The WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship is a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

world tag team championship The world tag team championship is the name usually given to the primary tag team championships in professional wrestling promotions. Nomenclature The name of the promotion is often preceded to the term "world tag team championship" as the c ...

created and promoted by the American

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and var ...

, representing the

SmackDown ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes si ...

brand division. It is one of two male tag team championships for WWE's main roster, along with Raw's

Tag Team Championship A championship or title in professional wrestling is a recognition promoted by professional wrestling organizations. Championship reigns are determined by professional wrestling matches, in which competitors are involved in predetermined rival ...

. The current champions are

The Usos The Usos (born August 22, 1985) are an American professional wrestling tag team composed of twin brothers Joshua Samuel Fatu and Jonathan Solofa Fatu, who are known professionally by their respective ring names Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso. They ar ...

(

Jey Uso Jey may refer to: * Jey, Iran, a village in Alborz Province, Iran * Jey Rural District, in Isfahan Province, Iran * Alih Jey, a Latin Grammy nominated Dominican Rock music singer and songwriter * Clarence Jey, a Los Angeles-based Billboard Record P ...

and Jimmy Uso), who are in their fifth reign, which is also the longest reign for the title as well as the longest male tag team title reign in WWE history. As The Usos concurrently hold the Raw Tag Team Championship, they presently defend the titles together across both brands as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, although both titles retain their individual lineages. Unveiled on the August 23, 2016, episode of ''

'', it was created to be the counterpart title to the then-WWE Tag Team Championship, which became exclusive to Raw as a result of the

2016 WWE draft Sixteen or 16 may refer to: * 16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film ...

. That title was subsequently renamed after the crowning of the inaugural SmackDown Tag Team Champions, Heath Slater and Rhyno.

History

During

's original brand split (2002–2011), in which the

promotion divided its roster into "brands" where wrestlers were assigned to exclusively perform on each brands' respective weekly television program, the men's

of the

brand was the WWE Tag Team Championship, which was established in 2002 to be the counterpart to the Raw brand's

World Tag Team Championship The world tag team championship is the name usually given to the primary tag team championships in professional wrestling promotions. Nomenclature The name of the promotion is often preceded to the term "world tag team championship" as the c ...

. At

WrestleMania 25 WrestleMania 25 (also marketed as The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania and written as WrestleMania 25th Anniversary) was the 25th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) ...

in 2009, the titles were unified as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, although both titles remained independently active until August 2010 when the World Tag Team Championship was deactivated in favor of the WWE Tag Team Championship, which then became the sole tag team championship in WWE, available to both brands. The first brand split then ended in August 2011. In July 2016, WWE reintroduced the brand split and during the 2016 draft, reigning WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (

Big E Big E may refer to: * Capital letter "E" People * Big E (wrestler) (born 1986), American professional wrestler, born Ettore Ewen, formerly known as "Big E Langston" * Elvin Hayes (born 1945; nicknamed "Big E"), American basketball player and r ...

Kofi Kingston Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah (born August 14, 1981) is a Ghanaian-born American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Kofi Kingston. He appeared on WWE's NXT brand as one- ...

, and

Xavier Woods Austin Watson (born September 4, 1986) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Xavier Woods. He appeared on WWE's NXT brand as one-half of the current NXT Tag ...

) were drafted to Raw, leaving SmackDown without a tag team title. Over the course of the following month, SmackDown general manager Daniel Bryan stated that he wanted to build up the

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establish ...

division before introducing a championship. Immediately following

SummerSlam SummerSlam is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer", it is considered WWE's se ...

on the August 23, 2016, episode of '' SmackDown Live'', Bryan and SmackDown commissioner

Shane McMahon Shane Brandon McMahon (; born January 15, 1970) is an American businessman and professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure in WWE, where he was a wrestler, producer and minority owner. He is the founder and executive chairman of Ide ...

introduced the SmackDown Tag Team Championship; the WWE Tag Team Championship was subsequently renamed Raw Tag Team Championship. An eight-team tournament was then scheduled to determine the inaugural champions, culminating in a final match at Backlash on September 11, 2016. The team of

Heath Slater Heath Wallace Miller (born July 15, 1983) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to Impact Wrestling, where he performs mononymously as Heath, and is also active on the independent circuit. He is best known for his time in ...

and

Rhyno Terrance Guido Gerin (born October 7, 1975) is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Rhyno or Rhino. He is currently signed to Impact Wrestling, where he is one-half of the Impact World Tag Team Champions in his seco ...

defeated

(Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) in the tournament final to become the inaugural champions. In 2019, WWE's

developmental territory In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a highe ...

