Otunga & McGillicutty sound off

Demolition. The Hart Foundation. The Road Warriors. The Steiner Brothers. These names have become synonymous with tag team competition throughout the history of WWE. More than just collective names, these were duos that worked seamlessly in the squared circle, showed great chemistry as a unit and earned their status as legends of tag team competition. If you ask former WWE Tag Team Champions David Otunga & Michael McGillicutty, these qualities are much more important than the name value of a particular twosome.

Otunga and McGillicutty believe that chemistry is what really makes an effective tag team and that together, they are the perfect example. By contrast, the WWE NXT alums believe the two tag teams competing at Night of Champions, “Air Boom” – despite their much discussed, unique namesake – and Miz & Truth, don’t have the cohesion to become effective and legendary duos.

“It doesn’t really matter who wins at Night of Champions. You look at Michael McGillicutty & David Otunga, and we’re the definition of a real team, we’re not two WWE Superstars just thrown together,” McGillicutty emphatically stated.

The third- generation Superstar continued, “You watch us in the ring: we do team moves, we work together and we ride together in the same car from town to town. Those other four guys that are involved in this Night of Champions tag match ... they’re a joke, man.”

While McGillicutty referred to the current WWE Tag Team Champions, “Air Boom,” as “paper champions,” Otunga agreed with the idea that having cohesion is what builds legends.

“We have chemistry. We’re united. We work together and shouldn’t have been stopped. It’s just a matter of time until we hold those titles again,” Otunga argued.

McGillicutty and his partner have been through a lot together, dating back to WWE NXT. And together, they claim they’ve faced more trials and tribulations than both “Air Boom” and Miz & Truth have as respective partners. That is a prime reason why they are less concerned with who comes out victorious at Night of Champions and more focused on what happens after – a potential rematch for the titles.

“It doesn’t really matter who wins on Sunday,” McGillicutty said. “We’re dominant and it doesn’t matter if Kofi Kingston, Air Boom, whatever the hell they want to call themselves, wins, or ... who’s the other team? Oh yeah, Miz and Truth ...”

Otunga interjected, “… those guys don’t even have a name, and the other two [Air Boom] just put their nicknames together. That’s not very creative.”

The A-list Superstar argued that – names or not – nothing about the other two squads make them any more exciting than he and his partner, contrary to Jerry Lawler’s argument that he and McGillicutty are a “boring tag team.” (SEE THEM IN ACTION).

Reminding the duo that the WWE Universe helped “Air Boom” select their name, WWE.com asked if they would consider holding a similar survey to appropriately christen their “preeminent” tandem and allow WWE fans to select their team name through Facebook and Twitter.

“Why would I want somebody else to tell me what our name should be?” Otunga immediately fired back. “There’s nobody smarter or more clever than me. Even McGillicutty does what I say,” teased the NXT season one runner-up.

In-group joking aside, McGillicutty agrees with Otunga on the matter of asking the WWE Universe to help them choose a name, but he takes it a bit more personally.

“Why should we reach out to the WWE Universe for their support when they don’t back us when we’re out there? They’re constant haters against us,” he said. “If we want to come up with a name, we’re creative enough to come up with it ourselves.”

Regardless of team names, McGillicutty and Otunga will be sitting on the sidelines as “Air Boom” battles Miz & Truth this Sunday at Night of Champions for the WWE Tag Team Championships. The pair of WWE NXT alumni will be waiting for a winner to be determined so they can soon demonstrate their collected talents and make a real name for themselves, setting the standard for the future of tag team competition.