kurt angle and chris benoit were the tag team champions on smackdown.
who are the tag team champions on smackdown?
kurt angle and chris benoit
over the following weeks, several tag teams were scheduled for the tag team elimination match. for team smackdown, heath slater and rhyno were made captain by virtue of being smackdown tag team champions on the october 25 episode of "smackdown". they then successfully defended their titles (and their spot at survivor series) against the spirit squad in an impromptu match. the same night, the hype bros qualified for the team by defeating the ascension. american alpha and the usos both qualified on the november 1 episode by defeating the spirit squad and the headbangers, respectively. on the november 8 episode, breezango defeated the vaudevillains to qualify as the final tag team for team smackdown. on the final "smackdown" before survivor series, booker t in his king booker character gave a motivational speech to the team. for team raw, raw tag team champions the new day (big e, kofi kingston, and xavier woods) were revealed as captains on the october 31 episode of "raw". the remaining four spots were filled the following week: cesaro and sheamus, luke gallows and karl anderson, enzo amore and big cass, and the golden truth (goldust and r-truth). the new day addressed the teams and then gallows and anderson, who were at odds with the rest of team raw, defeated big e and kingston in a non-title match. also, r-truth sold his team's spot to the shining stars for a timeshare. the golden truth then fought the shining stars in a losing effort to get their spot back.
survivor series (2016)
after five years, a new brand extension was introduced on july 19, 2016. raw drafted the wwe women's champion, the united states champion, and the wwe tag team champions, while smackdown drafted the wwe champion and the intercontinental champion; nxt champions were ineligible to be drafted. this distribution of championships remained unchanged at the battleground pay-per-view, which took place the sunday immediately following the draft. with the wwe championship being defended exclusively on smackdown, raw commissioner stephanie mcmahon and general manager mick foley introduced the wwe universal championship to be raw's world title. as smackdown was lacking a tag team championship and a women's championship, smackdown commissioner shane mcmahon and general manager daniel bryan introduced the smackdown tag team championship and smackdown women's championship. subsequently, the wwe women's championship and the wwe tag team championship were renamed as the raw women's championship and the raw tag team championship, respectively. with this, each brand had a world championship, a secondary championship, a tag team championship, and a women's championship: the universal, united states, raw tag team, and raw women's on raw, and the world, intercontinental, smackdown tag team, and smackdown women's on smackdown. however, since raw became the exclusive home of wwe's revived cruiserweight division, they also created a new wwe cruiserweight championship. beginning november 29, 2016, in addition to "raw", the cruiserweight championship was defended on the cruiserweight-exclusive show, "205 live". 205 live would become its own brand in 2018, making the title exclusive to the brand. the wwe united kingdom championship was unveiled in december 2016 with its inaugural holder determined in january 2017. the title later became the top championship for the united kingdom-based nxt spinoff, nxt uk, which debuted in mid-2018 and also introduced the nxt uk women's championship and nxt uk tag team championship. a secondary title of the nxt brand was also introduced in mid-2018, the nxt north american championship. in early 2019, the wwe women's tag team championship was established to be shared between raw, smackdown, and nxt. in may 2019, another championship was introduced for male wrestlers, the wwe 24/7 championship, defended across all five of wwe's brands.
wwe brand extension