NXT talk

[KawadaSmile]

Rewatching 2013 NXT and just saw this 6 Women Tag: Sasha Banks/Naomi/Cameron vs Aksana/Audrey Marie/Alicia Fox.

 

Actually a good match, which I was a bit surprising considering the timeframe, the names involved, and Sasha as the most clean cut babyface possible. Naomi looked so good there with her hot tag. I'm happy she has progressed that much, and the same goes for Banks too.

 

 

Also how weird is it to see Bo being so over after beating Bray Wyatt? Times change so fast.

[Matt D]

Chris Hero:

 

I'm not tuned into Indy Wrestling much right now. I kind of resent it, actually. That said, I go out of my way to see Chris Hero matches. I've seen somewhere around 10 this year, maybe? Last night I watched the CODY match and the Kimber Lee match, the latter of which is really not the sort of thing I'd normally watch. I thought Hero was great in both. I'm excited for him coming into WWE because I'd like to have a reason to be more excited about that product.

 

The elephant in the room is his current look, though. It is an elephant. Why? Because WWE and Vince, because of a mostly conditioned audience, because of a casual audience that is even further conditioned. You ask me, though? Elephants are kind of awesome. They can be at least. They stand out. They're noticed. In a company where they have Aries and Biff and Zayn and Rollins and just signed Strong. Where they have increasingly more and more indy darlings and cruiserweights and where the super indy style is the main event style, more or less, anything that makes you stand out is good.

 

Right now Hero has the body type he has. Apparently there are health reasons for that. Time in FL would help to some degree, but when you're on the road, you're on the road. Personally, considering his general level of match quality this year, I think it's actually a plus. He's an amazing heel. He should be cast as a heel. As such, the whole KO King gimmick would only take him so far. How different is it from Owens (especially given their similar heel tendencies and ways to get under people's skin)? They should cast him as the modern day Buddy Rose.

 

A guy like Miz is effective because the crowd resents him. They resent him because he's a cocky little bastard that they all think they could beat up. Buddy Rose was hugely resented. He was resented because he was a loudmouth braggart whose physique didn't match what he was saying, but who could also be dangerous and back it up. He won, often times legitimately, sometimes through hook or crook. Most of all, though, he was athletic. Hero could be a guy with a gut like a big chunk of the people in the crowd, but who is very athletic, who's living his dream when everyone in the crowd isn't, but who earned it, who is just that good, who reminds the crowd that they're not despite the fact that they may have physical similarities with him. For someone as talented as Hero, for someone who understands his audience as well as he does, and can perform to rile them up, that's a perfect heat engine, and it's one that works in the WWE format (because it's not that far from the Miz gimmick, just a different shade).

 

I imagine people want him to come out as the straightforward asskicking jerk that he is, or whatever, but I'm not sure that'll stand out the way it has to except for as just another guy who has good matches. I think he could be a successful upper mid-card heel act for a few years running a Buddy Rose-esque gimmick. And that's not an insult based on his current body type. If someone's tall, use the height as a strength. How is this different? This is me likening him to the #3 wrestler on my GWE list and saying he could manage a similar act almost as well in an environment where almost nothing feels successful.

[sek69]

I noticed during the backstage promo on last week's NXT that Billie Kay reminds me of Flo the Progressive Lady and now I can't unsee it.

[cpst]

Hunter did an interview with ESPN about NXT: http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/18337386/triple-h-future-nxt-standing-wwe-universe. The choice quote:

 

"One of the things that's funny to me -- I always laugh at it -- is when people say to me, 'I watch Nakamura every week in NXT. I don't know why they don't put him on Raw so I can watch him on Raw every week," WWE executive Paul 'Triple H' Levesque told ESPN, pulling a confused facial expression.

 

"You're getting to see him, right? You're getting to see him doing what he does, in a big way. The opportunities are there. He's got that clean path now to get here, when he gets here he might go there, he might go back."

I assume that he actually does understand the difference, and if he doesn't he probably isn't fit to run the company from a fiscal perspective after Vince is gone.

