Building a Trios Division on SmackDown

[Bill Casey]

Do we really need two tag divisions?
How about we take a left turn. Do something unexpected. Do a little differently...
With that in mind, I'm going to try to take SmackDown's lackluster tag team division and turn it into something unique, supplementing with CWC and NXT talent, still leaving more than enough for the cruiserweight division on RAW...
Here goes nothing...





AMERICAN ALPHA
Jason Jordan, Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable






THE USOS
Jimmy Uso, Sean Maluta, and Jey Uso







TEAM JAPAN
Tajiri, Shinsuke Nakamura and Hideo Itami







THE WYATT FAMILY
Luke Harper, Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan







THE VAUDEVILLAINS
Aiden Engilish, Jack Gallagher and Simon Gotch










BREEZANGO & TJ PERKINS
Tyler Breeze, TJ Perkins and Fandango







THE HYPE BROS
Curt Hawkins, Zack Ryder & Mojo Rawley







The Ascension and Kane
Konnor, Kane and Viktor





I essentially added a third man to the seven existing teams on SmackDown, with the goal of making them as good as possible, and gave the division and the brand a shot in the arm by adding Nakamura, Tajiri and KENTA. Curt Hawkins is said to be coming to SmackDown, so I combined Zack Ryder's teams into one. I was tempted to build a new Lucha Dragons with Kalisto, Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado, but I didn't want to take too much away from RAW's upcoming Cruiserweight division...

So, proof of concept...
Thoughts?

Better or worse than SmackDown's current tag scene?

[DDT]

I actually rather like this idea...which would have been more awesome with the New Day, as trios titles is pretty much right up their alley. Still, it gives Smackdown a unique division that sets it apart, which it desperately needs.

[Bill Casey]

Since guys move around on brands from year to year, you could look at three man teams like The New Day and a reconstruced Lucha Dragons as future acquisitions down the road...

And hypothetically in the same draft, Breezango and Perkins go to raw, and you suddenly have TJ Perkins lighting it up in the cruiserweight division...

[Hero!]

No.

[Beer-Belly]

The tag titles should be able to travel around along with the women's title.

[Bill Casey]

The tag titles should be able to travel around along with the women's title.

Why would Stephanie and Foley ever allow that? Ever?
Especially when Shane McMahon kept the WWE title to himself?
She owns the Women's title and the Tag Team Titles...
She drafted the champions early...

They are the exclusive property of RAW...
There's no point in a brand split if you're just going to do that...
Floating champions absolutely should not happen...
I fucking hate that idea...
Hate it! Hate it! Hate it! Vehemently hate it...

They should do regular tag titles on both shows before they do floating champions...
You can't even build toward a PPV match properly like that. You're capitalizing on none of the opportunities, you're building no stars you couldn't build without the brand split. You might as well not have a brand split if you're going to do that. Fuck that idea...

If they do floating champions, Jordan and Gable might as well stay on NXT...

[lotjx]

If they don't get the tag titles back then, I am all for it. Raw is hogging all the titles, Smackdown has to get something. Don't say the IC, because Miz holding it has brought zero value to it. They should have let Ryder be a scrappy underdog and have him drop it to Owens. Then move Owens over. Miz is a blackhole at this point.

[TooCool]

I like it.

Strangely enough, I think Kane being put with the Ascension is kinda genius too.

[virms]

I could get behind tag titles on one brand and trio titles on the other. Something different and unique.

[Bill Casey]

If you think about it in terms of time management, you can get more of a given roster on television through six man tags...
And since SmackDown has the 2 Hour Timeslot, A trios division is good time management...

You'd have the same amount of performers as you would if you ran a tag team match and a cruiserweight match on RAW...

[virms]

I want concrete math on that in a spreadsheet bill.

Need it by 9 am cst please

[Atty]

Team Japan would be too awesome for this to be real life.

[Rancid_Planet]

I completely support the trios concept. It would be fun and different. Yet not so over the top that fans couldnt wrap their minds around it.

The New Day need to be in on this though. Also New Day should add a fourth member and operate under "New Day Rules".

[Atty]

Sasha. Sasha should be the fourth member.

[virms]

I gave Bill 3 minutes....to get this done.

We know what happened to Bill.

[Atty]

I had colon surgery?

[The Law]

I think I would have liked having Trios titles on one show and regular tag titles on the other show. Obviously New Day would be your primary Trios champs, and you could have a division with New Day, The Club, Wyatt Family, and whomever else you can put together. But now that New Day was drafted to Raw with the tag titles, Wyatt Family and The Club got broken up it probably wouldn't make much sense.

[Tim]

The Ascension and Kane would be changed to "The Ascension OF Kane" if it were up to me.

[Atty]

I think I would have liked having Trios titles on one show and regular tag titles on the other show. Obviously New Day would be your primary Trios champs, and you could have a division with New Day, The Club, Wyatt Family, and whomever else you can put together. But now that New Day was drafted to Raw with the tag titles, Wyatt Family and The Club got broken up it probably wouldn't make much sense.

The Club wasn't broken up—they were reunited.

