Mad Dog Posted August 19, 2018 Report Share Posted August 19, 2018 My problem with Adam Cole is he struggles to get that PWG personality that is awesome to follow him out of PWG. His run with the belt was just terrible but that's more on the booking than him. Not having it defended on the last Takeover was a giant blunder. It felt like they were trying to go for that big title match feel with a slower beginning but they were fighting over nothing. I think had that been for the NXT title it would have worked better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted August 19, 2018 Report Share Posted August 19, 2018 47 minutes ago, donsem43 said: Kairi's title reign is going to be interesting. The only heels for her to feud with are Bianca Belair and Lacey Evans while on the other end you have a similar type babyface with Candace LaRae and Dakota Kai. They could do a rematch with Shayna at Evolution but that would be tricky if she debuts as Rhonda's friend on the main roster. I guess start with a multi-woman match then try and build up someone who has some momentum coming out of the MYC. Deonna Purrazzo was signed to be a player. They've two other names incoming soon that are TV ready and can work heel. NXT/Kairi will be more than fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted August 19, 2018 Report Share Posted August 19, 2018 I think it's actually one of NXT's greatest strengths that their talent feels finite at all times. Everyone always acts anxious and worried whenever their favorites are called up, but they always recover. And I feel like that high turnover necessitates them to book better cards, better programs, and more definitive payoffs along the way. You don't get clearly defined beginnings & endings on the main roster anymore. There's just this endless treadmill of rematches upon rematches, because they need to feed the beast & continuously produce content. So, rather than devise separate stories to do that, they just have matches that require more matches. With NXT, it's very much treated like the old territorial system. The talent comes in with an expected end date. And I'm not at all suggesting that they have a call-up date in mind from day one, because I don't think that's ever been the case. But the expectation is that it will happen eventually, and so there's this sort of demand & pressure to book them at their best while they are there. There's an urgency in NXT booking that feels totally absent from almost everything WWE does at the higher level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted August 19, 2018 Report Share Posted August 19, 2018 Adam Cole to me is a guy who's in-ring work is pretty unremarkable yet almost always finds a way to have good matches. I think a lot of that has to do with his dance partners, but it's a credit to him for being able to gel with them. His character and promo work is also top-notch in an era where so many indie darlings struggle with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted August 19, 2018 Report Share Posted August 19, 2018 Cole is kind of like Jeff Jarrett in that regard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMJ Posted August 19, 2018 Report Share Posted August 19, 2018 Full review up soon... - Anyone else kinda like this Ciampa/Gargano match more than the one in Chicago? I don't know what it was, but I felt like this one just felt more streamlined and though it may have felt lesser in terms of emotion, I liked that it didn't overrely on Gargano's dazed/"concussion eyes" or the WM30-esque trope of having EMTs essentially stop a match only for it to continue. Also, I liked the finish here more than the Chicago one, which I felt like didn't make a ton of sense (both guys were dead but Ciampa managed to hit a DDT "outta nowhere" IIRC). While it was a downer ending, I like that gravity won the match for Ciampa and gravity (or at least the laws of motion) cost Gargano the match. He was so dead-set on beating Ciampa with the running knee, for symbolic purposes, that he didn't figure his momentum might cause him to fall from the stage. Worked for me. - Someone else wrote that they felt like Sane's character was still unclear, lacking "it." I thought tonight was the "it" night where we did get to see who she is. She's not mysterious like Ember Moon or a tough, unbeatable warrior like Asuka. She's not a shootfighter like Shayna. She's more akin to Bayley. The pirate stuff is weird, no doubt, but maybe its one of those things that makes sense to a portion of the audience that does get it? Like Sailor Moon or DragonBall Z or Pokemon fans? At the end of the day, I'm on-board because she's easy to underestimate but can dish out an ass-kicking. - I love Sane, Ricochet, and UE as the champions (along with Ciampa). People are saying the bloom is off the rose of NXT but I'd argue that, right now, the brand is in the best position to be great in the future as it has been in years. Ciampa gets great heat. O'Reilly and Strong are a great team and I think the matches with War Raiders will be really great (I'm a bit of a Raymond Rowe homer cuz he's a Cleveland dude). I like that, instead of just doing the same thing they did with Asuka and having Baszler decimate the entire division (essentially killing it in the process), they gave Sane the win and, with the MYC in September and culminating at the Evolution show, the division feels more open (also, if I had the book, I'd have Baszler make her main roster debut at Evolution as there's really no need for her on RAW or SD yet). Finally, with Ricochet, you have a guy that is just flat-out entertaining and fun to watch. The NA Title should be getting defended regularly and the champion should be winning those matches cleanly to cement the title's credibility. Ricochet fits into that plan perfectly and, to me, seems like a guy you can build NXT's touring/house shows around for the next 6-9 months in a way you can't with Cole or Black or really anyone (other than Gargano). Anyone else think the future of NXT is looking stronger now than it did a year ago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted August 19, 2018 Report Share