Dexter Lumis loaded Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish into the trunk of a car at In Your House, and there has been no sign of them since.
NXT offered up the latest in a run of cinematic matches from all corners of the wrestling world last weekend at TakeOver: In Your House. This time, it took the form of a Backlot Brawl between Velveteen Dream and Adam Cole. Despite help from the always-eerie Dexter Lumis, Dream was unable to defeat the NXT Champion.
That means Dream is no longer able to challenge for the title as long as it remains in Cole's possession. As for Cole, he seemed pretty happy at the end of the match considering what happened during it. Yes, he managed to beat Dream and keep his record-breaking title reign going, but two of his closest friends were kidnapped just moments earlier.
The aforementioned Lumis threw Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish into the trunk of a car and drove away with them. The act had been foreshadowed by Lumis earlier that week via a creepy drawing he did on NXT, so the Undisputed ERA members really should have seen it coming. Three days later, Lumis posted a photo of himself on Strong's Twitter, suggesting he still has the UE pair.
Marina Shafir, fellow NXT Superstar and Strong's wife, has even gotten in on the angle. The day after TakeOver, the former MMA fighter tweeted all four members of UE, questioning why she woke up in an empty bed on Monday morning. Following the selfie posted on her husband's Twitter on Tuesday night, Shafir has shifted from asking questions to issuing threats.
"I WILL FIND YOU @DexterLumis and it’ll be the last game of hide n seek you will ever play," Shafir tweeted in reply to the photo on Strong's account. Honestly, this wasn't a route we saw NXT taking with this angle, but we like. Between Strong and Fish's disappearance, and Kyle O'Reilly self-isolating due to his diabetes, Cole could find himself alone tonight on NXT. That's not a position he has been used to since forming UE.
UPDATE: Shortly after this article was published, Cole took to Twitter to reveal Fish and String returned home early on Wednesday morning "tired, dehydrated" but safe. Plus, they will be on NXT tonight, so Cole won't be alone after all.