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NXT 2015 THREAD


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Owens destroyed his best friend during the apex of his professional career leaving him sat at home for two weeks recovering in a whirlwind of betrayal and deceit. That makes him a heel, depending on your moral stance, you don't do that. That's what makes him a heel, he doesn't really wrestle like a heel, but Brock doesn't either. The story of him wrestling for a better life for his family should be manipulated in the further weeks, have him glorify the lifestyle that's been handed to him, tweak the character or essentially, the only real heelish thing he's done is attack his best friend with a hidden agenda, which in the wrestling world can be forgiven in an instant. This is the ''reality era'' after all, the laws of what constitutes a heel or a face have changed.

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Remind me never to stand between some of you and a sandwich your kid wants.  Owens is not a face guys.  Shit.  

 

This is a poor analogy, in my humble opinion. Me powerbombing you to get to a sandwich my kid wants in real life =/= Owens trying to climb the ladder as quickly as possible to make a better life for his family in a profession where turning on one another just to get a title shot is the norm and "Every (wo)man for himself" is a motto parroted by PBP men and color commentators across a variety of match types and in a variety of situations."

 

WWE has always been presented as a socially Darwinistic program where the ubermensch is typically pushed as the biggest face in the company. With that perspective, yeah, Owens is a face in the constructs of this program.

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Kevin Owens is a heel who powerbombed his supposed best friend into the corner of the ring after the biggest win in his career. He then powerbombed him to the point he could no longer get up last night. There are no shades of grey here.

 

There are more in the ending of the 4-way with Charlotte hugging Sasha Banks while she was desperately trying not to cry before shoving her away into character again.

 

In conclusion, Charlotte and Sasha are awesome.

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It's hard not to get emotionally drawn in when you see Sasha and Charlotte both getting teary eyed. You saw the same thing in Owens eyes when he won.

 

Maybe it's because the nxt crew is hungry. Maybe it's because they are young. You rarely see that level of emotion on the main roster.

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Yeah, put me in the "There is probably something wrong with you if you see Owens as a face" camp. The NXT authority figure, who has often described himself as a villain, cut a promo where he said he felt like the worst father in the world after Owens attacked Zayn. And I know we're used to announcers in WWE being idiots, but they were selling that beating at the end of the match with "Are you still saying this isn't personal?" He was still attacking Zayn when trainers were trying to attend to him. There is no way, shape, or form, even in wrestling, where Owens' character as it stands today is a face.

I think a distinction some people are missing is that people can still like a heel.

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Owens did nothing heelish at the end of that match he just whipped Zayn's ass and finished him when the opportunity presented itself. The guy calls himself a prize fighter, and the match ended in an MMA like tko. He did all those powerbombs because Zayn was kicking out of the first few.

 

Why would Owens stand back and let the trainers check on Zayn when the match wasn't over, and Sami could have a chance to recover? Imagine if one of those trainers had a Z-pak Zayn would made a comeback for sure.

 

Owens obviously isn't meant to be a face, but in this day and age it's easy to see why some fans like him. We've all wanted more complex characters that are more in line with modern day tv shows so here you go.

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Owens isn't being presented as an unlikeable dick he's being presented as a guy that will do anything to make a better life for his family even if it means stepping on his best friends neck. He has unlikeable qualities, but he also has qualities that are admirable like most real people. I see no need to change his character to "villainous heel" when his current one feels so real and fresh.

 

Sami saying their relationship changed when Owens got married and had kids kind of makes Sami sound like a dick.

Honestly it reminds me of that Classic Stan Hansen promo where he says he's not in a big ego boost, he's got a fat wife and nine kids and he has to feed them

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I was a little taken aback by the Zayn comment that seemed to try to get sympathy because his buddy chose his wife and kid over him. Of course Owens is going to make that choice or he'd be an asshole. There's a lot of shit Owens has done that is heelish that I don't understand the uber babyface bringing up that point.

This show was awesome yet again, though.

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And in point of fact, Zayn himself was criticized by the announcers for not finishing off a seemingly-injured Neville in a title match and losing just months before. Now Owens makes sure that he's going to win in a similar situation, but that's a heelish act? It doesn't wash with how WWE typically presents Owens's actions. He didn't actually attack Zayn after the match either. 

 

Who cares if Regal describes himself as a villain? He's clearly a face right now. Of course the face will support other faces.

