The Dusty Tag Classic 2016: What Could Have Been

The Dusty Tag Classic 2016: What Could Have Been

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I have random wrestling thoughts pop into my head on almost a regular basis.  This is one that I haven’t written about before, and it is the 2016 edition of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.  And now with the announcement for this year’s tournament, now seems like a good time to talk about 2016’s. 

                2015’s tournament was a really enjoyable affair.  It was the inaugural edition of the tournament that was a tribute to the recently passed American Dream.  It’s probably most remembered as the catalyst for Samoa Joe’s heel turn after winning the event with his partner Finn Balor.  It was also during this tournament that the American Alpha truly “got over” and would help start the NXT tag team revolution that went throughout 2016 and much of this year.  (RIP American Alpha)

                The following year we entered the 2016 tournament, and things appeared to be stacked.  We had just come off the magical Cruiserweight Classic, and many of those boys would be represented in the “Dusty Classic,” along with the molten-hot feuding teams of #DIY and the Revival.   Also announced as a team was the debuting Roderick Strong who would be teaming with Austin Aries, rekindling a team that dominated ROH in 2006.  (Seriously go re-watch some of these guys’ matches from that time.  Absolutely fantastic.)   And in what I was most excited about, the super-team pairing of Japanese superstars Kota Ibushi and Hideo Itami.  I squealed like a little girl when I saw this announced.  Fast forward to Takeover: Toronto in November and the Authors of Pain beat TM-61 to win the trophy.  Huh?!?  What the hell happened?   

                Before the tournament even started, Itami was injured at a house show by either Moss or Sabbatelli.  I don’t remember which, and frankly it doesn’t matter.  Now before you make any jokes, go watch the video of the injury.  It was brutal.  I’d like to see you walk after taking that, let alone make a full recovery.  With the man formerly known as KENTA now out, Ibushi was teamed with TJP. 

Now TJP is a great wrestler and has lots of experience in Japan, so I had no doubt he would be a good partner for Ibushi, but the bloom was already off the rose at this point.  Perkins was riding high after winning the magical (yes, I’m using that word again) CWC.  But the minute they started having four minute Raw matches, the remotes around the world started changing the channel.  To blame him solely for the lack of success of the cruiserweights is obviously unfair.  However, I’m totally getting off-topic here and need to get back on track.  So lukewarm TJP was teaming with white hot Kota Ibushi in a not so “super” team. 

After the first round was successfully completed, things started to get screwy.  Austin Aries got kicked by Nakamura at house show and his left side of his face swelled up to grotesque proportions due to a broken orbital bone.  Ironically on his interview on Talk is Jericho (check it out) he said it wasn’t even the most painful injury he’d ever had.  He said he just has weak “eye holes” that shattered on a fluke kick that wasn’t even that stiff. 

So, Aries is now out, and Strong has to face one of the members of TM-61 in a singles match. Again, I don’t remember which because it doesn’t matter.  TM-61 had to advance obviously, and Aries wouldn’t wrestle again until March.  Is this tournament cursed?

Then it was time for a second-round match that can’t let us down: The Revival vs. #DIY!  Can you say “match of the year?”  Yeah this will be great.  Tag team perfection… aaaaannnddd the Revival forfeits the match due to “injury.”  As the kids like to say, “WTF?” 

Now for storyline purposes it made sense.  It lead to a tag team title match at Takeover: Toronto that is considered by many to be the greatest match in NXT history.  Using this booking strategy made those dastardly Revival boys look that much more cowardly and dastardly.  But in a smark's perfect world, I would have had them matched up in the first round, Revival cheat to win, then be eliminated by the Authors of Pain in the third round of the tournament by #DIY interference, thus setting up their 2 out of 3 falls match at Takeover.  But no, instead we just get a forfeit victory for Gargano and Ciampa.  (RIP #DIY)

So as previously mentioned the AOP beat TM-61 in the finals.  Now I really like TM-61.  In fact, I’m really glad they’re back.  But I didn’t feel they were ready at that time to be showcased in that spot.  In the semi-finals they beat Sanity, which was way too big of upset.  Sanity was over, but were still heels, so they couldn’t have a heel vs. heel final round.  Hence the TM-61 victory.  My personal theory is that it was supposed to be Aries and Strong facing the Authors of Pain.  To me it just makes more sense.  Aries was established, and was claiming he had the “greatest partner that ever lived” so having them go deep into the tournament was more than reasonable. 

As for what Hideo and Kota would have done, my guess is they wouldn’t have made the final round because I’m sure they only had Ibushi for limited dates.  And much like with the magical CWC (third times a charm!) they’re not going to have an unsigned guy make a deep run.  We would however have gotten a really good match or two out of the dream team that now will probably never happen.  (Okay they did team together once in ROH against Marufuji and Nakajima.  And for the record it was fucking awesome!) 

I’m sure the AOP win was always in the cards no matter who got injured.  Which in hindsight I’m fine with.  They wanted them established as the monster team, even though they were green as shit at the time.  (They have since improved quite a bit.)

Yes, most of these reasons are fluke deals, but it is funny how WWE can’t seem to string together two excellent tournaments in a row.  They didn’t have the Dusty Classic in 2017, instead using his War Games concept instead.  Was it because of this cursed edition?  Did Dusty punish WWE from beyond the grave for making him wear polka dots?  The Classic is making its comeback, and will culminate at WrestleMania weekend.  That’s got to make it awesome right?  What could possibly go wrong?  Well even if many things still do go wrong, I don’t think it’s possible to be any worse than this 2016 version.