[NXT] JANUARY 24, 2018 TV SHOW

[RIPPA]

Advertised for tonight

Johnny Gargano vs. Velveteen Dream - Takeover title shot on the line

No Way Jose vs. Cezar Bononi

 

[JonnyLaw]

I’m interested to see Jose.  He isn’t quite back in ring shape yet (or at least wasn’t at the time).  Hopefully that doesn’t derail the rumors of an impending call up.

[Greggulator]

Dream/Gargano was off-the-charts. I think it's in the lead for WWE/NXT MOTY so far. It has only been a few weeks but that was great. I hated Johnny Gargano when he first came up but he has become a great spitfire babyface. And what else needs to be said about Velveteen Dream? He's a savant. 

[Ramo2653]

I'm not sure who has a more Canadian accent: Akam or Jinder. But it's good to get those guys some mic time since I'm sure Ellering isn't coming with the on the main roster.

Gargano/Dream was awesome and I'm excited for the Moon/Shayna match.

[Craig H]

Dream is the shit! Gargano is just that much better. NXT is fucking awesome.

Man, WWE should be able to make millions upon millions off of each guy and I'm sure they'll find some way to mess it up.

[turk128]

Another week of old school NXT... did the Smackdown writer come back for a stint?

Yeah, Jose really looked out of ring shape >_<

Bianca would be great with a Prototype gimmick... or a genie.

It wasn't that long ago that Velveteen Dream was considered by some as a controversial trash gimmick. I'm so freakin glad he's proving hsi critics wrong with everything he's doing. (Like he already has the basics of a great PPV entrance with that greenscreen intro for this show.)

[MORELOCK]

1 hour ago, turk128 said:

It wasn't that long ago that Velveteen Dream was considered by some as a controversial trash gimmick. I'm so freakin glad he's proving hsi critics wrong with everything he's doing. (Like he already has the basics of a great PPV entrance with that greenscreen intro for this show.)

He isn't "proving his critics wrong," they tweaked the gimmick the same way they tweaked Goldust's so it isn't leaning heavily into homophobia.

[RIPPA]

 

[RIPPA]

I approve of using Harley Race to put over talent

[NikoBaltimore]

3 hours ago, turk128 said:

Another week of old school NXT... did the Smackdown writer come back for a stint?

Yeah, Jose really looked out of ring shape >_<

Bianca would be great with a Prototype gimmick... or a genie.

It wasn't that long ago that Velveteen Dream was considered by some as a controversial trash gimmick. I'm so freakin glad he's proving hsi critics wrong with everything he's doing. (Like he already has the basics of a great PPV entrance with that greenscreen intro for this show.)

A Shantae reference gets an instant like.

Only saw Jose and Bianca's matches.  Jose's match was just brutal to watch, he definitely isn't in ring shape and it showed.  But I liked Bianca's match as she's got that much-talked-about "it" factor that will propel her once she gets better.  Can't wait to see Gargano/Dream, that sounds like a fantastic matchup.

[MORELOCK]

Jose definitely isn't in peak form, but I'm not convinced the bad match was all his fault. Cesar not being able to get him up for the pumphandle powerbomb might have been Jose's fault, but the armdrag looking as bad as it did seemed to be all on Cesar.

[Eivion]

I really want Dream vs. Nakamura t a big PPV and for Dream to meet the Fasshion Plice. I feel like he would somehow end up a deity of sorts for Breezango. Dream/Gargano was good stuff as expected. I am sad though that Dream has nothing for Takeover after this and the awesome match with Black last Takeover. Hopefully he gets something good WM weekend.

[turk128]

14 hours ago, MORELOCK said:

He isn't "proving his critics wrong," they tweaked the gimmick the same way they tweaked Goldust's so it isn't leaning heavily into homophobia.

By tweak you mean just flesh out what he already was doing? Because he did not pull back on what made some people here uncomfortable (in a misguide way IMO). The stuff he was doing with Black to build up their match clearly showed that.

Heck, Adam Rose did more stuff to play into the perceived homophobia than Velveteen.

[MORELOCK]

35 minutes ago, turk128 said:

By tweak you mean just flesh out what he already was doing? Because he did not pull back on what made some people here uncomfortable (in a misguide way IMO). The stuff he was doing with Black to build up their match clearly showed that.

You're speaking to the person who was probably the most vocal critic of it on the board, and it's okay if you think that's misguided, but they absolutely did pull back on it and I noticed the difference when they started to do so and posted about it at the time (back in the fall).

They absolutely have tweaked it - he's gone from gay Prince cosplay to looking more like Kadeem Hardison and trying to get a more non-specific attention. I don't know if there's any fancam footage of the initial promo with Black-Dream, but it was reported that there was a large portion of it that was edited out, and I don't think it's far fetched to assume that is the point when the decision was made to pull back.

Your original comment indicated that his work has "proved his critics wrong" as if the problem was with his mic skills or ring work. His mic skills and ring work are on point - but that was never the issue anyone had with him. If anything, his critics were proven right because they pulled back on the overt homophobic aspects of the character so a talented wrestler wouldn't be ruined with a bad gimmick from the jump.

[turk128]

4 hours ago, MORELOCK said:

Your original comment indicated that his work has "proved his critics wrong" as if the problem was with his mic skills or ring work. His mic skills and ring work are on point - but that was never the issue anyone had with him. If anything, his critics were proven right because they pulled back on the overt homophobic aspects of the character so a talented wrestler wouldn't be ruined with a bad gimmick from the jump.

What I'm talking about is stuff we've seen on NXT TV so far.

He was flamboyant as ever when he worked with Black. If anything, they used that to play the crowd and it worked fabulously. He wasn't 100% flamboyant all the time, he would get vicious when he needed to; the thing is, this was there from the start (very first match). It's too bad that his feud with Black is the only example I can point to because he was put on the shelf afterwards (injury I believe).

Know what? We'll probably never going to agree on this because if you saw Kadeem Hardison in Velveteen with his interaction with Black, then we certainly ain't on the same page whatsoever.