WWE recently announced they were going to have a second annual Dusty Rhodes Classic that is a tournament of tag-teams that are already in place and some are put together just for the event. This tournament will conclude at NXT Takeover: Toronto that happens the night before Survivor Series. Last year was the first one and saw the team of Finn Balor and Samoa Joe go on to win the whole thing. They would end up feuding afterward for the NXT title and this tournament makes stars. During last year’s tournament, the WWE universe became apparent of the tag team of American Alphas, the birth of the Revival who were known as the Mechanics by the time of the tournament, and the debut of independent stars Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa.
This edition of the Dusty Rhodes Classic will conclude with the finals at the next NXT Takeover, and the bracket is stacked from top to bottom. Some of the teams that are wrestling in this tournament include Austin Aries and a mystery partner, CWC Alumni Tony Nese and Drew Gulak, No Way Jose and Rich Swann, The Authors of Pain, TM-61, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa, Bobby Roode and Tye Dillinger, the NXT Tag Champions the Revival,the newly formed faction known as Sanity, and the team of Hideo Itami and Kota Ibushi.
Just like the first go around, I suspect there to be a lot of storylines that come from this tournament and could help WWE NXT programming for the next few months. As the case was last year with the stars who were born, who comes out of this tournament a bigger star than they were going into it. I figure due to how much hype the team Sanity is getting that they could be elevated by this tournament. I also suspect that WWE has something planned for Bobby Roode and Tye Dillinger coming from this tournament. But probably one of the more interesting things I am very curious to see is who the mystery partner is that Austin Aries picked. I have heard people suspect that it would be Rodrick Strong, formerly of Ring of Honor; James Storm has been another name I have been hearing. All I am going to say is that it will be a very stacked tournament and one that will be great programming.
The Dusty Rhodes Classic gets started on this Wednesday’s episode of NXT and runs until NXT Takeover: Toronto in November, the night before WWE’s Survivor Series.