The New Day wins SmackDown Tag Team Titles in historic victory

Big E became the first wrestler in WWE history to win a set of tag team championships in a singles match Friday night.

In a first for WWE, a set of tag team championships changed hands in a singles bout on Friday’s edition of SmackDown Live, when Big E defeated The Miz and Jey Uso to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships for The New Day.

Big E came out firing with a flurry of offense, but was quickly neutralized when Jey and Miz (the defending champion) suplexed Big E through the announce table. However, this didn’t keep Big E down for long, and the three competitors traded offense and pinning attempts for a couple minutes. Miz connected with the Skull-Crushing Finale on Jey, and when Jey kicked out, Miz immediately locked in the Figure-Four Leglock. However, Jey held out long enough for Big E to lift Miz out of the submission and into the Big Ending, pinning Miz to win the titles in a short match.

This match featured the same teams as the Wrestlemania 36 Ladder Match for these championships, but the opposite competitor for each team, as John Morrison retained the tag championships against Kofi Kingston and Jimmy Uso (that match came about due to an injury to the Miz). During the following Smackdown, Miz and Morrison’s celebratory Dirt Sheet episode was interrupted by first the Usos, and then the New Day, who proposed a rematch with Big E, Miz, and Jey. This is a record sixth Smackdown Tag Team Championship reign for the New Day, and their eighth championship reign overall.

A tag team championship hadn’t changed hands in a singles match in WWE history, including its oldest tag team championships. The closest they had come was Authors of Pain defeating Seth Rollins in a handicap match to win the titles in 2018, as Rollins’ tag partner, Dean Ambrose, had turned on Rollins, leaving him to defend the titles alone.

However, tag team championships changing hands in singles matches isn’t entirely without precedent in the history of pro wrestling.

In TNA, every title in the company, including the tag team championship won by both competitors, was put on the line in the main event of Hard Justice 2007, where Kurt Angle defeated Samoa Joe.

The ECW Tag Team Championships changed hands in singles matches three times. The first was a title vs. title match in 1995, where ECW TV Champion 2 Cold Scorpio defeated one half of the tag team champions, Public Enemy’s Rocco Rock, to win the championships for himself and The Sandman. Later that year, 2 Cold Scorpio lost both championships in a singles bout to Mikey Whipwreck, with Cactus Jack becoming his partner. Finally, D-Von Dudley defeated RVD in a singles match in 1999 to win the tag championships for the Dudley Boyz.