Is WWE Ready for a Six-Man Tag Team Championship?

Six-Man Tag Team Matches have been the premier form of combat in WWE since The Shield stormed on the scene at Survivor Series 2012. Since that night, Superstars have been teaming up in trios to try and take out The Hounds of Justice, and it’s led to some of the most thrilling bouts in WWE history. But what is it about these melees that gets the WWE Universe so pumped up?
Watch The Shield's debut match at WWE TLC 2012 on WWE Network
“There’s so many elements involved,” Seth Rollins explained to WWE.com. “There are six guys, all with different styles. The way those two teams interact with each other creates a lot of combustible elements that gets the energy higher.”
With the arrival of The Wyatt Family last summer, the action in the ring only got hotter. Everyone from John Cena to El Torito paired up in threes to try and knock off the two hottest trios in WWE. After battling anyone who stood in their paths, The Shield and The Wyatts clashed in absolute wars that have left the WWE Universe begging for more.
“It’s a different dynamic,” Goldust said. “Six-Man Tag Matches are good to have on the show, because they’re very exciting.”
Six-Man Tag Team Match photos | Highlights from epic Six-Man Tag Matches
The renaissance of Six-Man Tag Team Matches over the past year has us here at WWE.com wondering if, perhaps, the stakes should be raised for three-on-three competition. No time in WWE history has ever been better than now to introduce Six-Man Tag Team Championships.
While the ideas of titles for a three-man team might seem novel, it’s nothing new in the world of wrestling. There’s not a better argument for having Six-Man Tag Team Titles than World Class Championship Wrestling. The Texas-based promotion had trios titles of its own, and they often eclipsed the singles championships.
That’s because the WCCW Six-Man Tag Team Championships were often the lynchpin of the red-hot rivalry between The Fabulous Freebirds and The Von Erichs. Some combination of Fritz, Kerry, Kevin, David & Mike Von Erich teamed up to battle the rowdy trio of Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts in wars that had Texans cramming into the sweltering hot Sportatorium every week.
The first family of Texas wrestling and the hard-living Freebirds traded the titles back and forth for the better part of five years before the tension cooled down between the two factions.
Just south of the border from The Lone Star State, in Mexico, where lucha libre reigns supreme, Six-Man Tag Team Matches are a way of life. One-on-one matches are a rarity in Mexico, saved for the most intense rivalries. The main form of competition is the Six-Man Tag Team Match, commonly called the Trios Match.
The lucha libre style equals matches jam packed with speedy grapplers racing around the ring and daredevil luchadores gracefully soaring through the air before crash landing into their foes. A unique rule even allows for a fresh man to enter the ring as soon as one of his partners leaves the ring and touches the arena floor, ensuring the action stays fast-paced at all times.

Even the NWA had its own Six-Man Tag Team Titles. During the promotion’s breakout period in the mid-1980s, the titles were dominated by Soviet superpowers Ivan & Nikita Koloff , along with their comrade Krusher Khrushchev. The only team capable of unseating the Russian powerhouses was the monumental trio of “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes and The Road Warriors.
WCW tried to recreate the magic with its own Six-Man Tag Team Championships in 1991, but makeshift teams like Dustin Rhodes, Big Josh & Tom Zenk battling the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them York Foundation didn’t exactly light the wrestling world on fire. The titles were introduced in the beginning of the year and disappeared by December. Looking back, The Bizarre One didn’t exactly see holding the titles as an honor.
“To me, it was like [WCW officials] didn’t have anything for me, so they put me in a six-man tag team,” Goldust said.
Watch Dustin Rhodes, Big Josh & Tom Zenk win the WCW Six-Man Titles
Six-man tag team wrestling has been a novelty since then — a special attraction, rather than a viable form of competition. That’s all changed over the past 15 months. The Shield and The Wyatt Family welcomed the challenge of any three Superstars willing to step inside the ring with them. Epic trios like The Undertaker, Kane and Daniel Bryan, or the team of John Cena, Sheamus and Ryback, have answered the call as the WWE Universe watched in awe.
The potential for a Six-Man Tag Team division in WWE runs deep.  It wouldn’t just be a three-team race for the titles between The Shield, The Wyatts and whatever super-trio of singles Superstars felt like challenging them. All three members of 3MB can get in on the action, rather than forcing one member to sit out. Even the fun-loving Los Matadores & Sin Cara have shown they can hang with WWE’s dominant trios, bringing the fight to The Shield and The Wyatt Family in recent weeks. Plus, the new titles could light a fire under struggling Superstars, creating new trios on a regular basis.
With alliances forming left and right in WWE, it feels like there’s never been a better time to make things a little more interesting for everyone involved and introduce WWE Six-Man Tag Team Titles. The Superstars, on the other hand, aren’t so sure.
“Six-Man Tag Team Matches are cool, but they would be titles that didn’t mean anything,” Goldust said.
Rollins was a little more optimistic, though still a little unsure of the concept.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” he said about the creation of new championships. “But if there were Six-Man Tag Team Titles, they would be The Shield’s for the taking. Nobody would touch us — not even The Wyatts.”
What do you think, WWE Universe? Vote in our poll and tell us if you want to see Six-Man Tag Team Titles!