World Tag Team Championship (WWE, 1971–2010)
Former men's professional wrestling championship / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The World Tag Team Championship was the original professional wrestling world tag team championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promotion, and the company's third tag team championship overall. Originally established by the then-World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) on June 3, 1971 (renamed World Wrestling Federation/WWF in 1979), it served as the only title for tag teams in the promotion until the then-WWF bought World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in March 2001, which added the WCW Tag Team Championship. Both titles were unified in November 2001, retiring WCW's championship and continuing WWF's.
World Tag Team Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Promotion | World Wrestling Entertainment | ||||||||||||||||||||
Date established | June 3, 1971 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Date retired | August 16, 2010[lower-alpha 1] (unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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In 2002, the company was renamed WWE. Following the introduction of the WWE brand extension, where wrestlers and championships became exclusive to a WWE brand, the World Tag Team Championship became exclusive to the Raw brand, while a second WWE Tag Team Championship (currently known as the World Tag Team Championship as of April 2024) was established for the SmackDown! brand. Both titles were unified in 2009 into the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, but remained independently active until the original World Tag Team Championship was decommissioned in 2010 in favor of continuing the newer championship.
The championship was contested in professional wrestling matches. Bouts for the title headlined WWF events including In Your House 3, Fully Loaded: In Your House, and 2001's Backlash. The inaugural champions were the team of Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler, and the final champions were The Hart Dynasty (David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd).