“It’s not bragging if you back it up.”
It’s a phrase we have undoubtedly heard throughout our lives. The moment when one’s expected success becomes a reality, thus allowing them to inform the world that they are every bit as good as they predicted. When it comes to a present-day example, one must look no further than two-thirds of The Undisputed ERA, NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish.
“Our message is that there is nothing anyone can do to swim against this current,” O’Reilly told WWE.com. “As far as I’m concerned, every other tag team of NXT is treading in deep water and getting tired, and we are the sharks that have begun to circle.”
The braggadocios words have been a common mantra of the tag team who, along with fellow NXT Superstar Adam Cole, formed a powerful faction this past summer at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III. It was something of a prophetic moment, as it would take only five months for the ERA to earn their first taste of championship gold in the form of the NXT Tag Team Titles.
Skipping around like a couple of goofs who finally reached the mountaintop was not in the cards.
“When you produce at the level of Kyle and I, winning is to be expected,” Fish said. “After we won the NXT Tag Team Championship, we toasted ourselves on a job well done. After that, we went back to work. We are most at home in the fight or in the process, so it was back to the gym, back to training and back to studying. Sorry to disappoint, but skipping around like a couple of goofs who finally reached the mountaintop was not in the cards.”
Anyone who has followed the pre-NXT careers of O’Reilly & Fish, a thriving team for more than five years, would be hard-pressed to be surprised about their early success. Fish says it’s today’s success that reaffirms their unyielding confidence.
“We’ve been the standard in tag team wrestling since November 2012,” Fish said. “Our preparation is about precision, timing, sharpening our in-ring ability to its finest edge possible, its science. From there, we game-plan; each team is a new puzzle for sorting, calculating each move, complete with bad intent. Matches are won before the bell rings. First, we let you know the when, where, why and how — the verbal. Then comes the mental, the inevitability of what’s about to happen to you. And finally, the physical, when we put you out of your misery.”
The strength of their team is a direct result of chemistry, O’Reilly revealed.
“Our team chemistry is something unlike anything else on this planet,” he explained. “Bobby knows what I’m planning to do before I do sometimes. I think that we have such a relentless, unorthodox style, and we have designed a new system of attacking and defending that is very difficult to figure out and prepare for.”
As O’Reilly & Fish near the one-month mark as NXT Tag Team Champions, it goes without saying that defending their newly won title gold will be key to their continued claims of greatness. In the meantime, both Superstars face an ultra-competitive NXT Tag Team division, full of teams anxiously awaiting the opportunity to knock them off their perch. It’s a challenge Fish says he and his partner are poised to conquer.
“When you delivered at the level Kyle, Cole and I are accustomed to, there are no surprises,” Fish said. “It’s a simple ‘if A, then B’ system. The process is in the work. Our work is never left unfinished; it’s always looked after, and, therefore, success follows us like a lost dog searching for a home. Come one, come all. The variety of challenge ensures the entertainment of those who follow our history. Watch as time and time again we prove there is no team walking this planet who can operate on our level. We are NXT, and this is our era!”