Predicting The 16 Teams In The 2017 NXT Dusty Rhodes Tag Classic (And How Far They Will Go)

9. Drew McIntyre & Roderick Strong

Drew McIntyre Roderick Strong
WWE.com

Another thrown together pairing of top NXT singles stars. Roderick Strong made his NXT debut as part of the 2016 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, but an eye injury to Austin Aries curtailed the team’s run in the tournament. A second round loss to TM-61 ended what promised to be so much more.

Drew McIntyre is yet to take part in a Dusty Classic, but being NXT Champion shouldn’t stop that. The very first edition was won by the then-champion (Finn Bálor), with many expecting it to act as the catalyst for Samoa Joe turning on the Irishman. That didn’t quite happen, but the teaming of the two showed that NXT wasn’t afraid to integrate main event stories into the Dusty Classic.

Will an early loss for the top duo lead to Roddy turning on Drew? Maybe so, maybe not. I’m all for Strong joining up with his former ROH buddies in a new dominant faction, so maybe that can tie-in with a first round loss for 'The Messiah' and 'The Chosen One'.

Prediction: First Round

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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.