Possible Ways to benefit IMPACT’s Tag Team Division
Photo Credit: IMPACT Wrestling
3rd voice of #TNIUK #IMPACTED Podcast on @WeTalkImpact
Impact Wrestling editor for #Wrestlebuddy
Find me with #SimplySteve
- Who Could The Mystery “TNA Originals” Be At Slammiversary? - June 9, 2022
- Did IMPACT Set Up Slammiversary With Under Siege? - May 12, 2022
- Could IMPACT’s Rebellion Bring Many New Champions? - April 22, 2022
If we start at the very beginning, Impact have always had very good luck when it comes to pairing together two singles wrestlers and making it work, take Beer Money, The original Decay and the British Invasion even? Sure everyone involved likely had tag team experience but not everyone clicks together, Impact have a habit of managing to find wrestlers who can just work well together and seeing something good come out of them going forward.
The slight issue we’ve seen lately is that we’ve had a lot of wrestlers just paired up. This does leave them with the option to be more flexible to either be in the tag division or to be able to both compete in the singles picture, the issue however is that when you do want the tag team division to look strong (the same goes for the knockouts) You don’t have many named teams in there. A name to me is officially what tells everyone “we’re a team.”
If you look at the Impact roster you have The Good Brothers, Decay, Violent By Design XXXL, Fire and Flava and The Motorcity Machine Guns when Shelly is back. That’s 6, official teams who have been named across 2 tag team divisions, which isn’t really that many. Impact do have a lot of teams who are simply duos and there are probably just as many duo teams as named teams and a name to chant when fans are in the venue would really benefit and also make the divisions feel more full instantly.
When it does come to making the tag divisions feel more full, obviously pairing up the wrestlers and knockouts is one option, then if they do get traction lightning in a bottle can always be caught. Yet a second option and maybe one that may be a far more simpler one (if possible obviously) would be to sign some already existing tag teams to the Impact roster?
This is definitely something that the knockouts division in particular could do with, as an already established tag team is something that is really missing in this division beyond Fire and Flava. We briefly had Grace and Ellering but they now look like they’re splitting up and there are a few more in the division that put the odd tag match on but we could always do with a proper tag team. Plus why stop at one, both divisions could use some and a couple would make a huge difference.
Another way that things could work is using various talent from other promotions with the recent connections that have been made. With how FinJuice came over from NJPW for around 4 months and had a variety of matches, filling a hole also in the tag team picture was really well done. You feel that Impact could utilize that again if there a few times they are struggling to make a division look full. It’s how a talent exchange would benefit both parties as they’d be able to balance the talent easy as the new talent is walking into an empty division. You don’t want new people coming in making talent who is already there have to sit and collect dust.
On the other side of the coin to bringing tag teams in and creating new teams is an issue that always seems to be hiding within the background of every team and that is you always get a feeling that at some point there will be a break up angle. It’s not happened with every team but with 75% of tag teams we see (in any company) it seems every tag team has to break up nowadays. There have been a couple of break up angles over the history in Impact that were done well but the majority of them were someone turning on the other for no other reason just to split them up.
The reason we often hear about team break ups is because there are plans to push one specific wrestler as a singles competitor, beyond that however there’s not much reason for a sudden issue especially if they’re a team who’s been successful for many years. Rather than a team who has been together for say 5 years, just suddenly splitting up and feuding with each other over a story that often makes no sense. I often feel more teams (long standing teams) would be more beneficial in having a mutual split? That way they can have a moment where they can say to each other “Hey we’ve done what we need to in the tag Division, let’s now conquer the singles division?” That way there’s no awkward story that needs to just be created between them and if you do want to bring them back together as a team, then there’s no hurdles that you need to overcome in order to do that.
Speaking of hurdles to overcome, one issue I always feel that’s been a constant in Impact when it comes to the tag team division (not so much the knockouts as it has never been big enough) is the divide that there seems to be between the kind of rank of teams. There either seems to be a crop of teams around the top of the card who are going back and forth over the titles and they’re kept looking reasonably strong (or in a strong position). However there’s also a group who are also kept lower on the card and while still look good in matches, they don’t have a good record and sometimes struggle to even find TV time. The teams who are lower on the card can be just as if not more entertaining character wise than those at the top sometimes. The overall issue with this divide is there’s a top of the card and a bottom of the card but no real middle.
The tag team division can feel a little unbalanced at times and you need to be able to believe that no matter which team it is they’ve always got a chance to be able to have a shot at the titles, that’s the slight issue with the wide divide the teams at the bottom while good have no creditability to challenge for the titles. No matter what the year or what types of team come into Impact the gap between teams at the top of the card and the teams trying to make their way there just feels too big? Yes being champions and the challengers at the time you should stand out as you’re meant to be the best, however not so much that it makes the rest of the teams around you look weak.
Do these changes make sense, does giving tag teams names give them more credibility? Could adding more talent benefit both tag divisions and is the break up angle getting old now? Does it make sense to give a bit more credibility to every team on the roster? certainly a lot Impact could think about going forward.
Thanks for reading. Leave any other possibilities in the comments section below.
Follow me on Twitter @SimplySteve & TNI twitter @WeTalkImpact
Check out the TNI UK (part of the Total Nonstop Impact Podcast channel) on YouTube for weekly news, reviews or jump back to wrestler profiles. – Click Here
About Author
