NXT TV - 4/13/16

[Jrag]

1 minute ago, Jamal said:

Bliss gets so much of the character stuff right. Loved the pissed look, when she grabbed Tessa by the throat. But the match itself was just not very good. She needs a more seasoned wrestler in there with her at this point. I still see potential in her and Morgan though. Tessa too. 

Definitely.  Bliss is a great character, but she shouldn't be leading matches against greener women.  Not much they can do about that though with all of the call ups.  

I would bet money that Liv Morgan is the next big star of the division.

[Jamal]

2 minutes ago, Jrag said:

Definitely.  Bliss is a great character, but she shouldn't be leading matches against greener women.  Not much they can do about that though with all of the call ups.  

I would bet money that Liv Morgan is the next big star of the division.

True. It's crazy that they don't utilize Billie and Peyton more. They're sort of just "there". 

Yea, you can see Liv putting the pieces together. We're gonna be raving about her this time next year lol 

[supremebve]

6 minutes ago, Jamal said:

True. It's crazy that they don't utilize Billie and Peyton more. They're sort of just "there". 

Yea, you can see Liv putting the pieces together. We're gonna be raving about her this time next year lol 

For what it is worth, my friend's wife couldn't stop talking about how cool she thought Liv's look is.  I don't know how or why she put her look together, but it is unique and seems to fit her in ring personality perfectly.  I don't remember their names off hand, but the woman with the Lamborghini inspired gear and the other one with the rose in her mouth seem like they just took whatever gimmick they gave her, but Liv looks like she put that together herself.  

[Jrag]

And she is wrestling in some Js so automatically my new favorite. 

[JCM]

That choke by Alexa acting like she was the freaking Undertaker was the most ridiculous things I've seen in NXT in a long time. I've been defending Alexa, but I'm starting to have my doubts as I really don't see much improvement in her. The few Tessa matches I've seen were way better than that, and she's still only 20. Alexa on the other hand needs to step it up because they desperately need some depth behind Bayley and Asuka. If I were to be perfectly honest Eva Marie is more entertaining than Alexa right now, and Carmella turned in a better performance against Bayley than anything Alexa has done.

Liv looked good, but it was against Bayley and if you can't have a decent match with her you've got nothing. They need to start pushing Peyton and Billie asap.

[SirSmUgly]

I've never understood why people are so high on Alexa Bliss. As a face, she was bland and inoffensive at best. As a heel, she's a full-on cartoon villain who wrestles like she's 5'10 instead of 5'2 half of the time. Either way, her timing has always sucked and she's always been terrible on offense, and at about the clip that she was when I first saw her, which is really the most damning thing.

I also don't get why people think Liv Morgan has anything either from that one match, but I've been wrong before and will be wrong again. Not about Alexa, though, because I don't think she has much of anything to propel her to being a good wrestler. 

[Go2Sleep]

Man, remember when people here were saying Alexa was the next Trish Stratus? Lol

[Jenalysis]

Alexa to me would be a good midcard manager- that's her ceiling.

[EVA]

Good lord, this board is bipolar sometimes.

[supremebve]

Isn't she 24 and only been wrestling for a couple of years?  You guys are right, she can't possibly get better.

[SirSmUgly]

I can't speak for everyone else, but I've been critical of her from waaaaay back pretty consistently. 

I don't argue that she can't possibly get better, but I don't think that she's grown in any appreciable way inside or outside of the ring, which leads me to believe that any improvement might not be so appreciable if it happens. People might disagree with me on that last one particularly if they have enjoyed her heel turn, but I don't know that it's working for me. She's playing a villain, but there's no real spark of meanness that I think that she needs to drive her heel persona. 

I take someone like Carmella, who also wasn't very good at all, and note that she had a much better match with Bayley than Alexa did, for example. In fact, comparing Alexa's improvement to other people in that division, she's probably the least improved of the bunch. 

Also, people who argue using shorthand inaccurate representations of their opponents' arguments followed by a goofy GIF aren't the worst, but they're definitely competing with "crowds who chant creepily at Bayley" to get on the shortlist for the worst. 

[Trocar Slush Weasel]

25 minutes ago, Smelly McUgly said:

I take someone like Carmella, who also wasn't very good at all, and note that she had a much better match with Bayley than Alexa did, for example. In fact, comparing Alexa's improvement to other people in that division, she's probably the least improved of the bunch.

I would be willing to bet that Bayley has trained more with Carmella in the last year than anybody else on the roster, so I don't think that's a fair comparison.  Outside of against Bayley, I can't think of a match that either has had that I would say is good.

1 hour ago, Smelly McUgly said:

I also don't get why people think Liv Morgan has anything either from that one match, but I've been wrong before and will be wrong again. Not about Alexa, though, because I don't think she has much of anything to propel her to being a good wrestler. 

I can't really explain it but whatever Liv did in her match last night led me to say, "Wow, she might be good one day".  Of course, she was wrestling Bayley but something she did clicked with me.  As far as I know, she started in 2014 at absolute zero.

[Jrag]

28 minutes ago, Smelly McUgly said:

people who argue using shorthand inaccurate representations of their opponents' arguments followed by a goofy GIF aren't the worst, but they're definitely competing with "crowds who chant creepily at Bayley" to get on the shortlist for the worst. 

