Welcome another edition of the March to WrestleMania 36, breaking down the environment around all the championships heading into the biggest show of the year to set the tone for 1) recapping how we got to this point, 2) discussing possible plans for WrestleMania and 3) guessing where this all going to end up once WrestleMania has concluded.
This post will be covering the teams surrounding the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.
Note: Obviously, the coronavirus has left WrestleMania up in the air. This series assumes that it will still happen (as WWE continues to advertise it) and exists to bring casual viewers up to speed with information they’ve missed out on by not watching recent events.
Let’s start with what we already know…
THE SMACKDOWN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Who are the current champions?
John Morrison and The Miz won the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at Super ShowDown by defeating The New Day. It had been 11 years since they were last tag team champions together, if you could believe that.
JoMo and Miz retained the titles in an Elimination Chamber match against Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode, Heavy Machinery, The New Day, The Usos and Lucha House Party.
Since then, all that’s happened is that they cut a promo to an empty Performance Center claiming to be the best.
Who will challenge for the titles at WrestleMania?
It pretty much has to be The New Day and The Usos in a Triple Threat match. How they get to that point is not clear, as both teams have lost their opportunities, but WWE doesn’t bother with logic all too often and may very well just announce it outright and hope nobody cares about how lazy that is.
Otis should be busy fighting Dolph Ziggler. That rules out those two tag teams. And while Lucha House Party had plenty more offense in the Elimination Chamber match than expected, it’s doubtful they’ll be included in this title match.
The New Day and The Usos are the backbones of this division and neither tag team should be excluded from WrestleMania. In a perfect world, The Revival would be joining them and this would be a Fatal 4-Way, but that won’t happen. The Revival are set to leave WWE in the coming weeks/months, so there’s no value in putting them on the card.
Ideally, to spice things up, this Triple Threat could be a ladder match. That would certainly be exciting and get fans more invested in it after having already seen them in a cage. Otherwise, it’s a step down from what happened at Elimination Chamber.
What happens at and after WrestleMania?
I could very well see The Usos winning the titles. It’s been a while since they’ve held the gold (er…silver) as they spent most of 2019 out of action due to backstage issues.
Jimmy and Jey do have a pinfall victory over Morrison and Miz from SmackDown, too. That could have been an indication that they’re the team to hold the titles next, although it could have also just been a way to build some intrigue into Elimination Chamber.
If not The Usos, Heavy Machinery would be the next best options. Otis has gotten over quite a bit in the past year, so it wouldn’t be crazy to put the tag titles on them. Perhaps that’s the plan of where to go after Otis takes down Ziggler.
I’m surprised we hadn’t seen more of an effort to put the Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro trio in the tag title mix yet. Depending on how the Intercontinental Championship situation goes down, they may be more involved in the SmackDown Tag Team Championship in the coming months, too. In fact, it wouldn’t shock me at all if they’re the team to beat whoever takes down Miz and Morrison.
Of course, just as there are no guarantees WrestleMania even happens on time, there’s no certainty the titles will change hands any time soon. WWE’s plan may be for Morrison and Miz to be longterm champions, going well into the summer with the straps around their waists.
Keep the discussion going by leaving your comments below and telling us what you think about this title situation for WrestleMania 36!
