one they’ve had alongside The Miz over the last few months.
#3 The Shield reunite when Dean Ambrose returns
As we previously mentioned, the Raw roster is looking thin when it comes to established duos who could realistically challenge for the Raw Tag Team Championships – but that could all change when Dean Ambrose returns from injury.
“The Lunatic Fringe” is scheduled to make his comeback by September 2018 from a long-term triceps injury which has kept him sidelined since December 2017, and another Shield reunion could be on the cards after Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns remained on Raw in the Superstar Shake-Up.
If the tag division looks as it does now when Ambrose is back, then it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him team up with Rollins again to chase the Raw Tag Team titles.
#2 The Club join forces with AJ Styles
When The Club first burst onto the WWE scene in April 2016, they immediately joined forces with AJ Styles and helped their former Bullet Club colleague in his battles against Roman Reigns and John Cena.
Since then, however, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson have been horribly misused by WWE, with the exception of their Raw Tag Team title victory in January 2017, and their recent alliance with Finn Balor barely lasted three months and it was largely forgettable.
With such a stacked tag roster on SmackDown Live, it’s difficult to see how the duo could be booked positively on the blue brand, so perhaps it would be wise for WWE to reunite them with Styles when he’s next in need of some allies.
#1 Sheamus and Cesaro split up
Sheamus and Cesaro were involved in some of the best tag matches of 2017 as part of the Raw roster, but it’s fair to say that luck hasn’t been on their side so far in 2018.
The Bar lost three times to Titus Worldwide at the beginning of the year, albeit not in title matches, and then they were defeated in embarrassing fashion by Braun Strowman and 10-year-old Nicholas at WrestleMania 34.
Their move to SmackDown Live is a good way to try to make fans forget that the Strowman rivalry ever happened, but is there really any way back for them as a serious tag duo after losing to a child on WWE’s biggest stage?
“The Celtic Warrior” and “The Swiss Cyborg” would both be huge assets to the singles division on SmackDown, especially the latter, so it wouldn’t be the worst idea if they went their separate ways soon.
