The 2022 edition of NXT's Men's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic is set to kick off on January 18, so NXT took to social media on Saturday, January 15 to announce the teams that will be competing in this year's tournament.
The full list of competitors is as follows:
- MSK (Wes Lee and Nash Carter)
- Brooks Jensen and Josh Briggs
- Jacket Time (Kushida and Ikemen Jiro)
- Malik Blade and Edris Enofe
- Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson and James Drake)
- Andre Chase and Bodhi Hayward
- Legado del Fantasma (Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza)
- The Creed Brothers (Julius & Brutus Creed)
The January 18 edition of NXT 2.0 will play host to all the tournament's first-round matches. Last year's winning team MSK will kick off the defense of its title against Brooks Jensen & Josh Briggs, while last year's runners-up Grizzled Young Veterans (who were also the 2020 runners-up) will take on Andre Chase and his student Bodhi Hayward. Elsewhere, Jacket Time will be up against Blade in Enofe, and Legado will take on the Creed Brothers.
Past tournament winners include Samoa Joe/Finn Balor, Aleister Black/Ricochet, The Authors of Pain, and Undisputed Era. The 2020 tournament was won by the BROserweights (Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne). Dunne and Riddle defeated The Grizzled Young Veterans in the final and went on to win the NXT Tag Team Championships at NXT TakeOver: Portland.
The first-ever Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic was held last year and was won by the team of Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai, who eventually split and went on to have a heated rivalry. The 2022 Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic will take place n February. The competitors are yet to be revealed, but we'll be sure to keep you posted.
This year's Dusty Classics will be the first of the NXT 2.0 era.