NXT - 2021

[Dolfan in NYC]

Just when I thought I couldn't love Malc more, he makes fun of NFT Bros:

 

 

[Kang]

 Beth Phoenix is leaving NXT after WarGames. To focus on her family.

[RIPPA]

This includes her full statement

Quote

Beth Phoenix will be departing the NXT commentary desk following Sunday's WarGames event.

Phoenix issued a statement today announcing that she's decided to step away from her weekly NXT commentary role to spend more time with her family. Phoenix noted that she'll remain part of WWE.

Phoenix has been a member of the NXT commentary team alongside Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett.

"Ahead of WarGames, I wanted to share that this Sunday will be my final night in NXT. While I will remain a part of WWE, I have made the choice to step away from the weekly broadcast booth to spend more time with my family. This was not an easy decision, as I have loved my three plus years and 135 episodes with NXT and am incredibly proud of the brand," Phoenix wrote.

"I will forever be grateful to Vic Joseph, Wade Barrett, Nigel McGuinness, Tom Phillips, Mauro Ranallo, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Michael Cole, and my entire NXT family both in and out of the ring for the amazing opportunity. NXT will always be a part of me and Auntie Betty will always be a part of NXT. Leave the porch light on for me!"

 

[Eivion]

That is a disappointing to hear. I love her interactions with Barrett and her super supportive mom role with Indi. 

[Kang]

Reportedly if Gacy wins, he will turn the Cruiserweight title into the All Inclusive Title, so openweight and open gender. I doubt they will get rough with the women since the show is only PG-V. Another plan is to abolish it post him winning it.

205 is already the NXT B show with NXT 2.0 and whatever other guys and girls with no weight limits.

[worldcupfever]

On 12/2/2021 at 11:01 AM, D.Z said:

 Beth Phoenix is leaving NXT after WarGames. To focus on her family.

From the way she's been pushing it, it sounds like seeing MSK meet the shaman is all that's left for her in NXT.

[Shartnado]

On 12/2/2021 at 7:01 PM, D.Z said:

 Beth Phoenix is leaving NXT after WarGames. To focus on her family.

This is sad, but of course family comes first.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

20 hours ago, Shartnado said:

This is sad, but of course family comes first.

I’d wager you that’s just the pr excuse. Alvarez and Meltzer seem to think she’s just not enjoying the job anymore.

[RIPPA]

1 minute ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

I’d wager you that’s just the pr excuse. Alvarez and Meltzer seem to think she’s just not enjoying the job anymore.

That was my lean too as I am sure when she signed on to do commentary it wasn't to commentate whatever the fuck you wanna call this new version of NXT

[Matt D]

She’s not going to do a program with Miz and Maryse?

[Shartnado]

3 hours ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

I’d wager you that’s just the pr excuse. Alvarez and Meltzer seem to think she’s just not enjoying the job anymore.

Well, I would not be surprised if that were the case with anyone at all, who's still on WWE's payroll! So, yeah, ok.

[Infinit]

I'm sure she wasn't a big fan of the male commentators morphing into horny teenagers every time a female talent was on screen.

[caley]

I like to imagine Beth Phoenix watching the monitors on Sunday, knowing it's her last night, and seeing the vignette of Jiro taking a shit and going "Yeah, I made the right choice." What a wonderful feeling that must have been!

[Go2Sleep]

Beth's commentary arc ended perfectly at the InDex wedding (along with the rest of NXT).

[Dolfan in NYC]

Little charity news from the champ. 

 

 

[AxB]

Looks like Tesha Price (from AEW Dark) signed with WWE:

[nofuture]

 

[Mario]

This is goofy

 

Basically, Bryan Alvarez bashes NXT for not having "realistic" characters.  Cora Jade isn't a skateboarder, Duke Hudson isn't a good poker player, Tony D'Angelo isn't really a goodfella.  I mean, did anyone think D'Angelo was actually a mobster?

I think Alvarez' point was supposed to be that gimmicks like these don't hook young people in 2021, but he never really articulated that well.  Besides, Demon Bray Wyatt sold a ton of merch over the last couple years and the Elite is basically the Bucks and Kenny dialing up their already over-the-top wrestling personas to ridiculous extremes, so it's a debatable point.  

Video is still funny, though stuff like this makes me wonder how much of Alvarez' hatred of WWE is genuine and how much him doing a gimmick for the show.  It's probably a little of both.

[Matt D]

I haven't seen this stuff, but I could see a mindset in 2021, where you're a person first and foremost and the person may have certain interests. It'd be like going back WWECW and debuting Punk as Chad Straightedge and that would be the entirety of who he was. Darby Allin skateboards, but if I was going to explain him to someone who'd never seen him as a wrestler and a character, that's maybe the sixth or seventh thing I'd mention. "He's a broody little guy just under 30 who takes a ton of damage, draws a lot of sympathy, comes back with some big stuff, puts his body on the line with huge bumps and these crazy pinballing dives, has a skeleton theme going including facepaint, hangs out with Sting, and skateboards." It'd be in there but it'd be towards the bottom. It's not the starting point. 

[RRR]

1 hour ago, Mario said:

This is goofy

 

Basically, Bryan Alvarez bashes NXT for not having "realistic" characters.  Cora Jade isn't a skateboarder, Duke Hudson isn't a good poker player, Tony D'Angelo isn't really a goodfella.  I mean, did anyone think D'Angelo was actually a mobster?

