Backstage Frustration Building in WWE Over SmackDown Tag Team Division’s Lack of Depth

What was once considered one of SmackDown’s brightest spots in 2025 has quietly become a source of internal concern — there is growing frustration within WWE over the lack of variety and competitiveness in the SmackDown tag team division.

R-Truth and Damian Priest have held the WWE Tag Team Championship since capturing the titles from the MFTs back in March, and while both men are well-regarded backstage, the current state of the division around them has become a pain point within the company. Frustration reportedly centers on the thinness of the title picture and a shortage of compelling challengers — issues that were underscored again when Truth and Priest defended the belts against the MFTs on last week’s SmackDown.

The concern isn’t a new one. Earlier reports indicated WWE was already looking at ways to rebuild both the Raw and SmackDown tag divisions using existing roster members, with teams like Truth and Priest and the pairing of The Miz and Kit Wilson among those being considered as part of that framework.

The drop-off in the division’s depth is stark when you consider where things stood just months ago. The SmackDown after WrestleMania 41 featured a three-way TLC match between DIY, the Motor City Machine Guns, and the Street Profits that was widely regarded as one of the year’s best matches in the entire company. The division remained vibrant through the summer with the additions of Fraxiom, Rey Fenix and Andrade, and the returning Wyatt Sicks.

The six-way TLC match at SummerSlam is now seen as something of a last hurrah for that era. The extended feud between the MFTs and the Wyatt Sicks that followed is considered to have run too long, diminishing the titles in the process. Since then, the landscape has been gutted: the Street Profits moved to Raw, the Motor City Machine Guns and Wyatt Sicks were released, and both Andrade and Tommaso Ciampa departed for AEW. Of the six teams that competed for the championships at SummerSlam, only Fraxiom remains on the SmackDown brand.

With the roster now thinner than it has been in some time at the tag team level, how WWE chooses to address the division’s lack of depth figures to be one of the more pressing creative questions heading into the summer.