Tag Team Weekly Roundup and Power Rankings: Previewing the Dusty Classic By Will Hardy on Jan 10, 2021, 1:05pm EST 1
If you re a tag team fan, the NXT Dusty Rhodes Classic Tournament is always a high point. While they sometimes will have a makeshift tag team win it last year, Pete Dunne and Matt Riddle were a surprisingly entertaining team in doing so this year s favorites point to how well they have restocked the tag division.
Let s break down the contenders with some guesswork.
Most likely to make a Cinderella run: Killian Dain & Drake Maverick. I wouldn t expect either team to win, but an underdog run would help establish either team. Maverick has experience with that scenario and works well as a sympathetic babyface, plus they have made Dain look like a wrecking crew, so they would be solid choices for runners up (though winning it all would be really fun). As for Ever-Rise, not only do they rule, but they are starting to get over and would benefit the most
Tag Team Weekly Roundup and Power Rankings: The Taggies Year-End Awards By Will Hardy on Jan 3, 2021, 4:00pm EST 4
WWE doesn t always make it easy to do year-end awards for those of us who are ardent fans of the tandem arts because the company often doesn t put much into its tag divisions. Thrown-together teams often hold the gold (especially in the women s division) as a device to get to a singles feud, WWE regular breaks up tag teams for no discernible reason and tag titles sometimes go a while without any top program.
But the level of talent and high-level groups that span the years such as New Day and Undisputed Era means it s inevitable that we ll get good matches and programs. So with no further ado, this year s Taggies go to .
Tag Team Weekly Roundup and Power Rankings: Is The Hurt Business the best new WWE faction in … years? By Will Hardy on Dec 20, 2020, 3:00pm EST 13
Factions are a part of wrestling tradition for good reason. They provide wrestlers and managers many avenues of storytelling. They help build feuds (especially when other factions exist). They help underutilized wrestlers shine. They inevitably involve somebody breaking away from or being cast out of the faction, which often provides that person an alignment shift and fresh story.
WWE could use more factions. And definitely factions better than what they re doing to Retribution. Fortunately, in The Hurt Business, they show it s still possible for the company to put together and book a faction the right way.
Tag Team Weekly Roundup and Power Rankings: The rapidly restocked NXT tag scene By Will Hardy on Dec 13, 2020, 12:00pm EST 6
A few short weeks ago, it was hard to get too excited about NXT s tag team division. But a couple of weeks with a hot program featuring three very different teams makes for a lot more possibilities.
Grizzled Young Veterans picked up the win, but Imperium continued to show how exceptional a team they are and even Ever-Rise got to look on the same level as established teams, even having some credible near-falls. It s a long way from their initial appearances on the losing end of squash matches months ago.