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WWE Extreme Rules 2019: SmackDown Tag Team Championship preview

By Cedric Welton

Daniel Bryan and Rowan are new Smackdown Live tag team champions 5/7/2019
Daniel Bryan and Rowan are new Smackdown Live tag team champions 5/7/2019 /
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The “Planet’s Champions” face their toughest challenge yet: Defending their gold in a triple threat tag match for the titles.

Since capturing the SmackDown tag team titles back in May, the team of Daniel Bryan and Rowan have been on a quest to restore glory to tag team wrestling. The duo has yet to be prominently featured on television in comparison to Bryan’s WWE Championship run, but Bryan is still a huge draw whenever featured.

The champs competed against The Usos via the “Wild Card Rule” and were ultimately victorious. This actually said more about the current state of the blue brand’s tag division post-Superstar Shake-Up. A once deep division turned bleak after one week of movement. Hence the overall narrative Bryan is pushing.

The SmackDown tag division was such an afterthought that a match featuring Bryan was on a pre-show. But it did thus make the Money in the Bank pre-show must-see, and in which the champs and Usos delivered. Now after weeks of proclaiming a lack of challengers, we see a true test for the Bryan and Rowan. This comes from the fresh faces of Heavy Machinery, and the longest-reigning (and five-time) tag champs The New Day.

Big E’s injury may have played a role in the delay of this feud (which to the pleasure of fans led to some of E’s amazingly hilarious Twitter exchanges). Heavy Machinery, on the other hand, had their chance against the champions and came up short. They would earn their way into the Extreme Rules match by defeating the odd couple of Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler.

Otis and Tucker are out to show the WWE Universe what being “Blue Collar Solid” means. The New Day has produced some of the greatest tag matches over the past five years and are looking to embark on a sixth title reign to drape the trio in gold again. As for Bryan and Rowan, this tag match will be the very start of their mission: to make tag team wrestling relevant again.

Next. Extreme Rules: Bobby Lashley vs. Braun Strowman. dark

No matter where this match takes place on the card, fans will be reminded of why tag team wrestling matters. Extreme Rules airs on July 14 on the WWE Network.