WWE News: The Usos defeat American Alpha and become the new SmackDown Live Tag Team Champions
What’s the Story?
Jimmy and Jey Uso defeated Jason Jordan and Chad Gable of American Alpha to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. Their win tonight makes them the fourth tag team to hold the SmackDown Tag Team Championships and the team’s third tag team title reign.
In case you didn’t know....
American Alpha won the SmackDown Tag Team Championships last year on the SmackDown Wildcard episode. Jordan and Gable would run through the tag team division in a short amount of time and even won a tag team turmoil match against every available tag team on the SmackDown roster. American Alpha would hold the titles for 84 days until their defeat tonight.
This latest championship reign of American Alpha lasted 16 days more than their NXT Tag Team Championship Reign which began at NXT Takeover: Dallas and ended at NXT Takeover: The End.
The last time the Usos held tag team gold was back in 2015 when their second championship reign with the WWE Tag Team Championships (known now as the Raw Tag Team Championships) ended at Fastlane against the team of Tyson Kidd and Cesaro.
The heart of the matter
The championships changing hands 13 days before WrestleMania 33 could be a strong indicator that the SmackDown Tag Team Championship match could be regulated to the WrestleMania pre-show.
As of now, the SmackDown tag team titles are the only ones that don’t have an official match announced nor a rumoured match to be announced later.
What’s next?
WrestleMania 33 will take place on April 2nd at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida and the kickoff show will begin at 5 P.M. EST/2 P.M. PST. Don’t be surprised if The Usos and the American Alpha are regulated to the preshow of WrestleMania.
Author’s take
This was a fantastic match between American Alpha and The Usos and it helped to give The Usos back some major momentum. Some fans may be upset that American Alpha lost the title, but they had to do this as Jordon and Gable have had a lacklustre run thus far.
American Alpha have been on the main roster for less than a year and they have already reached the top of their division relatively soon. It’s safe to assume that the collegiate athletes won’t have to wait too long to get some gold back around their waste.