Last month, Kevin Owens participated in an Inside The Ropes interview where he noted he and Sami Zayn have struggled to give the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships the same luster that The Usos had during their historic run. It was a very candid and honest opinion from one of the singles stars that hold WWE’s top tag team prize. Flash forward to WWE SummerSlam, and, as of this writing, the tag titles will not be defended on the big PLE, and, moreover, there won’t be any tag team matches on the card at all.
In an exclusive Haus of Wrestling interview conducted at the WWE SummerSlam Get Active Day, I had a chance to speak with Alpha Academy’s Chad Gable, Otis, and Maxxine Dupri. During our conversation, I asked Gable how he felt about the tag titles and tag team wrestling, in general, being left off the WWE SummerSlam card.
“You want them to be featured in a prominent way, like on every show, right?” Gable began. “Because they do add value, like a value that I don’t think they’re always given, like the level of respect that they deserve. Because, in my opinion, tag team wrestling has the potential to tell the most beautiful stories of any type of match we do. A straight-up tag team match can tell the most beautiful story. So yeah, you want to see it on that level, but not just because it’s a big pay-per-view.
“But because that means they’re also invested long term in this. If it’s on tomorrow, that means we’re going to get it every week on TV. That means it’s going to be a central part of our show, week to week to week. And that’s what is important to me, being one of the things that like the people look forward to every week. They want to know the Tag Team story. They want to know what’s coming up in the Tag Team division and have eyes locked on that.
“That was part of my favorite part of the run that we had with R-K-Bro was, I feel like the stuff we were doing was not only in-ring so awesome, but entertainment wise, the segments for great. And tag team wrestling was elevated at that time because of that, and the crowd was into it. It was important to them. That’s what I want.”
The timing of the tag team division taking a less prominent role following The Usos loss also times up with the return of Vince McMahon to WWE creative. Two days after Owens and Zayn won the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships, it was announced that Endeavor would be acquiring majority ownership of WWE, and, along with that, McMahon returned to the Gorilla position at the WWE Raw after Mania. In the past, it has been spoken about how McMahon does not value tag teams the same way others do because he does not like to pay for two wrestlers to travel.
I pushed Gable on whether McMahon’s return to the WWE creative fold has led to the tag team division being spotlit less.
“I don’t think so,” he stated. “I mean, I haven’t seen a massive shift as far as that goes. It’s just our business always goes in waves, whatever it is, you know? So, you’ll see things peak for a while, and then that dips off, and we focus on something else. It’s just the nature of what we do.”
My full interview with Alpha Academy’s Chad Gable, Otis, and Maxxine Dupri can now be found on the Haus of Wrestling YouTube channel and Haus of Wrestling podcast feed.
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