Ready for round two of the controversy awards? At least, this one is a tougher call than the others. Let’s get to chatting about WWE Backstage Men’s Tag Team of the Year winners, The New Day, shall we?
The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Big E) is a fun, talented duo (with Xavier Woods out, otherwise a trio) that keeps us entertained with every match and promo they put out. There seems to be no end to their creative drive and output as they take over any arena they’re in.
The @WWE Men's Tag Team of the year is: @TrueKofi, @WWEBigE, & @XavierWoodsPhD, The New Day (BAY-BEE)!#WWEBackstage pic.twitter.com/BTYvRpf2DJ
— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) December 25, 2019
They’re also the current tag team champions. But, (I know, there had to be a but.) they’re not the best tag team in the world. As much as they may deserve all the accolades heaped on them throughout the year, they were kinda lost behind Kofimania. Had Kofi Kingston not lost his WWE heavyweight championship, who knows if they’d be on this list.
While the New Day did persevere, the OC won the WWE Tag Team World Cup that labeled them “the best tag team in the world.” It’s just logical.
An interesting mix of young and old challengers
The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder)
The Revival is a top tier team, and their recent feud with the New Day has helped to put the New Day over even more than they previously were. They also held the Smackdown tag team title at one point (beating the New Day for it), but beyond that the year seemed a largely quiet one for them. At least, when compared to the noise the other teams made. We can point to several things that may have played a role in that, like Dawson and Wilder not signing their new WWE contracts despite being pushed to entice them. However it works out, they’ve put their all into every storyline they’ve been asked to take part in. Maybe this is another way they can be compared to the 1980’s tag team, the Brainbusters) Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard). Like the Revival, the Brainbusters were a no nonsense tag team that didn’t make a lot of noise. They preferred to let their in-ring actions do their talking. Maybe next year will be their year.
The OC (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson)
As mentioned above, they held the Raw tag team championship (twice overall) and at Crown Jewel, won the nine-team tag team turmoil match to win the WWE Tag Team World Cup and be called “the best tag team in the world.”
They’ve proven to be a dominate team as they’ve manhandled the Viking Raiders lately, and will be Raw tag team champions again sooner rather than later. That feat alone is something to keep in mind as no team had managed that before.
How can they be skipped over for the Men’s Tag Team of the Year a few months after being named the best in the world? It just doesn’t make sense.
The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar)
This tag team has been dominant throughout their time in NXT and the WWE, taking Raw’s tag team division by storm and quickly capturing the brand’s tag team championship.
But they’ve only been at or near the top a couple of months, which kinda eliminates them from this for me. While all the teams are young age-wise, the others just have more years in the big brands under their belts. While they’ve taken the tag team division by storm, they’re still a mixed result fan-wise. Running hot and cold with the fans can be a bad thing, but they’re still establishing themselves and their current feud with the OC has gone a long way to legitimizing them in many people’s minds. Of course, if they continue losing and lose the titles, they risk becoming an afterthought.
