The Dusty RhodesTag Team Classic is an annual professional wrestlingtag team tournament held by the U.S.-based promotion WWE, and is featured on its NXT brand. Since the 2020 edition, wrestlers from the NXT UK brand are also featured. The tournament is named in honor of WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Dusty Rhodes, who died in 2015. The tournament has been compared to and inspired by the Crockett Cup tournaments of the 1980s that were promoted by Jim Crockett Promotions. Rhodes himself had been both the behind the scenes creator of and a featured performer in those tournaments.
Tournament history
The 16-team single elimination tournament was established in August 2015 as a tribute to Rhodes - who had been serving as a senior producer and trainer in NXT - and was formally announced during, which took place shortly after he had died. That year's Classic featured tournament matches taking place all through September both on NXT's weekly TV show and at NXT house shows, and would culminate in October at, with the team of Finn Bálor and Samoa Joe winning, having defeated Baron Corbin and Rhyno in the final. The second Classic took place throughout the fall of 2016 - again with a 16-team field - which eventually culminating in November at, where it was won by The Authors of Pain, having defeated TM-61. There was no tournament held in 2017 after taking an extra half year to switch to a spring schedule, returning in 2018. Now featuring an eight-team field, the 2018 Classic culminated at, the night before WrestleMania 34. It was won by Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly of The Undisputed Era, who successfully defended their NXT Tag Team Championship in a Winner Takes AllTriple Threat match against both tournament finalists, The Authors of Pain and Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne. The fourth Classic was held in February and March 2019. Aleister Black and Ricochet won the eight-team tournament, ultimately defeating The Forgotten Sons in the final on March 13 during the WWE NXT tapings. The fifth Classic was announced during the January 1, 2020 episode of NXT. again featuring an eight-team field, and for the first time including teams from sister brand NXT UK, with both brands having four teams each in the tournament. All four first round matches featured direct NXT vs. NXT UK matchups, and the semifinals and finals also wound up featuring NXT teams vs. NXT UK teams. The BroserWeights representing NXT won the tournament, defeating NXT UK's Grizzled Young Veterans on the live January 29, 2020 episode of NXT in the finals.
Prize
The winners of the tournament receive a trophy that is modeled in part after Rhodes' signature "cowboy" style wrestling boots. In 2019, the winners also received an NXT Tag Team Championship match at, and in 2020 the winners also received a tag team title match at.
