MakeMineGeek

Haku, Scott Lost, Chris Bosh - The Meng Dynasty

One of the things that I notice about the shorter show is that they don't feel the need to beat us over the head with replays over things that happened three minutes earlier. Also, did Roman Reigns set the record for the quickest time from developmental to the main roster in recent history? I'm watching the show from Halloween 2012 and they're calling it his NXT debut. He was on TV about a month later as I recall. That's pretty crazy.

Resumed my NXT marathoning today starting with episodes from back in October of 2012. It's such a fun show. I think when you compare it to RAW, it's such a drastic difference. Nice, tight one hour broadcasts getting over a few characters and angles versus sprawling, bloated three hour shows that somehow manage to get over less characters and less angles most of the time because of the lack of focus. Just saw some guy named Bronson who intrigued me. A quick Google shows he's on the sidelines due to injury - saw an interview where he said he couldn't legally say how it happened. Has any other news come out about that?

That's kinda where I thought they might be going also... but you've got a long way to get there. Plus, you have to deal with the Rumble and the Chamber(s). EDIT: And I see this was already discussed! That'll teach me to respond to something I read on Page 2 of a 5 page thread. Carry on!

Here's one I don't get. I've noticed several times lately that they will put a poll up on the site and when reporting the results, they feel the need to mock the readers for their choices. For example, from today's update... What's the point of that? It's comes across as smug and demeaning to me. Almost a, "Oh, look at these silly pro wrestling people thinking their news is more important" in this case. But usually, it's just a snide comment. Have they always done this and I just never noticed?

Had to start with September 26th since there seems to be a pretty big gap at one point. In the middle of the show right now. Fun little Bo Dallas/Now Curtis Axel opener. It's interesting how they mix in some of the WWE main roster guys too - this one has a RyBack squash on it. Main Event is Steamboat/Ohno which I'm looking forward to.

Now that NXT is on the free section of Hulu, I'm wondering where a new viewer should start. Any suggestions for a good jumping on point episode?

Was that the period when Val and Rikishi had that strangely very awesome feud that (I think) had a cage match blowoff that Rikishi won by doing the Snuka dive? EDIT: Should've kept reading. Obviously it wasn't!

It says a lot there isn't a clear-cut answer to this question. Even though it's early, I would go with Bray Wyatt whose first two singles matches have been pretty bad. The gimmick is nice, but there's nothing to back it up in the ring it looks like. One of the other two Wyatts could easily surpass him soon, but so far, I've only seen their 3-minute slugfest with Tons of Funk which I kind of liked. They don't look like they're good for more than that, though, I'll admit. Wow. Talk about a giant sample size to work with. And they say that the Internet snaps to judgment.

Things like this really make me miss the brand split. I admit to missing Smackdown almost every week now because most weeks it's just a sequel to RAW. If it was the only place that I could see certain guys, I'd be all over it though. And speaking of the brand split, how long can they really continue to have a WWE and "World" Title? Surely a unification match must be coming at some point. I was really hoping it was this year when Ziggler was hyping that he was going to win the Rumble, win the WWE Title at Wrestlemania, and then cash in MITB to win the World Title too. It would've been a great way to do it.

I'm not sure it's an issue of attracting the casual fans. The casual fans, to me, are people who only know WWE and know that sparingly. So, unless you're saying, "Hey, CM Punk just got fired from WWE and is going to be at XYZ in Toledo this weekend!", I'm not sure anyone really attracts the "casual fan." The trick seems to be getting the middle ground between the hardcore fan and the diehard fan. I'll use myself as an example. I'm a wrestling fan (obviously.) I watch RAW almost every week. I occasionally watch Smackdown as well. I even dip my toe into the TNA waters from time to time. I follow the goings-on in PWG, CHIKARA, and ROH. I watch a lot of YouTube "classic" wrestling from the 80s and 90s. That's the bulk of my wrestling fandom and I would consider it pretty strong. However, I haven't been to a non-WWE show in about five years. I used to go to PWG on a consistent basis and some of the other SoCal indies prior to that. But as time has gone by, I've felt less and less of a need to go. PWG has their diehards... the people will attend almost every show no matter what. It's a significant number and gives them a solid showing in Reseda every time out. But then they have their hardcores who lie just outside of that. The people who will come out for big shows (Anniversary, All Star Weekend, BOLA) based on both the history of the event and the talent being brought in for it. And just beyond that, you have someone like me who could be persuaded to attend a show under the right circumstances. I believe those hardcores and people like me are who you aim for when you bring in outside talent. Now, who is that talent that "draws" those folks? I'm not the best person to answer that because I don't watch enough indy wrestling but it seems to be people like Elgin, like Davey Richards (for some), like Drake Younger or Sami Callihan, like Kevin Steen... those are the names that "plus" a show enough to take it from "I've seen most of those guys, I can miss that" to "Holy crap! I gotta be there!" Just to add on a little more, I can think of "draws" who got me to go to indy shows in the past. My indy wrestling fandom started with XPW... and it started because they were going to be featuring Sabu. That would typically be enough for an ECW fan boy like myself at that point but when they announced Sabu vs Abdullah The Butcher, my mind was blown. Then when you added Sabu vs Funk not long after, I had to put my mind back in so it could be blown again. A few years later, MPW in SoCal brought in Low-Ki for a match with Super Dragon. Again, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. One of the last PWG shows I attended featured CIMA, a guy I had been a fan of for years. Hell, I even went to a UPW show once because Crash Holly was going to be there. So, I think there are still draws out there and there are still ways to use them to boost your attendance. It's just about finding the right guys for your audience.

I honestly, truly, sincerely mean no offense when I ask this... Has billing someone that few have ever heard of as a "former WWE developmental wrestler" ever proven to give a show an attendance bump? Like... I could understand it if it was someone that people were raving about in developmental who never got the call but I can't even place that guy's name in my memory at all.

From what I understand, they hadn't taped anything yet but he was going to return from rehab and be a big part of the season. I also saw a report that they've already got the writers huddled up figuring out what to do instead. Glee was renewed for two seasons so I don't think cancellation is coming.

Hrm. Priorities are a little odd here. They can't afford some of these guys on contract - some that they supposedly have plans for - INCLUDING a pregnant woman. But new X-Division Title belt? Done!

After hearing about Lincecum's 148 pitches last night, I was doing some research to see what the most pitches thrown in a game were. Turns out the stat wasn't actually tracked until about 1988 but there are sports historians who believe Nolan Ryan threw 240 pitches in a 13 inning game where he walked 10 and struck out 19. Good article related to the subject here.