The NXT Thread

[Ace]

I don't get how he'd be allowed to refuse. The dude had never worked American style wrestling. If that's the case, then WWE was fucking stupid to hire him in the first place.

[Cliff Hanger]

Just watched the January 8 show, probably my first WWE show since the very first NXT and my first wrestling show period since the first Chikara PPV.  By and large I enjoyed it, but somebody needs to tell Aiden English (or whoever wrote his bit) that you never, ever do a Gilbert&Sullivan pastiche if you can't sing it at speed.

[odessasteps]

Did someone say Gilbert and Sullivan pastiche?

[hammerva]

I decided to catch up on NXT to get ready for the 2/27 show on the Network by watching the shows since September and I must say that I don't really get the praise for Paige.   Granted this period I was watching was after after she won the title so I should go back more to watch that.  But when I see Paige in the ring I think a WWE diva trying to be MsChif from the indies who I have seen for years.   As a wrestler Paige might be better (although she really does overkill with the throwing her opponent to the ropes move) but as a character is doesn't really seem natural.  

 

My opinion on Leo Kruger and Rik Viktor has improved though.  From the little I saw I thought Kruger and Viktor was all gimmick and in the Ascension case a really awful gimmick but they are pretty solid wrestlers.  

 

I will agree that CJ Parker is complete shit and really the only guy/girl on the roster that is fast forward worthy. 

 

The dynamic between Regal and Renee Young is great.  Ever work with a really attractive woman and you are desperately trying to be professional but meanwhile you are thinking about her in completely inappropriate ways.  That is Regal perfectly  

 

And yes Bo Dallas is awesome heel.  Don't think it will work on RAW or Smackdown but perfect for NXT

[Greggulator]

 

The dynamic between Regal and Renee Young is great.  Ever work with a really attractive woman and you are desperately trying to be professional but meanwhile you are thinking about her in completely inappropriate ways.  That is Regal perfectly  

 

 

 

What I also like is that Renee knows it and is totally comfortable with it! That's just pure confidence right there and great to see. She knows Regal thinks she's terrific at her job on top of being attractive. And she knows Regal's great at his job. It's a really great mentor/protege thing with both people acknowledging their attraction to each other but knowing to keep things professional. It's the most adult relationship in wrestling history. Hell, it might be the most adult relationship in television history aside from Coach and Tami Taylor.

[caley]

I'll be honest, as much goodness as there is on a weekly episode, if I don't get an Enzo Amore promo, the weeks is probably going to be not a good one.  I'm not sure WWE has had a guy come along who is this legitimately funny since Santino.  I'm not sure I've laughed harder at a WWE moment in years (Intentionally, I mean) as I have at that English-Enzo/Cass promo from a few weeks back where English calls them neanderthals and Enzo turns to Cass and with a completely straight face and sounding totally genuine goes "What's a neanderthal?" and Cass just pats him on the shoulder like "Shut up" and it ends with Enzo running over English's foot.  That just slayed me.  Just thinking about it makes me laugh.

[caley]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EjfNmiClAY

 

For reference

[Greggulator]

We get RIGHT into it as Natalya/Bailey and Emma are taking on the BFFs -- Summer, Sasha and Alicia Fox as Charlotte accompanies them at ringside.Geez, what do they think about Charlotte? I didn't think she was bad in the few times she got in the ring. Renee is on commentary and starts to chat before she sees Regal. "Oh, hello Mr. Regal! I was just caught by your gaze." They mention some sort of Valentine's thing and Renee busts out one of my favorite Simpsons quotes with "I Cho-Cho-Choose You!" So great.

 

Emma and Summer start. Summer does this great cowardly sprint when Natalya gets tagged in. Summer rules. There's a TREMENDOUS heat segment on Bailey. Like outrageously good, simple stuff. My favorite moment: Bailey crawls to the corner but Summer sits in front of her and mocks her "COME ON BAILEY!" before kicking her in the face. A+. The end is a little goofy. The BFFs turned on Alicia (who was there as a try-out) so Emma (recipient of the hot tag) gets on The Emma-Lock for the win. The heat segment was awesome. I wish they played the hot tag out a bit more before the end. But this was so much fun.

