Guest Ramo2653 Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 There was a quick second during the Bayley promo that she was going to say that she was watching the HHH workout DVD to plug it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StretchMediatedHypertrophy Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 It's hard to be a heel in NXT when the underlying narrative is that the roster should do whatever it takes to move up and take a spot on the main roster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick B. Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 There was a quick second during the Bayley promo that she was going to say that she was watching the HHH workout DVD to plug it. We hadn't been reminded recently that HE TORE HIS QUAD AND FINISHED THE MATCH. So screw anybody whining about injuries...not that anyone like that immediately comes to mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 HMW speaks truth, it is hard to be a complete heel when the underlying narrative is "do whatever it takes". The sad thing is that there are several acts that will just get lost on the big show and are perfectly fine where they are. When I hear things like "Mighty Mouse" gimmick, I throw up in my mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 But the whole main story arc that just ended was all about "What will you do to get ahead?" Sami refused to cheat and it cost him time and time again. But he kept true to himself and now has the belt. "Whatever It Takes" means so many different things to each character. Tyler Breeze and Tyson Kidd are conniving pricks who will do anything to get ahead. Neville is smug and overly confident and has those shades of grey -- but he still sees a line not to cross and will condemn people who cross that line. What I love about Owens -- and I hope they play this up -- is he cut the line. He took advantage of both Sami's good nature, celebratory mood and physical weakness so he could get ahead way faster than his peers. A lot of people are kayfabe more deserving of title shots just from being there a lot longer. Owens now has that spot because he tried to decapitate the newly crowned, trusting champion when he was completely vulnerable. That is a heel move. If you hated Neville for bending the rules, you have to detest Owens for his actions. Just because there is a clear motivation -- You got here ahead of me and I am jealous of all you have obtained -- doesn't make him a good person. It just makes him a good character. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 Someone asked Austin on his pod this week about the Neville/Mighty Mouse gimmick. Needeless to say, Austin was increduluous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 Aren't the best villains in genre fiction the ones who believe they are doing the right thing? (doom, luthor, the Master, ...) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeeball Wizard Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 Aren't the best villains in genre fiction the ones who believe they are doing the right thing? (doom, luthor, the Master, ...) You forgot Ice King and Earl of Lemongrab. And Dwight Schrute. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattdangerously Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 And Dick Cheney. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notoriusvig Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 I have to be honest, I think a gimmick with a mask might be better for Neville than just coming up as the character he is on NXT. Don't get me wrong, it has the potential to go completely wrong and end up along the lines of El Torito, if we're going by what Dave wrote. Still, the guy isn't the greatest talker, he's small, and doesn't come across like a major superstar, right now. He is great in the ring but that doesn't matter and never has with Vince. If a masked gimmick ends up working, it will work out tenfold for this guy, compared to his current status. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattdangerously Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 Yeah, if anything, it'll spare everyone from having to hear Lawler rattle off a bunch of shitty jokes about how goofy Neville looks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mco543 Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 Or JBL screaming "he looks like a varmint, Maggle!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nature Boy Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 Why am I getting the feeling that Meltzer's source possibly overheard someone describing Neville's gimmick as "something like Mighty Mouse" and just got carried away? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 Because it's the WWE and VKM has a very peculiar sense of humor. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebbie Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 On recommendation of someone, I watched Emma vs AJ to crown the first NXT Divas champ and Becky vs Charlotte. Mind y'all, this the first time I've watched any of these chicks outside of Raw or Main Event or SD. Okay, so I watched Rebecca Knox in Shimmer but that was almost a decade ago (fucking hell) Emma vs Paige did feel like I was watching a Shimmer match from 2005. One of those long for the sake of being long Shimmer matches. Is it fair to say this one went about 12 minutes? It is fair to say there were both faces in the match? The first thing I notice was the crowd was hot for it and they didn't do anything. Then it was clear that they just wanted to chant to chant. I digress. Anywho, the start off about doing trading stuff for once counts. A lot of it just felt kinda obligatory. Emma even had a look on her face like "yeah.. we're good wrestlers..." throughout it. I don't know who was announcing, but they didn't help the match at all. Them talking about Paige wanting to FIGHT but Paige looking like she had very little FIGHT in here as she traded moves with Emma was deflating. They did manage to get all of Emma's spots in before the big spill that lead to a commercial break. Eventually, Emma slaps on a headlock for a minute. Did they run out of things to do? In any event, they do more stuff as the crowd loses their mind for whatever reason. A big superplex and a Paige Turner to end the match. Weird match. Maybe if they kept it to 7 minutes, it probably would've been better. They spent most of the time countering