7 Ups And 3 Downs From WWE NXT TakeOver: Toronto

5. Dillinger Has His Moment

Bobby Roode Tye Dillinger
WWE.com

Typically, if you lose your big PPV grudge match, it doesn’t bode well for you. It can be hard to move forward from that point.

But sometimes, losing a big match can be a groundbreaking event for a wrestler. Witness Tye Dillinger, who lost his first big feud match against Bobby Roode at TakeOver: Toronto. However, Dillinger also was really being taken seriously for the first time in his career. His Perfect 10 gimmick has been a staple of NXT for some time now, garnering cheers and chants from the fans, but it really wasn’t anything to take seriously.

That is, until recently. After Roode turned on Dillinger, it gave Tye a renewed purpose and a reason to start acting more serious. He has scrapped with the Glorious One on several occasions, and on Saturday, Dillinger hung with Roode and gave him everything he could handle. Yes, he came up short, but Dillinger looked like a credible threat rather than an opening match novelty. Mission accomplished.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.