During a vignette taped for WWE’s YouTube channel on Monday night, Raw Tag Team Champions The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) were confronted by the reunited tandem of Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins who challenged the Raw Tag Champions to a match for their titles at WrestleMania 35, held in their home area of New York/New Jersey. While the Revival didn’t accept the challenge as of writing, it definitely feels like this may be where the tag team title match may be headed for Sunday.
Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins came up together in the New York indie scene, pairing together in New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC) in 2004, when they were then known as Brett Matthews (Ryder) and Brian Myers (Hawkins), where they were 2x NYWC Tag Team Champions.
In 2006, they signed with the WWE and in 2007 debuted on SmackDown, originally as Edge imposters who helped Edge win the World Heavyweight Championship. Known as The Edgeheads, they debuted as the Major Brothers, Brett & Brian Major. They would become part of Edge’s new stable, La Familia, alongside Vickie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero Jr., as well as WWE Tag Team Champions.
Following their dissolution, they went on very different paths. Brett Major became Zack Ryder, one of the biggest cult following stars in the WWE. “The Broski” had his own YouTube show (before that was even fashionable) and is a former WWE United States and Intercontinental Champion. Meanwhile, Brian Major became Curt Hawkins and failed to achieve the same success as his former partner. He departed WWE in 2014 and returned to the indies for two years, before returning at the end of 2016. Since then, he’s been on a record losing streak, and earlier this year, the pair reunited for the first time in years.
With Hawkins on a near three year losing streak and heading to the backyard where both Ryder and Hawkins grew up together, the time may be primed for Ryder and Hawkins to have a MAJOR WrestleMania moment and win tag team gold in New York.
