EOTR Tag Team Tuesdays: 4 Great WWE Tag Team Matches In 2017

By @TrueGodImmortal

2017 was a great year for tag team wrestling overall. Many teams battled over the year to give us great match and amazing action. Today, for Tag Team Tuesday, I wanted to look at some of my favorite tag team matches of the year in WWE. WWE gave us a number of solid tag team matches and while I won't talk about all of them, I will mention 4 of my favorites, two of which feature the same team. Let's take a look.

*The Usos vs New Day
Smackdown Tag Team Titles
Hell In A Cell 2017

-Anytime you put two of the best teams in the ring together and inside the cell, you're due to get something classic. This was no different. The Usos and New Day had been going toe to toe for months and this was the end of their feud. You'll see these two teams on this list again, but I'll be honest, this might their best match this year. For The New Day, it seemed as if this match was theirs to win, but The Usos weren't going down without a fight. From start to finish, this was a brutal match with a ton of great back and forth action inside of the toughest structure in the WWE. There were plenty of near falls in this match as well, which made for an exciting buildup to the eventual finish, which saw The Usos walk away with the victory and the tag team titles.

*The Authors Of Pain vs The Revival vs DIY
NXT Tag Team Titles
NXT Takeover Orlando 

-Of all the match this year.... This might be my favorite. The three best teams in NXT at the time went at it in a triple threat tag team match for the titles and they didn't disappoint. This is definitely the best match of the Authors Of Pain's short WWE career so far and a lot of that credit has to go to the Revival and DIY. With an elimination stipulation added to this match, it allowed for DIY to be eliminated early as a surprise and shock to me, while still setting the tone for a future battle between AOP and DIY. The best part of this match was the fact that the first elimination didnt come until 20 minutes into the match, that way when DIY got eliminated, it didn't feel early or seem like a burial. The Revival would be eliminated and lose the match, moving onto the main roster and starting the next chapter. The Authors of Pain however would retain their titles and walk away with their hardest fought victory in their best match to date in WWE. If you've never seen this match before, please do yourself a favor and check it out. It's a must see.... and a NXT classic.

*Seth Rollins And Dean Ambrose vs Cesaro And Sheamus
RAW Tag Team Titles
Summerslam 2017

-I have to make a mention of the best RAW feud for tag teams. This feud was pretty good and it seems like it won't be ending anytime soon. Rollins and Ambrose are a top tier team together and when this match was made, I think we knew exactly what was coming. Rollins and Ambrose were obviously going to win the tag titles, but the journey to arrive to this point was the fun of it all. This is the best tag team match of the year to me from the RAW brand and the crowd was hot for this one. With a few near falls, as well as some great moments of action, the crowd was pensive and waiting for the big moment to come. After hitting their respective finishers, Seth and Dean would get the victory and win the tag titles together, adding to their great legacies as The Shield and individually. This match was amazing even with a shorter time.

*The Usos vs The New Day
Smackdown- September 2017
Las Vegas Street Fight

-This match didn't even get a long time, but in the 14 minutes of action we got, they did a lot. The Usos had just won the tag titles back and they were ready to put an end to The New Day after winning the right to pick the stipulation. They chose a Las Vegas Street Fight and unfortunately, it would not work out well for them. The Usos would lose this match and the tag team belts, but in such a short window of time, these two teams proved why they are the cream of the crop. The Usos would end up walking away without their belts, but they could hold their heads high due to the effort they put in. The Usos vs The New Day is the feud of the year, and matches like these are the reason why. They made tag team wrestling so fun, just like the other matches and teams listed here.

-True

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Eyes on the Ring 1:09 AM  1 comment

EOTR Tag Team Tuesdays: The 5 Best WWE Tag Teams Today

By @TrueGodImmortal

With the WWE experiencing the best run of tag team wrestling in quite some time, it's only right we take a moment and list the best tag teams of today. These are the teams that have excelled the most in the WWE over the last 6-8 months. With a few teams breaking up, some being injured, and some just not being as important, we were able to narrow this list down to the five best, in order. Let's take a look at the 5 best tag teams in the WWE today.