Posted August 19, 2018 Triple H seems pretty indecisive and borderline doubtful about Matt Riddle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Enthusiast Posted August 19, 2018 Report Share Posted August 19, 2018 1 hour ago, DMJ said: Anyone else think the future of NXT is looking stronger now than it did a year ago? Absolutely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted August 19, 2018 Report Share Posted August 19, 2018 Going all the way back to 2012, I've never *not* enjoyed NXT. If I had to pick a time where I felt most disinterested though, it would have to be during that never ending Finn Balor reign. The whole Joe/Nak/Roode followup was barely any improvement, and it took awhile to feel exciting and engaging again. But yes. It's felt way reinvigorated since at least WarGames, if not a bit earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted August 19, 2018 Report Share Posted August 19, 2018 Outside of the women's division until Bayley's call-up and outside whatever #DIY and the Revival were doing, I felt like the product was pretty stagnant from the first Brooklyn until after Takeover: Orlando. There was too much of a focus on "dream matches" rather than character development and stories. They seemed to turn ship almost immediately after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Enthusiast Posted August 20, 2018 Report Share Posted August 20, 2018 1 hour ago, SomethingSavage said: Going all the way back to 2012, I've never *not* enjoyed NXT. If I had to pick a time where I felt most disinterested though, it would have to be during that never ending Finn Balor reign. The whole Joe/Nak/Roode followup was barely any improvement, and it took awhile to feel exciting and engaging again. But yes. It's felt way reinvigorated since at least WarGames, if not a bit earlier. I would say it's been great basically since right around Summerslam last year when Almas started to really take off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted August 20, 2018 Report Share Posted August 20, 2018 Man, I thought this show was great. Come on you sad sack motherfuckers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted August 20, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2018 Finally am watching the Takeover. Sorry, but kicking out of a Burning Hammer/Diving Double Stomp combo should not be a thing. Specially when the person who kicked out gets the pin 30 seconds after. Good match, but ridiculous finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted August 20, 2018 Report Share Posted August 20, 2018 17 hours ago, Mad Dog said: My problem with Adam Cole is he struggles to get that PWG personality that is awesome to follow him out of PWG. His run with the belt was just terrible but that's more on the booking than him. Not having it defended on the last Takeover was a giant blunder. It felt like they were trying to go for that big title match feel with a slower beginning but they were fighting over nothing. I think had that been for the NXT title it would have worked better. My problem with Adam Cole is that I think "Adam Cole, Baby" is the kind of thing that's embarrassing when there are non-fans in the room because it's so dumb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted August 20, 2018 Report Share Posted August 20, 2018 8 minutes ago, Charles (Loss) said: My problem with Adam Cole is that I think "Adam Cole, Baby" is the kind of thing that's embarrassing when there are non-fans in the room because it's so dumb. That's what's fun about it though. It was played to be dumb in PWG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingSavage Posted August 20, 2018 Report Share Posted August 20, 2018 Exactly. Cole was doing it as the dumb, obnoxious, self-centered pretty boy. Fans just ate that shit up though. Sort of similar to the RVD thumb taunt - it was a heel mannerism, meant to sell his arrogance, but it caught on with the fans and took off from there. "Shayna running the NXT women's division like CARDIO." is the kind of Mauro commentary that makes me cringe. That, and when he name-drops The Rock, Drake, Gucci Mane, and Rage Against the Machine in succession within a two-minute span. And he still manages to say nothing about anything. It's just gibberish, like reading a TMZ article out loud while falling into an epileptic fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted August 21, 2018 Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 Mauro sucks. The love he gets in a lot of the corners of the internet baffles me. He's a worse version of Matt Striker. Just trying to constantly shoehorn in references that are never relevant at the expense of calling the damn match. I was happy when he left WWE the first time around & was disappointed when he came back. He's hard to just tune out because he's so over-the-top too, so it's not like you can just ignore him. Of course, I've been hating Michael Cole for like fifteen years & he's never went anywhere, so whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilTLL Posted August 21, 2018 Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 Mauro is atrocious. He always struck me as a guy who had a dream to become a wrestling PBP man, and he made it happen, all logic and evidence and lack of talent be damned. His BIG BOY VOICE is the dirt worst. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted August 22, 2018 Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 On 8/19/2018 at 3:35 PM, donsem43 said: Kairi's title reign is going to be interesting. The only heels for her to feud with are Bianca Belair and Lacey Evans while on the other end you have a similar type babyface with Candace LaRae and Dakota Kai. They could do a rematch with Shayna at Evolution but that would be tricky if she debuts as Rhonda's friend on the main roster. I guess start with a multi-woman match then try and build up someone who has some momentum coming out of the MYC. It would seem natural to build Sane/Shirai as a big title match, perhaps for next year's Mania Takeover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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