Damn.  That's my favorite reaction GIF in existence, but you are comparing it to the worst people in wrestling.  I am now conflicted.  Very persuasive.

[Trocar Slush Weasel]

32 minutes ago, Smelly McUgly said:

Also, people who argue using shorthand inaccurate representations of their opponents' arguments followed by a goofy GIF aren't the worst, but they're definitely competing with "crowds who chant creepily at Bayley" to get on the shortlist for the worst. 

Wait, why you hatin' on the Rock?

[Iron Moose]

Liv clicked for me in her performance against Eva as "local competitor". She had good banter, hit a neat DDT, and the crowd's visible groan seemed to be more at her loss than Eva's win.

Her social media game (first as something like WhosYoDaddio and now as YouOnlyLivOnce, I think) also perform a goofy authenticity that endears her to viewers. 

[SirSmUgly]

Oh, I love The Rock. I just hate when The Rock's greatness is used as a cover for a silly argument. Trying to associate silly arguments with the Great One. People must be crazy. 

[Burgundy LaRue]

From what little I've seen of her, Liv Morgan is relatable.  She likes cool sneakers.  She eats lots of pizza.  She enjoys going to concerts and meeting musicians.  In other words, she's being herself only turned up when she's in the ring.  We crush wrestlers who don't do that enough in our opinions, now we're pissing on those who do exactly that.  Let's make up our minds.

Liv Morgan is a true extension of Gionna Daddio, and it's going to click once she gets better in the ring.  She's clearly  wants to be a good wrestler--what she needs is experience at this point.

[Patrick B.]

It's weird to think that Aries may be lost in the shuffle already, but he's in the same position as Taz/z in 2000.  Taz showed up around the same time as the Radicals and was quickly overshadowed.  Meanwhile, Aries came in around the same time as major players like Styles and Nakamura.

Wonder if a tag team run might be good for him in the short term.  If Roode's locked in, perhaps another run for the Dirty Heels.

[SirSmUgly]

34 minutes ago, Burgundy LaRue said:

In other words, she's being herself only turned up when she's in the ring.  We crush wrestlers who don't do that enough in our opinions, now we're pissing on those who do exactly that.  Let's make up our minds.

We also make up arguments out of whole cloth, attribute them to the board as though it is a hive mind, and then attack those arguments vigorously, I see.

[SirSmUgly]

I am just fucking with you guys, by the way. Nothing but love for you from me. But it baffles me how people sometimes address the board as if it is of a singular fluid viewpoint that changes on a whim.

[supremebve]

2 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said:

Also, people who argue using shorthand inaccurate representations of their opponents' arguments followed by a goofy GIF aren't the worst, but they're definitely competing with "crowds who chant creepily at Bayley" to get on the shortlist for the worst. 

Not nearly as bad as people writing off the careers of people under the age of 25.  Just imagine yourself at 24 and ask whether or not you could extrapolate your future based on whatever you were doing then.  She's young, she's athletic, and she seems to work hard, I think she'll be OK.  There is a chance this is as good as she gets, but I think she'll improve.  Even if she doesn't improve, she would have been one of the best female wrestlers on the roster a couple of years ago.  She is a young person trying to figure things out, in a place that allows young people to figure things out.  I don't see any reason whatsoever that she won't figure things out.

[SirSmUgly]

At 24, I was a reasonably good grad student comp teacher, and at 33, I am better than I was then, if the evals of my colleagues are anything to go by. Conversely, I was a bad baseball player at 24 and am bad now as well. I had discernible tools for the former, but none for the latter.

My argument is not that Alexa Bliss should be good at 24, but that I personally do not see that she has any tools that will make her more than mediocre in the future. At the risk of being accused of arguing from a retrospective point, Sasha Banks and Bayley also were not too good at one point, but I did not necessarily write them off because I thought that they had discernible things that they did that would eventually translate.

[Niners Fan in CT]

FWIW, I've been raving about Liv's Jordan collection for a while now.  She has a cool character and it looks like she's putting it together in the ring.

[Burgundy LaRue]

1 hour ago, Smelly McUgly said:

At 24, I was a reasonably good grad student comp teacher, and at 33, I am better than I was then, if the evals of my colleagues are anything to go by. Conversely, I was a bad baseball player at 24 and am bad now as well. I had discernible tools for the former, but none for the latter.

My argument is not that Alexa Bliss should be good at 24, but that I personally do not see that she has any tools that will make her more than mediocre in the future. At the risk of being accused of arguing from a retrospective point, Sasha Banks and Bayley also were not too good at one point, but I did not necessarily write them off because I thought that they had discernible things that they did that would eventually translate.

So she should quit wrestling now.  Because based on your assessments, she has no chance to ever be good.

 

[Godfrey]

Bliss is so close to being a top women's heel. Liv is a few weeks off from being a top face. NXT moves fast, y'all. I bought into Carmella as a title contender after two eps, for crissakes. Yeah, they're not Sasha or Becky, but that's like saying Kobe is no Shaq. Maybe that's too far, but you get what I mean!