Men's WWE Tag Title Match Set For Royal Rumble, First PLE Defense Since WrestleMania

In a first since WrestleMania 40, the WWE Tag Team Championships will be defended on a premium live event, as #DIY will defend against the team they defeated for the titles, the Motor City Machine Guns, at WWE Royal Rumble. The match was announced during a backstage segment on Friday's "WWE SmackDown," in which the Guns confronted #DIY while they were talking to "SmackDown" General Manager Nick Aldis.

Chris Sabin pointed out that the champs had been ducking them for a rematch, while Alex Shelley confirmed they'd already talked to Aldis who granted them a title rematch at Royal Rumble. To up the ante, the match will have a 2-out-of-3 Falls stipulation — a match in which both teams have significant experience. #DIY weren't happy, with Johnny Gargano exclaiming "tonight sucks!" after his to Apollo Crews earlier in the evening. The Guns, on the other hand, were victorious over Pretty Deadly, who helped #DIY retain their tag titles a couple weeks ago but found themselves on their own against MCMG.

Neither the WWE Tag Team Championship nor the World Tag Team Championship have been defended on a PLE since WrestleMania 40, when the two lineages were split in a massive ladder match that saw both Awesome Truth and A-Town Down Under pull down tag team gold. Prior to that, the two sets of belts had been unified since May 2022, when Jimmy and Jey Uso won a match for both championships.