Watch: Daniel Bryan and Rowan Retain SmackDown Tag Titles Against Heavy Machinery

Daniel Bryan and Rowan successfully managed to retain the SmackDown Tag Team Championships on [...]

By Connor Casey

Daniel Bryan and Rowan successfully managed to retain the SmackDown Tag Team Championships on Sunday night at Stomping Grounds, defeating Heavy Machinery when Bryan rolled up Tucker for a quick pin.

Though Otis and Tucker entered the match as babyfaces, Bryan was heavily cheered by the crowd in the Tacoma Dome for being a Washington native.

Bryan and Rowan initially won the titles back in early May when The Hardy Boyz had to relinquish them due to Jeff Hardy suffering an injury. After the pair defeated The Usos to win the titles, Bryan cut a backstage promo where he announced his crusade to improve the tag team division.

"The talk about a women's evolution, about women main-eventing WrestleMania," Bryan said. "You know who's never talked about main-eventing WrestleMania? It's the tag team division. And do you know why? Because for years they've been led by jokers like The New Day, like the Usos, like Heavy Machinery. And they go out there an they do Thanksgiving turkey fights, and they'll do Halloween contests. We are not those kinds of tag team champions.

"You know what? There's going to be a tag team evolution," he continued. "And this isn't going to be one dictated to us by the McMahons. No, this is going to be self-led. A self-led tag team evolution, because Kofi Kingston, The New Day, they never aspired to that. They never aspired to that level. Neither did the Usos. They were content to just be great tag teams. We're not content to just be great."

In a recent interview on Jimmy Jacobs' podcast, Bryan revealed his plans for after he retires several years down the road.

"That's the journey I'm on right now, I'm looking in a couple years when I'm no longer a full-time wrestler," Bryan said. "I'll always wrestle a little bit because I love doing it. After my contract is up, I don't want to be a full-time wrestler anymore. So, diving into [climate change and other issues] has been really important."

So far on Sunday night the only other champion who has managed to retain is Becky Lynch. Samoa Joe dropped the United States Championship to Ricochet, while Drew Gulak captured the Cruiserweight Championship from Tony Nese during the kickoff show.

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