WWE Tag Team Champions

History

During WWE's original brand split (2002–2011), in which the professional wrestling promotion divided its roster into "brands" where wrestlers were assigned to exclusively perform on each brands' respective weekly television program, the men's world tag team championship of the SmackDown brand was the previous WWE Tag Team Championship, which was established in 2002 to be the counterpart to the promotion's original World Tag Team Championship, which was designated to Raw. At WrestleMania 25 in April 2009, the titles were unified as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, although both titles remained independently active until August 2010 when the original World Tag Team Championship was deactivated in favor of the WWE Tag Team Championship, which then became the sole tag team championship in WWE, available to both brands. The first brand split then ended in August 2011.