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MAY 2017 WRESTLING DISCUSSION.


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Hope @RIPPA won't mind me starting this. Watching the Destruction of the Shield DVD set (strongly recommended) made me start thinking about them as the six man team and going solo.

The Shield together put on great matches, particularly their debut against Team Hell No/Ryback in a TLC match at TLC 2012 and against the Wyatt Family at Elimination Chamber 2014 in an absolute classic and one of the best wrestling matches I've ever seen. Two ***** matches.

Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins have had mixed fortunes since the Shield came to an end. Roman won the 2015 Royal Rumble match to boos with fans pissed at the treatment of Daniel Bryan. Roman Reigns took it to Brock Lesnar in an awesome main event at WrestleMania XXXI with Seth Rollins cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase turning the match into a Triple Threat  leaving as WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

Roman Reigns vs. the Authority was tired because we've had wrestlers go up against those in power for years and it worked with those wrestlers: Sting, Steve Austin and Daniel Bryan. Roman Reigns is what Vince wants. You know those GIFS I refer to ; ). Vince has stuck with Roman and given him repeated chances. The reaction to Roman Reigns is even worse now since defeating the Undertaker at WrestleMania XXXIII. Roman is Reigned with boos, "You deserve it" and "Thank you, Strowman" chants for Braunnnnn laying him out! Reigns can wrestle, it's the reaction by fans I'd say to the opportunities given to the Big Dog. Let's not go onto the bad writing in promos ; ).

Seth Rollins was protected when the Shield split as he was booked with the Authority, Money in the Bank winner, got the best of his feud with Dean Ambrose and a bad reign as WWE World Heavyweight Champion ending when he injured himself with the Buckle Bomb. Since his return, the only matches of his I liked was against Roman Reigns at Money in the Bank 2016 and the Shield Triple Threat from Battleground 2016. I was fading when Seth faced Triple H at WrestleMania XXXIII in the early hours of the bloody morning UK time. Seth has also injured wrestlers: John Cena, Sting and Finn Balor. Poor form. Let's not go onto Seth's promos ; ).

Dean Ambrose stayed over despite losing the feud to Seth Rollins, the one with Bray Wyatt never seemed to end but his popularity isn't what it was. There's also the corniness and lackadaisical performances. Ambrose won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship I thought he'd miss out on. Dean only made the preshow at this year's WrestleMania.

I'm going to assume Roman Reigns is the favourite of the three here. Who do you prefer or is it dislike the least out of Rollins or Ambrose? Superplex to Falcon Arrow/Rainmaker-lite finisher vs. run into corner step to opposite corner/rebound Lariat. I know @Brian Fowler isn't a fan of the Architect and the Lunatic Fringe ; ).

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Is there something about the WWE performance centre that makes them turn out people who are cool or impressive in NXT, but totally unimpressive on the main roster? Because a lot of people who came up with buzz have seen it dissipate. And the best performance centre to main roster workers now (like Roman, and...was Braun actually in NXT at all?) are the ones who weren't much of a thing in their NXT days.

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On 01 May 2017 at 1:14 PM, AxB said:

Is there something about the WWE performance centre that makes them turn out people who are cool or impressive in NXT, but totally unimpressive on the main roster? Because a lot of people who came up with buzz have seen it dissipate. And the best performance centre to main roster workers now (like Roman, and...was Braun actually in NXT at all?) are the ones who weren't much of a thing in their NXT days.

Interesting point you make. I don't think Braun was in NXT.

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Id say Balor is a bigger deal on the main roster than he was in NXT. Granted, he's had 4 or 5 matches in 8 months due to injury. 

Enzo & Cass are also a bigger deal - it's the size of the audience and their reactions to them that count. 

Sami might be the one guy they've completely dropped the ball with. It's not like he's Aa. The guy can talk and convey emotion. 

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Ah, smilin' Braun. 

BTW, story about the Bunny from Rose.

