They’re arguably one of the top tag teams of the past decade, winning tag team gold in multiple companies around the world as the tandem known as reDRagon. But tonight on NXT television, the team of Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly conquered another plateau by defeating the SAnitY‘s duo of Eric Young and Killian Dain to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions, claiming the first hardware for the Undisputed Era stable that also includes Adam Cole. The match was originally taped at the past set of NXT tapings from Full Sail University but officially aired on tonight’s broadcast. It marks Fish & O’Reilly’s first title wins in the WWE Universe.
THEY HAVE DONE IT! The #UndisputedERA's @KORcombat & @TheBobbyFish have captured the #WWENXT #TagTeamTitles! pic.twitter.com/iu7iUczeRH
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) December 21, 2017
This marks the duo’s 6th major tag team titles in five years, since forming in 2012 in Ring of Honor, when the pair debuted together at ROH Final Battle ’12 in a losing effort to the American Wolves (Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards). But it didn’t take long for Fish & O’Reilly to click and gain momentum, capturing the ROH World Tag Team titles three months later at ROH 11th Anniversary show in March of 2013 against The Briscoe Brothers. They would have two more reigns, first defeating the American Wolves for their second run, followed by a 322-day reign after beating the Young Bucks in May of 2014. In total, they held the ROH tag team titles for a combined 672 days, second only to the 8x tag team champion Briscoes (whose combined days equal 807).
Thanks in part to Ring of Honor’s alliance with NJPW, reDRagon also made their mark in Japan, where they are also former 2x IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Fish & O’Reilly won their first titles at NJPW Power Struggle ’14 over The TimeSplitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) and their second at the G1 Climax 25 a year later against their old ROH rivals, The Young Bucks. In 2014, they also defeated The Young Bucks in the finals to win the prestigious NJPW Super Junior Tag Team tournament.
While predominantly known as tag team specialists together, the two have had successful careers apart as well. Bobby Fish, a 15-year veteran, spent seven years with Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan before heading to ROH in 2013 and in 2011, captured the New England Championship Wrestling (NECW) Heavyweight Championship. He also had a 194-day reign as the ROH World Television Champion in 2016.
Kyle O’Reilly has fared much better as a solo performer, starting in his home promotion of ECCW in Vancouver while it was still allied with the NWA. He captured the NWA Canadian Junior Heavyweight Championship on three occasions, before heading to ROH and PWG. In 2014, he defeated Undisputed Era team mate Adam Cole at PWG Sold Our Souls For Rock N’ Roll for the PWG World Heavyweight title, and in December of last year finally won the ROH World Heavyweight Championship, again from Adam Cole, at last year’s ROH Final Battle ’16. Between leaving ROH and NJPW and starting with NXT, he briefly returned back to his old stomping grounds in ECCW and captured the ECCW Championship for the first time.
