Did the Rockers ruin tag teams?

[Citizen Zero]

What it says on the tin. It seems like ever since their breakup almost every tag team since, especially now, has been doomed by the WWE to break up into a Michaels and a Jannety.

I mean, I know they're not the first tag team to have a dramatic split, but it feels like the WWE's been breaking up alot of tag teams that shouldn't have been broken up because they want to find another Michaels.

[Deleted]

I will admit I started watching after the split happened so I cannot speak for tag teams before that.

I can see your philosophy there. It seems like every tag team has a looming feeling of "they'll break up eventually" and way more often than not that's how it plays out. I think you can break up tag teams without having the feud and all that business though. On the same token, I don't think you can pin that as much on Janetty/Michaels as much as WWE itself for going back to the well with that, even if it's not because they wanna find another Michaels (LOD's breakup, Cryme Tyme).

[EJS]

It's not like tag teams before them never split up. It happens faster now. Everything happens faster now.

[Wieners=$$$]

I think the problem with tag team wrestling in the WWE right now is that they are trying to look more at the bottom dollar. Why are we paying for two when we could get the better of them, and save money? I don't see it as them "looking for the next Shawn Michaels," because that is something that fans, like us, kindof created to help cope with tag splits. In some instances the Jannety will actually stand out in the fans eye, ie Matt over Jeff circa '02-'03, and in other cases the fans want to see both succeed, ie Edge and Christian now. I agree that tag wrestling, and even stables, in the WWE has become more of a fishing pool for talent than the indy market, but the WWE doesn't view tag teams as profitable as in the past. Besides the WWE has always viewed tag team wrestling as more of a precursor for talent, as they see that you can only take a tag team so far before their act grows stale, unless you're the L.O.D.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Nope, plenty of tag teams have been and gone without the split and feud, the biggest problem is that the WWE doesn't care about tag teams, or even care enough about the workers to give them time or opportunities to get over enough that their feud will mean something.

The Tag Team situation is the same as the managerial one, thanks to Developmental they now have a conveyor belt of talent so they don't feel the need to use tag teams or managers to let workers grow anymore, they don't feel the need to pair workers together to help hide their weaknesses and let them develop and grow in confidence. If a wrestler isn't immediately up to scratch, 9 times out of 10 if they don't somehow get over despite the 'E's lack of effort, they'll be dumped and the next set of rookies will be brought up and given the same treatment.

If the Rockers were around today, they would both have been fed to the main event heels or the monster du jour in handicap matches until their credibility is non existent. Once there's no longer anything to be gained from squashing them, they would feud whilst the audience are well past caring, assuming Jannetty hadn't been dumped at the first sign of his personal demons rising. Michaels would get a half hearted repackaging and would likely be paired with various other partners like Kurt Hawkins has, getting nowhere near a PPV, spending his time just treading water on the D show, in and out of developmental until he finally gets released and replaced.

[Disaster Report]

Didn't the Hart Foundation split pre-date this by several months? I think people only like the terms "The Michaels and the Janetty" because if it were "The Hitman and the Anvil", you could potentially piss off Neidhart and who wants to do that?

[ToyfareMark]

I look at it like this. Why would anyone wanna spend years and years with someone chasing after secondary tag titles? The closest sport I can equate to this is tennis since it has singles and doubles.

It'd be like Roger Federer only going after the doubles title at every major tournament, and going after that ONLY. I'm not a big tennis fan or anything, but I'm pretty sure that the doubles portions of tournaments are the ones that get the least amount of press and fan interest. Why would anyone wanna waste a big chunk of their career going after only that.

Now tag team wrestling was pretty spoiled in the 80's due to several different factors, but there was no way that was gonna last forever. For one WWE doesn't feel tag teams can make serious money these days. And 2 what wrestler wants to be stuck in a tag team when there is more money to be made in singles pursuits.

I personally feel tag teams are a better siuation for guys who have been around awhile and just arent gonna rise above the highest they have gotten. So basically Santino and Koslov are a perfect tag team given the current situation, and with some luck both guys may get more over than they were previously like I believe Santino has.

Just my opinion.

[willywonka666]

Vince has ruined things by doing the same obvious shit over and over.

[greeby]

Mar 19, 2011 14:54:46 GMT -5 Disaster Report said:

Didn't the Hart Foundation split pre-date this by several months? I think people only like the terms "The Michaels and the Janetty" because if it were "The Hitman and the Anvil", you could potentially piss off Neidhart and who wants to do that?

Except they just stopped tagging. No turn, no feud. Plus they had already tested the idea of Bret as a single before the split and that's the important part: They knew there was an audience for Bret as a solo star before they went with it.

Besides it's not like Anvil sunk to the bottom, never to be heard from again. Minus a short stint in WCW, he had another seven years with the company

[Disaster Report]

Mar 19, 2011 15:41:14 GMT -5 greeby said:

Mar 19, 2011 14:54:46 GMT -5 Disaster Report said:

Didn't the Hart Foundation split pre-date this by several months? I think people only like the terms "The Michaels and the Janetty" because if it were "The Hitman and the Anvil", you could potentially piss off Neidhart and who wants to do that?

