10 Great WWE NXT Storylines You Don't Remember
3. Velveteen Dream Enjoys Infamy (No, Not Like That...)
As entertaining as it was, fans can't be blamed for wanting to forget Velveteen Dream's NXT run, given the way it ended. In 2017, though, the real-life Patrick Clark earned rave reviews for the Velveteen Dream gimmick, and his first high-profile match was against Aleister Black at TakeOver: WarGames in 2017.
The buildup to this was refreshingly simple. Black was a man of few words and, in his own promos, Velveteen Dream said his aim was to make Black say his name. The in-ring contrast between the two couldn't have been more stark, either. Black's stiff strikes were met by Dream's over-the-top showmanship, which included an elaborate entrance and (straight out of the "Ravishing" Rick Rude playbook) a reveal of tights featuring both men and the NXT logo.
The match was a hard-hitting, back-and-forth affair, one won by Black. After the match, though, Black obliged with a few simple words: "Enjoy infamy... Velveteen Dream."
Velveteen Dream would go on to carry the NXT North American Championship for more than seven months. In April 2020, though, the man behind the gimmick was accused of some truly disgusting actions. An internal investigation by WWE could not corroborate the accusations, but he was released in May 2021 after a long spell off television.