Undisputed ERA vs. Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne vs. Authors of Pain
The NXT Tag Team championship and the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic are being contended this Saturday in NXT Takeover: New Orleans.
The Undisputed ERA were left one-man short when Bobby Fish went down with an injury. Adam Cole took Fish’s role in the championship team and last Wednesday interfere in the finals of the Dusty Cup, attacking the Authors of Pain and the pair of Roderick Strong and the United Kingdom champion Pete Dunne.
The Undisputed ERA as it is, has their hands full this weekend. Not only does Adam Cole will be in the North American Championship Ladder Match, but now, with former ROH World Champion Kyle O’Reilly, he has the duty to keep the NXT Tag titles in the unit. The Undisputed ERA has run circles in NXT since winning the titles from Sanity and the War Games at last November’s Takeover. They beat one of their opponents – Authors of Pain – in NXT Takeover Philadelphia and look to keep being the establishment in NXT.
Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne as a tag team has work wonders. Al though both are singles specialist, their good in-sync ring work has elevated them to the finals of the third edition of the Dusty Classic. Roderick and Dunne haven’t been winning as singles lately. Dunne, al thought the UK Champion, barely defends the title in WWE – he has more titles matches in the UK indie scene – and Roderick lost in the semi-finals to Cedric Alexander of the WWE Cruiserweight title tournament for WrestleMania. It seems that this pairing has helped them gain lost traction in WWE.
Authors of Pain are on their way up and this Takeover could be their last. The last Takeover showed that their run as NTX’s top tag team was over and that it was a matter of time before they got call-up. AOP had a dominant run in the Dusty Classic and event their lost to Fish & O’Reilly wasn’t clean.
Prediction: I must go with the Undisputed ERA, it seems that the only reason to have Roderick and Dunne in this match is to have AOP exit NXT without a loss or a pin. WWE NXT has built the Undisputed ERA as this well oil machine that can back up their talking inside the square circle.
