Tuesday, March 19, 2024
EditorialForming SmackDown Live's Roster of Tag Team Threesomes

Forming SmackDown Live’s Roster of Tag Team Threesomes

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If you’re looking for another leaked video of Xavier Woods, Paige and Brad Maddox, I apologize for the misdirect. No, this is about a different form of threesome: a tag team stable.

Surprisingly, there haven’t been as many trios in WWE history as one would think, considering the sheer amount of wrestlers who have come and gone throughout the years. We’ve had hundreds of duos and our fair share of bigger stables, but a definitive three-person unit only seems to pop up every once in a while.

Obviously, The New Day is on SmackDown following the Superstar Shake-Up, and recently, it’s been dawning on me how there’s potential to form several other stables to combat the rainbow unicorn stampede.

So as an exercise in getting this out of my brain instead of dwelling on it too much, I figured I’d toss out some ideas and see what all of you had in mind, too!

But first, let’s examine what we already have…

The New Day

Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods started out in some rocky waters. While some folk like myself were on board from the very beginning, many others in the WWE Universe just didn’t take a liking to the stable. For months, they struggled to get over, until turning heel changed the perception and before long, they became one of the most successful stables in WWE history.

Now, they’re the standard-bearers. Without even being on SmackDown yet, they’re the go-to No. 1 contenders who will undoubtedly spearhead the division. The reason why they haven’t done that already? Kofi Kingston is injured, and the unit is such a tight faction that their lack of a member has resulted in them sitting a few weeks out so they can a) keep the act in tact with everybody instead of being a watered down version, and b) allow the other teams on SmackDown to breathe a big before The New Day takes over.

Jinder Mahal and The Singh Brothers

Remember The Bollywood Boyz? Nope? Ah well, who cares, they’re The Singh Brothers now and they’re apparently buddies with Jinder Mahal, who in the span of a few weeks went from a total joke to a world title contender. Wrestling is insane.

I have zero faith Mahal is going to win that WWE Championship from Randy Orton, and when that inevitable loss happens, we already know who is being set up to wrestle for the title at the next pay-per-view, Money in the Bank: Rusev.

With Rusev fighting Randy Orton, that leaves Mahal with nothing to do unless in the meantime, The New Day make their return and we see a three-on-three feud start between those two factions. Frankly, despite not having seen more than five or six matches with Hurv and Garv Sihra…I mean…Samir and Sunil Singh…I’m totally down for this feud if it happens.

Natalya, Tamina and Carmella (with James Ellsworth)

Technically, this is a quartet, but who really counts James Ellsworth in any capacity? The only reason he’s there is because they haven’t cut ties between he and Carmella yet and there’s nothing else for him to do. He can be told to hit the curb tomorrow and it wouldn’t change the dynamic of this group whatsoever—and it would probably be the best thing for both Ellsworth and the ladies.

A few weeks back, if you had told me Natalya would lead a stable with Tamina and Carmella, I would have laughed and thought it was a dumb shot in the dark. However, here we are. All three women are second-generation stars and they appear to be targeting Charlotte Flair above all others—herself a second-generation star.

At first glance, I would have thought Charlotte would be in the group, if not leading it, but she’s drawn the ire of the trio, possibly out of a bizarre reflection. I don’t think this has a chance to last too long as there aren’t options of three women to face off against them, but however temporary it might be, it’s still a group of three superstars forming a bond together as a stable and worth mentioning.

THE FANTASY BOOKING ROUND

Here’s where we get speculative and let our imaginations run wild. The examples above are the only current sets of three performers on SmackDown, but there’s potential to create other pairings.

The Colons

This is by far the easiest of the bunch, as we have Primo and Epico already related to a former star that could potentially come back at any moment: Carlito.

Primo and Epico have seen some success when they were tag team champions alongside Rosa Mendes, but even then, they were in a division that sucked and just happened to get lucky. They’ve never really been all that impressive and their stints as Los Matadores and The Shining Stars have only hurt their credibility.

Primo and Carlito, though, were a solid tandem, able to stand on their own against great pairings like The Miz and John Morrison. Carlito has the mic skills that Primo and Epico are lacking and he could also be the centerpiece that draws the most attention, similar to how Xavier Woods has a commanding lead over Big E and Kofi Kingston on most promos even though there isn’t a clearly defined “main star” of the bunch.

Be thankful I didn’t force a “that’s cool” pun in here somewhere.

American Alpha + ?

When it comes to American Alpha, there were rumors we’d see them in some form of a stable with any sort of combination of Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler and the man that I would pick to be their leader (of sorts), Shelton Benjamin.

