Best Of 2018: Group/Tag Team Of The Year
IMG Credit: WWE
It’s been a much stronger year for this category, which is rather nice to see. It’s not so much more time being dedicated to the area but more that the teams and groups are getting so good that it’s hard to ignore them. There’s still work to do in WWE, but even what we got there was solid stuff. I’m not sure it’s enough to get around the rest of the wrestling world though.
Young Bucks
I’m still not wild on them a lot of the time but they’ve toned down the Superkick Party stuff a lot, which has led to some much more entertaining matches. The majority of their 2018 was spent on promotional work rather than anything in the ring, but it’s still been a good year with more of their crazy athleticism. While they’re not for me, I can certainly appreciate how popular they are and how entertaining they can be n the ring.
Undisputed Era
The Era is an interesting group as you have a team who has all the talent in the world but never quite breaks through to the next side. They won a lot of gold in 2018 with the North American Title for Adam Cole and the Tag Team Titles for Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong (plus winning a tournament they weren’t in). These guys could be on the main roster tomorrow and be fine, but for now we get more of their rather impressive NXT run, which isn’t a bad thing.
New Day
You kind of have to have these guys in here, even if they’re far away from their peak at this point. New Day has transcended the tag team division but they’re not to the point where you should split them up because there’s still a ton of value there. They have good matches, they’re entertaining on the mic (I still don’t get the pancakes) and they still move merchandise. They’re just fun to watch when they’re on their game, which is more often than not.
Bludgeon Brothers
I had the Bar written down in my notes before I started this and then realized that the Bludgeon Brothers had a better year in just about every way. The Brothers are a big power team and held the Tag Team Titles for a longer share of the year. They only lost the belts because Rowan got hurt and you could imagine them still holding them into the new year if that hadn’t been the case. This was the way to use Harper and Rowan that had eluded WWE for years and it’s nice to see them finally figure it out.
Usos
I know it’s a three team division on Smackdown and these guys only held the titles for the first third of the year, but for my money they’re still the best team in WWE and one of the best the company has ever had. There’s a natural chemistry there and the two of them work really well together. They’re getting even better too, which is almost hard to believe. Just move them to Raw already so they can have some fresh matches though. It’s really not that hard.
Lucha Bros
As good as WWE’s tag division was this year, this was a two team race and there wasn’t much doubt about it. Pentagon and Fenix are an interesting team as they’re awesome on their own but even better when they’re together. Like multiple teams on this list, you get so much stronger chemistry between actual brothers and that’s not surprising. It’s like these two think as one and that makes every match they have all the more entertaining. They’re great, and they’ve shown that everywhere they’ve gone.
But there’s a better choice.
LAX
The more I think about it, the more these guys impress me. They’re just so good and so fun to watch and like others, they keep getting better. This just isn’t something that you see happen with teams already on such a high level but LAX keeps doing it. Konnan is a great addition to the team for the talking part and they make a great combination. I love watching these guys and they’ve been by far the best thing about Impact all year. Go find their stuff with the OGz and the Lucha Bros as it’s some of the top tag wrestling I’ve seen in a long time.
Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:
http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/11/20/new-paperback-complete-1997-monday-night-raw-reviews/
And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at: