The SmackDown Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the SmackDown brand. General Manager Daniel Bryan announced the belts via Twitter and officially unveiled them on the the August 23, 2016 edition of SmackDown Live. It is a counterpart title to the WWE Tag Team Championship on Raw.
History
Following the reintroduction of the WWE brand extension and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day were drafted to Raw, leaving SmackDown without a tag team championship. Over the course of the following month, SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan stated that he wanted to build up the tag team division before introducing a championship. Immediately following SummerSlam on the August 23, 2016 episode of SmackDown Live, Bryan and SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon unveiled the SmackDown Tag Team Championship and announced a tournament, which was culminate in a tag team match at Backlash to determine the inaugural champions. The design of the championship is identical to Raw' s, except the plates are silver instead of bronze, with a blue strap.
2016 Tournament
It was announced on the August 23, 2016 edition of Smackdown in Uncasville, Connecticut that a tag team tournament will take place to determine the new champions.
Bracket
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | |||||||||||
| Smackdown | The Ascension | Pin | |||||||||||
| 8/23 | The Usos | 3:49 | |||||||||||
| Smackdown | The Usos | Pin | |||||||||||
| 9/6 | American Alpha † | 0:28 | |||||||||||
| Smackdown | Breezango | Pin | |||||||||||
| 8/23 | American Alpha | 10:13 | |||||||||||
| Backlash | The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) | Pin | |||||||||||
| 9/11 | Heath Slater & Rhyno | 10:02 | |||||||||||
| Smackdown | Heath Slater & Rhyno | Pin | |||||||||||
| 8/30 | The Headbangers | 2:54 | |||||||||||
| Smackdown | The Hype Bros | Pin | |||||||||||
| 9/6 | Heath Slater & Rhyno | 7:03 | |||||||||||
| Smackdown | The Vaudevillains | Pin | |||||||||||
| 8/30 | The Hype Bros | 2:50 | |||||||||||
† After Chad Gable suffered a storyline injury after defeating The Usos, American Alpha were removed from the final. The Usos then defeated The Hype Bros at Backlash in a second chance tag team match to replace American Alpha in the final.
See also
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- Champion history - History of the wrestlers who have held the belt.
- Title matches - Matches in which the title was defended.
- Champion gallery - A gallery of all champions.
External links
- WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship at CAGEMATCH.net
- Official WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship Title History