The hunt for the next big tag team from the WWE NXT banner is on and it will officially begin from next week onward. During the special New Year’s Evil episode that has just passed by, Ava Raine announced that the 2024 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament will begin next week on the January 9 weekly episode of NXT.
As seen throughout the show, several teams then tried to enter the Dusty Classic tourney irrespective of the fact that they’re established tag teams in the division or had just entered the fray as newly joined forces.
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WWE NXT: Team revealed to enter Dusty Classic fray
Two of the teams were thereby confirmed in the form of Idris Enofe and Malik Blade which was announced during a backstage confrontation on WWE NXT with longtime rivals Nathan Frazer and Axiom. The latter duo was also announced to be a part of the tournament.
Chase U will also make its presence felt in the Dusty Classic. Instead of the former WWE NXT tag team champion duos, Andre Chase and Duke Hudson, the university will be represented by Hudson and the 2024 Men’s Breakout Tournament runner-up Riley Osbourne.
Another interesting team that was hinted at entering the tourney was a solo rider in Baron Corbin who managed to convince former WWE NXT Champion Bron Breakker to be his partner, predicting that this pair would be unstoppable. For those who have forgotten Corbin previously made it to the finals of the original Dusty Classic in 2015 alongside former ECW Champion and Smackdown tag team champion, Rhyno.
In the latter part of 2023, the return of the Dusty Classic tourney was announced by Dusty’s son, Cody Rhodes as he served as the WWE NXT guest General Manager on October 10 which was touted as the biggest episode in the show’s history. The winners of the tournament will receive a tag team championship match against the current tag champs Tony D’Angelo and Stacks Lorenzo.
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Previous winners revealed for the Dusty Classic tournament
As mentioned above, there have been multiple winners of the Dusty Classic. Finn Balor and current AEW World Champion Samoa Joe were the inaugural winners (2015) followed by Authors of Pain (2016). Current AEW stars Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly won in 2018, Aleister Black, now Malaki Black in AEW, and Ricochet won in 2019 while Pete Dunne (now known as Butch) and Matt Riddle got the win in 2020. Wes Lee and his former tag partner Nash Carter combinedly known as MSK on WWE NXT clinched the win in 2021 while The Creed Brothers, now stars on WWE Raw got the final victory in 2022.