Above any other parallels, Jason Jordan and Chad Gable continually get referred to as the modern day equivalent of The World’s Greatest Tag Team. While Team Angle can’t exist with Kurt Angle on Raw, nothing is stopping WWE from bringing Shelton Benjamin back onto SmackDown like originally planned and having him fill that mentor role instead.

I was always high on Benjamin and thought he deserved more credit than he received. Where was that ECW Championship reign, for instance?! Having him back in WWE was something I was really looking forward to, so not only would this fulfill that idea, it would also inject a bit more personality into Gable and Jordan’s appearances. The two of them are already a great team, but they rarely get any time to speak and when they do, it’s a little bland. Shelton is a far cry from Roddy Piper or The Rock on the mic, but The Gold Standard moniker did give him more confidence than I’ve seen in either Jordan or Gable and maybe some of that could rub off on them.

The Ascension + ?

Somehow, people still try to equate The Ascension to The Legion of Doom. To a certain extent, I can see a few similarities, but in terms of character, I think they are vastly different.

Still, when thinking of someone to put alongside Konnor and Viktor, as much as I found myself not coming up with a Droz-type answer, I do have a Heidenreich, and his name is Erick Rowan. Let me unpack this before you sigh and roll your eyes too much.

Outside of the stints where Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton and Eli Cottonwood were in it, The Wyatt Family essentially consisted of Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman. Keeping the same character for Bray Wyatt isn’t hard and Braun Strowman has been doing fine on his own, but Luke Harper and Erick Rowan haven’t had as much success.

Between the two of Harper and Rowan, I see more of an upside to Harper when it comes to repackaging him as something that can stand on its own. Rowan, on the other hand, tried to do a “highly intelligent giant” gimmick and it went nowhere. Even after months away, he returned just to be Wyatt’s lackey again—a role he continues despite Wyatt’s removal from the SmackDown lineup.

Give Rowan some face paint, shave the beard, and replace his stupid sanitation worker jumpsuit with ring gear that fits more with The Ascension and even though it’s somewhat of a lateral move to go from stable to stable, it might be a better fit for him than trying to go solo.

The Usos + ?

Obviously, there isn’t a triplet for Jimmy and Jey named Jack Uso or something like that, but just as we’ve seen The Usos paired with Roman Reigns in the past, there’s another member of the Anoa’i family who isn’t officially part of the roster, but could easily sign a contract and join up with The Usos: Sean Maluta.

If you’re unfamiliar with Maluta, he wrestled as part of the Cruiserweight Classic and has made several appearances for WWE since his elimination from that tournament. Clearly, WWE sees some value in him if they call him to work NXT or 205 Live from time to time, so if we’re looking for a third member to join The Usos, he would be my most reasonable go-to choice.

The Hype Bros + ?

Well this certainly would have been a much easier choice if Curt Hawkins were still on SmackDown, wouldn’t it? If that were the case, Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder (The Hype Bros) and the duo of Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins (The Major Bros) could have very easily become The Major Hype Bros and outside of sounding like a knockoff Super Mario Bros game, it might have had some legs.

Since that’s not the case anymore and Ryder is injured, the Rawley/Ryder connection isn’t as strong as what it used to be and may actually be severed for good. It was used to give Rawley something to do and now that he’s been given the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal win, he may just stay solo. If Ryder comes back from injury and Rawley hasn’t accomplished a thing, they may team back up, and if that happens, I can’t see anyone currently on the blue brand fitting their dynamic save for maybe James Ellsworth as a joke.

If you include NXT, though, then that opens up the possibility for No Way Jose. Out of all the options, he’s the one person currently on WWE television in some capacity that I think might mesh with them, but even that is a stretch. It’s better if The Hype Bros don’t come back at all, let alone drag a third person into the mix.

Breezango + ?

Similarly to the situation with The Hype Bros, who do you add to Breezango without screwing it up? Even the name would have to change.

Wesley Blake tried to do a “beautiful” gimmick (as funny as that sounds), so maybe he’s the only option? Patrick Clark is a possibility, although his brand of weird character is a different style than the fashion police.

Truthfully, I can’t imagine anybody’s current characters meshing well with Tyler Breeze and Fandango, so outside of repackaging someone, this would be another team that would be left without a third wheel.

So those are just some of the things spinning in my brain, but what pairings would you make if given the opportunity? Are there any that you’d actually like to see happen for real as opposed to just a theoretical exercise?

Drop your suggestions in the comments below!

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