5. Seth Rollins And Dean Ambrose 

-This team makes the list sort of by default. The Authors of Pain haven't been as consistent and the other teams who could possibly make this list haven't accomplished more than Rollins and Ambrose. Since reuniting in late July, the two most over members of The Shield have given the world a lot to cheer for, having an excellent feud with Cesaro and Sheamus for the better part of the last 4 months. They've had matches against The Hardy Boyz, and The New Day, with their success coming mostly in the form of their great matches against Cesaro and Sheamus. They were tag team champions for a little over two months and it seems as if they are heading towards another title run possibly as they seem primed to take on Cesaro and Sheamus for the titles yet again.

4. SANITY

-It is surprising that this group has grown on me in NXT, but the team of Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, and Killian Dain are absolutely great. They are the NXT Tag Team Champions and as a result, they alternate who defends the title between the three. Their gimmick is dark and it works very well for them, and they've been a part of some good matches, from their battles with The Authors of Pain to their inclusion in the epic War Games match, SANITY hasn't disappointed this year and they reign supreme currently in NXT. I can't wait to see how this group does on the main roster.... I hope the WWE actually gets this right when it's time to call them up.

3. The New Day 

-Three years. Three years. The New Day are still rolling. They are still one of the most over tag teams and they don't even seem to be getting stale, especially since they've found new life on Smackdown. It's amazing what a refreshing feud and new perspective can do for you. They've had some good matches against Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, as well as The Shield, Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin, as well as Breezango, but of course, the highlight of the year came in the form of their epic feud with The Usos. The New Day have been excellent all year long and they might be one of the best teams ever when it is all said and done. There hasn't been a team as popular, as groundbreaking, or as important in this current era as New Day. They are the cream of the crop in the WWE over the last three years and they seem like they aren't slowing up anytime soon.

2. Cesaro And Sheamus 

-We discussed this team last week, so I won't get too much into the work they have done, but I never would have expected this team to even work. Two great solo performers put together in a makeshift team has turned into the best thing in tag team wrestling on RAW. They had a great feud with The Hardy Boyz this year, but the best moment of the year came with this team feuding with the Shield, Rollins and Ambrose. Over the last four months, these two teams have put in amazing work and as a result, Cesaro and Sheamus have proven why they are The Bar. There's no team on RAW better than these two.

1. The Usos 

-Day One Ish. Whatever that means. Honestly, when the Usos turned heel, I wasn't really sold on them as a top tier team, but they've showed that they can be that and more. They are far and away the best team in the WWE and they don't seem to be letting up anytime soon. After a great feud early in the year with American Alpha, The Usos arrived at the height of their year when they began a few with The New Day in the summer. We witnessed a ton of amazing matches from those two teams, including a Hell In A Cell match that was excellent to end their feud. The Usos are setting up to feud with Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin and due to their great in ring work, they seem to be more tweeners than anything, and that fits them. The Usos are the best team in the WWE and I don't expect anyone to take their spot.

-True

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Eyes on the Ring 12:12 AM  2 comments

EOTR Tag Team Tuesdays: Cesaro And Sheamus

By @TrueGodImmortal

There are some teams that you never know about. When I say that, I'm referring to teams that come about and you're unsure about from the outset. Cesaro and Sheamus are exactly that. Now collectively known as The Bar, when they had Mick Foley put them together, I wasn't sure what to expect. It seemed like a short term thing. It was supposed to be. Cesaro deserved a solo run and Sheamus had been a singles run his entire career, so why should Cesaro and Sheamus become a full time tag team? I wasn't sold on this team and after they had their first few matches together, I didn't expect them to last. Fast forward a year later, and they might be the best team in the entire WWE. Perhaps this is for the best. Perhaps this means this team will be an important duo going forward and etch their name in tag team history. Whatever the case, The Bar has solidified themselves as a top tier tag team in the game today.

