The WWE Main Roster Report: Part 2 – The Tag Teams

The WWE main roster is always changing, some wrestlers leave for whatever reason happens to cause their departure, some wrestlers move up the card because management wants to give them a push and some wrestlers move downwards, or stay still, sometimes merely because the creative team has a lack of ideas for their television character.

The last twelve months have been memorable and a lot has happened to the main WWE roster since June of 2013. So, let’s take a look at the main superstars who are on the main stage of WWE, rate them, and look at how their future in WWE looks at this moment.

The grading system is as follows:

A+ – Is/Should be one of the main faces of WWE. A true star.

A – Should be/Is in the main event scene and has the talent to stay there.

B – Should be being pushed as a future top contender. Needs some spark.
C – In their current role they’re not meeting their potential. Should be used better.

D – Needs work and help from creative. Highly lacking as a worker.

F – Why is this person here? No amount of booking magic can help.

The Tag Teams

The Uso’s

2013 saw the rejuvenation of the tag team division in WWE, and near the top of the pile was the exciting, energetic and talented Samoan twins, The Uso’s. Jimmy and Jay finally won the tag titles this year and have held onto them for quite some time. Entering wonderful matches with The Wyatt Family, The Shield, The New Age Outlaws, Rybaxel, Cody & Goldust and others, The Uso’s have been two of the most sensational parts of television for the last few months. It surely isn’t going to be long before they drop the tag belts to another team, probably Harper and Rowan, but hopefully these two top workers will bounce back and enter into further interesting feuds with some of the tag pairings on the roster. Grade: A

Harper & Rowan

The hairy and demented brethren of Bray Wyatt in The Wyatt Family, Rowan and Harper have come into their own in recent months. Entering into really good tag and singles matches with some of WWE’s top stars, Harper and Rowan have grown as characters as well as wrestlers. Rowan, slow and green when he debuted last summer has taken strides to improve. The six-man tag bouts between The Wyatt’s and The Shield were some of the most exhilarating in recent memory. They stand out with their backwoods look, sheep mask, dirty raggy clothing and unorthodox brawling ring style, and it is only a matter of time before the duo hold tag team gold. These two big workers, especially the talented Harper, could make it as singles workers too if the time came for them to go out on their own. Grade: B+

Cody Rhodes & Goldust

It has been a trying few months for the Rhodes Brothers. They were super-over when they initially began teaming together and caused a massive pop when they won the tag titles from The Shield last year, but the booking of the two has been unusual and lacking in 2014 with the two almost falling off the radar at times. Goldust, in the best shape he has been in in years, and Cody, a young, passionate and talented worker, could have been top tier babyfaces if the booking had been consistent. Many thought that we would see the two split before WrestleMania and see a singles match between the two, but it didn’t happen. They are still teaming together as we head into the summer of 2014 but it looks likely that we will see the split happen soon. Hopefully we will get a nice feud that lasts a couple of months, allowing the two to have some interesting contests. Cody should be in a much higher position, and Goldust, who the crowd often chant and cheer for, deserves more respect based on how good he has been since returning to WWE in 2013. Baffling creative decisions have hindered this team, but hopefully they will have found a way to get back into the big time before the year’s end. Grade: B+

Rybaxel

When the Curtis Axel experiment failed and Ryback was pushed away from the main event scene with the two men breaking away from their manager Paul Heyman, they joined forces and took on the moniker of “Rybaxel”. They haven’t really shown much character as a team as of yet, but it seems like they want to. It’s a shame that they haven’t been allowed a chance to be creative with this team and get some promo time, I don’t even remember the last time the two of them talked on television. Ryback, at the end of 2012, was in the main event scene, battling WWE Champion CM Punk for the title, and currently, in post-WrestleMania season 2014, he is jobbing on television and hardly ever making it to PPV. Axel, who was repackaged as a third generation star who could go all the way with the right guidance, and held the I-C belt for a time, is in the same boat as his partner. They have fallen, but at least they found a bit of roster stability with this team. I can see the two splitting before the year is out, probably with Ryback turning back to being a babyface and reintroducing the “feed me more” chant. As for Axel, I don’t think he has ever connected with the fans, and he is missing the much needed spark that his father had, he’s talented and works some good matches with the right opponents, but I don’t think he will get much further than the US/I-C division in his career. Grade: C

Los Matadores

Epico and Primo Colon, members of the famous Colon wrestling family, respected son and nephew of WWE Hall of Famer Carlos Colon, were repackaged in 2013 as masked matadors who come to the ring like pink Tito Santana’s alongside a Mexican-born midget wrestler dressed like a bull. I can almost feel Carlos’s heavy sigh all the way from England. The three comedy characters have had a mediocre run so far, working mostly silly matches with the likes of 3MB and Rybaxel among others. They’re talented workers and really could have been a part of a fun Puerto-Rican faction if their brother/cousin Carlito (Caribbean Cool) had been brought back, but instead they are jumping around and shouting “ole” at the top of their voices to apathetic crowds. I don’t see how this team can last for the long haul, which is a shame considering the ability of all three members. The current Hornswoggle/Torito feud has been the only way these guys have been able to get on television lately, a silver lining I suppose. Grade: C-

Xavier Woods & R-Truth

Xavier Woods was elevated from NXT to the main roster and no one really cared or noticed. A talented worker, it was a bad decision to put Woods in a team with the floundering and tired R-Truth character. The team has done nothing of consequence since debuting as a unit and the fans don’t seem bothered when they’re on television, on the rare occasion that they are. This is a pure example of two guys who need to be repackaged and re-introduced with new characters. They’re going nowhere otherwise. Grade: D
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Check back soon for Part Three of our WWE Main Roster Report – The Mid-Card wrestlers…