[Beer-Belly]

I wouldn't be surprised if Finn joins The Club at SummerSlam to beat Rollins. They're going to want to do The Club vs. The Shield at some point.

[Badger]

If they don't get the tag titles back then, I am all for it. Raw is hogging all the titles, Smackdown has to get something. Don't say the IC, because Miz holding it has brought zero value to it. They should have let Ryder be a scrappy underdog and have him drop it to Owens. Then move Owens over. Miz is a blackhole at this point.

No he isn't, Miz's character has been excellent lately and it is only helped with Maryse by his side plus the matches have been really good. Him holding the IC title for a good long time will do good for the guy who beats him.

As for Trios, I'm all for it. The American Alpha trio would be great even if there wasn't an actual division. Gable/,Jordan going after the tag titles while Shelton focuses on singles gold like Team Angle used to be.

[MikeHunt]

What a waste of the Japanese stars and Jack Gallagher should be no where near Adien English, Simon Gotch or any vaudevillian nonsense.

Give me a technical team of Gallagher, dar and ZSJr.

[lotjx]

The Japanese stars are going to be wasted anyway. Here, it gives them a bit of a showcase. I do think Shelton will come back as a singles wrestler. They could bring in Jay Lethal to be the third guy in that group as the voice. I think its a great idea and I am now disappointed that it won't happen.

[DaSaintFan]

Only problem I see with your list, Bill.. (and it could be fixed)... Is that Luke Harper is listed as being a RAW roster member, not a smackdown one. So I'm guessing they're probably going to put Strowman and Harper back together at some point.

[BGMaverick]

The only main criticism I have about it is that this seems like filler for Nakamura. If you want to keep the Japanese theme, you can easily replace him with Kota Ibushi. As long as they don't try to get too cute with his character, Nakamura is going to be a guy who does big things on whichever roster he's on when he moves up.

[PurePlayer]

I wouldn't be surprised if Finn joins The Club at SummerSlam to beat Rollins. They're going to want to do The Club vs. The Shield at some point.

They better start building up Gallows and Anderson then. Beating the New Day would be a good start.

[Honey_Badger]

If Finn and The Club walk away with the Raw Title and the tag belts as a group, that would be a sick Summerslam.

[BGMaverick]

If Finn and The Club walk away with the Raw Title and the tag belts as a group, that would be a sick Summerslam.

I either see Finn winning straight up or him turning and reuniting with the Club are the two prominent options I see happening.

It's a cool visual and selling point when establishing a stable is dominant. Kind of makes sense that they didn't do it with the Wyatts, but it's a little surprising they didn't do it with the New Day.

[Honey_Badger]

New Day never had to be the dominating presence who held all major titles at once. They were always more of a fun loving, tag team, not a dominant stable. I don't see it working for them. However, it would have worked perfectly with The Wyatt's. Bray could have won the world title while Harper and Rowan held the tag belts, all while Bray walked around with every belt, solidifying his dominance over his followers and the WWE.

[BGMaverick]

New Day never had to be the dominating presence who held all major titles at once. They were always more of a fun loving, tag team, not a dominant stable. I don't see it working for them. However, it would have worked perfectly with The Wyatt's. Bray could have won the world title while Harper and Rowan held the tag belts, all while Bray walked around with every belt, solidifying his dominance over his followers and the WWE.

I agree that they never had to be, but with how over they've been, it's a little surprising that they didn't go down that route. Maybe it's more ideal to have that major titles within a stable when they're heels, which works for the Club/Finn.

[PurePlayer]

I either see Finn winning straight up or him turning and reuniting with the Club are the two prominent options I see happening.

It's a cool visual and selling point when establishing a stable is dominant. Kind of makes sense that they didn't do it with the Wyatts, but it's a little surprising they didn't do it with the New Day.

Really? I thought it was the exact opposite. Would have bet the house that the Wyatts would have held all the titles while together at some point.

[BGMaverick]

Really? I thought it was the exact opposite. Would have bet the house that the Wyatts would have held all the titles while together at some point.

Other than this Smackdown (maybe) and the one time he touched the belt with HHH had it, it's seemed like Bray hasn't even mentioned the title. He's been so focused on specific people or a broad message, so I figured that was the company's way of saying he's not really intricate or necessary to the title picture.

[PurePlayer]

Other than this Smackdown (maybe) and the one time he touched the belt with HHH had it, it's seemed like Bray hasn't even mentioned the title. He's been so focused on specific people or a broad message, so I figured that was the company's way of saying he's not really intricate or necessary to the title picture.

Yeah he might not have fought for the title often but I still would have thought he would have won a title by now. Even the IC/US. At least the members of the family. Harper did win the IC title but not while the family was together.

[kangus]

You know what, if they tried hard to give each trio an identity, like The New Day, I think I'd love this idea.

[MikeHunt]

The Japanese stars are going to be wasted anyway..

Oh shut up. Nakamura will be a singles star within the next 18 months on raw or smackdown.

[Nash Diesel]

The time for this would have been like last year or so where you had like 7 different 3-man stables, including three 3-woman stables. I think that it's a cool idea but I don't think adding more belts would be the answer. Less is more.

[Badger]

You know what, if they tried hard to give each trio an identity, like The New Day, I think I'd love this idea.

