At NXT Halloween Havoc on Wednesday night, ‘The Bruiserweight’ Pete Dunne made a shocking return to the black and gold brand before turning heel on The Undisputed Era.
As Pat McAfee and new cohorts Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan stood in the middle of the ring, Kyle O’Reilly, the sole remaining Undisputed Era member appeared to face down the men responsible for taking out Adam Cole, Bobby Fish and Roderick Strong.
However, O’Reilly wasn’t alone and introduced his backup for the evening, a returning Pete Dunne. The former WWE United Kingdom Champion strolled onto the Halloween Havoc stage with a steel chair and his usual unimpressed sneer before shocking the world with a vicious heel turn.
As Kyle O’Reilly was distracted with McAfee and co. Dunne returned to his roots and dropped the former NXT Tag Team Champion with a sickening chair shot. The foursome then set about O’Reilly with delicious intent.
Dunne, Burch, Lorcan and McAfee then stood above the body of their prey cementing their alliance.
As for the reason behind Pete Dunne’s shocking but welcome heel turn? Well as the Brit orated on Twitter, ‘Why not?’. In truth ‘The Bruiserweight’ never forgets and he soon followed up his reasoning with a video of Roderick Strong turning on him and joining The Undisputed Era at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans in 2018.
With a potential NXT TakeOver: WarGames down the line – though it may not happen this year – WWE have perfectly crafted a story of The Undisputed Era’s demise by surrounding Pat McAfee with three men both believable and capable enough of dismantling the popular bloc and standing in the ashes of their legacy.
‘The Bruiserweight’ we know and fell in love with is back.
The last time we saw Pete Dunne was two weeks ago, teaming with Ilja Dragunov to down Walter and Alexander Wolfe on NXT UK. He has been absent from NXT since March thanks the travel ban caused by COIVID-19.
You can read all the results from NXT Halloween Havoc here.