Aiden English comes out singing before his rematch w/ Big Cass. Enzo rules and everything but his injury has given Cass some singles time and it has been GREAT. Cass has been one of the best performers in NXT the past few weeks -- totally eye-opening, actually. Man, Aiden is such a great stooge heel. Cass goes for a big boot that English ducks under. He then goes "HA!HA!" and attempts a cross body but, naturally, gets caught. Cass is going to hit some sidewalk slam thing but Aiden counters into TAKE A BOW for the win. Regal's love of Aiden is terrific, as usual.

Sami comes out wearing a Me First And The Gimme Gimmes T-Shirt under his suit jacket and porkpie hat. When he gets called up, will he be able to keep that look? I hope so because then I can see first-hand how the WWE Universe would react to a face character based on me at the age of 20. I mean, what I would give to go back in time and tell myself back then that things were going to be alright and to get some confidence and have fun and don't worry about whether the cute girl you met at The Bouncing Souls show was going to call you back. Sami has talked about how he's lost sleep watching his MOTY with Cesaro, wondering what little thing cost him the match. He's all about moving forward but he's still stuck in that one moment. Cesaro comes dickishly out to tell Sami to get over it and admit he's better. This is a friggin' GREAT back-and-forth that really elevates the plot without being terrible expository writing. Sami talks up how great Cesaro is, how he's a workhorse, how he doesn't HAVE to go to NXT but does because he's a competitor. Just "Prove it to me one more time" stuff. It ends with Sami offering a handshake after Cesaro said he wanted no more excuses. Cesaro stares. Sami then tries to make it a PINKIE SHAKE~! Cesaro teases. "My answer is no!" Then he kicks Sami in the knee. BWAHAHAHAHA!

Cesaro then walks off smug until HHH comes out! The crowd starts a "Best For Business" chant! HHH makes the match for the 27th.

This was legitimately one of my favorite segments of the year. Regal: "It doesn't matter. Antonio Cesaro is an incredibly performer." Great callback to their own match.

They run their second "WYATT FAMILY" tease of the night. I love it. After the first one, Regal talked about how "You just know they're there" when the play-by-play dude talked about how frightening that was. I love the slow tease for their arrival -- just makes them seem like doom in human form. I can't wait for this. Their last appearance was awesome as the conquering heroes. I've watched that like 10,000 times and it's so great. Bray does a face promo there that's sort of a motivational speaker while he's still doing his deranged cult leader deal. I mean, they're going to turn face at some point because The Family is so awesome. Transcendentally awesome, in fact. They're almost there already. The Shield feud is so amazing. The anti-Cena smarks are going to go crazy for that WrestleMania match. Man, I'm seriously hoping they do something horrible to Hogan when he returns. There's no such thing as a hero.

 

Tye Dillinger is in the ring to take on CJ Parker. The crowd rules today. They start a "Let's go Tye!" chant because everyone hates Parker. They applaud when he gets a front-face lock and then start a "Purple Power" chant as that's what the Ontario-n (I think?) is wearing. CJ hits the airplane spin into THE THIRD EYE palm strike. CJ then grabs the mic and goes on an environmental screed and blames the NXT crowd for all of the ills of the world. This was really funny. Great whiny heel. Maybe this has some Bo Dallas legs to it. Face CJ was worthless. But crybaby Ford Fiesta driving recycling grocer co-op CJ? I like it!

The third Wyatt Family tease happens. Nothing else except for "Broken Out In Love." We need to seriously talk about that on the short list of best theme songs ever. Because it's a great song first, obviously, written by a terrific musician who was in the Jesus & Mary Chain. The song adds such an awesome tone to The Wyatt Family. It doesn't sound like anything in the "original music" phase.

