Right off the top, we all know they're going to win at Grand Slam. It's well deserved, both guys have gotten themselves over from scratch and they bring a different dynamic to the show. What I'm interested in is what happens next? I think it would be a mistake if they're just left to their own devices to have 'bangers' on Rampage. I'd like to see them have some direction and face off against opponents they can have a natural rivalry with.

The Gunn Club stand out in this regard and you can certainly raise the stakes there with the belts on the line and Stokely involved. However, I'm struggling to think of other programs they can have right now. This is a commentary on the state of the tag division but I'm struggling to think of an obvious and exciting direction for the division.

Let's go through them...

FTR - The form tag team who find themselves in a strange place after the Punk fallout. The fans would love to see them in another title program, but maybe not at the expense of the Acclaimed.

House of Black - Should be sent out to pasture now or repackaged as the House of Buddy and pull a complete 180.

La Faccion Ingobernables - They're talened, but they've struggled to find their niche in the company. I'd book them in a program with the Bucks and if they can't get over, I'd cut my losses.

2.0 - I see this as an uphill battle because both teams play to the same crowd. You could certainly do a match, but the angle would have to be well put together.

Otherwise I'm at a loss and feel that AEW needs another outside tag team to come in and shake the division up. I just can't see a team like Iron Savages, Butcher + Blade, Private Party, Nese/Woods etc. coming in and laying out the Acclaimed getting over at all.

As an aside, outside of the odd banger, does it feel like the division has lost all sense of direction ever since the Bucks/FTR?

The Acclaimed are part of that under-class of AEW talent. Meaning, despite being super-over, they still aren't in that upper echelon. I think to really establish them as a made tag team, they need to go through FTR and The Young Bucks ( and if rumours are to be believed, The Bucks refused to put over ReDragon.. so good luck getting The Acclaimed over ) 

House of Black is an interesting point. What do you do when the central figure is no longer around. Buddy and Brody couldn't be any more different. Both are ' followers ' regardless of gimmick. I'd probably turn Buddy, maybe Miro The Redeemer gains a follower and push them towards the Tag Titles? Or give more humanity to Julia Hart and perhaps she and Buddy become something like Kross/Scarlett.  

Don't you think it'd be divisive to have them go against FTR? No doubt FTR are the better wrestlers, so you're going to have that crowd on FTR's side and reject the Acclaimed push. Then on the other you're going to have people against FTR especially with the company in a volatile situation. I mean even if at the .0001% chance everything was a work, the reality is fans are pissed about what happened because it reflected poorly on AEW and morale. The Bucks are in a similar position, just on the other side of the equation.

The Bucks especially will have to address the elephant in the room. They can't possibly continue this Days Of Our Live feud with Hangman and expect every town to play along.

Turn FTR heel..

I don't think that alone is going to cut it. I believe it's less about 'give fans permission to cheer/boo' guys but the direction of the characters which has been sorely lacking with FTR for sometime. I'd like to see them in a proper program beforehand so you can at least build anticipation for their titles tilt.

Sept 12, 2022 10:28:27 GMT NATH45 said:

The Acclaimed are part of that under-class of AEW talent. Meaning, despite being super-over, they still aren't in that upper echelon. I think to really establish them as a made tag team, they need to go through FTR and The Young Bucks ( and if rumours are to be believed, The Bucks refused to put over ReDragon.. so good luck getting The Acclaimed over ) 

House of Black is an interesting point. What do you do when the central figure is no longer around. Buddy and Brody couldn't be any more different. Both are ' followers ' regardless of gimmick. I'd probably turn Buddy, maybe Miro The Redeemer gains a follower and push them towards the Tag Titles? Or give more humanity to Julia Hart and perhaps she and Buddy become something like Kross/Scarlett.  

Hard disagree on the Acclaim.  They are the most over thing in pro-wrestling right now.  You hear how fucking loud the crowd gets for them?  Scissor me Daddy Ass is the strongest heat anyone is getting these days.  It is on par with the big AEW debuts.  

Tony knows this, which is why they are winning in their hometown.  The delay would also have the giant foam scissors in the crowd.

Buddy and Brody work great as a team and frankly, they should keep them with Julia.  They are working and the gimmick is strong.  Without Black they can streamline shit a whole lot too as like no one got the Eye of Ra shit or Black using the eye to turn Julia into his means of directed vengeance against humanity.  Also without Black, the long term arc for Julia to become so dangerous that Black must undo what he did to her is kind of dead.  

As for heel teams, can use Lucha Bros, two members of BCC, 2.0, Garcia and Sammy or Hager, Ingobernables, Ortiz and Kingston, two members of The Firm, House of Black, Lethal and Singh, etc. There are a lot of possibilities. Pretty much anyone can get easy heel heat off the Acclaimed. As as times go on more teams will be returning, Christian and Luchasaurus, Broken Matt and Nero, Cole and O'Reilly, Bucks, etc. Can also always bring over Aussie Open if needed or team Swerve and Hobbs.

With new management now, Briscoes may possible still debut too.  Or AEW can call up one of the many unknown tag teams that people work the weekends with.

I'm sure they can use whoever they want, whether they can actually work well with the Acclaimed and produce something memorable is another thing entirely.

Not all matches have to be memorable. Let them crush jobbers on Dynamite. I mean, can slam killer 5 minute TV spots with a rap and a two minute match celebrated by scissoring from daddy ass. Then for the PPVs bring out the big guns. When they needed to step up on PPVs they always impressed. I FUCKED HATED CASTER at first, but every single time they were in a PPV for a big match, they delivered. Then that shit angle with the Gunn Club, that should have sucked, they turned into pure gold.

Well, they're 1/1 on PPVs so technically that's true but then they wouldn't be the first AEW act that fans lost interest in when they actually won the title.

They need to find a way to remedy that and fix this division. For what was supposed to be the greatest of all time tag team division, it really hasn't lived up to the hype.

Can't find the exact post but I called early on they would be something special.

But with teams they started off with the tag team division hasn't lived up to the hype.

Ahead of the tag title rematch I went back and watched Swerve In Our Glory vs The Acclaimed from All Out. I skipped it the first time.

Shame on me because that match was magic. Really hot crowd, Keith Lee and Swerve leaned into a more heelish side as they should, Acclaimed played fiery babyfaces and hung every step of the way. Tons of awesome false finishes. Couldn't ask for anything more. It's rare that tag team wrestling is so damn good. MOTY list for sure. Keith Lee impressed me the most, he managed to wrestle heelish without going against his character, it was quite subtle stuff but really riled up the crowd. That's a layer to Limitless I've not seen before. Everyone brought it though, incredible match, and it's great that The Acclaimed are now the AEW World Tag Team Champions.