WWE News: Backstage News On WWE Establishing Tag Team Titles For SmackDown

WWE is about to enter the third week of programming since the WWE Draft and brand extension. Raw is off to a killer start after Sasha Banks become the new WWE Women’s Champion and Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins has been set up for Raw’s WWE Universal Champion to be decided at WWE Summerslam in two weeks.

SmackDown has also gotten off to a strong start. For example, Dolph Ziggler has reestablished himself as a main event player on the roster and will be challenging Dean Ambrose for the WWE Championship at WWE Summerslam. That could lead to a very interesting heel turn for him, but Raw is far superior to SmackDown right now when it comes to championship gold.

It was reported recently that SmackDown wouldn’t be establishing any new titles until after WWE Summerslam because WWE officials didn’t want to overload the card with vacant title matches and force the brand to establish their championship so quickly or else they could be seen as unimportant. However, there is some news about Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon bringing more titles to the SmackDown brand very soon.

According to a report from Daily Wrestling News, WWE has plans in place to introduce a new Women’s Championship and new Tag Team titles for SmackDown very shortly after WWE Summerslam. In fact, Bryan and Shane may debut the new titles as early as the Tuesday after WWE Summerslam live from Uncasville, Connecticut. While the titles are expected to be introduced on that night, it’s possible that SmackDown‘s new champions won’t be crowded until WWE Backlash in September.

WWE officials were hesitant to bring new titles into SmackDown because those plans were planned, then nixed very recently. As of this writing, WWE officials have changed their minds. One of the biggest reasons for establishing the Tag Team titles for SmackDown and bringing back a few former WWE Superstars, who were formed tag team champions, is that it would do wonders for the brand’s roster depth and tag team division.

There are many different ways that WWE could book the new Tag Team titles on SmackDown, but the question is which team will become the first to hold the gold for the brand. It’ll be important to establish SmackDown’s tag team division, but any title WWE establishes on SmackDown is going to need immediate prestige, and there is one team that is favored to do just that.

American Alpha only just debuted on SmackDown, but they’ve got an excellent track record following them from NXT, which has already established them as the top team for the brand in only a few weeks. Chad Gable and Jason Jordan only held the NXT Tag Team titles for a short period before losing them because WWE officials decided to call them up to the main roster.

The logic there was probably that Gable and Jordan were more use to WWE as SmackDown‘s Tag Team Champions rather than NXT’s because it was already a foregone conclusion that American Alpha would be a top tag team for WWE, so why wait any longer?

The fact is in a matter of weeks, it’s extremely likely that Finn Balor will be the WWE Universal Champion, Sasha Banks will be the WWE Women’s Champion, and the WWE Tag Team Champions will be either The New Day or Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. SmackDown needs to deliver something big to contend with Raw’s star power, so establishing American Alpha as the new SmackDown Tag Team Champions is a good start to give the brand something new that can only be seen on SmackDown.

[Image via WWE]