The GLRLEEREPRPPP comes on with the "We're Here" bit and the crowd goes ape. Wyatt's do their lantern entrance (which is the best) and when the lights come on, everyone is swaying. Rowan and Harper are in the ring for a tag match and you can guess where this goes. Just a quick, brutal squash. Bray takes one of them (that Jordan kid) and hits Sister Abigail. He then does a quick thing about how while men tremble at their presence, they've never forgotten where they come from. "NXT will always belong to The Wyatt Family." FOLLOW THE BUZZARDS! GLLLLERRRRPPPP!

So great. The Wyatt Family stuff is what made me start watching NXT. I think that's why I might be their biggest fan on here. I got to see them develop and evolve. That's such a great part of the new WWE plan with the network -- the more hardcore fans will identify with the characters and will cue the non-hardcore fans when call ups are made. I'm attached to them, just like I am Big E. and Emma and even Cesaro.

[Niners Fan in CT]

So Renee is recycling old Kaitlyn promos? Not that I mind.. you can't go wrong with The Simpsons (of that era)

[Josh Mann]

Points to Aiden English for referencing "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" in his intro. 

 

And also apropos of nothing, Big Cass probably needs to switch his ring gear from something akin to what Kevin Nash wore, if just to make him look bigger

[caley]

 

And also apropos of nothing, Big Cass probably needs to switch his ring gear from something akin to what Kevin Nash wore, if just to make him look bigger

Exactly what I've been thinking.  Some big pants would make him look bigger, and probably fit his character better anyway.

[caley]

Man, that CJ Parker promo was ridiculously great.  Him bragging about driving a Ford Fiesta and how many miles it gets to the gallon, calling the NXT crowd "Sheeple" and blaming them for ruining the environment.  I think a CJ Parker-Big Cass/Enzo feud could be really great, have CJ get ticked off at them driving a big-ass SUV or using too much product in their hair.  I also really love the 'Third Eye' palm strike, I love the way he stands there with his hand in the air afterwards, it's just a really simple, cool move.  Now that he's a heel he needs to drop the airplane spin, though.

 

BTW, is it too much to ask for Alex Riley (I think it was he on colour tonight) to actually, you know, WATCH NXT when he's not on?!  If I'm not mistaken, tonight he was bagging on Big Cass for stealing English's hat as revenge for English beating up Enzo while he was in a wheelchair, except English never actually touched Enzo?!

 

Sasha Banks' look entrance and strut into the ring are just amazing.  I'm still not 100% sold on her ringwork but her look is incredible: so hateable.

 

Also, I think that was Cesaro's best turn on the mic since he's been in WWE.  Rather than obnoxious foreigner who says hello in various languages, it was more like a Jason Statham/David Beckham character, a good-looking European dude in a nice suit who is good at everything and kind of annoying in that regard.  He should go with that, I think it would be good.

 

Only disappointment about the Wyatts is that we didn't get a "Yeahyeahyeah" from Harper.

[cubbymark]

At this point, Charlotte has to be the Divas' NXT equivalent of Bray Wyatt. Both of them can't work for shit but Charlotte inherited her daddy's charisma. 

 

The divas tag was pretty fun for what it was. The Renee/Regal back and forth was tremendous. Interesting that they would have Alicia Fox be hung out to dry by the BFFs. I could see Alicia and Emma teaming at some point to get revenge on the BFFs with Alicia respecting Emma's ability. I still don't get the Emma gimmick, but her house of fire babyface hot tag was good.

 

Big Cass/Amore was solid, if unspectacular and super short. Regal fawning over Amore was fantastic. 

 

Sami/Cesaro was good stuff. Sami is a really good promo. The buildup has been fantastic, and Cesaro turning down a PINKY SWEAR with a kick to the knee was really dickish. The way the storyline seems to be playing out, it almost feels as if Zayn beats Cesaro, he'll get the call up to RAW/Smackdown/etc. 

 

CJ Parker is just fast forward material. I didn't like him in FCW, and I give less of a shit about him now. That he's still in NXT and not someone like Kassius Ohno is kind of sad. 

 

The Wyatt squash was a squash. Bray gave a promo, the NXT Universe lost their minds. I was glad it was over. That said, I wouldn't mind them being the ones to kill Hulkamania once and for all. 