However, it wasn't all smooth sailing early on. After a solid 7 match series that ended awkwardly, these two were put together much to the confusion of the audience. After some early matches against the New Day, Cesaro and Sheamus would get a big victory at Survivor Series 2016, ending up as the surviving team in the 10 on 10 match, which seemed to signal a longer run ahead for The Bar. After losing a match to the tag team champions The New Day again, they had a turning point segment where they would end up working together as a cohesive unit all of a sudden and this would lead to the two defeating the New Day and ending their historic tag team title reign and making this the first title reign for Cesaro and Sheamus as a team. They would beat the New Day in a rematch before dropping the titles to Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, and that seemingly led them to a period of stagnation heading into Wrestlemania 33.

After Wrestlemania 33, Cesaro and Sheamus would end up fighting against The Hardys, who won the titles at Mania. This would set up for the biggest turning point for The Bar, as Cesaro and Sheamus came up short at Payback and then decided to turn heel, making their team more in sync than ever. With their ring gear now matching and their heel run kicking off on the right note, Cesaro and Sheamus would end up winning the tag team titles in a solid Steel Cage match at Extreme Rules making them two time champions at the time. They would embark on a solid feud that saw them go to the limit with the Hardys in a two out of three falls bout on RAW, which then led to a pretty good 30 Minute Ironman tag team title match at Great Balls Of Fire, which Cesaro and Sheamus won. After retaining the tag titles over the legendary Hardys, Cesaro and Sheamus would follow that up with yet another great tag team feud, one of which that's still going on as of this writing. Cesaro and Sheamus began to feud with the newly reunited Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, as the two most popular members of The Shield came back together. This would lead to what I think is the 2nd best feud of 2017 between two amazing teams.

The first match took place at Summerslam and it was a near classic. Ambrose and Rollins won the tag belts, but The Bar put in a great performance that can't be denied. They would continue the feud at No Mercy, but come up short yet again, and at this event, we would see Cesaro suffer a brutal injury, as two of his teeth got pushed into his gums, but they finished the match anyway. After a few more matches between the two teams, Cesaro and Sheamus finally won the belts back for a third time from Rollins and Ambrose a few weeks ago thanks to interference from New Day. This set The Bar up for a clash with the other best team in the WWE, The Usos, at Survivor Series. The champion vs champion tag team match was actually pretty damn good and proved yet again why The Bar is one of the best and why The Usos are the best. Cesaro and Sheamus took a situation that many of us were confused by and turned it into gold. They took their singles struggles and combined to become a team that are currently three time tag champs and have been involved in main events of PPVs and huge matches and feuds. For that, Cesaro and Sheamus deserve all the credit in the world. Not only have they found something that works, they've become more comfortable in their roles than ever, and it's only a matter of time before these two go down in history as one of the best teams of this era.

-True 

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Eyes on the Ring 3:26 AM  No comment

Eyes On Extreme Rules: PPV Preview

By @TrueGodImmortal 

Baltimore, MD will get another PPV and it happens to be the Raw exclusive Extreme Rules. Usually, Extreme Rules comes with a lot of great matches and excitement and honestly, this year it is devoid of it. Why is that? Well, aside from the absence of a Universal Title match, it lacks the star power, the actual Universal Champion, good stipulations, and it feels like a forced card honestly. With a few rematches that came from Payback, this PPV doesn't look too promising, but could we be wrong? Could we see the next chapter of Goldust and R-Truth and their breakup? More Enzo/Cass vs The Revival business? Only time will tell. Let's take a look at the announced card so far.

*Rich Swann and Sasha Banks vs Noam Dar and Alicia Fox

-This feels like an attempt to get Sasha's help in getting the Cruiserweight storyline over. I'm not interested in this match at all, but I think it could really have some good momentum and could be a fun watch for all. Swann and Noam have in ring chemistry and this could be fun to see. I don't expect Sasha and Alicia to get much ring time, but I do expect Swann and Sasha to pick up the win. Hopefully Swann gets another shot at the Cruiserweight Title, but I find it unlikely after this match. Swann and Sasha pick up the win.

