Why is WWE splitting up its tag teams right now?

WWE is currently restructuring a bloated tag team division following several recent releases, treating the roster like legacy code that needs to be cleaned up. Management feels that many established teams are burning valuable TV time without contributing to meaningful storylines, prompting an immediate need to separate them.

What is the current status of A-Town Down Under?

Austin Theory and Grayson Waller are heading toward an imminent split after a long-teased breakup that has been dragging out for months. The tension escalated at WrestleMania 41 when Waller missed a crucial tag to argue with a fan, leaving Theory vulnerable in the ring and accelerating their eventual split.

Why is Austin Theory struggling despite his athletic look?

While Austin Theory has the perfect physical build and natural athleticism for professional wrestling, his promo skills and character work are still lagging behind. Grayson Waller has had to carry all the heavy lifting on the microphone for the duo over the past year, proving that Theory desperately needs a hard reset.

How is the main roster audience reacting to DIY?

Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa have struggled to connect with the main roster audience despite consistently working hard in the ring. Their nostalgic matching gear and best friends routine seems to have hit a hard ceiling with casual viewers, failing to translate the magic they previously captured in New Orleans.

When did the issues between Theory and Waller escalate?

The tension reached a glaring breaking point at WrestleMania 41 inside Allegiant Stadium last month. Grayson Waller was too busy arguing with a fan in the front row to pay attention to the match, forcing Austin Theory to take a massive bump alone while his partner simply adjusted his elbow pads.

WWE's tag team division is about to get completely gutted

The Great Roster Refactor

WWE is currently treating its tag team division the way Google treats messaging apps. They launch a bunch of them, figure out none of them are actually working, and then deprecate the whole lot. The bloodletting has already started.

According to recent reports from WrestleTalk, the structural collapse is already underway.

"WWE has undergone a lot of different changes within the tag team division after several different duos were released from the company."

We are staring down the barrel of a massive purge. The tag team division right now is essentially running on fumes and legacy code. Triple H is looking at his roster sheet like a junior developer looking at a bloated GitHub repo. It is time to delete some branches.

Today is May 20, 2026. We are officially past the WrestleMania 41 hangover and the post-Backlash fallout. The booking realities are glaringly obvious right now. Several established teams are currently serving zero purpose on television. They are burning TV time that could be given to actual storylines. Let's break down the six teams that are absolutely getting split up in the near future.

1. A-Town Down Under: A Failed Experiment

Let's be brutally honest about Austin Theory and Grayson Waller. This pairing was always a hastily applied patch for a bug in the midcard. Theory looks like he was built in a lab to be a pro wrestler. He has the physique, the athleticism, and the jawline. But his promo processing speed is still stuck on dial-up.

Waller has been doing all the heavy lifting on the microphone for over a year. The tease of a split has been dragging out forever. I was sitting in Allegiant Stadium during WrestleMania 41 last month, watching them actively ignore the crowd. Waller missed a tag because he was too busy arguing with a fan in the front row. Theory took a massive bump, looked for his partner, and saw Waller adjusting his elbow pads.

The tension is there, but the execution is moving at a glacial pace. Triple H has this terrible habit of stretching out a three-week storyline into a nine-month saga. It is exhausting. We get it. They do not like each other anymore. Just run the angle.

Theory desperately needs a hard reset as a babyface. His natural resting face screams arrogant heel, but the current run is completely stale. If they drag this breakup out past June, I am going to lose my mind. Pull the trigger, let Waller hit the rolling stunner, and move on.

2. DIY: The Nostalgia Ceiling

I love Johnny Gargano. I love Tommaso Ciampa. They work their asses off every single time they step through the ropes. But the main roster audience still looks at them like they are foreign exchange students who got lost on the way to the cafeteria. The whole "we are best friends who wear matching gear" routine has a very hard ceiling.

I remember watching them tear the house down in New Orleans years ago. That magic simply has not translated. You can blame the booking, or you can blame the fact that a casual Monday Night Raw viewer does not care about workrate if there is no character motivation behind it.

Ciampa is a natural psycho. He is a killer. Keeping him chained to this squeaky-clean underdog babyface run is borderline professional malpractice. We saw tiny, fleeting flashes of the old Psycho Killer during the build to WM41, but nothing materialized. He needs to finally snap.

Throw Johnny into an LED board. Hit the Fairytale Ending on the concrete floor. Just do something that actually registers on the main roster radar. Nobody cares about them having four-star technical classics on Raw if there is no heat behind the moves. A bitter, violent feud between these two is the only way to salvage their main roster run.

