I’ll just get straight into it and tell you all that it’s the Undisputed Era by a LANDSLIDE!!! Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish have absolutely dominated NXT since becoming a fore-some at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans. I want to try and break these blogs up and them not just follow the same formula. And I wanna watch some good old ‘rasslin too. So I’ll briefly tell you the story of Undisputed Era so far, but with a focus on how the chase to be drapped in Gold, came to be complete. This will be a bit of an NXT love-in (I know, shock coming from me right?…)… but I hope you all enjoy it because This Era of NXT is… UNDISPUTED… BAY BAY!!!
So officially Undisputed Era formed on the day of NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn 3 when, just after Drew McIntyre (whatever happened to that guy…) had won the NXT Championship, this happened:
It’s funny how things work out isn’t it? Throughout the next few months former Ring Of Honor stars Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly were led by the leader Adam Cole running rough-shot over NXT, but there always seemed to be one thorn in their side, another former ROH star, Roderick Strong. Strong had turned down multiple attempts from Cole and co to join them, and this feud spread into the first ever NXT War Games match in November of 2018. The match saw Era face the three man teams of Sanity (whom they had began a rivalry with over the NXT Tag Team Championship) and the unique team of AOP and Strong. The match turned out to be one hell of a WAR…
So an Era win set their path to continue their domination of NXT, and it wasn’t long before Fish and O’Reilly captured tag team gold. And despite a loss to Aleister Black in a brutal extreme rules match at TakeOver: Philadelphia, Adam Cole would find himself in line for a different kind of gold… the newly created NXT North American Championship. TakeOver: New Orleans looked set to be a golden night for Undisputed Era, but there quickly became trouble in paradise… Bobby Fish was injured and unable to compete to defend the NXT Tag titles alongside Kyle O’Reilly, so they were given no choice by NXT GM William Regal, who was growing tired of their attitude and underhand tactics during their dominant NXT run… the stage was set out like this… Adam Cole would compete in a 6 man ladder match to crown the first ever NXT North American Champion (against EC3, Lars Sullivan, Killian Dain, Velveteen Dream and Ricochet)… and then on the same night Cole would have to come back to defend the Undisputed Era’s NXT Tag Team Championship alongside Kyle O’Reilly against AOP and the team of Pete Dunne and their old foe Roderick Strong… and well… it went something like this…
Adam Cole was indeed victor in one of the best Ladder matches in company history (*****)… but how would the tag title match go down? Well in the most shocking of fashion… with Pete Dunne looking like he had the win, Roderick Strong came in from the outside, kicked his partner, hit his finisher on him, and then placed Kyle O’Reilly over him to get the pin and win the match. Undisputed Era retained… what on earth was going on???
So Roderick Strong was now Undisputed. And with Bobby Fish out injured he found himself an NXT Tag Team Champion alongside Kyle O’Reilly, as Adam Cole defended his North American title. Over the next few months they would be in some fantastic matches against the likes of British Strong Style, in particular Moustache Mountain whom Strong and O’Reilly had a series of the most unbelievably good tag team matches against. Cole would eventually lose his title to Ricochet in a ****3/4 match at TakeOver: Brooklyn 4, and by the time TakeOver: War Games came about again in November of 2018, Era would find themselves inside the dreaded structure. It would go a little something like this…
So how would Undisputed Era recover following such a crushing defeat? Would this be the beginning of the end for them? Would they go to Raw or SmackDown? Well, no thankfully. Adam Cole ended 2018 with somewhat of a mission statement, stating that in 2019 Undisputed Era would be ‘Draped in Gold’ … so… how’d that work out for them… well… It didn’t have the best of starts, at TakeOver: Phoenix Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly lost the NXT tag titles, so in the first month they now had no gold at all… but circumstances would fall so that Adam Cole was presented with the Golden opportunity of a life time, as at NXT TakeOver: New York it would end up being Adam Cole facing Johnny Gargano for the newly vacant NXT Championship.
But… despite interference from Strong, Fish and O’Reilly it was simply not Cole’s night, as in one of the best matches in NXT history (*****) Gargano got the win… Cole would get his chance at redemption though at TakeOver: 25… and this time it was indeed a GOLDen night BAY BAY…
In another all time classic (*****) Adam Cole won the NXT Championship from Johnny Gargano. Stage 1 complete…
Now for stage two, and despite a loss to them at Takeover: Toronto, Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly clawed their way into a rematch against then NXT Tag Team Champions Street Profits…
3/4 of the way there… only one to go… and where better to try and fulfill the prophecy than probably the most watched episode of NXT there’s ever been, the first one that was broadcast LIVE on the USA Network. In the main event Roderick Strong would challenge Velveteen Dream for the NXT North American Championship…
Prophecy fulfilled. Draped in Gold Completed. System Shocked. ERA… Undisputed!
So what has gone on since then? Well, I’m actually going to leave it all up to you reading thsi to find out for yourselves. I believe every wrestling fan in the world should watch NXT, the best show around for me, and to get into it I don’t think there’s a better way to start than following the story of the best faction in wrestling today, Undisputed Era. Hopefully this blog has started things off for you well, and now you can follow on yourselves from that day last October and see how the fortunes of Cole, Strong, Fish and O’Reilly have gone since. Enjoy!
Josh.
NobodyisReady.com 