Shane McMahon will crown new SmackDown Tag Team Champions on this Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown, following the Hardy Boyz vacating the belt due to Jeff’s knee injury.
With WWE veteran Jeff Hardy being sidelined with a serious knee injury, the SmackDown Tag Team titles have been declared vacated with the Hardy Boyz surrendering their belts on last week’s episode of SmackDown Live. Because of this, it’s been announced via WWE.com that SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon will crown new Tag Team Champions on Tuesday. WWE hasn’t announced which SmackDown tag team will be involved with this situation, but they did provide hints on Sunday.
So many of the WWE’s most prominent and established tag teams are now on the Raw brand, like The Usos, The Good Brothers, The Revival and Viking Raiders, leaving things fairly bare for SmackDown‘s tag championships.
Per WWE.com, the key teams are WWE Champion Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods (The New Day), Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev, Heavy Machinery, McMahon himself with Elias, The B-Team and Finn Balor and Ali. With McMahon the one to name the champs, it wouldn’t be surprising if he simply crowns he and Elias.
It’s possible that the Hardy Boyz may have had their last run, considering the rumors circulating around both Matt and Jeff Hardy’s mounting injuries and Jeff’s confirmed knee surgery. It’s worth noting that Matt himself stated last year that he was injured to the point where he was strongly considering retirement. Jeff also confirmed last year that he has limited the use of his Swanton Bomb finisher.
Since the fallout of the Superstar Shake-Up, many fans and critics alike have argued that SmackDown got significantly worse in the tag team department. With teams such as The Usos and The Bar no longer on the brand, there may be a resurgence for creating new teams for that division. With the Hardy Boyz out of the SmackDown tag team picture, who will be pushed as a top-tier tag team moving forward for the blue brand?