NXT became the promotion's third major brand when it was moved to the

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Mad ...

in September, thus making the

NXT Tag Team Championship The NXT Tag Team Championship is a men's professional wrestling tag team championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE. It is defended on the NXT brand division, the promotion's developmental territory. Introduced on Januar ...

the third major tag team title for men in WWE. However, this recognition was reversed when NXT reverted to its original function as a developmental brand in September 2021. During the May 20, 2022, episode of ''SmackDown'', reigning SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated reigning Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (

Randy Orton Randal Keith Orton (born April 1, 1980) is an American professional wrestler and actor who is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand but is currently out of action due to a back injury. He is widely regarded as one of the grea ...

and

Riddle A riddle is a statement, question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that requi ...

) in a Winners Take All match to claim both championships and become recognized as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions. WWE had billed the match as a championship unification match; however, both titles remain independently active with The Usos being double champions, defending both titles together across both brands as the

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship refers to both of the following: * WWE Raw Tag Team Championship, the men's tag team championship of WWE's Raw (WWE brand), Raw brand *WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship, the men's tag team championship of WWE's ...

Inaugural tournament

† When Chad Gable suffered a storyline injury after defeating

, American Alpha were removed from the final. The Usos then defeated

The Hype Bros The Hype Bros was an American professional wrestling tag team which performed in WWE on its SmackDown brand. The team, composed of Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley, was formed in June 2015 on the development territory, NXT. History NXT (2015–2 ...

at Backlash in a second chance

tag team match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

to replace American Alpha in the final.

Belt design

When the belts were introduced, they featured the same physical design as the Raw Tag Team Championship, with the differences being that the leather straps were blue as opposed to the former's original black and the plates were silver as opposed to the former's original bronze. The Raw Tag Team Championship belt design was updated on December 19, 2016, with silver plates on red straps to bring both sets of titles more in line with each other. While all other WWE championship belts have been updated to feature customizable side plates for the champion's logos, the Raw and SmackDown tag titles are the only championship belts in the promotion that lack this feature.

Reigns

As of , , overall there have been 26 reigns between 16 teams composed of 30 individual champions, and one vacancy. The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno were the inaugural champions. The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) have the most reigns at seven, both as a team and individually, and their seventh is the shortest reign for the title at 3 days (2 days as recognized by WWE); during their first six reigns, Big E was also recognized as champion under the

Freebird Rule The Fabulous Freebirds were a professional wrestling tag team who attained fame in the 1980s, performing into the 1990s. The team usually consisted of three wrestlers, although in different situations and points in its history, just two performed ...

. The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) have the longest singular reign at + days for their ongoing fifth reign, and they have the longest combined reign at + days. The oldest champion is Shane McMahon, winning the title at 49 years old, while the youngest is Dominik Mysterio when he won it at 24. The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) are the current champions in their fifth reign, both as a team and individually. They won the titles by defeating previous champions

Rey Mysterio Óscar Gutiérrez (born December 11, 1974), better known by his ring name Rey Mysterio, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pro ...

and Dominik Mysterio on July 18, 2021, in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the List of cities in Texas by population, fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the List of United States cities by population, 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, T ...

during the Money in the Bank Kickoff pre-show. After winning the Raw Tag Team Championship on the May 20, 2022, episode of ''SmackDown'', The Usos were recognized as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions.

Notes

References

External links

Official SmackDown Tag Team Title History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wwe Smackdown Tag Team Championship WWE SmackDown WWE tag team championships