New NXT tag champs!

Matt Riddle’s regular tag partner, Pete Dunne, has been stuck in England. So he tapped Timothy Thatcher to take his place. This included tag team title matches.

It backfired in their second match.

Riddle and Thatcher had to defend their titles against Imperium’s Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner. And from the start, they weren’t on the same page.

Early on, when Tim was in the ring, Riddle was brawling on the floor and not there to tag him in. But it was Riddle who had to do most of the work this match. He was cut off from Thatcher by the talented Imperium for most of the match.

He finally made his way towards his corner, but in the attempt to fight himself free, he monkey flipped Barthel into Thatcher, knocking his partner to the floor. And that was it.

Thatcher had enough and left, leaving Riddle high and dry.

The Bro tried to fight both Barthel and Aichner, and did so valiantly, but it was never going to be enough. He ate a European Bomb and that was that.

This makes sense. It sets up a big feud between Thatcher and Riddle, who had to be pulled apart backstage after the match. And it put the straps on a real team.

How y’all feeling about Imperium as your new tag champs?

You can find the results to tonight’s episode at the live blog here.