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What's the story?
William Regal announced on this week's edition of WWE NXT that the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic will return in two weeks. On Friday morning, WWE.com unveiled the bracket of this year's tournament.
In case you didn't know...
The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic started in 2016 Dusty's life. He was a major part of making NXT the brand it is today.
The first tournament was won by the tag team of Finn Balor and Samoa Joe; while last year's tournament was won by The Authors of Pain.
The heart of the matter..
The first two years of the Dusty Classic had a 16-team tournament, and this year's is only going to be 8 teams with the winner facing the NXT Tag Team Champions Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly at NXT Takeover: New Orleans the Saturday before WrestleMania. Take a look at the bracket below:
As Regal stated on this week's NXT, the tournament will begin on the March 7th edition of NXT with the finals wrapping up just before Takeover on April 7th.
It is possible that they shifted to only 8 teams for this year's tournament to be able to make a #1 contender's tournament for Fish and O'Reilly of The Undisputed Era. A 16 tournament wouldn't be completed in time for the next Takeover.
What's next?
Next up for the WWE is Elimination Chamber this Sunday on the WWE Network live from Las Vegas, Nevada. There will be two history-making Chamber matches with the men having seven competitors and the women having a match inside the brutal structure for the first time.
Author's take...
I'm slightly disappointed in a couple of items on this edition of the Dusty Classic. I loved how there were 16 teams in the tournament in the past because it would create some new tag teams that could sometimes earn an upset win or two.
I'm also disappointed that War Machine isn't in this either. Even though they haven't debuted on television it, I was hoping they'd be in the first Dusty Classic. My hope for a War Machine and Authors of Pain feud still exists though based on my predictions.
I think SAnitY wins their end of the bracket; while Moustache Mountain upsets the Authors of Pain to make it to the finals; where I think SAnitY wins the Dusty Classic and gets their deserved rematch with The Undisputed Era.
