World Tag Team Championship (WWE)

File:WWEtagbelt.jpg

WWE Tag Team Championship belt.

The WWE Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag team title. It is currently exclusive on World Wrestling Entertainment's SmackDown! brand.

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Headline text[[== History

The original WWE Tag Team Championship (sometimes referred to as the WWE World Tag Team Championship) was one of the older WWE championship title belts. However, the Brand Extension meant that only one brand would have the tag belts as only the WWE Undisputed Champion and the WWE Women's Champion could appear on both shows. At the start of the brand extension, the team of Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo, the champions at the time, appeared on SmackDown!, but, during a period of "open free agency" in the WWE, RAW general manager Eric Bischoff managed to secure the services of Christian and Lance Storm, the champions at the time. When the period of free agency ended after an edict by Vince McMahon, SmackDown! found themselves without a tag title belt.]]

Shortly afterwards, SmackDown! general manager Stephanie McMahon created a new tag team title belt for SmackDown! teams, originally known simply as the "SmackDown! Tag Team Championship", with the inaugural champion being determined from an eight-team tournament. Despite the odds, the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit, who were feuding against each other at the time, managed to win the inaugural championship defeating Rey Mysterio & Edge on October 20, 2002 at the 2002 No Mercy pay-per-view in a tournament final to become the first team to win the WWE Tag Team Championship.

File:Batista Mysterio Tag Team Champions.jpg

Batista and Rey Mysterio following their victory over then-Tag Team Champions MNM

With the separation of the WWE Undisputed Championship to the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship, the two Tag Team titles took on the identities of their corresponding heavyweight belts - thus, the former WWE Tag Team Championship on RAW was renamed the World Tag Team Championship, while the belt on SmackDown! bore the name of the older title. However, the lineage of the older belt remained on RAW. In 2005, with the draft exchanging the two heavyweight champions John Cena and Batista, neither belt was renamed.

Statistics

Record:	Record holder:	Record number:	Notes:
Most reigns as a team	MNM (Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro)	3	N/A
Most reigns as an individual	Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio	4	Guerrero won the titles twice with Chavo Guerrero, once with Tajiri, and once with Rey Mysterio. Mysterio held the titles with Edge, Rob Van Dam, Eddie Guerrero and Batista.
Longest reign	MNM	145 days	N/A
Shortest reign	Edge & Rey Mysterio	12 days	N/A
Oldest individual champion	Road Warrior Animal	45 years	Won title with Heidenreich.
Youngest individual champion	René Duprée	20 years	Won title with Kenzo Suzuki. Also youngest individual World Tag Team Champion.
Tallest individual champion	Batista	6'5" (196 cm)	Won it with the shortest individual, Rey Mysterio (see below).
Shortest individual champion	Rey Mysterio	5'4" (163 cm)	Won it with the tallest champion, Batista.
Most different partners	Rey Mysterio	4	Mysterio held the titles with Edge, Rob Van Dam, Eddie Guerrero and Batista.

Trivia

• Eddie Guerrero was the first person to win the title with a different partner when he won it along with Tajiri.
• The Dudley Boyz are the only team to have held the tag team titles from SmackDown!, RAW, WCW and ECW.
• The only individuals to hold both the World Tag Team and WWE Tag Team Championship are: Chris Benoit, Edge, Tajiri, Rikishi, Scotty 2 Hotty, Rico, Bubba Ray Dudley, D-Von Dudley, René Duprée, Rob Van Dam, Road Warrior Animal, and Batista.
• MNM hold the record for most days as WWE Tag Team Champions with 294 days in the 3 title reigns together surpassing Charlie Haas' old record of 229 days as champion
• MNM won the WWE Tag Team Championship in their first match on SmackDown!, one week after their debut.
• Eddie Guerrero and Batista also held singles titles during their WWE Tag Team Championship reigns. Guerrero held the WWE United States Championship while Batista held the World Heavyweight Championship. This, in fact, led to a first for SmackDown!, on September 23rd, 2003, when Eddie Guerrero defended both championships in one night. He and tag team partner Chavo Guerrero (as Los Guerreros) defeated Matt Hardy & Shannon Moore to retain their belts, and later on in the show Eddie successfully defended his US Championship against Charlie Haas.
• D-Von Dudley and Shelton Benjamin are the only African-Americans to win the title.
• Tajiri and Kenzo Suzuki are the only Japanese wrestlers to win the titles
• Chris Benoit and Edge are the only Canadians to hold the titles.

Current champions

File:KendrickandLondonTagChamps.jpg

Brian Kendrick (left) and Paul London, current champions

Paul London and Brian Kendrick defeated MNM for the titles at Judgment Day 2006. This is Kendrick and London's first reign as champions together. However, this is London's second reign individually (he held it one other time with Billy Kidman) and Kendrick's first title in WWE.

See also

• World Tag Team Championship
• List of WWE Tag Team Champions
• List of WWE Tag Team Championship reigns by length

External links

• WWE Tag Team Title History