Chris King: What Happened To Heavy Machinery?

Chris King is solving the mystery of Heavy Machinery who has been MIA since Extreme Rules, and the lack of development in the Smackdown tag team division.

Over the last few weeks SmackDown Live has been on fire, with the rise of Kevin Owens’s, Kofi Kingston’s WWE Championship journey, and New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) in six-man tag team matches alongside their New Day brethren, who just happened to be the current Six-time SmackDown Tag Team Champions.

EXCLUSIVE: "We have NEVER settled, and we will NOT settle!"@WWEBigE & @XavierWoodsPhD celebrated their #SDLive Tag Team Championship victory at #ExtremeRules! pic.twitter.com/EMBlvEMcqo

— WWE (@WWE) July 16, 2019

It’s ironic I list that attribute because the very event they won the tag team titles from The Planet’s Champions, “The New” Daniel Bryan and Rowan is the last time we’ve seen Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker) on TV.

Two heavy-hitting powerhouses that went toe-to-toe with the monstrous Rowan and E, and at one point seemed to be seconds away from capturing gold in their first championship match in WWE. E caught Bryan in mid-air and executed the Midnight Hour to gain the victory, which immediately led me to believe that WWE was preserving Heavy Machinery to build them up as the next tag team champions.

Here we are several weeks later and they are nowhere to be found, most likely they are working house shows but still. Why haven’t they been used on television, and most importantly where is the tag team competitors on SmackDown Live?

There really isn’t anyone at the moment outside of Otis and Tucker, that can challenge for SmackDown Tag Team Championships, if that’s the case then why has the strongest tag team on the blue brand been placed on the back burner?

Contrary to SmackDown Live, Raw’s tag team division is stacked with legitimate contenders for the tag team titles such as brand-new Raw Tag Team Champions The O.C., the former tag team champions The Revival, The Usos, and The Viking Raiders. On this week’s Raw, we witnessed a spectacular triple-threat-match for the tag team titles, and it was one of the highlights of the show!

I understand that we are on the road to SummerSlam and some talent will be placed on the bench, to make way for the top-tier matches on the pay-per-view card but all it’s doing is tarnishing the prestige of the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.

With only two weeks before The Biggest Party of the Summer, WWE will be forced to act hastily and book all the tag teams available on both brands in a multi-man match in order a determine a number-one contender for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.

Now I’m certain that whoever E and Woods defend their titles at SummerSlam will create magic and produce a five-star classic, but the fact of the matter is that WWE has completely deflated Heavy Machinery’s momentum. Had they not have gone this route, perhaps the WWE Universe would be heavily behind one of the most entertaining and charismatic tag teams on SmackDown Live!