WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

Inaugural Championship Team

Kurt Angle

Chris Benoit

Upon the WWE brand extension in 2002, the company's original World Tag Team Championship initially became exclusive to the SmackDown brand and was later reassigned to the Raw brand, leaving the former without a tag team title. As a result, then-SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon introduced the WWE Tag Team Championship and commissioned it to be the tag team title for the SmackDown brand on October 3, 2002. She stated that the inaugural champions would be determined from an eight-team tournament. On October 20, 2002, the team of Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit defeated Rey Mysterio and Edge at No Mercy in the tournament final to become the inaugural WWE Tag Team Champions.[1]

One-time champions Deuce 'n Domino (right and left), shown here with the original design of the championship when it was still known as the WWE Tag Team Championship of SmackDown

On October 17, 2007, SmackDown and ECW announced a talent sharing agreement that enabled talent from either brand's roster to compete on both brands. As a result, the title became eligible to be contended and defended on both brands. In late 2008 through early 2009, then-WWE Tag Team Champions The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) engaged in rivalry with then-World Tag Team Champions John Morrison and The Miz, which resulted in the announcement on the March 17 episode of ECW that at WrestleMania 25, both teams would defend their titles against each other and the winning team would hold both titles.[2] The Colóns defeated Morrison and Miz, and thus unified the titles into what became known as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, the umbrella term for what officially remained two active championships that were now collectively defended.[3] The championships would be defended as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship on any brand until August 2010. That month, the Anonymous Raw General Manager announced that the World Tag Team Championship would be decommissioned in favor of continuing the WWE Tag Team Championship, which received a new, single set of championship belts, which were presented to then-champions The Hart Dynasty by Bret Hart. The WWE Tag Team Championship became the sole tag team championship in WWE and was defended on any brand. The first brand extension ended in August 2011.[4]

Following the reintroduction of the brand extension in July 2016, then-champions The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) were drafted to the Raw brand, making the championship exclusive to Raw. In response, SmackDown created the SmackDown Tag Team Championship on August 23, 2016. The WWE Tag Team Championship was subsequently renamed to reflect its exclusivity to Raw.[1] In 2019, WWE's former developmental territory NXT became the promotion's third major brand when it was moved to the USA Network in September, thus making the NXT Tag Team Championship the third major tag team title for men in WWE.[5]

At WrestleMania 34 on April 8, 2018, then-Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Sheamus were scheduled to defend the titles against Braun Strowman and a partner of his choosing. At the event, Strowman revealed that his partner would be a fan from the live audience. He then went out into the crowd and picked 10-year old Nicholas, and the two defeated Cesaro and Sheamus for the titles. This made Nicholas the youngest WWE champion in history. The following night on Raw, the two relinquished the titles.[6]

One-time champions The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith, with Natalya), the first team to hold the redesigned WWE Tag Team Championship belts introduced in 2010

In August 2010, the WWE Tag Team Championship received a redesign. Taking inspiration from Greece, the belts feature a center plate dominated by two Spartan helmets facing outward and the center plate is encircled with a meander pattern. At the top of the center plate is the WWE logo and at the bottom is a banner that reads "Tag Team" on one line and "Champions" below that. On both sides of the center plate are two side plates. The inner side plates feature the WWE logo and are encircled with the meander pattern, while the outer side plates feature a single Spartan helmet facing inward. When this belt design was introduced in 2010, the plates were bronze colored and featured the long-standing WWE scratch logo and the straps were black. In August 2014, the belts, along with all other pre-existing championship belts in WWE at the time, received a minor update, replacing the scratch logo with WWE's current logo that was originally used for the WWE Network.

In August 2016, after the reintroduction of the brand split and the creation of the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, the WWE Tag Team Championship was renamed to Raw Tag Team Championship. The belts received an update on December 19 that year to reflect the name change. Featuring the same physical design, the plates were made silver and the straps changed to red, countering the silver plates on blue straps design of the SmackDown Tag Team Championship belts. While all of WWE's other championship belts have been updated to feature customizable side plates for the champion's logos, the Raw and SmackDown tag titles and the 24/7 Championship are the only championship belts in the promotion that lack this feature.

As of January 31, 2021, there have been 82 reigns between 64 teams composed of 93 individual champions, and one vacancy. The team of Cesaro and Sheamus have the most reigns at 4, while individually, Seth Rollins has the most with six. The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) have the longest reign at 483 days and are also the only team to hold the championship for over one consecutive year, while John Cena and The Miz have the shortest reign as a team at 9 minutes, due to The Corre invoking their rematch clause immediately after losing the title. As a team, The New Day also have the longest combined reign at 532 days, while Kingston individually has the longest combined reign at 817 days (532 with New Day, 139 with R-Truth, and 146 with Evan Bourne, respectively, as recognized by WWE). Nicholas is the youngest champion with this title and in WWE history at 10 years old, while Billy Gunn is the oldest champion at age 50.

The Hurt Business (Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin) are the current champions in their first reign as a team. Individually, this is the first reign for Alexander and third for Benjamin. They defeated The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) on December 20, 2020 in St. Petersburg, Florida at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs.

• Tag team championships in WWE

General

• "World Tag Team Championship title history". WWE. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
• "Raw Tag Team Championship title history". WWE. Retrieved 2016-09-05.

Specific

• Official Raw Tag Team Title History