[mattdangerously]

You lost me at "Bray Wyatt can't work."

[Greggulator]

You lost me at "Bray Wyatt can't work."

 

Yeah, how is this even remotely a talking point anymore?

[Patrick B.]

Pretty sure Renee did the Larry Zbyszko L-salute at the broadcast table and that was awesome.

[cubbymark]

 

You lost me at "Bray Wyatt can't work."

 

Yeah, how is this even remotely a talking point anymore?

 

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but Daniel Bryan can make anyone look like a million bucks. 

 

But I'd rather not focus on the negatives today. Renee Young citing this is a win: 

 

[mattdangerously]

True, but I don't think Bryan was carrying Wyatt. He was holding up his end of the match pretty well. And there have been guys with reputations for being great workers whose matches with Bryan weren't as good as the Rumble match. Orton, for example.

[Goodear]

The CJ Parker thing is great because it has a bunch of legs to it. There are literally dozens of ideas that can spin off a self important hippie character. I eagerly await the Tyler Breeze face turn from CJ throwing red paint on his chinchilla vest. I also hope Parker takes the opportunity to yip while in the holds like he did during the Miz match because that would be great. I also hope they start calling his ax kick the Carbon Footprint because F you Matt Morgan. CJ Parker hacky sacks on your grave!

[Tromatagon]

Did you guys miss Santino doing the same Simpsons line when he brought Emma out of the crowd on Raw? Or are Simpsons references not cool if you have a wang?

[TimLivingston]

It takes two to tango. Brian Pillman carried Johnny B. Badd at Fall Brawl but if he wasn't willing to dance, that match would have sucked.

 

That Zayn/Cesaro interview was MONEY. That was old-school, money-drawing, get me to see those guys fight greatness. I was waiting for Cesaro to kick him in the knee, and when it happened, I popped so hard for that.

 

I really want to see a Wyatt Family face run at some point. I actually think that once they work Cena, they might actually get turned face. 

 

One thing that I hope WWE does at some point is some type of generational war. NXT at this point really has enough guys who are at a level where they could do an all out assault on the "established" guys and instead of the aborted NXT thing from a few years ago where SuperCena reigned supreme, a year-long feud where the up-and-comers took on the old guard would be incredible. Sadly, Vince would never let it happen.

 

BFF's need more promo time to get them over as bitches. I'm digging Charlotte as the mouthpiece/chosen one.

[Goodear]

Like have the whole NXT roster be some sort of Super Nexus?  I really think you would have to press down a lot of their personalities to do that.  Why would super nice guy Sami Zayn work with broadway vocalist Aiden English work with the male model Tyler Breeze work with steampunk cosplayers the Asension?  You either have a mess of an organization that makes no sense or a bunch of guys wearing the same T-shirt that are not distinct.

 

Bunch of new generation guys come in as a house of fire to do what they want when they want?  I think the Shield already scratches this itch on a more micro and manageable level. 

[supremebve]

BFF's need more promo time to get them over as bitches. I'm digging Charlotte as the mouthpiece/chosen one.

You watch the BFFs and you come away thinking, we have to get Charlotte more airtime?  Summer is clearly the best in the role, she looks and acts exactly right for the head mean chick.  Sascha is great as her cocky little lackey, but Charlotte kind of strikes me as out of place. 

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Did you guys miss Santino doing the same Simpsons line when he brought Emma out of the crowd on Raw? Or are Simpsons references not cool if you have a wang?

 

 

Jarrett got there first.

[TimLivingston]

 

BFF's need more promo time to get them over as bitches. I'm digging Charlotte as the mouthpiece/chosen one.

You watch the BFFs and you come away thinking, we have to get Charlotte more airtime?  Summer is clearly the best in the role, she looks and acts exactly right for the head mean chick.  Sascha is great as her cocky little lackey, but Charlotte kind of strikes me as out of place. 

 

She fits because she's Ric Flair's daughter and has the pedigree and the "lifestyle" and all that. And when she has talked, it's been fine. I just want to see more of her instead of less. But you are right. Summer is about as good as a Diva gets for the complete package.