[sek69]

Hunter did an interview with ESPN about NXT: http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/18337386/triple-h-future-nxt-standing-wwe-universe. The choice quote:

 

"One of the things that's funny to me -- I always laugh at it -- is when people say to me, 'I watch Nakamura every week in NXT. I don't know why they don't put him on Raw so I can watch him on Raw every week," WWE executive Paul 'Triple H' Levesque told ESPN, pulling a confused facial expression.

 

"You're getting to see him, right? You're getting to see him doing what he does, in a big way. The opportunities are there. He's got that clean path now to get here, when he gets here he might go there, he might go back."

I assume that he actually does understand the difference, and if he doesn't he probably isn't fit to run the company from a fiscal perspective after Vince is gone.

 

 

 

You can read this in two ways IMO: either he knows Vince would have no clue what to do with Nakamura and have him doing some "choppy choppy your pee pee" 2.0 gimmick on the main roster, or he's trying to keep some of the top name talent for his brand.

 

I half jokingly suggested that when Vince is gone you might see H/Steph and Shane/Dunn running separate companies, and the conspiracy theorist part of my brain keeps thinking that the constant branding of NXT as not developmental is setting up the foundation for that.

[stro]

That sure reads like he's saying "He's better off in NXT, enjoy him as him there while you can" to me. What I think ultimately "ruins" NXT talent getting called up isn't whatever Vince/Stephanie/Dunn boogeyman shit, but the inherent overexposure that comes with being on the main roster. NXT can afford to not have their top guys wrestling every week. Raw and Smackdown can't. So you might see someone on Raw more times in a month than you'd see them on NXT in 2 months. All the specialness is lost because you're seeing them so much more.

[sek69]

It's hardly boogeyman shit when you see people get called up to the main roster and everything that made them over in NXT was forgotten about.

[El-P]

'member when American Alpha had MOTYC matches against the Revival ?

[stro]

Remember that roughly 1/3rd of NXT watchers watch Raw, so every NXT act essentially has to start over when they get called up.

[cpst]

That sure reads like he's saying "He's better off in NXT, enjoy him as him there while you can" to me. What I think ultimately "ruins" NXT talent getting called up isn't whatever Vince/Stephanie/Dunn boogeyman shit, but the inherent overexposure that comes with being on the main roster. NXT can afford to not have their top guys wrestling every week. Raw and Smackdown can't. So you might see someone on Raw more times in a month than you'd see them on NXT in 2 months. All the specialness is lost because you're seeing them so much more.

It's also easier to just not use somebody on NXT if they're not being pushed, whereas due to the amount of content that needs to be produced on the main roster, people who aren't pushed are quickly devalued.

 

I've always thought it would be interesting to analyze booking purely based on the statistical distribution of wins and losses. I don't know if there's an easily digestible data set to do the analysis, though.

[goc]

'member when American Alpha had MOTYC matches against the Revival ?

'member when they won the Smackdown Tag Titles in a really great match?

[El-P]

No.

[Grimmas]

No.

It was last night.

[El-P]

This explains that. Glad for them then.

[Gutenberger]

So, is the Osaka show worth the watch match-wise? I'm pretty full this week and don't know if I wanna make time for a house show.

[Ricky Jackson]

I enjoyed it. Tag was pretty good. Asuka worked pretty much pure babyface for the hometown crowd and it turned out to be a good bout. Didn't watch Joe vs Nak a second time, which I now see was the unedited version

[El-P]

DIY vs Tajiri & Tozawa was excellent. You can see Tajiri is only doing his requisite spots, but he can still deliver them, so good for him. Tozawa did the brunk of the match though, never saw him before, he's quite the worker.

 

Nia Jaxx vs Asuka was nothing. Because Nia Jaxx basically is a nothing worker at this point. She bores me to tears whenever she gets on offense. She's just big and that's it. The preppy make up doesn't help her complete lack of aura, and she looks lost a whole lot. Asuka was basically having a match by herself. Have her against Charlotte, please. She's totally wasted in NXT, no one even approach her level of work and aura.

