Top Stars Praise Duke Hudson After WWE NXT Breakout Match, Hudson Talks Fate And Destiny

By Marc Middleton

The 2021 WWE NXT Breakout Tournament began during Tuesday's live episode on the USA Network.

The first match of the opening round saw Duke Hudson defeat Ikemen Jiro.

There's no word yet on who Hudson will face next as WWE has not announced the Breakout bracket as of this writing. It was noted during the show that the tournament will continue next Tuesday night, but no matches were announced.

The remaining competitors in the tournament are Hudson, Trey Baxter, Carmelo Hayes, Andre Chase, Josh Briggs, Joe Gacy, and Odyssey Jones.

Hudson received praise from several WWE stars on Twitter after the match. Formerly known as Brendan Vink in WWE, Hudson has also went by Elliot Sexton and Tony Modra. He signed with WWE in the February 2019 Performance Center Class, and made his in-ring debut at a March 15, 2019 live event, defeating Nick Comoroto. Hudson was brought to RAW in March 2020, in a tag team with Shane Thorne (Slapjack), where they worked a few matches and were briefly aligned with MVP. Before the win over Jiro, Hudson's last match came during the May 11, 2020 RAW, where he and Thorne teamed with MVP for a loss to Ricochet, Cedric Alexander and R-Truth.

WWE Hall of Famers Shawn Michaels and Triple H took to Twitter after the match and congratulated Duke with praise.

"One of the best parts of the #NXTBreakout Tournament is the clash of styles from #WWENXT Superstars all trying to make a memorable impression.... Congratulations to Duke Hudson on advancing to the next round! @sixftfiiiiive," Triple H wrote.

Michaels added, "Hard to argue with the size and strength from this young man. Great effort by @IkemenJiro_wwe but @sixftfiiiiive advances! #WWENXT #NXTBreakout"

As seen in the post-show video below, Samantha Irvin caught up with Duke and asked him for his thoughts on the first round win.

"Well, my thoughts are that I'm not surprised how I did and I don't think you're surprised, I don't think anyone's surprised with how I did in that first round match. I mean, Duke Hudson winning this tournament, it's fate, it's destiny, obviously. So, I have one message for Jiro and for everyone else. Why don't you tell him yourself... Duke Hudson said, better luck next time," he said, ending the interview with a wink.

Jiro also made a post-match Twitter statement and said he will continue to do his best in NXT.

He wrote, "Thank you to everyone who cheered me, I lost in this tournament. but I still keep my head up! I'm going to keep practice! I will do my best with NXT! Thank you everyone! Thank you NXT! Have a good night. #WWENXT #WWE"

Stay tuned for more on Hudson and the 2021 NXT Breakout Tournament. Below are related posts, along with video clips from the opener:

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