*Submission Match 
Cruiserweight Championship
Austin Aries vs Neville 

-Aries and Neville have a solid feud. I like both and I think they could put in quite the classic feud if given the right push and promotion. However, it's been relegated to not being as prominent and honestly I hate the idea of a Submission Match instead of the other two choices I had. A Ladder or TLC match sounds like the perfect culmination to this feud or any title feud in the Cruiserweight Title picture, but unfortunately, that's not the plan here. I think Neville ends up retaining unfortunately, and Aries somehow gets one more rematch, in a 2 out of 3 Falls contest at "Great Balls Of Fire" in which Aries finally wins. Neville retains.

*Steel Cage Match 
Tag Team Championship
The Hardy Boyz vs Cesaro and Sheamus

-The Hardyz aren't Broken yet. They need to be. It seemed like we were getting the Broken Hardyz after Cesaro and Sheamus turned heel, but they've held off due to the Impact lawsuit and battle. Honestly, I'm surprised Cesaro and Sheamus are still together, and honestly, I don't expect them to win this match. I think the team to defeat the Hardyz are the team that is currently out of commission until the next month or so, The Revival. I predict the Hardyz retain here in a solid yet slightly sloppy contest and then Cesaro and Sheamus move on to feud with another face team, or they do what I thought they would have by now and broke up. The Hardyz will retain the championships.

*Kendo Stick On A Pole Match
Women's RAW Championship 
Bayley vs Alexa Bliss 

-There's not a match on this cars that been horribly built quite like this one. After the terrible promo between the two on RAW this past Monday, and the lack of empathy for Bayley as a main roster face, one has to assume that the eventual plan is going to be Alexa vs Sasha Banks, the biggest star on the roster for women. Bayley just isn't working as the sympathetic face and while I expect her to get her share of "revenge" in this match, I think we see Bayley come up just a tad short and Alexa continues her blissful reign.

*Intercontinental Championship 
The Miz vs Dean Ambrose 

-Nothing says Extreme Rules like a match that could end in a disqualification..... and cause the champion to lose his title. It's honestly a stupid stipulation and that's the basis of this entire card really. Nothing on this card really sticks out to me as being solid minus the mega main event and this match was one we watched for months on Smackdown just a few months prior so it was very pointless for it to be here yet again. The stipulation makes me believe Ambrose will win cleanly and retain, making the Miz look weaker by design since he couldn't even get Ambrose to get himself DQed. However, I'd rather Ambrose retain cleanly than to lose it on a disqualification. So, I predict Ambrose to retain.

*Fatal 5 Way Match For No. 1 Contender Spot
Samoa Joe vs Finn Balor vs Bray Wyatt vs Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins 

-The only match I'm interested in seeing on this show really. This match will be the MOTN and in reality, there's essentially nothing about this match that is predictable. The booking has been done very well, and it seems that even after unnecessary wins over Finn Balor and Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns still isn't a favorite to win. Samoa Joe has momentum, Bray Wyatt has momentum, and even Finn Balor had momentum too. This match essentially could go either way, but based on the Heyman and Balor promo, there's a small feeling within me that Balor will end up walking away with the victory and going on to face Brock at the next PPV. Still, there's money in a huge Samoa Joe vs Brock match as well, and those two are my top choices. Either Joe or Finn win, and we get an actual dream match of sorts no matter how it turns out with those two. If Reigns or Bray actually do win, it would actually feel slightly like a waste, but you never know with WWE. Seth is the long shot to win, but he could pull out the victory too in a slight swerve. However, I predict Finn Balor wins, with Samoa Joe as my fallback pick. It should be a great match regardless.

There may be more matches added as the week progresses, but as of now, Extreme Rules doesn't seem to be very enticing, but who knows, WWE tends to surprise from time to time. Will this end up as a great event? I guess we'll have to tune in and find out.

-True

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Eyes on the Ring 1:44 AM  No comment