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The tag team division of both brands in WWE is flourishing at the moment. It is no longer the division of the jobbers, as it was made to look like a couple of years ago and the wrestlers are putting a considerable amount of effort to compete with the other mid-card championships (the United States and Intercontinental title) to be the ultimate secondary belt of their respective brands.
With the inclusion of women's tag team championship, the management has taken a huge step forward towards the future in promoting both women as well as tag team wrestling. Women who were not part of the main title storyline, got a championship to fight over and teams like Sasha Banks & Bayley and Nia Jax & Tamina have taken the complete advantage of the opportunity.
Both brand's tag division may be growing rapidly, but how will it stack against each other? Here's a comparison about which brand is currently better than the other.
Note: Performace of free agents like War Machine and Aleister Black and Ricochet is not considered as they compete in both the brands.
#1. Star Power
Star power is important to attract people towards your product. It is one aspect that every wrestling promotion needs to have to pull a newer audience. We have seen with wrestlers like The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar that the rating automatically increases as and when they show up, irrespective of whether they are just there to cut a promo or to be a part of a classic match.
Smackdown has teams like The Usos, The Bar, Gallows & Anderson, Rusev & Nakamura and, The New Day, who are some of the most recognized teams all over the world. New Day, in particular, has a huge fan base especially now since people are pushing Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship. On top of that, they have one of the most iconic duos of The Hardy Boyz who are keeping the rest of the teams on their toes since 1998.
Raw's tag team division, on the other hand, lacks the inclusion of many popular teams. They do have teams like Revival, Authors of Pain, the Ascension, B-Team, Riott Squad, and Tamina & Nia Jax, but the writers have not booked any of them like a strong and dominant force. The 50-50 booking of Raw tag team championship since last year has really hurt their division. Their most popular team at the moment is the duo of Sasha Banks and Bayley, but their popularity was not enough to save them in this aspect.
Final Verdict: Smackdown has more globally recognized teams.
#2. The depth of the roster
A championship does not become great because of its champion, but because of its potential contenders. A champion needs a good and worthy challenger to make them a true victor. Steve Austin needed The Rock and Becky Lynch needs Charlotte Flair. Hence, the depth of the roster is really important. People need variety in the matches, even if it means they are not getting to see the two best teams fight for the championship.
Even though Raw lacks star power, they do have some quality teams at their disposal. Teams like B- Team, Ascension, Heath Slater & Rhyno, and Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins have been not been given much to do lately, but are capable of delivering if booked properly.
Women's division is stacked up adequately as well. There are teams like Riott Squad, Team of Mickie James & Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax & Tamina who are waiting in the background to get their opportunity. Even Natalya seems to form a team with Hall of Famer, Beth Phoenix now.
Smackdown, on the other hand, is struggling in this regard. They do have a couple of teams in the forefront, but lack considerable depth, especially in the women's division. Due to the lack of any competition, the management was only having matches between The New Day, The Usos, and The Bar in different combinations last year, which became monotonous at the end and fans were soliciting for something new.
In women's division, except IIconics, there seems to be no other team worthy of being in the title's picture. Even during Elimination Chambers, they just announced three teams for the women's tag team title match without any qualification match.
Verdict: Raw is more stacked up at the moment.
#3. In Ring Performance
In-ring performance is the most crucial component of any wrestling promotion and all the teams need to be on their toes all the time in this regard to be called the better division. At the end of the day, people remember the storylines whenever talking about a particular feud, but a feud needs a good match to get that storyline over.
That is why most fans preferred the feud between AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan over the feud between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe; because the former had better matches.
Smackdown has been putting on consistent performance on a regular basis. There have been times when the tag team matches would often steal the show. Smackdown tag team championship match at TLC 2018 and Fastlane 2019 were the highlights of that particular pay-per-view.
On the other hand, the story of Raw has been completely different. Despite being three hours long, the show consistently fails to put on a good tag team match. We often see that they are not given enough time to work their magic and would be used as a time filler.
Last time, we saw a good tag team match was when The Revival won the Raw Tag Team Championship this year defeating the team of Chad Gable and Bobby Roode in a 20-minute classic on a random episode of Raw in February. Before that, a match worth mentioning was at Hell in a Cell 2018, when Ziggler and McIntyre retained the Raw tag team championship against The Shield.
Verdict: Smackdown's teams are better inside the ring.
Conclusion: Raw's tag team division had their moments and are better in many fields. They have better women's tag team division and has depth too, but if we compare the division of both the brands in a comprehensive manner, Smackdown has better talents and ability to attract an audience, thus, hands down, it has better tag team division.