3. The New Day: Running on Empty

It physically hurts to type this, but it is time. The New Day is done. Xavier Woods has been simmering with visible resentment for months. Kofi Kingston is a certified legend, but the pancake-throwing, unicorn-horn-wearing gimmick is hopelessly outdated.

Kofi hitting the Trouble in Paradise on a random Monday night does not pop the crowd like it used to. Woods hitting the limit break elbow drop gets polite applause. They are legacy acts trapped in amber. A split would inject some actual venom into their characters.

Woods has been begging for a legitimate singles push for years. His King of the Ring victory feels like it happened in a different century. They have explicitly teased Woods getting frustrated with Kofi's in-ring mistakes repeatedly over the last few weeks. We need Woods to finally lose his temper.

Imagine a bitter, vicious Xavier Woods targeting Kofi's knee with a steel chair. It would be the most compelling television they have produced in half a decade. Let him be the underappreciated workhorse. Let him cut the promo saying Kofi held him back to protect his own spot.

4. The Street Profits: The Pivot That Failed

Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins used to be the hottest act in the entire company. Do you remember when they were dropping absolute bangers with The Usos? Now they are just guys on the roster. The whole alliance with Bobby Lashley completely fizzled out. It was a massive swing and a miss by creative.

They traded all of that away to wear expensive suits and scowl at people backstage. It was a terrible creative pivot. They lost all their organic swagger. Ford is a generational talent. He has the charisma, the look, and the unbelievable vertical leap.

Ford hitting a 45-inch vertical leap to deliver a frog splash is a main-event level spot. He should be challenging Cody Rhodes for the WWE Championship, not trading roll-ups with midcarders. Dawkins has improved immensely, but Ford is the glaringly obvious breakout star.

WWE has been terrified to split them up because they seemingly have zero ideas for Dawkins as a singles guy. But you cannot hold Ford back forever just to protect his partner. The split does not even need to be a violent betrayal. Just a mutual parting of ways. Let Ford chase a singles title. The tag division is holding him hostage.

5. The Judgment Day Remnants

Finn Balor and JD McDonagh are currently haunting Monday Night Raw like leftover code from a deleted feature. The Judgment Day has been slowly bleeding out for a year. With Rhea Ripley out of the picture and Damian Priest moving on, Balor and McDonagh are just hanging around.

They have absolutely zero heat right now. Balor hitting the Coup de Grace used to mean the match was over. Now it is just a transition move in a chaotic six-man tag match. JD McDonagh takes bumps like a crash test dummy, which is great, but that is his entire identity. He is a walking ragdoll.

Balor is entirely too talented to be playing the grumpy older mentor to JD's annoying little brother routine. They need to put this faction out of its misery entirely. It is done. The Judgment Day was the focal point of Monday Night Raw for two entire years. Now it is a complete afterthought.

Balor needs to go back to being a ruthless singles competitor. Maybe even bring back the Demon for a real run that does not end in him falling off the top rope like an idiot. McDonagh can bump around the midcard and make other people look good. But keeping them together as a zombified tag team is helping absolutely no one.

6. Awesome Truth: The Joke is Over

Miz and R-Truth reuniting was a genuinely fun nostalgia run. The massive pop they got at WrestleMania 40 was great. But the joke has entirely run its course. Miz is a natural, unrepentant heel. Playing the exasperated straight man to Truth's delusions was funny for about three months. Now it is just sad.

Miz is arguably the greatest pure heel of his generation. He knows exactly how to make an arena full of people genuinely despise him. Playing second fiddle in a comedy routine is a massive waste of his current value.

Truth will always be over. He is bulletproof. He does not need the tag titles to get a reaction. WWE needs to rip the band-aid off. Miz needs to hit the Skull Crushing Finale on Truth. He needs to get back to being the most punchable face on the roster.

The tag team division does not need a comedy act taking up television time when there are actual teams trying to get over. The upcoming releases and splits are going to be brutal, but they are completely necessary. You have to burn the dead wood to let the forest grow back.

The Bottom Line

The tag team division in WWE right now is completely broken. It is a holding pen for singles stars who creative has nothing for. That has to change. If Triple H actually wants to build a credible tag division, he needs actual teams, not just random superstars thrown together because they happen to wear the same color trunks.

Splitting up these six teams will free up television time, reset stagnant characters, and hopefully force the writing team to actually build genuine tag team contenders. Until then, we are just watching a slow-motion car crash. And frankly, it isn't even an entertaining one.