Breezango’s win against Imperium to take the NXT Tag Team Championships was a win 5 years in the making, and now that they’ve got the Championship gold they aren’t about to let them go. Imperium has other plans though, and the two rival teams will face off during tonight’s episode of NXT for the right to hold those lofty titles. The match is no doubt going to be a showstopper, and before the big throwdown, ComicBook.com had the chance to talk to Tyler Breeze all about the matchup as well as the challenges they’ve faced along the way to Championship gold, the LeftRightLeftRight Championship, and even some Funko POP talk. First though we had to start with the 5-year journey to becoming Tag Team Champions, and the main hurdles they had to overcome to finally make it to the top.
“Well, a couple of the challenges have been injuries,” Breeze said. “Dango came on, I think it was two big injuries that took him out, and one of them, longer than expected. I think one of them was 13 or 14 months, which threw a big wrench into our plan of being a tag team, because it’s hard to be a tag team on your own. So I think that was probably our biggest hurdle.”
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During their time on Raw and SmackDown, the main challenge was just actually getting in the ring, and you might be surprised at how many times that actually happened.
“Once we got back and got rolling and got our footing again, I think it’s been pretty smooth in terms of finding what our balance was and getting back to where we were,” Breeze said. “I know probably on Raw SmackDown, I think one of our big hurdles was just getting in the ring. We had… you know Fashion Files was rolling and people were behind us and they just, I think over the course of that time, we probably only had maybe four or five matches. It’s just one of those things that you got to strike while the iron is hot, and I think we maybe missed a boat a couple of times on a couple of things. But five years later, all of a sudden here we are firing on all cylinders and we’re the NXT Tag Champions.”
It’s kind of crazy that they didn’t have more matches during that time, though thankfully that has changed. “Yeah. If you look back at it, I want to say, I know that once we started the Fashion Files, it took at least a month or two, and then I think we had maybe a match with The Bludgeon Brothers at some point. We had a match with The Usos at some point, I think there was a SmackDown where we each wrestled a singles match and a tag match. Aside from the Battle Royale here and there, definitely under 10 matches for sure..
Breeze and Fandango’s laid back and fun nature shouldn’t be misconstrued as making up for a lack of in-ring ability, something that Imperium doesn’t seem to get, though that isn’t a surprise to Breeze.
“I mean, one, you have to look at Imperium. I don’t think they enjoy anything,” Breeze said. “They don’t really laugh. They don’t really smile. What are they so mad about all the time? You know? They were the NXT Tag Champions and I don’t think they even enjoyed it. I think they were just mad, and they were like, ‘We’re looking for the next thing to be mad at. The next people to be mad at.’ We just happened to be those people. The fact that we have fun, I don’t know if it gets us overlooked, but it might change people’s perspective on us, where they laugh with us and they do everything else and they go, “‘yeah, they’re funny. But I don’t really know. They’ve never really been tag champions.’
“And we hadn’t really had a lot of matches when we were doing our thing, so I think it’s one of those things that it might not be overlooked, but it definitely is the perception of us changes from, ‘Oh, the funny guys, but they’re not going to have a good match or become champions.’ And like I said, now we’ve refocused to where we find the balance,” Breeze said. “And it’s not that we’ve never been able to get the job done. It is very much just, you might not have seen it yet. And now you’re getting the chance to see that in a bunch of different ways. So I think it’s just taking all the skills that we’ve learned, everything that we’ve been through, everything that we’ve gone through and now putting it into play where it’ll take you off… I guess, you won’t see it coming, where you go, “Wow. Oh my God. Okay. No, I’m on board. They can get it done in the ring too.” So, I think it’s one of those things now that people are seeing that.”
Being that Breeze currently holds one of the Tag Team Championships and the LRLR title, we did have to mention a potential nickname, something along the lines of Tyler 2 Belts or 2 Belts Breeze, but that might be a bit played out for him.
“I’ve put thought into it, but at the same time, it’s one of those things that I feel now it’s overplayed,” Breeze said. “I feel like it was… someone did it once they, you know what I mean? And then another person did it and then another person did it, and I just feel like it would be falling into a category of been there, done that for someone else. So I’ve been letting everybody do their own thing and they’ve tossed out a couple of different names and stuff like that, but it’s really more of a discussion for everybody else on social media. I don’t really need to know if I need to partake in that or really say anything about it. I mean, the titles speak for themselves, which like you said the LeftRightLeftRight title, that is a pretty looking title. I don’t know if you’ve really got eyes on it, but my God, that is nice. Which also the newly launched UpUpDownDownshop.com, keep your eyes on there because I’m assuming that it will be available here pretty quick.”
As for if it makes a debut on television, Breeze wouldn’t commit either way but did say “I mean, I’m going to have it with me. So, whether it makes it on TV, it’s up to some other people, but I can definitely try.”
Breezango has debuted some crazy looks over the years, which makes them perfect candidates for some amazing Funko POPs. If they were to get immortalized in POP form, we had to ask which two looks they would want to see made.
“It’s hard, we’ve had so many,” Breeze said. “I would probably say one that I think just stands out to me because it was so clean and crisp looking was when we had the fighter pilot look. It was all white, everything was all white and to me, it just looked so cool. I literally looked straight out of Top Gun, man. And then also, I think I probably want to go with the astronauts. The astronauts was a blast, so I think I’d go astronauts and then the all-white.”
When Breeze isn’t competing for the Tag Team Championships he is a part of the Flatbacks Wrestling School, who help those getting into the business. If there was one piece of advice he would pass along, it comes down to patience.
“I think patience is probably the biggest key to not only wrestling but life in general,” Breeze said. “It’s very easy to get impatient. It’s very easy to want what you want now. But after waiting five years, after waiting 10 years, there’s a feeling of man, that was worth it. And I don’t know if you get that if you get what you want right off the bat. So I would say, patience. Everything works out if you just do the right thing, and just stay the course, you know what I mean?”
You can watch Breezango take on Imperium on tonight’s NXT on USA Network, which kicks off at 8 PM EST.
So who ya got? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things NXT with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