 

Samoa Joe vs Nakamura was very good, but there's something definitely missing with this pairing. Don't know if that's because Nak is cruising at this point, but it really isn't on par Nak's best stuff in NXT. Which basically was his first match. I can feel the old WWF syndrome with Nak. He should have been thrown in the mix like AJ immediately. Right now, it's like he settled in a WWE comfort zone, and good for him not breaking up his body in a "dev" territory. It's kinda ridiculous though to see Nak headlining a glorified big indy show in Japan when he headlined the Tokyo Dome. He needs show up at the Rumble.

 

Saddest part of the show was the japanese audience doing dual chants and even worst, "This is awesome" at one point. I dunno, maybe this was the work of gaijins, but I don't think it was. Please, let's not have all the different audience in the world ape the smarky US chants. It sucks. It also shows that the chants are perceived to be part of the show and "required" from the audience. Lack of character if you ask me.

[cpst]

Nia Jaxx vs Asuka was nothing. Because Nia Jaxx basically is a nothing worker at this point. She bores me to tears whenever she gets on offense. She's just big and that's it. The preppy make up doesn't help her complete lack of aura, and she looks lost a whole lot. Asuka was basically having a match by herself. Have her against Charlotte, please. She's totally wasted in NXT, no one even approach her level of work and aura.

It's sad they didn't give Asuka a better opponent like they do on other house shows, but maybe because it was going on the Network they didn't want to show her having a competitive match with Daria or Ember Moon.

 

Nia is just bad. She's a monster heel, but there are 14 year-old kids in Stardom that have stronger looking offense than her. She shouldn't have gone up to the main roster in the first place, but now what do you do with her?

[stro]

Nia is good in short matches where she can be a monster. She's terrible matches that go more than 7 minutes because

 

A. She isn't ready for those kinds of matches

B. She isn't suited for those kinds of matches regardless

 

The match with Asuka seemed to go on FOREVER, and the longer it went, the worse it got. They should have just done a variation on their dope Takeover match. If it was good enough for Nak/Joe to rehash their matches, surely it would have been okay for Asuka/Nia to do the same.

[KawadaSmile]

Not feeling the Nia hate either. For someone who is wrestling as long as she is, she is doing very well by herself, and she does have some nice little matches - her match against Bayley in a RAW episode a while ago was miles better than their Takeover match, and the 1st match against Asuka was pretty dope too.

 

She has lots of room to grow and turn into a very capable wrestler. It might've been too early for her - and Dana - to go to the main roster, but she can have some interesting matches with Sasha, who delivered a lot in-ring, and maybe even Charlotte, if they decide to go that route.

[El-P]

Right now, Nia Jaxx is a rookie wrestling like a third rate Eagle Sawaii (and old joshi watchers know that is not a compliment at all). With a terrible look. Monster Ripper as Bertha Faye was more intimidating and way more devastating (well, she was Monster Ripper after all). Nia's green as hell, so she's got time. But she isn't showing much potential to me. And she's doing the easiest style in the world. Not feeling it. And it's too bad, because a women division needs a good monster too.

[stro]

I think she has a great look, myself. Wish she'd go farther with the Mad Max stuff she briefly wore. Add some spikes, add some face paint. Get weird with it. Splatter Sasha in the middle of the ring.

[Gutenberger]

I thin they're doing a really good job with the women. The division was pretty much depleted and lifeless for a time, and now they're filling it with life again. It's clear that Royce and Kay are no threat to Asuka individually, but together they can damage her. And Nikki is just weird enough that you can never be sure what's gonna happen.
And asuka is showing a new side, which is really intriguing.

[sek69]

Kind of random but not since he's returning for this set of tapings, but man is Kassius Ohno the stupidest fucking name in history. I get he first went there when they were on a "everyone gets a stupid name" kick, but why keep it on him in the age of NXT: Indy Superfed?

[Johnny Sorrow]

Well, "Chris Hero" is a pretty dumb name , to be honest. And besides that, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they're gonna do a deal where he debuts and then "throws away his slave name" and is Chris Hero and I'd do it like they did the Kenta name change on the big screen, but in reverse.