Analysis: Three Pairings That Could Become AEW’s Next Tag Teams

AEW’s tag team division has quietly gotten a lot deeper over the past few months, with newcomers like The New Level and the Motor City Machine Guns joining the fray and reshaping the race toward the tag belts. That influx raises an obvious question: which existing AEW and ROH talents could be next to pair off and climb the division themselves? A few possibilities stand out.

The most obvious candidate is a tag unit within The Opps built around HOOK and Action Andretti. Andretti officially became part of the faction after weeks of teaming alongside HOOK, with the group helping him capture the ROH World Television Championship from “Blackheart” Lio Rush at ROH Death Before Dishonor 2026. Since then, Andretti has run with a stacked Opps roster that includes HOOK, Katsuyori Shibata, Anthony Bowens and Samoa Joe. For all that star power, though, The Opps haven’t really carved out a tag team identity yet. Formalizing HOOK and Andretti as a dedicated duo would give the faction a tangible presence in the tag division rather than just a collection of singles stars who occasionally share entrances.

On the women’s side, Red Velvet has spent years cycling through tag partnerships, from Queen Aminata to stints with The Baddies, usually finding success no matter who’s in her corner. Lately she’s been teaming with Zayda Steel, and the pair have strung together wins on ROH programming. Steel currently holds the ROH Women’s World Television Championship, so bringing this partnership fully into AEW’s tag picture carries real stakes — a run at the AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championships could set Steel up to become a double champion. Given how thin AEW’s women’s tag division can look compared to the stacked ROH women’s scene, a credible new team crossing over would be a welcome addition.

The most unconventional option is pairing Hologram with his storyline double, El Clon. Hologram hasn’t wrestled since late 2025 due to a serious knee injury that required surgery, and after more than a year on the sidelines, his eventual return remains one of the more anticipated homecomings on the roster. Before the injury, AEW introduced El Clon as a mysterious doppelganger of Hologram, who has since aligned himself with the Don Callis Family. Once Hologram is cleared, reuniting — or rather, confronting and then uniting with — his own clone could make for one of the more visually distinct and easily marketable teams AEW has produced in a while, assuming the storyline bends that direction instead of toward a rivalry.

None of these pairings are confirmed as official teams yet, but AEW has shown a willingness lately to formalize loose alliances into structured tag acts, particularly as the promotion looks to keep its deep roster of singles stars engaged without overcrowding the main event scene. With Death Before Dishonor and the Don Callis Family storylines still very much in motion, and Hologram’s return looming as a long-term subplot, AEW has the pieces in place to grow its tag division organically over the coming months. Whether it’s The Opps doubling down on HOOK and Andretti, Red Velvet and Zayda Steel crossing fully into AEW tag competition, or the eventual spectacle of Hologram meeting his own clone, there’s no shortage of directions the company could take.