each other moves. Idk. Charlotte vs Becky was interesting. Mah new home skillet (lol kidding) said Charlotte was only a year into her rasstlin' when this match happened. Don't get me wrong, a lot of her stuff looked pretty. But hopefully she doesn't become a case of an outrageously naturally gifted athlete who cares more about doing pretty looking stuff instead of getting over. She reminds me so much of Michelle McCool. Michelle was a chick who could do all the cool looking moves and shit, but had no charisma and no personality and refused to try to let the crowd invest in her matches. Going spot to spot to spot without letting the crowd soak in what's being done doesn't work for a WWE crowd.. Maybe because I'm used to Becky being an annoying Irish broad who punched people in the face, but I didn't find her particularly sympathetic. But I did like when Charlotte tried to slam on her knee again and Becky countered with a roll up. Also, Charlotte has the flattest ass I've ever seen. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turk128 Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 Also, Charlotte has the flattest ass I've ever seen. She inherited her mom's beautiful face... and the body of a tranny in the 1st years of hormone treatment. It's hard to ignore this when she first came in. Fortunately, someone gave her some good advice and now you rarely see her pose standing straight with her legs planted; she always cocks a leg to show more feminine hips. And smart camera work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCM Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 The NXT women's division is so much better in and out of the ring than the main roster it's a joke to compare the two. "Going spot to spot to spot without letting the crowd soak in what's being done doesn't work for a WWE crowd." What exactly does work for a WWE crowd they only have maybe a handful of guys who are over, and Paige is the only women close to being over. If Vince and company knew what worked for their audience they wouldn't have 80% of the roster coming out to crickets every night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StretchMediatedHypertrophy Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 But the whole main story arc that just ended was all about "What will you do to get ahead?" Sami refused to cheat and it cost him time and time again. But he kept true to himself and now has the belt. "Whatever It Takes" means so many different things to each character. Tyler Breeze and Tyson Kidd are conniving pricks who will do anything to get ahead. Neville is smug and overly confident and has those shades of grey -- but he still sees a line not to cross and will condemn people who cross that line. What I love about Owens -- and I hope they play this up -- is he cut the line. He took advantage of both Sami's good nature, celebratory mood and physical weakness so he could get ahead way faster than his peers. A lot of people are kayfabe more deserving of title shots just from being there a lot longer. Owens now has that spot because he tried to decapitate the newly crowned, trusting champion when he was completely vulnerable. That is a heel move. If you hated Neville for bending the rules, you have to detest Owens for his actions. Just because there is a clear motivation -- You got here ahead of me and I am jealous of all you have obtained -- doesn't make him a good person. It just makes him a good character. I'm not saying it wasn't an effective storyline, but Adrian Neville wasn't full heel and neither is Owens. In my view, Neville came off very unconvincing criticising Owens. Owens may do heel things, but he will struggle to get heel heat when, like it or not, there is an underlying narrative that it is basically okay to do whatever you need to do. I'm not saying you need to have out and out heels that the crowd treats as such, I'm just saying NXT doesn't have them. Tyler is way over with the crowd, and Tyson kinda is (though he is probably closest to getting a true heel reaction). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turk128 Posted December 29, 2014 Share Posted December 29, 2014 The only true heels in NXT are CJ Parker & Mojo Rawley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenalysis Posted December 29, 2014 Share Posted December 29, 2014 Owens just needs to cross the moral event horizon somehow. No idea how. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonteCarl Posted December 29, 2014 Share Posted December 29, 2014 He takes Bailey out for a nice steak dinner and then never calls her again? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted December 29, 2014 Share Posted December 29, 2014 And then CJ Parker would point out how much of a carbon footprint the beef industry has, leading to an apron powerbomb that turns Owens full-face. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Btw, Sasha vs Charlotte was on Main Event this week. Sasha did just about everything well. The fans were into Charlotte pretty well. Not their best match but a good showing for both all things considered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nice Guy Eddie Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 The only true heels in NXT are CJ Parker & Mojo Rawley. I like that Mojo Rawley is a heel based purely on how much he sucks. It's very indy-snobbish. I love it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mco543 Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 The Ascension are bad. Just plain fuckin' bad. They're completely miscast in their roles as bad ass brutes and I have no idea how to properly cast them except aside. For guys who are pretty big, Finn and Itami both seemed much bigger even though they aren't. They are both completely devoid of presence. Itami also desperately needs a new new finisher. His Dreamcast looked like shit and should go back to Finn. They need to expedite giving him the GTS cause what he did tonight should never be done by him again. I still don't see what other people seem to see in Charlotte. Every time she does her father's act it's cringeworthy. Other than that I thought tonight's show was really good, Finn made a much better FIP than I thought he would. I wish the payoff to Corbin/Dempsey was Corbin getting an Arnie Becker gimmick and Dempsey ending up as Benny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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