World Tag Team Championship (WWE, 1971–2010)
The World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag team championship. The title is the original tag team championship for World Wrestling Entertainment. Currently, it is exclusive to the RAW brand of World Wrestling Entertainment.
History
The belt was originally known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) World Tag Team Championship. Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler were the first team to hold this belt, when they were awarded the belts on June 3, 1971 after a fictitious tournament. Along with the renaming of the promotion, the belt was renamed the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) World Tag Team Championship (more often called the WWF Tag Team Championship during the Attitude era) in 1979.
At Survivor Series 2001 the title was unified with the WCW World Tag Team Championship, when the Dudley Boyz defeated the Hardy Boyz in a steel cage match. This was not the first time the WCW and WWF World Tag Team Championships were held by the same tag team, however, as the Brothers of Destruction held both the WWF and WCW World Tag Team championships after winning the former at SummerSlam 2001, also in a steel cage match.
Due to the World Wrestling Federation's lawsuit with the World Wildlife Fund and eventual renaming to World Wrestling Entertainment, the title was briefly called the WWE World Tag Team Championship in 2002.
After the promotion's brand extension in 2002, the reigning WWF World Tag Team Champions at the time, Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo, were drafted as a tandem by Vince McMahon to the SmackDown! brand. During the title's brief history on SmackDown! it was held by the tandems of Rikishi and Rico, regained by Billy and Chuck, won by Hulk Hogan and Edge, and then by Lance Storm and Christian. Later that year, Storm and Christian left SmackDown! and joined the RAW brand, bringing the tag team title with them and making it de facto RAW-exclusive.
Shortly thereafter, SmackDown! general manager Stephanie McMahon announced that a tag team tournament would be held to determine a new champions for a SmackDown!-exclusive tag team championship. The new title was named the WWE Tag Team Championship, while the older belt on RAW belt was renamed to the World Tag Team Championship so that each tag belt would be named consistently with respect to the respective show's heavyweight belt (the World Heavyweight Championship on RAW and the WWE Championship on SmackDown!). The current name of this title, like the World Heavyweight Championship, does not have the WWE prefix attached to it. Towards the end of 2002 new belts were designed to differentiate the two nearly-identical championship belts, with each show having various parts that were colored to match the show's colors (red for RAW and blue for SmackDown!). While the World Tag Team Championship belts would be completely redesigned, the WWE Tag Team Championship belts still use the same basic shape of the old World Tag Team Championship, but with an updated look.
Statistics
| Record: | Record holder: | Record number: | Notes: |
| Most reigns as a team | Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) | 8 | They are also the first tag team to win the WWE, WCW, and ECW tag titles. |
| Most reigns as an individual | Edge | 11 | Edge held the title seven times with Christian, twice with Chris Benoit, once with Hulk Hogan, and once with Randy Orton (including his one WWE Tag Team Championship reign, Edge also holds the record for overall tag team title reigns in WWE with 12). |
| Longest reign | Demolition (Ax and Smash) | 478 days | They also became the third team in the WWF to win the World Tag Team Championship belts three times. |
| Shortest reign | Edge and Christian | 29 minutes and 58 seconds | Edge and Christian defeated the Hardy Boyz for the titles, only to lose them to the Dudley Boyz the same night roughly half an hour later. |
| Oldest individual champion | Ric Flair | 57 years | Flair won the title for the third time with Roddy Piper at Cyber Sunday 2006. |
| Youngest individual champion | René Duprée | 19 years | Won title with Sylvain Grenier. |
| Heaviest champions | Owen Hart & Yokozuna | 868 lb (Yokozuna 641 lb & Owen Hart 227 lb) | The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) are second at 852 lb, and if one takes all five members of the Spirit Squad as an official tag team, their total weight is 1144 lb. |
| Lightest champions | Spike Dudley and Tazz | 402 lb. Combined (Spike 150 lb. & Tazz 252 lb) | N/A |
Trivia
- When Triple H won the World Tag Team Championship at Backlash 2001, it made him the second Grand Slam Champion in WWE history.
- When Ric Flair and Roddy Piper won the championships on November 5, 2006, they became the oldest World Tag Team Champions in history at the ages of 57 and 52, respectively.
- Five men have won this title while also being the reigning WWE or World Champion. Bob Backlund (WWE, 1980), Diesel (WWE, 1995), Steve Austin (WWE, 1998 & 2001), Chris Benoit (World, 2004), and John Cena (WWE, 2007).
- The Brothers of Destruction are the first ever team to hold the WWF World Tag Team Championship along with the WCW World Tag Team Championship at the same time.
- There have been 2 occasions where the reigning World Tag Team Champions faced each other for a singles title--Davey Boy Smith vs Owen Hart for the (now defunct) European Championship in 1997, and John Cena vs Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania 23 in 2007.
Current champions
The current champions are The Hardys (Matt and Jeff), who are in their sixth reign as a team. They defeated John Cena and Shawn Michaels for the titles on the April 2, 2007 edition of RAW in a 10-team battle royal also involving Paul London and Brian Kendrick, Viscera and Val Venis, Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, Kevin Thorn and Marcus Cor Von, Gregory Helms and Chavo Guerrero, Johnny Nitro and The Miz, Willam Regal and Dave Taylor, Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman
See also
- WWE Tag Team Championship
- List of World Tag Team Champions (WWE)
- List of World Tag Team Championship reigns by length