I think Alvarez' point was supposed to be that gimmicks like these don't hook young people in 2021, but he never really articulated that well.  Besides, Demon Bray Wyatt sold a ton of merch over the last couple years and the Elite is basically the Bucks and Kenny dialing up their already over-the-top wrestling personas to ridiculous extremes, so it's a debatable point.  

Video is still funny, though stuff like this makes me wonder how much of Alvarez' hatred of WWE is genuine and how much him doing a gimmick for the show.  It's probably a little of both.

Eventually he will reach the point of hating everything wrestling that doesn’t involve anyone in basic ring gear.

 

[Mario]

51 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Darby Allin skateboards, but if I was going to explain him to someone who'd never seen him as a wrestler and a character, that's maybe the sixth or seventh thing I'd mention. "He's a broody little guy just under 30 who takes a ton of damage, draws a lot of sympathy, comes back with some big stuff, puts his body on the line with huge bumps and these crazy pinballing dives, has a skeleton theme going including facepaint, hangs out with Sting, and skateboards." It'd be in there but it'd be towards the bottom. It's not the starting point. 

If Darby Allin doesn’t skateboard, or just carries the skateboard to the ring and doesn’t ride it, is your opinion of the character any different?  Mine’a not, but that was somehow Bryan’s point.  He started off the segment bitching that Cora Jade is supposed to be a skateboarder but she doesn’t seem to know how to ride.  She doesn’t do tricks and fell off the skateboard at War Games.  He then started complaining that the rest of NXT are bad characters because they’re not mobsters and poker players in real life so they don’t have any street cred.  Somehow Kacey and Kayden’s segment with Smoking Gunns 2k21 figured into this too.
 

Yeah, I don’t get it either.  I know Meltzer talks about guys living their characters 24/7 in the 80’s, but I assume Bryan knows Mike Rotunda wasn’t really a CPA and Jim Harris wasn’t really a Ugandan savage.  That had nothing to do with the quality of what they were doing .on tv or in the ring, so I dunno what Bryan’s point is supposed to be.  I think he was trying to say that fans want toned-down, realistic characters but I’m guessing and could cite a number of recent examples to the contrary if that was what he meant.

[Dog]

 

53 minutes ago, Mario said:

If Darby Allin doesn’t skateboard, or just carries the skateboard to the ring and doesn’t ride it, is your opinion of the character any different?  Mine’a not, but that was somehow Bryan’s point.  He started off the segment bitching that Cora Jade is supposed to be a skateboarder but she doesn’t seem to know how to ride.

But if Cora Jade doesn't skateboard, her whole character is gone. Like, that's the extent of what we know about her so far (though I did like the little "gutsy" arc she had in War Games).

Bryan's point, like you said, was that no one buys into these types of characters anymore, so why even do them? Who does this cater to? Is it hurting or helping? I'll add that if they didn't even work in the Duke "The Dumpster" days, why is the bad idea being reused? This is not going to attract the young audience they say they want, who values authenticity (which you'd think they would have learned with Bryanmania, but hey).

P.S. Sad to say, but I think I might be done with NXT. Too much fast-forwarding now to get to anything I might, only possibly, want to watch.

Edited December 20, 2021 by Dog

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

Add me to the crowd that couldn't figure out what Alvarez was trying to say - other than he dislikes NXT.  He really never circled around to saying that Darby was a better character and Cora is one-note.  The video is mostly him complaining that Cora Jade isn't a legit skateboarder.  I feel like Bryan had a point in his head but he never stated it clearly.  

I feel like most wrestling gimmicks are one-note.  I've never thought Sting, Tully, Magnum TA, Miro, Cody. etc. had deep characters either.  I think of Cora as a plucky millennial babyface.  The tats and skateboard give her gimmick a bit of an edge, but the skateboard is just a prop.  Darby is over because he has a cool look sorta modeled on Sting & Brandon Lee's Crow, and because he's willing to take nutty bumps that will probably cripple him prematurely.  The backstory is nice window-dressing, but no one would care if he looked like Mike Shaw and wore polyester sweatpants to the ring.

Pro wrestling is fairly basic, imo.  Fans don't pay tickets or decide to boo or cheer characters because they are well-rounded or have deep back stories.  Workers usually get over because they have physical charisma and can connect with the crowd.  Or they can make the character fun and likeable.  Or make the character hateable.  Or they can talk.  Sometimes  they're just great athletes and can jump really high or do a cool submission

Honestly - and I really don't want to sound like Vince here - but I feel like look, physique, and ring attire are more important than the character.  That's what fans base their first impression on.  

[Dog]

10 minutes ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

Pro wrestling is fairly basic, imo.  Fans don't pay tickets or decide to boo or cheer characters because they are well-rounded or have deep back stories.  Workers usually get over because they have physical charisma and can connect with the crowd.  Or they can make the character fun and likeable.  Or make the character hateable.  Or they can talk.  Sometimes  they're just great athletes and can jump really high or do a cool submission

Honestly - and I really don't want to sound like Vince here - but I feel like look, physique, and ring attire are more important than the character.  That's what fans base their first impression on.  

Exactly why you don't need to paste on these half-assed character sketches that NXT's become rife with.

[Robert S]

The skateboarding thing is a bit specific because if you carry a skateboard to the ring and never ride it you put the focus on how fake your gimmick is, like the Dynamic Dudes over 30 years ago. Nobody knows that the Poker guy is not a real Poker pro just by watching the show.