5 WWE Tag Team Champions You Forgot About

The second WWE brand extension has been active for almost three years now and the RAW side has had several different tag teams holding their doubles gold. But did you know the current WWE RAW Tag Team Championships have a much longer shelf life than three years?

Ironically, the current WWE (RAW) Tag Team Championships began their legacy as Tag Titles that were exclusive to the SmackDown brand. The titles debuted in 2002 for SmackDown, with the first Champions being Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, who won a tournament last defeating Rey Mysterio and Edge at No Mercy that year.

Ever since, this gold has been held by many notable tag teams including the Hardy Boyz, Dudley Boyz, DX, the New Age Outlaws, Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin, MNM, Paul London and Brian Kendrick, Team Hell No and many more.

These titles have not only been held by all these great teams, but have also been held by several other teams who were pretty much just thrown together for no other reason only that WWE had nothing else for them. There have been several tag teams to have held these particular tag titles that you probably forgot about, and here are who I think are the top five.

#5 Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne - 2011

Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne were paired together as a tag team back in the summer of 2011, mainly because the company had no other plans for either man at the time. They had been randomly teaming together at live events, and it just transpired into television.

WWE decided to go all in with the team pretty early on as they became the WWE Tag Team Champions after just a few weeks of teaming on TV together. Kingston and Bourne would claim the tag titles from what was left of The Nexus, and would successfully defend them in rematches with them, as well as The Miz & R-Truth, and Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger.

Kingston and Bourne were officially named 'Air Boom' in August 2011, after a fan voting poll on an episode of RAW. However, they were rarely ever actually referred to by that name and were still often just introduced as '' Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne ''. Much like today, WWE didn't care much for the tag team division back then, and when Bourne was suspended for a month for a wellness violation, he and Kingston still remained the Tag Team Champions and were never stripped of them.

Bourne returned to WWE TV in early December and the two would remain Tag Team Champions for just about a month before losing them to Primo and Epico at a house show. Two days later, it was announced that Bourne had been suspended for a second time, and he and Kingston quietly disbanded before he returned to TV.

#4 Kofi Kingston & R-Truth - 2012

Another tag team Kofi Kingston was just put in for something just to be relevant on TV during a time where singles pushes were few and far between.

What separated Kofi Kingston and R-Truth from other tag teams on this list is they actually managed to take in the accolade of Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Tag Team of The Year for 2012. Even so, when they are mentioned as having been Tag Team Champions, it is still a reign many fans will reply with ''Oooh yeah!'' After being reminded.

The Kingston and Truth alliance began just a few weeks after Kingston's team with Evan Bourne had ended. Much like that team, they just randomly started teaming together, and before long, were mixing it up in the Tag titles scene. Kingston and Truth had a couple of unsuccessful Championship pursuits before finally defeating Primo and Epico on the April 30 episode of RAW in 2012 to lift the Tag Team Championships.

Kingston and Truth would have successful defenses over Primo and Epico, Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger, The Prime Time Players and others, before losing the titles to Daniel Bryan and Kane at WWE Night of Champions, after just about a four and a half month reign. Following an unsuccessful rematch for Kingston and Truth, it was announced on the October 8 episode of RAW that they had mutually decided to part ways as a tag team.

#3 Kenzo Suzuki & René Duprée - 2004

René Duprée and Kenzo Suzuki were both poised for big pushes at the same time on WWE SmackDown in 2004, before officially becoming a tag team. Duprée had spent a couple of months unsuccessfully pursuing the United States Championship from John Cena, while Suzuki had been winning squash matches for several months over everyone on the lower card from Scotty 2 Hotty to Billy Gunn.

WWE reached the point of not knowing what to do with either of them around the same time when they had no plans for Cena to drop the U.S title to Duprée at least, and Suzuki wasn't fairing very well, entertainment wise, in matches longer than 4 minutes.

For these reasons and the fact they were both foreign heels, it was decided to put them together as a tag team. They would literately be barely two weeks into teaming together before they defeated Billy Kidman and Paul London for the WWE Tag Team Championships on an episode of SmackDown in September 2004.

The reign was pretty uneventful. The only tag team they feuded with during their 3-month reign as Champs was Rob Van Dam and Rey Mysterio, who would eventually topple them for the gold that December.

During most of their time as a team, Suzuki had been attempted to have been made into a comedic character, but it never really caught on. After a few unsuccessful title rematches, Duprée and Suzuki were quietly disbanded in February 2005, after Suzuki left WWE TV to deal with an injury and was released before returning to TV.

#2 Charlie Haas & Rico - 2004

Charlie Haas had spent all of 2003 as apart of an excellent tag team with Shelton Benjamin on SmackDown, where the two worked very well together, had great tag team matches and would be 2-time WWE Tag Team Champions. And now here is almost the opposite.

The ever-flamboyant Rico had spent all that time over on RAW and would make his way to SmackDown in the draft lottery in 2004, as Benjamin went to RAW. Rico would defeat Haas on his SmackDown debut, where he would use overly homosexual antics to creep Haas out.

The following week, new SmackDown General Manager Kurt Angle would reward his former pupil Hass with a WWE Tag Team Championship match, with a surprise partner. The partner was, of course, Rico, and this new tag team would defeat Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty to win the gold.

Haas and Rico would have a few successful title defenses, most notably over Billy Gunn and Hardcore Holly at Judgement Day, before losing the titles to The Dudley Boyz in June. Rico would go down with an injury shortly after, and returned after a nearly four-month absence in October for a brief reunion with Haas, before he was surprisingly released from WWE the following month.

#1 Cody Rhodes & Drew McIntyre - 2010

Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes didn't seem to be in the worst positions in 2010. In fact, it seemed like McIntyre was about to skyrocket. Drew McIntyre had been labelled on TV by Vince McMahon himself as his 'Chosen One', and quickly backed this up by winning the WWE Intercontinental Championship, and being a pretty prominent Champion.

While Cody had just wrapped things up with The Legacy faction and fans were excited to see where he was going to go. Post-summer after some various feuds, the two seem to hit a roadblock creatively, so what to do with them? A tag team, but of course.

Both men were having mini-feuds with Matt Hardy and Christian by Summer's end and were teamed up on SmackDown to defeat them in a match. They were then decided to be kept together, and would very quickly become the WWE Tag Team Champions at the Night of Champions event.

They held the titles until WWE Bragging Rights the following month when they dropped them to John Cena and David Otunga, and that was it. They ended their partnership right after, as McIntyre abandoned Cody during a tag team match with Kofi Kingston and the Big Show, and they went their separate ways in the following segment.

They existed as a team to pretty much just to have something to do until creative could come up with something else for both or at least one of them.