Promotion WWE Date established August 23, 2016 First champion(s) Heath Slater and Rhyno | Brand SmackDown Date won March 21, 2017 | |
Current champion(s) The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) Longest reign Heath Slater and Rhyno, and American Alpha (Chad Gable and Jason Jordan) (84 days) Lightest champion American Alpha (Chad Gable and Jason Jordan) (447 lbs combined) Heaviest champion The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Randy Orton) (810 lbs combined) Most reigns All titleholders (1 reign) Youngest winner Jason Jordan (28 years, 93 days) Oldest winner Rhyno (40 years, 340 days) Shortest reign The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Randy Orton) (23 days) | ||
The WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the SmackDown brand. It is one of two tag team championships for WWE's main roster, along with the Raw Tag Team Championship on the Raw brand. The current champions are The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso), who are in their first reign, both as a team and individually.
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Unveiled on the August 23, 2016 episode of SmackDown Live, it was created to be the counterpart title to the then-WWE Tag Team Championship, which became exclusive to Raw as a result of the 2016 WWE draft. That title was subsequently renamed after the crowning of the inaugural SmackDown Tag Team Champions, Heath Slater and Rhyno.
History
Following the reintroduction of the WWE brand extension and subsequent draft on July 19, 2016, WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day were drafted to Raw, leaving SmackDown without a tag team championship. Over the course of the following month, SmackDown general manager Daniel Bryan stated that he wanted to build up the tag team division before introducing a championship. Immediately following SummerSlam on the August 23, 2016 episode of SmackDown Live, Bryan and SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon introduced the SmackDown Tag Team Championship (Raw's title was subsequently renamed). An eight-team tournament was then scheduled to determine the inaugural champions, culminating in a final match at Backlash on September 11, 2016. The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno defeated The Usos in the tournament final to become the inaugural champions.
When unveiled, the championship belt design was nearly identical to the Raw Tag Team Championship, with the differences being that the leather straps were blue as opposed to the former's original black with a different stitching pattern, and the plates were silver as opposed to the former's original bronze. The Raw Tag Team Championship belt design was updated on December 19, 2016, with silver plates on red straps to bring both sets of titles more in line with each other.
Inaugural tournament
† After Chad Gable suffered a storyline injury after defeating The Usos, American Alpha were removed from the final. The Usos then defeated The Hype Bros at Backlash in a second chance tag team match to replace American Alpha in the final.
Reigns
As of April 6, 2017, overall there have been 4 reigns between 4 teams. The team of Heath Slater and Rhyno were the inaugural champions, and they are tied with American Alpha for the longest reign at 84 days, while The Wyatt Family have the shortest reign at 23 days (though WWE says 24 days). The oldest champion is Rhyno at 40 years old and the youngest is Jason Jordan at 28.
The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) are the current champions in their first reign, both as a team and individually. They defeated American Alpha on March 21, 2017 on SmackDown Live in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Combined reigns
As of April 6, 2017.