NXT TakeOver: Toronto - TM61 VS The Authors Of Pain

[Jack-Hammer]

The finals of the 2nd Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic will be held in Toronto this Saturday and features the Authors of Pain taking on TM61 for the Dusty Cup.

The AOP are currently undefeated, but I have a feeling they'll come up short for the first time this Saturday as part of an ongoing program with TM61. TM61 are the underdogs in this one and it should be a good mix of speed vs. strength. I like how they've built the Authors in that there's almost nothing known about them as a team; to my knowledge, Paul Ellering has only said a handful of words himself since they've shown up in NXT and they've established themselves as a physically dominant team whereas TM61 is more along the lines of the traditional, crowd pleasing babyface tag team so it's a nice little mix.

While I think the Authors lose, it wouldn't bother me to see them come out with a win and move onto a tag title feud.

 

[Kyphael]

The Authors of Pain, a team of big, strong Samoans. I hate them. That's a good thing. Because I viewed them as two guys who got hired just because they're big, and they're Samoans. But I don't dislike them personally, I just dislike the fact they're so strongly booked for sheer look and size alone, which, again, good thing, because I WANT them to lose to a team, eventually. Just not TM61.

TM61 are a couple of good dudes, but they're not even as over as most talents with Full Sail. I don't even know what their characters are aside from "two Australian indie wrestlers." What does TM61 even stand for, is it an Australian zip code? Does it even stand for anything? If I don't know and I have to look it up then the announcers aren't doing their job establishing who they are and what they stand for, and neither are bookers, so I don't want them to beat Authors of Pain, who at least actually have a character and are booked well.

 

[ShinChan]

TM61 shouldn't defeat Authors Of Pain in the finals.

Authors Of Pain's first loss should be to SAnitY.

I think that TM61 needs some more time. NxT audience doesn't cheer them and that's a big sign of problem with TM61.

Authors Of Pain win and then move on to DIY for the titles.

 

[@smarkmouth]

TM61 are a couple of good dudes, but they're not even as over as most talents with Full Sail. I don't even know what their characters are aside from "two Australian indie wrestlers." What does TM61 even stand for, is it an Australian zip code? Does it even stand for anything?

I believe it is Australian area code, combined in part with their indy team name TMDK, The Mighty Don't Kneel. It certainly warrants an explanation.

I'm not entirely thrilled with the finals. Authors of Pain have been terrific heels so far, but I don't care much for TM61. I know they came in with a small degree of fanfare from the indy crowd, and maybe because of that I'm a bit let down. I haven't seen anything impressive out of them yet, nor have I been offered a reason to care for these guys. Not great foils to the Authors.

I suspect that the Authors take it, transitioning into a feud for the tag titles with (assumed) champions DIY.

 

[ShinChan]

I believe it is Australian area code, combined in part with their indy team name TMDK, The Mighty Don't Kneel. It certainly warrants an explanation.

I'm not entirely thrilled with the finals. Authors of Pain have been terrific heels so far, but I don't care much for TM61. I know they came in with a small degree of fanfare from the indy crowd, and maybe because of that I'm a bit let down. I haven't seen anything impressive out of them yet, nor have I been offered a reason to care for these guys. Not great foils to the Authors.

I suspect that the Authors take it, transitioning into a feud for the tag titles with (assumed) champions DIY.

I don't think that TM61 was supposed to make the finals of Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. There were better options like SAnitY, Strong/Aries and Itami/Ibushi. But as we know, both Aries and Itami got injured due to which changes were made.

Since both SAnitY & Authors Of Pain are heels, they had to avoid this encounter being the final of this tourney. You're right that TM61 aintgreat foils for Authors Of Pain but there wasn't any other option.

Plus, I maybe wrong but Authors Of Pain have already defeated TM61 once. I am expecting them to do it again.

 

[Kyphael]

I believe it is Australian area code, combined in part with their indy team name TMDK, The Mighty Don't Kneel. It certainly warrants an explanation.

I'm not entirely thrilled with the finals. Authors of Pain have been terrific heels so far, but I don't care much for TM61. I know they came in with a small degree of fanfare from the indy crowd, and maybe because of that I'm a bit let down. I haven't seen anything impressive out of them yet, nor have I been offered a reason to care for these guys. Not great foils to the Authors.

I suspect that the Authors take it, transitioning into a feud for the tag titles with (assumed) champions DIY.

I see... well, like the poster above noted, sounds like the tournament got wrecked by injuries. Man, I would have loved the Authors of Pain vs. Kota Ibushi and Hideo Itami in the final... sigh, what could have been.