The 10 Greatest WWE Tag Team Matches Ever (According To Dave Meltzer)

There are lots of pro wrestling journalists and critics in print and on the internet, but the most prominent is Dave Meltzer, whose Wrestling Observer Newsletter has been reporting on the sport since 1982. Meltzer’s biggest contribution to the culture of wrestling is rating matches on a five-star system, with some really standout matches exceeding five stars. The practice has become so prominent that “Five-Star Match” is a phrase you can commonly hear on actual wrestling shows.

Related: NJPW: The 5 Best (& 5 Most Disappointing) IWGP Intercontinental Title Matches

However, Meltzer doesn’t give a lot of five star ratings to WWE matches, and even fewer to WWE tag team matches. Without further ado, here are 10 of the highest rated tag matches in WWE matches, as determined by Dave Meltzer.

10 Shawn Michaels & Diesel Vs. Razor Ramon & 1-2-3 Kid (WWF Action Zone, 10/30/1994) - Rating: 4.5 Stars

Dave Meltzer famously gave the Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels WrestleMania X Ladder Match five stars -- WWE’s first five-star match ever -- but that wasn’t the only great match of theirs that Meltzer lauded that year. In the Fall of 1994, the whole Kliq took part in a tag match on the second episode of the short-lived WWF Action Zone. Despite being on a secondary show, the match is awesome, hitting the ground running with a frantic pace and never letting up.

9 Street Profits vs. The Undisputed Era Vs. Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan Vs. The Forgotten Sons (NXT TakeOver: XXV, 6/1/2019) - Rating: 4.5 Stars

NXT TakeOver: XXV is one of NXT’s strongest cards ever, and this exhilarating ladder match happened on the same show where Meltzer gave the Adam Cole/Johnny Gargano main event more than five stars. Any kind of multi-man affair in NXT is a recipe for success, and this tag ladder match is full of chaos and wild, creative spots featuring the best tag teams on the show at the time and The Forgotten Sons.

8 The Shield Vs. Team Hell No & Ryback (TLC, 12/16/2012) - Rating: 4.5 Stars

The Shield first showed up at the previous month’s Survivor Series, but this Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match against Daniel Bryan, Kane, and Ryback was their first televised match, so it needed to prove to fans just how tough The Shield was.

Related: Shinsuke Nakamura's 5 Best Matches In NJPW (& His 5 Best In WWE)

In that respect, it was a massive success because the match is a blast, full of crazy spots -- Seth Rollins’ near-disastrous table fall is a classic. A very auspicious start for one of the coolest stables in WWE history.

7 Aleister Black & Ricochet Vs. War Raiders (NXT TakeOver: New York, 4/5/2019) - Rating: 4.5 Stars

Singles competitors thrown together for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tend to dominate the bracket more than devoted tag teams, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing when they result in matches like this WrestleMania weekend NXT Tag Title bout. Both teams pulled out all stops in this near 20-minute match as the smaller and faster Aleister Black/Ricochet combo proved amazing foils for the larger-but-still-agile War Raiders.This TakeOver match would prove to be the swan song for all four men, who’d move on to WWE’s main roster with mixed results.

6 Edge & Christian Vs. The Dudley Boyz Vs. The Hardy Boyz (SummerSlam, 8/27/2000) - Rating: 4.5 Stars

Some of the craziest matches you could watch in the Attitude Era were the tag team ladder matches like this, the very first TLC match. This match is especially crazy, as they get to the ladder-based violence as soon as the bell rings, so you know it’s really gonna escalate. The Dudleys were more tables guys than ladders guys, but they were more than willing to hurt dudes with whatever was lying around. Even a couple of decades later, this match shockingly feels more dangerous than the equivalents of today.

5 The Revival Vs. #DIY (NXT TakeOver: Toronto, 11/19/2016) - Rating: 4.5 Stars

The Two-Out-of-Three Falls Match is NXT’s signature match style, the ultimate stipulation to end a hot feud, but it’s only been employed a couple of times in the tag division, both of which involved The Revival. This bout with the beloved NXT babyface team of Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano is one of the black and yellow brand’s all-time great matches, full of drama and exciting action in front of the traditional rowdy TakeOver crowd. It’s the apex of both teams’ NXT careers.

4 Dudley Boyz Vs. Hardy Boyz Vs. Edge & Christian (WrestleMania X-Seven, 4/1/2001) - Rating: 4.75 Stars

This is the one you see in every highlight video where Edge spears Jeff Hardy in midair. Referred to as “TLC II,” this ladder match is the sequel to their SummerSlam 2000 bout, and managed to get an even higher rating from Dave Meltzer.

Related: Finn Balor's 5 Best Matches With WWE (& His 5 Best In NJPW)

The ladder’s not as tall and the pace is slightly more methodical than their maiden voyage into climbing ladders and falling off of them through tables, but all the ladder spots are all insane escalations of what they pulled off in the first match. There’s even three times the run-ins!

3 Two Man Power Trip Vs. Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho (Raw, 5/21/2001) - Rating: 4.75 Stars

If there’s any match on this list that probably deserved to get the full five-star treatment from Big Dave, it’s definitely this absolute barn burner from a 2001 episode of Raw is War. Lasting about 14 minutes, it’s jam-packed with action, twists and turns, and one of the hottest crowds you’ll ever hear in a pro wrestling show as two unappreciated guys from WCW take on two of WWE’s biggest stars of the Attitude Era. It’s easily the best match ever performed on Raw.

2 Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho Vs. Hardy Boyz Vs. Dudley Boyz Vs. Edge & Christian (Smackdown, 5/24/2001) - Rating: 4.75 Stars

Now let’s take the classic formula and add Benoit and Jericho to the mix! This third-ever TLC match happened almost two months after the second, and three days after Jericho and Benoit’s aforementioned tag title win, but this time it was on SmackDown instead of a PPV. There are lots of great moments in this one including Jericho doing the Walls of Jericho on top of the ladder, a 3-D from a ladder and through a table, and Jeff Hardy’s insane double leg drop through the announce table.

1 Mustache Mountain Vs. Undisputed Era (NXT, 7/11/2018) - Rating: 5 Stars

This is literally the only WWE tag match Dave Meltzer has awarded five stars -- and it happened on a regular episode of NXT. This 17-minute NXT Tag Title classic is packed with drama surrounding Trent Seven as Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly worked his bad knee, forcing Tyler Bate to choose between sacrificing his friend and mentor or literally throwing in the towel. In a lot of ways, it’s the ideal WWE match, full of great wrestling with a focus on clear storytelling.

Next: NJPW: The 5 Best (& 5 Most Disappointing) IWGP Heavyweight Title Matches