WWE NXT Kicks Off 2026 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic With 14 Teams

The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic returned on the September 22 episode of WWE NXT, with all 14 teams competing for this year’s cup having been announced over the preceding week.

The field mixes established NXT names with a handful of newcomers making their first appearances on the brand’s television. WWE Evolve products Harley Riggins and Jax Presley, along with Shido Ash and Viktor Zanov, are set for their first NXT TV appearances as part of the bracket, while AAA-affiliated duos Mini Vikingo and Chazz “Starboy” Hall, the Tokyo Bad Boys, and Los Americanos — all of whom recently worked a four-way tag match at TripleMania — bring an added lucha flavor to the tournament.

On the more established end of the bracket sit former NXT Tag Team Champions DarkState (Cutler James and Osiris Griffin) and Hank Walker & Tank Ledger, both of whom could be built as future challengers to current champions the Vanity Project. Birthright’s Uriah Connors and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo also enter, despite NXT’s ongoing hesitance to fully commit to the faction as a top act. Former two-time champions Fraxiom, who reached the semifinals of the 2024 tournament, round out the group of teams with prior tag title pedigree.

Notably, reigning NXT Tag Team Champions the Vanity Project and new AAA Tag Team Champions the Wagner Brothers (Galeno and El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr.) both received byes directly into the second round. Also entered are the newly paired Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno, the returning Creed Brothers — former Dusty Cup winners now back in NXT after a quiet Raw run — and the up-and-coming duo of Sean Legacy and Dorian Van Dux, who recently fell short in a bid for the NXT Tag Team Championships.

The Dusty Classic has long served as a launching pad for NXT’s tag division, often signaling which teams the brand plans to elevate toward championship contention. This year’s field leans heavily on that history: the presence of two former champion teams in DarkState and Hank & Tank, a returning past winner in the Creed Brothers, and titleholders in both the Vanity Project and the Wagner Brothers suggests WWE wants the bracket to feel consequential rather than just an undercard showcase.

At the same time, the inclusion of five teams making their NXT television debuts — several pulled from Evolve and AAA — points to the tournament’s other traditional function: giving newer or outside talent a spotlight against a delivered audience before likely bowing out in the early rounds.

With the Vanity Project sitting atop the division as heel champions, NXT will likely want a fresh babyface pairing to emerge from the bracket as their next challenger. Whether that’s a rising team like Legacy and Van Dux, a reunited Creed Brothers chasing a second Dusty Cup, or a dark-horse pairing like Dar and Moreno finding their footing, the tournament’s outcome should shape the direction of NXT’s tag division heading into the next several months.