For most of its existence,WWE’sproduct has focused on singles wrestling, but the tag team division has also been a mainstay of the promotion ever since its founding.
Unlike singles wrestling, which focuses on individual wrestlers' desire for victory, tag team wrestling tells stories about how well two or more people work together in the ring. Character dynamics between two tag team partners are just as important here as those between opponents.
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Many of WWE’s tag teams have become industry-wide icons. Some pair-ups can define the legacies of performers who would otherwise go unnoticed as singles stars, while others become launching pads for solo superstardom for one or both of its members.
While WWE has had many tag teams throughout its history,a few stand head and shoulders above the rest among the all-time greats.Here are ten of the best, chosen based on their accomplishments, importance to the company, and their long-term legacies.
For this list, we will only be looking at tag teams solely consisting of two members. Larger stables who regularly competed in tag team matches, like The New Day, will not count, though specific two-man teams within a stable, like the New Age Outlaws or The Outsiders, are eligible.
10Team Hell No
A Fish-Out-Of-Water Pairing That Would Always Entertain
Daniel Bryan & Kane
Accomplishments
WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time)
Most of WWE’s most popular tag teams consist of pretty obvious pairings of superstars. However, occasionally, a true oddball team-up is needed to shake things up, andthat’s what happenedwhen Kane and Daniel Bryan were forced to get along in anger management classes, leading to the formation of Team Hell No.
Team Hell No’s comedic chops and charismatic presence made them one of my favorite parts of WWE during that era. They would win the WWE Unified Tag Team championship atNight of Champions 2012, and would hold it for over half a year until The Shield defeated them at 2013’sExtreme Rulesevent.
The two would go their separate ways shortly afterward, and Bryan would ascend to the main event with his defeat of John Cena atSummerslam 2013.Kane would join The Authority and frequently butt heads with his former tag team partner over the next several months.
After Bryan came back from a brief retirement in 2018, Team Hell No would reunite one more time, taking on opponents such as the Usos and the Bludgeon Brothers. With Kane retired and Bryan now in AEW, the team are likely disbanded for good, but their legacy lives on.
9The Acolytes Protection Agency
They Perfectly Encapsulated The Attitude Era’s Edginess
Ron “Faarooq” Simmons & John “Bradshaw” Layfield
WWF Tag Team Championship (3 times)
The Attitude Era was defined by its rebellion against authority and spurning of family-friendly attitudes, and in my opinion, no tag team better embodied these traits than the Acolytes Protection Agency, or the APA for short.
Faarooq and Bradshaw’s careers had stagnated by the end of 1998 when the Undertaker recruited them into his Ministry of Darkness Stable. Suddenly, the Acolytes had a brand-new lease on life, and they’d dominate the tag team title picture throughout 1999.
One year later, the team would part ways with the Ministry and be reborn as the APA, a duo of beer-loving mercenaries who would regularly be hired by other wrestlers to protect them or go after rivals.Whenever the APA showed up on WWF programming, mayhem would be sure to follow.
The duo would break up for good in 2004 when Ron Simmons, aka Faarooq, retired from wrestling. Bradshaw would turn into JBL, the wrestling Wall Street billionaire, and win the WWE Championship a few months later, while Simmons would sporadically make backstage cameos to shout his catchphrase: “Damn!”
8Paul London and Brian Kendrick
A Cruiserweight Duo Who Stole The Show On Smackdown
Paul London & Brian Kendrick
One of my favorite overlooked aspects of WWE’s Ruthless Aggression era was its cruiserweight division on Smackdown, and two of its standouts were Paul London and Brian “Spanky” Kendrick, both of whom made a name for themselves on the independent circuit in the early 2000s.
While the duo would briefly team up in 2003, Spanky’s departure from the company would leave London flying solo for the next couple of years. However, the team would reform when Kendrick returned in 2005 under his real name.