Except they just stopped tagging. No turn, no feud. Plus they had already tested the idea of Bret as a single before the split and that's the important part: They knew there was an audience for Bret as a solo star before they went with it.

Besides it's not like Anvil sunk to the bottom, never to be heard from again. Minus a short stint in WCW, he had another seven years with the company

True, but to be fair to Janetty, he accomplished more than Anvil did post-split. He at least got an IC reign and a run with the tag belts post-split. Anvil just kinda stroked his beard and clotheslined a guy every so often. But I completely brain farted and forgot the Rockers feuding with each other, that's a good point.

[Hit Girl]

WWE ruined tag teams via bad booking.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Mar 19, 2011 16:40:07 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

WWE ruined tag teams via bad booking.

This pretty well says it for me. They don't care about tag teams, and because of the horrible booking, most fans don't care about tag teams or the tag team titles. There is no reason why tag team champions shouldn't be able to successfully main event a show, but obviously they couldn't do that now.

A little more to the topic, it shocks me how many fans I've talked to who have just accepted the notion that the team is going to split up, one will become a singles star, and the other will fade away. They talk about it as if it's the only way to do a tag team.

[jadison]

Mar 19, 2011 15:27:24 GMT -5 ToyfareMark said:

I look at it like this. Why would anyone wanna spend years and years with someone chasing after secondary tag titles? The closest sport I can equate to this is tennis since it has singles and doubles.

It'd be like Roger Federer only going after the doubles title at every major tournament, and going after that ONLY. I'm not a big tennis fan or anything, but I'm pretty sure that the doubles portions of tournaments are the ones that get the least amount of press and fan interest. Why would anyone wanna waste a big chunk of their career going after only that.

Now tag team wrestling was pretty spoiled in the 80's due to several different factors, but there was no way that was gonna last forever. For one WWE doesn't feel tag teams can make serious money these days. And 2 what wrestler wants to be stuck in a tag team when there is more money to be made in singles pursuits.

I personally feel tag teams are a better siuation for guys who have been around awhile and just arent gonna rise above the highest they have gotten. So basically Santino and Koslov are a perfect tag team given the current situation, and with some luck both guys may get more over than they were previously like I believe Santino has.

Just my opinion.

Oh man, thank you. I have had that tennis analogy in my brain forever but it never spit out. Thats exactly how I look at tag team wrestling, guys can team up and go for tag belts because being a champ = more exposure/more money/more opportunity. Then, being a midcard singles champ = even more exposure/money/.opportunity. Or maybe some guys are tag specialists because they have a weakness that their partner compliments.

[Citizen Zero]

For the record I'm not saying Michaels and Jannetty are directly responsible for the current state of the WWE's tag division (I think we all know who's fault that is), I'm asking if the highly dramatic nature of their break-up and their respective fortunes afterwards set a precedent that ended up adversely affecting the WWE's tag division in the long run.

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2011 14:54:46 GMT -5 Disaster Report said:

you could potentially piss off Neidhart and who wants to do that?

I don't think Jim Neidhart wants to piss himself off

[Danimal]

Mar 19, 2011 15:27:24 GMT -5 ToyfareMark said:

I look at it like this. Why would anyone wanna spend years and years with someone chasing after secondary tag titles? The closest sport I can equate to this is tennis since it has singles and doubles.

It'd be like Roger Federer only going after the doubles title at every major tournament, and going after that ONLY. I'm not a big tennis fan or anything, but I'm pretty sure that the doubles portions of tournaments are the ones that get the least amount of press and fan interest. Why would anyone wanna waste a big chunk of their career going after only that.

Now tag team wrestling was pretty spoiled in the 80's due to several different factors, but there was no way that was gonna last forever. For one WWE doesn't feel tag teams can make serious money these days. And 2 what wrestler wants to be stuck in a tag team when there is more money to be made in singles pursuits.

I personally feel tag teams are a better siuation for guys who have been around awhile and just arent gonna rise above the highest they have gotten. So basically Santino and Koslov are a perfect tag team given the current situation, and with some luck both guys may get more over than they were previously like I believe Santino has.

Just my opinion.

The tag-titles are as important as you make them. Back when the Road Warriors/LOD were around do you think they were taking second-rate money? They were stars that were never made to look bad by the top singles-guys. Hell Hawk no-sold Lawler's piledriver. They weren't tippy-top stars but they were high on the totem-pole.

It's like TNA's X-division. It used to be a big deal. Then they fed the division to Joe to get him over but never had him give-back before he left. AJ and Daniels also left. The division that was TNA's calling-card lost priority and became a deal like the WWE's tagbelts.

The IC-belt used to be a big deal guys feuded like a mofo over, now it's hard to even remember who has it. There is little esteem attached to the belt. Kofi had a losing-streak and still kept it.

WWE made plenty of money back when the "midcard" belts meant more. Just because they're not a priority anymore doesn't mean that can't be quite important.