Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Will Revitalize Stale WWE NXT Product

For the second straight year, WWE NXT will host the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic featuring 16 of the most star-studded teams the promotion has ever seen. It officially got underway on the Oct. 5 edition of NXT, with the finals set to take place at TakeOver: Toronto next month.

The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic couldn't have been brought back at a better time, especially with the product being as stagnant as it is at the moment. Although the brand was riding a hot wave of momentum heading into August's TakeOver: Brooklyn II special, the fallout from that spectacular show has hardly been compelling thus far.

Of course, this is largely due to the call-ups of Finn Balor, Bayley, American Alpha and several other notable names that have left each division in NXT nearly depleted. The brand going through a rebuilding phase has led the weekly television show to becoming boring as a result.

However, the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic could be the spark NXT has been missing for the past two months. The annual NXT staple did wonders for the brand's tag team division last year, as well as for the brand as a whole for the fall season.

As we enter the later rounds of the celebrated tournament, the rest of the product should pick up the pace, once again solidifying its spot as the hottest brand in WWE today.

Credit: WWE.com

Already, the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic has reinvigorated stale storylines and caused new ones to develop, all of which are bound to culminate at TakeOver: Toronto.

For example, The Revival contested a highly entertaining match with Cedric Alexander and Andrade "Cien" Almas in one of the first matches of the tourney. Almas betrayed Alexander following their team's loss, a heel turn that was long overdue.

On the subsequent episode, SAnitY made its highly anticipated arrival for a first-round match against the dynamic duo of Bobby Roode and Tye Dillinger. While the match itself wasn't too noteworthy, Roode ditching Dillinger set up a potential bout between the two for the upcoming event.

The remainder of the brackets look to be equally exciting, with Kota Ibushi resurfacing in NXT to form a dream team with T.J. Perkins, Austin Aries enlisting the help of a mystery partner and No Way Jose joining forces with Rich Swann.

NXT has done an excellent job of focusing on the lost art of tag team wrestling these past two years. It's rare to see these types of tournaments on the main roster (with a mere two being held since 2012), and it's nearly guaranteed the black-and-yellow brand will execute this one properly.

Furthermore, this is as perfect of a time as ever to start focusing on the talent of tomorrow. While Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe and Austin Aries are all exceptional athletes, they were household names the day they started with the promotion.

Each of those men, along with Bobby Roode and even Hideo Itami, could be brought up to Raw or SmackDown Live tomorrow and not feel out of place. Thus, NXT needs to start building up its own homegrown names so they can be viewed as being on the same levels as those aforementioned stars.

NXT was widely regarded as being far superior to both Raw and SmackDown for years, but now that each program has its own distinct roster, the developmental league has had tough competition of late. It didn't help that there were few real rivalries to invest in before Nakamura vs. Joe heated up and the Tag Team Classic returned. 

Although the on-air product had been slightly lackluster up until now, there is no denying that the next TakeOver special will be nothing short of sensational. Of the 13 live specials NXT has produced to date, each of them has been extraordinary, and with what's on tap, TakeOver: Toronto should be no exception.

So far, the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic has breathed new life into NXT and should continue to do so through TakeOver. Last year's installment led to The Revival catching fire and Finn Balor and Samoa Joe kicking off what was nearly a year-long feud, so one can only imagine what will stem from this year's stacked tourney.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is a Digital Journalism major at Endicott College. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling, and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.

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