After, Fish suffered an injury in March 2018, April 7 at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans marked a turning point for the Undisputed Era: during the event, Cole became the inaugural NXT North American Champion, he and O'Reilly won the 2018 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, and Roderick Strong joined the stable at the end of a lengthy feud against it; both Cole and Strong were subsequently recognized as co-Tag Team Champions under the Freebird Rule.

[1][2][3][4][5] The group's tenure in WWE ended after the conclusion and aftermath of NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day in early 2021, after Cole attacked O'Reilly.

In 2010, Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly debuted in Ring of Honor as a tag team that would later be named "Future Shock", but the two split up in 2012 and began a longstanding rivalry against each other.

In the summer of 2015, reDRagon entered into a feud with The Kingdom, and began teaming with Cole after he seemingly had a falling out with his teammates and left the group.

However, Cole's exit from The Kingdom was revealed to be a hoax when he attacked O'Reilly during his match for the ROH World Championship at All Star Extravaganza VII on September 18.

[6][7] During their years in Ring of Honor, Cole, O'Reilly and Fish each had several matches against, and occasionally teaming with, fellow ROH wrestler Roderick Strong.

[citation needed] The Undisputed Era during their WWE run has been compared to D-Generation X and Evolution, both of which Triple H, the founder and producer of the NXT brand, was a member.

[14] On the January 10, 2018, episode of NXT, Fish and O'Reilly were scheduled to defend their titles against Sanity in a rematch, but assaulted them backstage, rendering them unable to compete.

[17] Later in the night, O'Reilly and Cole (in place of the injured Fish) successfully defended the NXT Tag Team Championships in the finals of the 2018 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic against The Authors of Pain and Strong and Pete Dunne after Strong turned on Dunne to allow O'Reilly to pin him, joining the faction and turning heel in the process and allowing the group to win the tournament despite not being in it originally.

[19] After developing a rivalry with British Strong Style (Dunne, Trent Seven and Tyler Bate), the two factions faced off on the first day of the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament event, where the Undisputed Era lost.

[25] On the October 10 episode of NXT, Ricochet defeated Cole and Dunne in a triple threat match to retain the North American Championship.

[36] In the midst of their rivalry with Imperium, Strong lost the North American title to Keith Lee, while Fish and O'Reilly took part in the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, defeating NXT UK Tag Team Champions Gallus (Mark Coffey and Wolfgang) in the first round and losing to Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson) in the semifinals thanks to a distraction from Imperium.

On the July 1 episode of NXT: The Great American Bash night one, Strong faced Lumis in a strap match, but lost, thus ending their feud.

The following week on July 8, which was night two of the event, Cole lost the NXT Championship to Keith Lee in a Winner Take All match, ending his historic reign at 403 days.

On the September 8 episode of NXT, Fish and Strong entered into a feud with Killian Dain, with Drake Maverick making the save and the Undisputed Era running off.

[41] Cole cemented his face turn on the September 30 episode of NXT after calling out Austin Theory, who had insulted O'Reilly earlier in the night during a backstage promo.

[42] On October 21, Fish and Strong were mysteriously attacked before their tag team title match against Breezango and were replaced by Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch.

It was revealed that Pat McAfee was behind the attacks, thus turning all the members of the Undisputed ERA into faces for the first time since the group's inception.

However, this partnership was short lived as Dunne hit O' Reilly with a steel chair turning heel in the process and aligning himself with McAfee, Lorcan, and Burch.

[50][51] 1For the Undisputed Era's first reign, Fish and O'Reilly won the title as a duo, with Cole and Strong later being recognized as co-champions under the Freebird Rule.