Yo-Yo's Roomie

I think the heel announcer is a trope that just probably needs to be retired, unless it's an active heel wrestler doing a guest turn. It just doesn't really make much sense, because you don't come off as a 'heel', you just come off as a twat. And why would you hire/want to work with a twat? The best way to approach it for someone like Graves, is for him to offer the perspective of the heel, as someone who's been in the ring and knows what it takes to succeed. But the full on heel shtick is terrible.

10/2/14 Charlotte Vs Bayley: We're kicking off with the women's title match. Charlotte comes out smiling and slapping some kids' hand. Hard to tell if she's a a babyface now or not. She is obviously the de facto heel in this match regardless. Another good match between these two, seeing Charlotte working over Bayley's leg. I think this is the debut of the figure-8, or at least the first time they really focused on it and put it over. Charlotte's matches need better finishes though, as the Natural Selection is just so anti-climactic, and is never really built to at all. After the match, Charlotte raises Bayley's hand and shakes it. Good work from these two tonight. Hideo Itami Vs Viktor: This match never starts as The Ascension just attack Itami in the ring and lay waste to him. It's a decent beatdown that Itami sells well, but this booking of Itami is not good. Another Enzo/Cass/Carmella video sees Mella get inside the ring for the first time. The gag with these vids is they always end with Enzo being embarrassed, and asking Cass not to post it. Here, Carmella dropkicks him out of the ring. I really like these videos. Baron Corbin Vs Troy McClain: I think we've seen McClain before, as I seem to remember doing my Troy McClure joke for him. I'll say it; Corbin looks like a star here in NXT. Very quick squash. The Legionnaires cut a video promo challenging Enzo and Cass to a match next week. I don't believe they've actually run this tag match yet, despite the two teams feuding for a long time. The Vaudevillains Vs Tye Dillinger and Jason Jordan: The Vaudevillains have changed their music to something a bit more sinister sounding. Which is great timing considering they seem to be working babyface in this match. Jordan and Dilinger, I think, have a great look, and could have been a good team. Gotch and English are still yet to really impress me in the ring. They're over though. They pick up the win here. Devin is interviewing Bayley in the back. I'm always so happy to see Devin. Bayley says that she won't give up and she gets closer to winning every time she steps in the ring with Charlotte. Really, Bayley? You've lost twice now. Time to get to the back of the queue. Ah, here's Sasha to tell it like it is. Sasha attacks Bayley and lays her out, and says she is going to show why she's the baddest boss in NXT. Adrian Neville Vs Tyson Kidd: Titus O'Neil has a front row seat for this NXT title match. Alex Riley tells us that lives are on the line in this one. They're not though, are they? This is good, but I think is the weakest of the three singles matches they have had. They didn't really do much to get over the desperation of Kidd, this being his last shot and all. O'Neil gets involved, violently pulling Neville down to the ground, but before he can follow up, Sami Zayn comes out of nowhere and gives him a helluva kick. Neville is able to get back into the ring, and hit the Red Arrow for the win. Jojo announces that Tyson Kidd will get no more shots at the NXT title, which I think was unnecessary, and just rubbing salt into the wound. Nice continuation of the Neville/Zayn story, and bringing Titus into the mix. Episode MVP: Bayley. 3 star match: Charlotte Vs Bayley.

The biggest reason why things seem so stale all the time in WWE is because they do such a piss poor job of utilising their huge and talented roster. Instead of running the same matches between the same combination of guys year round, why not cycle some new guys in, even if it's just for extended squashes? You forget half these guys are even employeed, and with the amount of content they have to put out, that's unforgiveable for me.

It's just weird that Sanity got called up and got absolutely nothing to do after that one quick feud with the New Day. It's fine if you see them as your bottom of the ladder team, but being bottom of the ladder implies that they're at least on the ladder. And they were not.

