The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. The title is currently unified with the World Tag Team Championship, and defended together as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship. Because of this, the title is accessible to all three WWE brands. WWE Tag Team Championship reigns are determined by professional wrestling matches, in which competitors are involved in scripted rivalries. These narratives create feuds between the various competitors, which cast them as villains and heroes.
History
After the Brand Extension in World Wrestling Entertainment, the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship became the only titles allowed to be defended on both the Raw and SmackDown! brands, while the remaining titles became exclusive to either brand. During a period of open free agency, the Tag Team Champions were signed to appear and defend the title on the Raw brand. The Tag Team Championship became exclusive to the Raw brand, leaving the SmackDown! brand without a tag team title. As a result, SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon, introduced the new "WWE Tag Team Championship" and commissioned it to be the tag team title for the SmackDown! brand. She stated that the inaugural champions would be determined from an eight-team tournament. On October 20, 2002, the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit defeated Rey Mysterio and Edge at No Mercy 2002 in the tournament final to become the first ever WWE Tag Team Champions.
On October 17, 2007, SmackDown! and ECW announced a talent sharing agreement, where wrestlers of either brand could appear on both shows. Since then, the title has been featured and defended on both brands. The titles first prominently appeared on ECW after John Morrison and The Miz began an eight-month-long reign on November 16, 2007.
On April 5, 2009 at WrestleMania XXV, WWE Tag Team Champions The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) defeated World Tag Team Champions John Morrison and The Miz to unify both titles into what WWE refers as the "Unified WWE Tag Team Championship".[1] Neither title has, however, been announced as retired.[2]
Reigns
The current champions are The Big Show and Chris Jericho, who are in their first reign as a team; it is also each man's first individual reign. Originally, Jericho and Edge had defeated unified champions The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) and fellow challengers The Legacy (Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase) in a Triple Threat tag team match at The Bash on June 28, 2009 in Sacramento, California to win both sets of titles. On July 3, 2009, Edge suffered a torn Achilles tendon, which required surgery; as a result, Jericho was allowed to choose a new partner to hold both titles with at Night of Champions.
References
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