Roderick Strong Defeats Eric Young at NXT TakeOver: Chicago

Roderick Strong's long-running feud with Sanity came to a head Saturday at NXT TakeOver: Chicago, as he defeated Eric Young.

After neutralizing Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe, the Messiah of the Backbreaker lived up to his name, delivering a release suplex backbreaker to Young to pick up the victory.

Rumble Ramble and former WWE star Taz enjoyed the TakeOver opening match:

FanSided's Jack Jorgensen also praised NXT for building Strong up entering Saturday night:

Strong and Hideo Itami recently did battle in a match for the NXT Championship's No. 1 contendership, and after Itami came out on top, Sanity hit the ring to attack Strong and kick him while he was down.

Sanity's actions were far from random, as they have a long history with Strong dating back to the build toward NXT TakeOver: Orlando.

Tye Dillinger was previously Sanity's main target until Strong and No Way Jose rushed to his defense. Ruby Riot soon joined the group as well, and Jose was replaced by Kassius Ohno after getting beaten down by Sanity.

Strong, Dillinger, Ohno and Riot put up a valiant fight against Sanity in Orlando, but they were unable to take down the well-oiled machine.

They did get some measure of revenge during Dillinger's final NXT match, however, as he beat Young in a steel cage match when Strong and Ohno prevented Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe from aiding EY.

Sanity apparently didn't forget about the role Strong played in that bout, and it led to the decision to add insult to injury after his loss to Itami.

Despite Strong's failure to defeat Itami, he has been on the upswing as of late due largely to a pair of vignettes that aired on NXT programming.

The videos delved into who Strong is as a person, from his difficult childhood to his recent foray into fatherhood.

Little was known about Strong outside the ring when he joined NXT after a long stint with Ring of Honor, but the vignettes humanized him, made him more relatable and undoubtedly increased his popularity among the NXT fanbase.

That gave Young and Sanity even more incentive to target Strong and attempt to use him as a springboard to the top of NXT.

Despite the numbers disadvantage, Strong managed to pick up the victory over Young and may have put himself back in the NXT championship discussion in the process.   

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