9/25/14 Bull Dempsey Vs Mojo Rawley: Rematch from Takeover, which goes much the same way. Bull squashes him in less than a minute. He finishes with a flying headbutt instead of the Bulldozer. His flying headbutt looks like shit. I guess they lost interest in pushing Mojo. As Mojo is leaving after the match, Tyler Breeze makes his entrance for his match. Mojo, disrespectfully I feel, kinda pushes him aside as he passes, which Breeze does not like. Breeze sends Mojo into the ringpost, laying him out. Bad night for Mojo. Tyler Breeze Vs Justin Gabriel: Weird to follow up that heelish act by Breeze by having him face another heel and have him basically play babyface in the match. Gabriel dominates most of the match, but Breeze catches him with the Beauty Shot for the win. In the back, we see Natalya basically begging William Regal to give Tyson Kidd another NXT title match. Regal agrees, but says it will be his last shot as long as Neville is champion. Bayley Vs Alexa Bliss: Bliss has new music. It's the opening refrain to her current music, followed by something generic. At least her ridiculous old music was memorable. This is wrestled as a clean cut babyface match, including the two high five-ing each other after one exchange. Bayley soon shows her superior class though, and picks up the win with the Bayley-To-Belly. She then grabs a mic and asks Charlotte to come out. She tells Charlotte that she feels like she let everyone down at Takeover, and asks for one more shot at the belt. Charlotte says she finally earnt her respect, and that it would be an honour to face her again. Not a big fan of babyfaces losing clean and then asking for another chance. Another fun camera phone video of Cass, Enzo and Carmella at the performance centre. I'm liking these. Enzo Amore Vs Marcus Louis: Louis has the Kurt Angle-style headgear with wig combo, but looks very embarrassed. Of course, it comes off in the match, which allows Enzo to roll him up and pick up the win. Poor Marcus. Tyson Kidd cuts a promo in the back saying Nattie's heart is in the right place, but he doesn't need her to get him a title match. He says it's his last chance, and he will make it count, and points out that he's the only guy to hand Neville a defeat this year. This would have been a good promo, but was ruined by the fact that, for some reason, Tyson cut it like he was talking to someone off camera, rather than looking into the camera. I kept expect the camera to pan out to reveal who he was talking to, but it never did. Really weird way to stage a promo. The Lucha Dragons Vs The Ascension: This is about as good a match as I think the Ascension are capable of having. It's solid. They're just such a dull team though. Towards the end of the match, Hideo Itami's music hits and he comes out to the top of the ramp. This distracts the Ascension enough for Kalisto to hit the Solida del Sol on Viktor and retain the belts. Konnor attacks Itami, but Itami lays him out with a kick, and that's how we end. Not a particularly good episode this week. Episode MVP: Tyler Breeze.

Coming up with a WWE-approved name is very much like making love to a beautiful woman. You have to set the right mood, try not to overthink things, maybe have a couple of drinks, and then, someone is going to get screwed.

9/18/14 The show opens with a long promo segment, which I hope isn't going to become a trend. Titus O'Neil, of all people, starts it off, coming out and heeling on the crowd. He says since the fatal 4-way main event boys had a match on Raw, taking precious time away from him, then he is going to return the favour. Solid heel motivation. Sami Zayn comes out to defend the honour of NXT, followed by Adrian Neville, who says that if anyone is going to defend NXT, it should be the champion. Zayn and Neville have a little back and forth about the finish to the fatal fourway match, before Tyson Kidd comes out and calls them both losers. Finally, William Regal comes out and makes a tag match for the main event pitting Kidd and O'Neil against Zayn and Neville. Really convoluted way to get to that match. Neville came off quite heelish here. Charlotte Vs Emma: Big 'welcome back' chants for Emma. Bit depressing to see Charlotte pretty much dominate her here. Poor Emma was such a flop on the main roster. She came around just like a year or two too early. Hideo Itami Vs Justin Gabriel: The in-ring debut of Itami. Gabriel should be a good opponent for him, and it turns out to be the case. He makes all Itami's offence look good, and Hideo gets over really well. After Itami finishes Gabriel off with a top rope double stomp (I have to think that gets changed soon), the fucking Ascension do a run-in and lay Itami out with the Fall of Man. I don't think a newcomer who they want to push should be getting left lying after his very first match. Baron Corbin Vs CJ Parker: Parker requested this rematch apparently. It doesn't go any better for him. Corbin has an entrance this time (with a motorcycle motif), and Renee dubs him the Lone Wolf. 'Thank you Corbin' chants from the crowd. Next is a camera phone video of Enzo and Big Cass working out in the gym. Carmella barges in and says she got fired from the salon because of them, so now she wants to be a fighter. She says they better make it happen for her, and knocks Enzo down with a medicine ball before storming out. Really good way to introduce Mella, and these leaked phone videos are miles better than the usual invisible camera bullshit. Tyson Kidd and Titus O'Neil Vs Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville: Neville and Zayn are playing a little bit of one-upsmanship in the early stages here. Crowd is firmly with Zayn, chanting 'better than Neville' for his standing moonsault. Zayn plays face-in-peril for a bit. It's a decent match. Finally Neville gets the hot tag but gets pushed off the top rope by Titus as he's going for the Red Arrow, and Kidd surprisingly pins Neville. I wasn't expecting that finish, but I'm happy to see Kidd is staying in the mix a bit longer. Episode MVP: Hideo Itami.

