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While the first NXT of 2020 was primarily a recap of 2019 and an awards show, one important piece of information was revealed - the teams competing in the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament.
The round robin has been around since 2015 and has taken place every year except for 2017. The winners have included the likes of Finn Balor and Samoa Joe, the Authors of Pain, the Undisputed Era and the most recent winners, Aleister Black and Ricochet.
With Worlds Collide set to take place of TakeOver on the Saturday before the Royal Rumble, it appears that the Dusty Classic will also have a mix of NXT vs. NXT UK. The brackets were not revealed but the eight teams were.
Competing in the tournament are the Forgotten Sons, Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne, Kushida and a mystery partner and the Undisputed Era from NXT. NXT UK will be represented by Imperium (Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel), Gallus (Mark Coffey and Wolfgang), the Grizzled Young Vets (Zack Gibson and James Drake) and Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews.
One of the members of the tournament, Matt Riddle, didn't take long to respond to the announcement on NXT. Since he hasn't appeared on the show since Survivor Series other than to celebrate his brand's success at the PPV, Riddle reminded the world that he's still around.
An interesting aspect of the announcement is that half of the teams in the mix have won gold in either NXT or NXT UK. Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly are the only representative to win titles in NXT while Gallus, the Grizzled Young Vets and Morgan and Webster have won gold in NXT UK. Both TUE and Gallus will walk into the tournament as their brand's current Champions.
The heel teams outnumber the faces five to three, but the more intriguing aspect is just who Kushida's mystery opponent will be. There are many possibilities on the NXT roster like Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, Angel Garza, Lio Rush, Bronson Reed, Dominik Dijakovic and the Velveteen Dream (if medically cleared). Someone from the WWE Performance Center could also debut. Who'll join the fray to back the Timesplitter up?
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