8 Early Predictions For NXT TakeOver: New Orleans

6. EC3 Vs. Roderick Strong

Ethan Carter III EC3
ImpactWrestling.com

As mentioned at the very beginning of this article, NXT TakeOvers usually feature no more than five matches. It is unlikely that the company will buck that trend over WrestleMania, so consider this the final pre-show match taped for NXT television.

Is that unfair on Roderick Strong? Absolutely. Roddy has been in a holding pattern ever over the last six months or so, as Drew McIntyre, Aleister Black and Johnny Gargano have all passed him on the babyface pecking order. A heel turn isn’t entirely out of the question, but that may have to wait until the summer.

At the Philadelphia show, EC3 was revealed as the latest big name to sign with NXT. The former Derrick Bateman has more to prove than most signees, and it can be argued that he is yet to have a classic singles match. EC3’s character work has never been questioned, but the time to step up between the ropes is now.

With that in mind, Roderick Strong is the perfect opponent, albeit begrudgingly. Roddy is as good as it gets in the squared circle, and he will surely be able to bring EC3 up a notch between the bells.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.