So, I assume the people who have tarred Sasha as unprofessional, immature and a complainer feel the same way about Rusev, since he acts pretty much the same way? I have to assume it, since I've not once seen anyone actually say it.

NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-way Sin Cara and Kalisto Vs The Ascension: Cara and Kalisto have new music, and there's a Lucha Dragons sign in the crowd, even though to the best of my knowledge they've never been referred to as that on TV. Well, this is it. Finally, The Ascension are beaten, with Kalisto pinning Viktor to win the tag belts for his team. The end of one of the worst title reigns I've ever seen. Almost a year long and not a single good match, not a single good feud, and they haven't beaten a single team of any worth the whole time from beginning to end. I can't imagine sitting through this in real time. Kalisto and Sin Cara get interviewed by Renee after the match, and Kalisto declares they are to be known as the Lucha Dragons. Smart crowd, this. Baron Corbin Vs CJ Parker: Apparently Parker begged for a match on Takeover, and here it is. I think they were going for a debut of Goldberg type vibe here, with the guy who it looked like was just out to do a job (Corbin) actually getting the strong win. Corbin hits the End of Days fairly quickly to win, and the crowd enjoys it. I'm looking forward to Corbin's run. Enzo Amore Vs Sylvester LeFort: Hair vs hair match. Both guys have their tag partners with them. As always, Enzo is booked to be pretty useless in the ring, gettign dominated here by LeFort, before getting a roll-up win as LeFort is distracted by Cass attacking Lino Ventura, I mean, Marcus Louis, on the outside. What follows is a travesty. LeFort tries to high-tail it before he can get the haircut, and Louis attacks from behind. However, he gets overwhelmed, LeFort scarpers, and poor Louis ends up getting beaten up and then the bucket of hair removal cream poured on his head. He runs off covering his head. This is a minor angle, of course, but it would be nice if they paid off on their promise of either LeFort or Enzo getting a haircut. Later in the night, Enzo and Cass hunt down Louis in the back, and drag him out to the arena, revealing his head, which is completely bald apart from a few scruffy spots of hair, to the world. Next, William Regal comes out to introduce new NXT signee KENTA to the crowd. Big KENTA chants as he announces that he will now be known as Hideo Itami. He is interrupted by, godammit, The Ascension? They couldn't find someone else for this spot? I have to suffer them twice in one night? Well, they beat down Itami and throw him out of the ring, and then demand that Regal gives them a rematch for the tag belts. Itami comes back in and lays a beating on both of them and sends them scurrying. Pretty decent way to introduce Itami. Bull Dempsey Vs Mojo Rawley: This is a quick squash for Bull. Mojo getting embarrassed on Takeovers is a fun running gag. The crowd is very anti-Mojo. Charlotte Vs Bayley: Bayley debuts her Bayley music here. I liked her old music too, but this theme is better. Izzy is in the crowd here too, and gets a hug. That's the first time I've noticed her. These two have a pretty good match. Better than I was expecting, honestly. The story is simple: Charlotte is better than Bayley, stronger, more athletic. But Bayley has heart and is better than Charlotte is giving her credit for. And both girls play their part really well. Apart from the moonsault by Charlotte, in which she over-rotates, lands more on her knees, and then just kind of leans forward onto Bayley with minimal impact. But otherwise I enjoyed this a fair bit. Bayley is way better in NXT than I thought she would be. Charlotte retains with the newly named Natural Selection. After the match, Sasha comes out and starts to lay a beatdown on Bayley, but Charlotte pulls her off. I look forward to Sasha finally getting a shot at the women's title. Adrian Neville Vs Sami Zayn Vs Tyson Kidd Vs Tyler Breeze: This is mostly a fun match, but I'm annoyed at Tyson working a couple of chinlock spots in the middle of this, during a long period when it was just he and Sami in the ring. You're better than that, Tyson. Tyson is actually, that aside, awesome in this. He's front and centre for pretty much the entirety of the match, which is 25 mins long. Zayn is probably the MVP of the match though. He, too, is pretty much present throughout the whole thing, and has some great selling and high spots. Breeze doesn't get much of a shine here, but has two great nearfalls which have the crowd on their feet. Neville actually does the least in the match, probably, which kinda plays into the finish, as he's depicted as stealing the match from Sami. This is obviously to start his heel turn, but I don't see what he did (pulling the ref out of the ring as he was counting Zayn over Kidd, and then finishing Kidd himself with the Red Arrow) as particularly heelish in this environment. It arguably should be, but babyfaces have been pulling refs out of rings for years. Overall, this is a lot of fun, with lots of fast action, big moves and exciting nearfalls. Show rating: This is the weakest of the network specials so far for me. Both the women's match and the main event delivered, but the rest felt more like TV stuff, and there wasn't that strong third match to put it at a level with the other two specials. Still a fun, breezy couple of hours of wrestling though. Episode MVP: Sami Zayn. 3 star matches: Charlotte Vs Bayley, Adrian Neville Vs Tyler Breeze Vs Tyson Kidd Vs Sami Zayn.