 

Owens is another in a long line of "male who will do anything to protect/make a better life for my family"-style faces that are popular right now in media in general. He's more like Jack Bauer or Liam Neeson's character in those Taken movies. To be fair, I haven't seen the latter, but in the former, Bauer does some shit that is at best terribly unethical in order to protect his daughter. 

 

In 1985 NWA, sure, Owens is a heel with no honor who has to backstab to win, but in 2015 WWE, Owens is acting like their faces typically act -as anti-heroes who do some scummy or disreputable shit sometimes. 

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Yeah I think the thing that everyone is missing is that Owens gets a reaction because he comes out and wrecks shit. If he was doing it to Tyler Breeze he would be a face. He is positioned as a heel because of WHO he is fighting against. Granted WWE would never book a face the way they book him, but the point stands.

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I mostly agree with that. The Kevin Owens that attacked Zayn after the he beat Neville was the same guy who ran through Parker earlier that show. There really wasn't a "turn" so to speak he was just doing what he said he was going to do. If Neville had won that match Owens would've targeted him, and probably would've got a major face reaction for it.

 

It's an interesting character, and I hope they don't have him start twirling his mustache and give him a hairless cat to sit on his lap while he cuts promos so the fans know he's a heel. Just let him do his thing. It's the reality era after all jack.

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Graves on the Sam Roberts podcast last week referred to Zayn as living a "rockstar" lifestyle or some shit in real life. He wrestles hard but likes to "have fun" all the time. I'd think the 30 something guy with 2.5 kids would relate more to a lunch pail guy that would take a bullet for his wife and kids more than that guy, in fairness.

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So (he said trying to change the subject), what the hell was wrong with the Lucha Dragons?  Kalisto botched a spot and that is one thing, but Sin Hunico looked like Sam quantum leaped into him and he forgot how wrestling worked.  The Wesling Buddys need help to establish themselves and they had to carry Cara kicking and screaming to a pretty sub par contest.  Cara just didn't look like he wanted to be in the building.  Blake and Murphy actually looked pretty good and that elevated neckbreaker was pretty swank, but their lack of character is pretty glaring.

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So (he said trying to change the subject), what the hell was wrong with the Lucha Dragons? Kalisto botched a spot and that is one thing, but Sin Hunico looked like Sam quantum leaped into him and he forgot how wrestling worked. The Wesling Buddys need help to establish themselves and they had to carry Cara kicking and screaming to a pretty sub par contest. Cara just didn't look like he wanted to be in the building. Blake and Murphy actually looked pretty good and that elevated neckbreaker was pretty swank, but their lack of character is pretty glaring.

This is something I've been noticing more and more with the Lucha Dragons. Their match at the last Takeover was shaky, as was the one where the dropped the belts. Obviously with their style the potential to botch is much higher, but Sin Cara in particular almost seems bored out there.

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Solid show but not as good as the last event.  I thought Zayn/Owens should have been a lot shorter.  If they were going to have Owens win that decisively they should have just taken a page from Brock/Cena and had Owens destroy him in about 10 minutes.  Zayn could get in a few aerial spots and have a few mini-combacks, but having Owens dominate him decisively would have made that finish work better.  I thought it was a bit anti-climatic and kept expecting Zayn to counter with something but it just went on and on then ended.  "Legit injury" spots in matches have also been a long time pet peeve of mine, especially if it's the heel faking it.  They just really drag the flow of the match.

 

So (he said trying to change the subject), what the hell was wrong with the Lucha Dragons?  Kalisto botched a spot and that is one thing, but Sin Hunico looked like Sam quantum leaped into him and he forgot how wrestling worked.  The Wesling Buddys need help to establish themselves and they had to carry Cara kicking and screaming to a pretty sub par contest.  Cara just didn't look like he wanted to be in the building.  Blake and Murphy actually looked pretty good and that elevated neckbreaker was pretty swank, but their lack of character is pretty glaring.

 

I didn't think this match was as bad as people were saying.  There were a few blown spots in there, mainly on the Dragons end, but Blake and Murphy looked really good in there.  The overly long indy respect spot at the end was a bit shaky, but I thought it worked in that it got over how the match could end at any time.  Putting the titles on Blake and Murphy not only elevated them a bit but helped give that sense of unpredictability of the titles changing hands at any time.

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