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Nicknamed “The Hooligans” by fans, the duo would become a staple of Smackdown over the next few years, with rivalries against the likes of MNM, Deuce n' Domino, and even the legendary Hardy Boyz.Their matches were often ranked as some of the best WWE had to offer at the time.
After London left WWE in 2008, Kendrick would try his hand at a solo career both in and out of WWE, but never regained the same amount of success he did with his former tag team partner. Still, the two will forever be remembered for laying the groundwork for more independent stars to join the promotion.
7The Revival
They Put NXT’s Tag Team Division On The Map
Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder
While they may be better known now for their work in All Elite Wrestling as FTR, it was their time on WWE’s NXT brand that would put The Revival on the map,helping revitalize a tag team division that I felt was struggling in the early 2010s.
Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder were old-school southern wrestlers from North Carolina who were encouraged to team together by Dusty Rhodes, himself a mainstay on the southern circuit in the ’80s. Throughout their time on NXT, they would go by several names, like The Mechanics and Dash & Dawson before settling on The Revival.
They would quickly rise up the ranks of the tag team division in NXT, with their match-up against DIY at NXT Takeover Toronto being considered one of the best in tag team wrestling history. On the main roster, they’d continue their success, winning both the Raw and Smackdown tag team championships over the next few years.
In 2020, the two made the leap over to AEW, with Wilder becoming Cash Wheeler and Dawson now known as Dax Harwood. Their career highlight since leaving WWE has been in Ring of Honor, thanks to a trilogy of classic matches with the Briscoe Brothers.
6The Hart Foundation
Canada’s First Wrestling Superstars
Bret “The Hitman” Hart & Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart
WWF Tag Team Championship (2 times)
The legendary Hart wrestling family have been household names in the Calgary region of Canada for most of the ’80s, but it wasn’t until their members started working in the WWF later in the decade that international audiences knew who they were.
Consisting of Bret Hart and his brother-in-law, Jim Neidhart, the combination of the Hitman’s technical ability with the raw power of the Anvil wowed audiences. They would win the WWF Tag Team Championship two times before disbanding in 1991.
Bret Hart would then enjoy an illustrious singles career, includingseveral WrestleMania main eventsand WWF Championship wins. He would bring back the Hart Foundation as a five-man stable in 1997 during his anti-American crusade, which I consider a very underrated period of the Hitman’s career.
Unfortunately, The Hitman would leave the WWF on very bad terms after the Montreal Screwjob at Survivor Series 1997, and all of its members would either retire shortly afterward or tragically pass away. Still, the legacy the Hart family has had on professional wrestling can’t be overstated.
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Jey & Jimmy Uso
The Usos may not have been the hottest tag team in WWE when they were called up to the main roster in 2010, but few fans at the time knew that Jimmy and Jey would be among the longest-tenured wrestlers in the company’s history.
The twin sons of the legendary Rikishi, the Usos would showcase everything that made their father and other Samoan relatives, like Yokozuna and The Rock, so beloved, including a unique wrestling style and loads of charisma among both members.
In the 2020s, the Usos would start to go their separate ways, with their involvement in the Bloodline storyline creating a rift between the two. While Jimmy would have his fair share of solo success, it would be Jey who would be the breakout star of the two,winning his first World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 41 in 2025.
While the days of the Usos teaming together may be over for now, there is still a bright future ahead for both brothers in WWE. Many fans like myself hope that, one day, the duo will team up one more time.
4The Dudley Boyz
ECW Standouts Turned Table Match Legends
Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley
While The Dudleys originally consisted of a large family in ECW, most fans associate the name today specifically with the duo of Bubba Ray and D-Von, who became icons when they made the jump to WWE.
While their in-ring brawling and loudmouthed promos helped get them over, there’s nothing fans like me love more about the Dudley Boyz than when theybring out their favorite weapon.When Bubba Ray says “D-Von, get the tables!”, fans knew something big was about to happen.
