If done correctly, six man tag matches are one of the best forms of matches in wrestling. However, the key word was ‘if’. A lot of six man tag matches in WWE are pretty generic if we’re being honest. The first example that comes to mind is from a few years back, when the Shield reunited and each and every week, we’d get Dolph Ziggler, Baron Corbin and Drew McIntyre vs The Hounds of Justice and each match would be boring and predictable.
I already know this wouldn’t work on the WWE main rosters, hence why I didn’t put it in the title. Because, if a six man tag division was to occur, firstly, there would be no time for it to feature on shows that are already overly compact.
Secondly, factions would forced, as WWE aren’t capable of introducing new major factions without ruining them within a month, a theory that was proved 10 years ago with the Nexus and most notably, RETRIBUTION this year.
And finally, it would be held as less valuable as the regular tag titles. Due to the lack of three man teams in WWE, feuds would be constantly done over a three PPV basis, and most feuds nowadays that last over two PPV cycles in WWE, end up becoming repetitive. A perfect example is this Mysterio, Rollins and Murphy debacle that ran its course two months ago and is still going on for what feels like a decade. Or, like the Women’s tag titles, until Jax and Baszler won them, will feature once every two months out of the blue.
So, would they work elsewhere? AEW? I’m not to sure to be honest. I think the rise of the TNT title in the last month with Brodie Lee and Cody has made me value the title more. AEW definitely have enough three man teams to make it work and we could have some additions to some other teams by not forcing the issue. We could also see some teams like Jurassic Express that may need that push to become real stars be given the opportunity to do so.
Of course the biggest issue is timing. PPV and TV. Which happens to be the same issue for NXT as well. On NXT PPV’s there are 5 matches. With 4 titles needing to be defended. Unless they make PPV’s longer, which I’d not recommend, that means all matches would most likely be a title match. This of course doesn’t allow for natural interesting feuds to take place, which for me is a big no.
I think for AEW it makes more sense, simply because the TNT championship doesn’t need to be defended on a PPV as Cody defends it weekly. However, I still think it would be too much for AEW to handle as Cody is a big draw and it would make more sense, from a business point of view, to put him on a PPV with the belt .
In conclusion, I don’t think a six man tag division would be necessary in AEW or NXT anytime soon. It would be a nice division to have, but I feel like it would just cause too much congestion on already congested shows.
TheWrestlingFallacy 