Quote

"At one point there was a big... there was meeting after meeting after meeting. 'Do we change his character? Do we make him this? What are we going to make him, a family man? What do we do with him?' Eventually they were like 'well, just ignore him, let's move on.' It was one of those things. Same with The Bunny. 'We don't know what to do, so let's just ignore it and move on.' There was, I think it was Road Dogg that we had a meeting for two hours before Raw saying 'who is going to be The Bunny.' They couldn't decide. I wanted (Justin) Gabriel to do it because he was my friend from when I was 15 and he was 16, his dad trained me and we've known each other our whole lives. Let him do it. They were like 'well, nobody really knows him anymore, it won't really get the reaction we want.' Then there was a suggestion that Vince McMahon do it. I was like 'what's the payoff? I don't get it.' Well, we don't know where to go so why not just have a crazy billionaire just do it? ... They just didn't really know where to go."

  Maybe the payoff is having the owner of the company be involved in your angle?  

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It's mostly not the PC, it's the creative on the main roster.  Take Tyler Breeze.  Got over pretty organically, gets called up, stuck in No Man's Land (a Ziggler feud), flounders for a while.  Ascension ran through NXT but were literally treated like a joke upon getting called up.

There's also the difference between the hardcore NXT crowd and the more casual main roster audience, as well as the former getting to watch gimmicks develop over time while the latter sees fully formed gimmicks called up with no backstory.

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16 minutes ago, JonnyLaw said:

It's mostly not the PC, it's the creative on the main roster.  Take Tyler Breeze.  Got over pretty organically, gets called up, stuck in No Man's Land (a Ziggler feud), flounders for a while.  Ascension ran through NXT but were literally treated like a joke upon getting called up.

With regards to Breeze - it was more narrow than that. HHH had plans for Breeze for a much bigger push and then he got to the roster and Vince was all "I dont get this guy" an push went bye bye

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3 hours ago, AxB said:

Is there something about the WWE performance centre that makes them turn out people who are cool or impressive in NXT, but totally unimpressive on the main roster? Because a lot of people who came up with buzz have seen it dissipate. And the best performance centre to main roster workers now (like Roman, and...was Braun actually in NXT at all?) are the ones who weren't much of a thing in their NXT days.

It's sure easier to protect someone when they only appear on TV for twenty minutes a month?

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6 hours ago, AxB said:

Is there something about the WWE performance centre that makes them turn out people who are cool or impressive in NXT, but totally unimpressive on the main roster? Because a lot of people who came up with buzz have seen it dissipate. And the best performance centre to main roster workers now (like Roman, and...was Braun actually in NXT at all?) are the ones who weren't much of a thing in their NXT days.

WWE has already rethought what a superstar looks like, but the presentation of wrestling is still more or less the same. They should be playing around a lot more with different types of locations, crowd sizes, etc.

To me this was the the lesson of NXT. Some performers work better in small doses. Some performers work better in front of a smart audience. Some performers need a crowd with some patience who will see them develop every week.

The need to fill up large arenas and tv time just swallows up potential. 

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6 hours ago, AxB said:

Is there something about the WWE performance centre that makes them turn out people who are cool or impressive in NXT, but totally unimpressive on the main roster? Because a lot of people who came up with buzz have seen it dissipate. And the best performance centre to main roster workers now (like Roman, and...was Braun actually in NXT at all?) are the ones who weren't much of a thing in their NXT days.

Isn't it pretty much 50/50?

In terms of main eventers, Bray Wyatt's a big success, booking aside.  He's main-evented PPVs, had a world title run, and carried feuds.  Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins came through the PC and are former world champions.  Samoa Joe, Balor, Nakamura are all in the early stages but have definite potential.  Kevin Owens is a former world champ who was a focal point of Raw for the better part of half a year.  On the downside, you have Apollo Crews who debuted amid much hype but just hasn't caught the fan's interest.

In terms of female wrestlers, you could argue that Bayley is not as over as she was on NXT, but Charlotte has eclipsed her NXT status, as has Alexa Bliss whom I'm not sure they expected to be this good, this fast.

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