In late 2024, SmackDown’s tag division wasn’t just healthy but it was thriving. During a period when the general quality of SmackDown’s programming was less than stellar, the tag-team scene was a rare highlight. While it hasn’t been consistently stellar, there have been hiccups. From when the Motor City Machine Guns arrived in the fall of 2024 to around SummerSlam the following year, SmackDown’s collection of talented tag teams was carrying the show on its back, having banger matches every week, and keeping the beauty of tag team wrestling very much alive. From standard tag team bouts to the absolute classic three-way TLC match on the SmackDown Post WrestleMania 41, fans were accustomed to expecting great tag-team wrestling weekly. Fast forward to 2026, and SmackDown’s once electric tag division has become a ghost town. Where once there was a palpable hunger and drive to make the tag championships feel like the most important belts in the company was replaced with…nothing. So what happened, and what will it take to bring the tag scene on SmackDown back from the abyss of mediocrity?
The obvious problem that any regular WWE fan will notice right off the bat is that almost all the tag teams that were giving this division life have disappeared from TV for one reason or another. While some teams like Fraxiom are still on SmackDown, they’ve been relegated to mostly backstage segments when they are easily the team that should be getting the most spotlight. When you further consider the state of NXT’s tag team division since Fraxiom’s call-up post WrestleMania 41, it’s even more perplexing why WWE moved them to the main roster in the first place. For a couple of months, Fraxiom has been in a fun enough storyline with DIY, another team that, earlier this year, was really hitting its stride following an effective heel turn in late 2024. But with rumors floating about Tommaso Ciampa, it’s hard to see this story reaching a satisfying conclusion. That’s not to discredit Nathan Frazier or Axiom, who are two unbelievably talented wrestlers, or Johnny Gargano, who is as superb a singles competitor as he is a tag-team one. Still, without his partner, it’s fair to say that eventually, when his story with Fraxiom concludes, he’ll be leaving the tag division, depriving SmackDown of one of its most important tag teams for the foreseeable future.
DIY was one of the three teams that could be primarily credited with elevating the SmackDown tag team division. The other two teams who carried the torch were the aforementioned Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) and The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins). While MCMG’s absence is felt, there are more understandable theories for their sabbatical. The architects of modern tag-team wrestling have been promoting and performing with their band GRPPLNG in recent months. Also, while some may highlight MCMG’s decision to sign with WWE over AEW as a “mistake,” especially in the wake of their current booking. But given the age of both men and how they’ve talked about coaching and training in the past, it’s a fair assumption to make that their signing with WWE was motivated by them setting up their futures through being coaches or trainers at the PC down the road. Regardless, it would do wonders for SmackDown’s tag team scene if MCMG returned to TV sooner rather than later.
As for the Street Profits…there has been no clear explanation for their absence. Following their failure to win the tag championships back from The Wyatt Sicks back at Clash in Paris, the former tag team champions have been MIA. While other tag teams like Los Garza haven’t been seen on TV for a good while as well, considering how The Street Profits had regained a lot of their momentum following years of static, it makes it even more confusing how they’ve disappeared without a peep. While other tag teams have had the rug pulled from under them in auxiliary manners, the once promising duo of Rey Fenix & Andrade was derailed when the latter failed WWE’s drug wellness policy, leading to his release from the company. Not only did it end the team just when it seemed like they were ready to move to that next level, but it also ruined rumored plans for them to win the tag titles from the Wyatts at Clash in Paris.
Speaking of The Wyatt Sicks, while an entertaining act, their inclusion in the tag team title scene on SmackDown never made much sense character-wise, but after a successful retention in a TLC masterclass at SummerSlam, many were willing to give them a chance. Now, fast forward months later, the tag titles have become a prop, barely defended, or even mentioned. The Wyatts feud with Solo Sikoa and MFTs has been fairly lackluster in general, but having the tag team titles practically held hostage in this story, depriving the rest of the division of something to fight for, has proven quite damaging to the credibility of the belts. It remains unclear how this story will end, but the longer the tag team championships are kept in the Wyatts and MFT vortex, the further they seem like a non-existent entity in the greater WWE universe.
Fixing the SmackDown tag-team division would be no easy feat, but it’s unquestionably possible. Having a team like Fraxiom win the titles would do wonders, given their position as a tag-team of the future. Bringing Street Profits, MCMG, and Los Garza back to TV would also help tremendously. With how much those titles were made to seem like the most important championships in the company, the fact that all these teams seem to no longer care about the state of the tag division only tells the casual audience that they shouldn’t care either. SmackDown, in general, has been a fairly mediocre television program in the past year. The manner in which Road Dogg and the creative team have derailed the once electric tag-team scene on SmackDown speaks volumes to just how many problems are prevalent on WWE’s Friday night showcase. Hopefully, moving the show back to three hours is a sign of an upswing to come, but for fans of tag-team wrestling, hoping for eventual improvement is hardly reassuring. Something has to change and quickly.
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