This times a thousand. It only trios like Three Man Band were still around.

[Badger]

However Team Japan is absolutely not the way to go, lazy stereotyping. Nakamura will be a big star on his own.

[The Law]

This would have been a really good idea if they had set it up right before the split. New Day are the obvious team to carry the Trios division, and you could set it up with The Club, The Bloodline, Wyatt Family, Social Outcasts on the same show and have a real division. Building one on Smackdown right now without the pre-established credibility of groups like The New Day, The Club, and The Wyatt Family would be tough to pull off.

What does everybody think they'll do with the Smackdown women? I think they need some kind of title to fight for.

[BGMaverick]

This would have been a really good idea if they had set it up right before the split. New Day are the obvious team to carry the Trios division, and you could set it up with The Club, The Bloodline, Wyatt Family, Social Outcasts on the same show and have a real division. Building one on Smackdown right now without the pre-established credibility of groups like The New Day, The Club, and The Wyatt Family would be tough to pull off.

What does everybody think they'll do with the Smackdown women? I think they need some kind of title to fight for.

Bring back the Divas title. It makes sense because that was Nikki's title and she's working on coming back, and Cena is on that brand.

[Mr_Nobody]

Bring back the Divas title. It makes sense because that was Nikki's title and she's working on coming back, and Cena is on that brand.

No. They made such a big deal about how they're women wrestlers were not divas, but actual wrestlers, so why would they throw that away. If they have another Woman's Title, it needs to be under a different name.

[Badger]

The Universal Woman's title.

[kangus]

Please, it'd be the Supreme Inter-Galactic Universal Title of Infinite Dimensions.

[Badger]

Why could they just not go with World?

[PurePlayer]

Let's not lose sight of the fact that the Universal title was around before on other promotions. It's not like the WWE just made that name up out of nowhere.

[Badger]

Although they call fans the WWE Universe. No need, fans is fine.

[Bill Casey]

Only problem I see with your list, Bill.. (and it could be fixed)... Is that Luke Harper is listed as being a RAW roster member, not a smackdown one. So I'm guessing they're probably going to put Strowman and Harper back together at some point.

Where is Luke Harper listed as a RAW Superstar?

[Bill Casey]

I just went to WWE.com, went to Superstars, selected RAW Superstars, and Luke Harper is not on the list of RAW Superstars...
Also, he was not part of the draft...

[Bill Casey]

The Japanese stars are going to be wasted anyway.

Nonono...
If they're going to do Team Japan with Nakamura, it should be in service to the performers...

See, for the first, let's say 4-5 months. The Usos and American Alpha crush things. Then Team Japan debuts, absolutely tears through everyone for several months, and then their team forms a rift and the team implodes and they all start murdering each other and have blowoff feuds right before the next draft, when Itami can be drafted to RAW, and Tajiri fades into the background, leaving Nakamura to be the king of SmackDown. This would be a good time for the Wyatts to swoop in and capture the gold...

There you have a hypothetical year of the division...

Give me a technical team of Gallagher, dar and ZSJr.

I really like that as a future team 1-2 years from now...

If you want to keep the Japanese theme, you can easily replace him with Kota Ibushi.

I was purposefully leaving Kota Ibushi for the cruiserweight division. I'm keeping the cruiserweight division on RAW in mind. Kota Ibushi, Zack Sabre Jr., Noam Dar, Gran Metallik, Lince Dorado. I'm trying to avoid gutting the upcoming RAW cruiserweight division as much as possible...

[mth]

I have to give a mighty thumbs down to Nakamura being in the mix. Dude should be a singles star straight away.

As far as the trios idea over all...not really overly keen on it myself. I appreciate the creativity though.

[Sasori]

With the recent emphasis on 6 man tag matches and blurring of the brand split, I thought I'd revive this thread. Let's look at what teams we have:

- New Day
- The Club
- Lucha House Party
- The Bloodline
- Usos + Ricochet
- Ali, Ricochet, Black
- Revival + Roode
- McIntyre, Lashley, Elias (the Entourage)

I know there's been other combinations, but I can't remember them off hand. I'd love to see Joe team up with AOP.

[Psycho666Soldier]

I was tempted to build a new Lucha Dragons with Kalisto, Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado, but I didn't want to take too much away from RAW's upcoming Cruiserweight division...

Interesting to note that this exact team ended up happening.

[Bluegunn]

Ricochet on two teams?
You also have Jindar and Singh bros

[PurePlayer]

I have no idea who the Bloodline is.

[Sasori]

Ricochet on two teams?
You also have Jindar and Singh bros

I was just listing every possible combination I've seen to look at the possibilities.

I wonder why I forgot Jinder and the Singh bros, lol. When was the last time they teamed up in a match?

[PurePlayer]

Jinder is hurt which is why they haven't been seen together at all.

[VHS]

There are way too many titles as it is.

[The Law]

I remember thinking about this when they re-split the roster. It would be good to have more differentiation between the shows and having Smackdown have Trios instead of two-man tag teams would help.

[Bluegunn]

There are way too many titles as it is.

Now that Brock Lesnar has one title no show we can have another take its place