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Their legacy would continue long after they left WWE, as they would make the leap over to TNA, now called Team 3D after their famed tag-team finisher. It was there where they got to shine as singles stars too, particularly the newly-rechristened Bully Ray, who was one of the biggest heels in the Impact Zone’s history.
After a brief WWE comeback in 2015, their careers would mostly wind down. They would be forever immortalized with a WWE Hall of Fame induction in 2018.
3D-Generation X
Ruthless Aggression Team-Ups Were Must-Watch TV
Triple H & Shawn Michaels
Unified WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time)
D-Generation X’s Attitude Era run alone is enough to rank the troublemaking stable one of wrestling’s greatest of all time. But in my opinion, it was Triple H and Shawn Michaels' team-ups throughout the 2000s that would elevate DX’s legacy to the next level, which provided some of themost memorable matchesand funniest moments in WWE history.
A 2002 reunion would never materialize when Triple H turned heel on Michaels witha devastating Pedigree, but that feud would ultimately bring HBK out of a four-year retirement and set the stage for a true comeback in 2006.
During Michaels' feud with the McMahons that year, Triple H would initially align himself with the family he married into. But eventually, he’d join his best friend’s side, defeating Vince and Shane in a marquee match at that year’sSummerSlam.The duo would spend the rest of the year taking on Edge and Randy Orton’s Rated-RKO tag team.
A second and final tag team run in 2009 would lead to the two capturing the Unified World Tag Team Championships atTLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs.While Michaels' retirement shortly afterward would end DX’s days as an in-ring duo,fans will always have plenty of fond memories to look back on.
2Legion of Doom
This Legendary Duo Defined Tag Team Wrestling In The ’80s and ’90s
Hawk & Animal
Every modern tag team can owe some degree of influence to the legendary Road Warriors. While Hawk and Animal may not have reached the same heights in their relatively brief WWF stints as they had in other promotions, they were still a red-hot duo whenever they were working for Vince McMahon.
The duo made their name in various promotions thanks to their iconic Mad Max-inspired face paint and body armor, their memorable catchphrase “What a Rush!”, and their take-no-prisoners attitude in the ring. While Hawk and Animal inspired several copycats like Demolition and the Powers of Pain, the original Road Warriors remain my favorite.
In the WWF, they would be rechristened the Legion of Doom and enter feuds with Demolition, The Nasty Boys, and Money Inc., just to name a few. They would briefly return to the WWF in 1998 as the LOD 2000, winning a Battle Royal atWrestleMania XIV, but not much would come out of this run.
Hawk would pass away in 2003, and while Animal would attempt to form a new Legion of Doom with Heidenreich in 2005, it would not last very long. In 2011, the Road Warriors would forever be immortalized when they were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
1The Hardy Boyz
The Kings Of High-Flying Wrestling
Jeff & Matt Hardy
It was a tough call for the number one spot, as while the Road Warriors made teams like the Hardy Boyz possible, I have to give the top spot to the brothers from North Carolina. Not only did they show that tag team wrestling was more than just a sideshow,but the legacy Jeff and Matt had when they were on their ownis hard to top.
After several years as enhancement talent and a short-lived team-up with Gangrel, the brothers would rocket to superstardom with their legendary trilogy of ladder and TLC matches with Edge & Christian and the Dudley Boyz. Furthermore, Matt’s real-life girlfriend Amy Dumas, AKA Lita, would join the brothers, with the trio becoming known as “Team Xtreme”.
After the Attitude Era, Jeff and Matt would start to focus on their singles careers. Jeff would become a main-event superstar and three-time world championwith an iconic entrance to boot, while Matt would dominate the midcard and cruiserweight scenes. Both brothers would also enjoy plenty of success in TNA.
Despite their long list of personal problems often overshadowing their accomplishments,Jeff and Matt Hardy are two of the most celebrated wrestlers of all time for good reason,and whether together or apart, fans like myself will always have fond memories of them.
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