I don't mind Becky/Lacey either. Lacey has a good gimmick and cuts a good promo from what I've seen. As a first feud to establish Becky as champ, this should be fine. Then again, I thought Alexa was just a first feud to establish Becky as champ when she was the first SDL champ. And Alexa ended up taking the belt and it took Becky 2 years to be pushed seriously again.

I don't think this is remotely true. When Sasha is given something to do, she usually delivers at least on a par with anyone else in the company. The tag team with Bayley hasn't really worked for whatever reason, but I don't think it's because either one wasn't trying. They were both clearly proud of the team and being champions. I love Becky, but let's be honest, she was doing a whole lot of nothing for like a year before finally being given the ball and running with it. I don't see any difference between her performances/level of effort prior to becoming The Man, and Sasha's performance/level of effort. People seem to forget Charlotte's feud with Carmella in which she wrestled like she clearly didn't give a crap and acted like the whole thing was below her (which maybe it was, but still). The next time Alexa has a great match will be the first time, no matter how great she supposedly is on the mic. Mella and Asuka always seem to throw themselves into everything though, no doubt.

I'm not really gonna argue with that (except I think 'regularly acting unprofessionally on camera' is a bit strong. But I reckon there's many more examples of guys or girls being way underutilised and probably losing their shot because they just tried to play the good soldier. The squeaky wheel and all that. But, of course, we don't know what is going on behind the scenes, so, again, it's all speculation.

I love Sasha and think her frustration is largely justified. I'm not sure taking to social media to vent is the best way to deal with it, but it's kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, because just putting your head down and getting on with it doesn't seem to get you anywhere either. I guess we don't really know what kind of 'headache' she is, or isn't, behind the scenes, but just going on talent and star power and being a complete package, and always believed and still believe that she should be the centrepiece of the women's division. That said, this run with Bayley really hasn't done her any favours. It's strange that this team seems to have exposed her flaws, while hiding Bayley's. I also haven't noticed her 'booboo' face, but enough people bring it up that I accept it's probably a thing.

Nothing. I'm just making an observation. Dissecting things is kinda what we do here. I said myself I thought it was just a botch, probably by the ref. I do think it would have been better had it been a clean 3.

It would have been nice if Ronda's shoulders were actually down though, wouldn't it? I mean, that would have been better.