Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

The NXT Thread


rzombie1988

Recommended Posts

Quite interesting the paths they've taken since the Nexus angle ended.

 

Tarver: Never seen again

Young: Hanging around the bottom of the card and on Superstars/Main Event, apt to get at least a mini-push out of being the first out WWE wrestler.

Sheffield: Repackaged into Ryback, main-evented three PPVs, singularly failed to impress in any of them, fallen down to the midcard. Basically the same "good look, mediocre-at-best wrestler, can't talk for shit" guy he was back then.

Slater: Had a brief tag title run with Gabriel in Nexus part deux, had a run of "getting beat up by past legends", now the erstwhile leader of the least-pushed heel stable in the company.

Gabriel: Basically in Slater's position, except he's a face and has no discernible gimmick whatsoever.

Otunga: Moved into a more-talking less-wrestling on-screen role as first Laurinaitus' and then Vickie Guerrero's lackey. Now MIA.

Barrett: Multiple angles derailed by untimely injuries. Had an unremarkable IC title run, which is to say, he had an IC title run.

Bryan: ...yeah, like anyone on this board needs this summarized.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always thought Slater or Young would have been the first to go. I figured Bryan would at least be a midcarder but never thought he'd become as good as he did with the crowd. I figured Gabriel would get bigger with the Hardy Boyz type of crowd and figured Ryback would be one of those built guys who hangs a long until they see that he can't go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thoughts on the latest show

 

- Bayley vs AJ told a cool story but the match itself was a little awkward.

- The Ascension squash was fun

- I loved the announcers being totally baffled by Parker.

- Renee Young's reactions to the Parker/Breeze confrontation were great.  She's really good at being the normal person surrounded by weirdos.

-  Russev vs Ziggler got better as it went on.  I dig Russev as the Bulgarian Savage.

- Cersaro vs Sami was awesome, with some great moments by both guys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quite interesting the paths they've taken since the Nexus angle ended.

 

Tarver: Never seen again

Young: Hanging around the bottom of the card and on Superstars/Main Event, apt to get at least a mini-push out of being the first out WWE wrestler.

Sheffield: Repackaged into Ryback, main-evented three PPVs, singularly failed to impress in any of them, fallen down to the midcard. Basically the same "good look, mediocre-at-best wrestler, can't talk for shit" guy he was back then.

Slater: Had a brief tag title run with Gabriel in Nexus part deux, had a run of "getting beat up by past legends", now the erstwhile leader of the least-pushed heel stable in the company.

Gabriel: Basically in Slater's position, except he's a face and has no discernible gimmick whatsoever.

Otunga: Moved into a more-talking less-wrestling on-screen role as first Laurinaitus' and then Vickie Guerrero's lackey. Now MIA.

Barrett: Multiple angles derailed by untimely injuries. Had an unremarkable IC title run, which is to say, he had an IC title run.

Bryan: ...yeah, like anyone on this board needs this summarized.

I think the assessments are more of this:TARVER: Had a lot of potential but was a total lunatic backstage, apparently. Everyone says he's tearing up the indies. He blew his chance to be anything.YOUNG: Decent tag worker now in the spotlight.

SLATER: Best JTTS of his generation and the goofy, hilarious leader of a comedy heel stable.That's a huge spot.

GABRIEL: Decent enough JTTS babyface. He's had a lot of really solid matches.

OTUNGA: Great on-air personality. Definitely willing to take a beating like when Randy Orton beat the absolute hell out of him that time on Smackdown.SKIP: Caught on after a mega-push. His face push was more a victim of bad timing -- Punk was on an epic run and was being built up to put The Rock over. The Rock was over against Cena. Ryback's really starting to come alive as a good bully heel. He's far from done.

BARRETT: He was the best guy on NXT, even beyond Bryan. They gave him a huge main event push right out of the gate. I was such a mark for him -- the most ruthless, smug j-o who ever graced a wrestling ring. I loved his "leader of men" gimmick and he conveyed the rush and corruption of power like no other. He's very solid in-ring, too. Victim of injury and poor-timing. He's a guy who is always capable of being a really good upper mid-card villain once he gets some momentum.

BRYAN: I hate that dude.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Quite interesting the paths they've taken since the Nexus angle ended.

 

Tarver: Never seen again

Young: Hanging around the bottom of the card and on Superstars/Main Event, apt to get at least a mini-push out of being the first out WWE wrestler.

Sheffield: Repackaged into Ryback, main-evented three PPVs, singularly failed to impress in any of them, fallen down to the midcard. Basically the same "good look, mediocre-at-best wrestler, can't talk for shit" guy he was back then.

Slater: Had a brief tag title run with Gabriel in Nexus part deux, had a run of "getting beat up by past legends", now the erstwhile leader of the least-pushed heel stable in the company.

Gabriel: Basically in Slater's position, except he's a face and has no discernible gimmick whatsoever.

Otunga: Moved into a more-talking less-wrestling on-screen role as first Laurinaitus' and then Vickie Guerrero's lackey. Now MIA.

Barrett: Multiple angles derailed by untimely injuries. Had an unremarkable IC title run, which is to say, he had an IC title run.

Bryan: ...yeah, like anyone on this board needs this summarized.

I think the assessments are more of this:TARVER: Had a lot of potential but was a total lunatic backstage, apparently. Everyone says he's tearing up the indies. He blew his chance to be anything.YOUNG: Decent tag worker now in the spotlight.

SLATER: Best JTTS of his generation and the goofy, hilarious leader of a comedy heel stable.That's a huge spot.

GABRIEL: Decent enough JTTS babyface. He's had a lot of really solid matches.

OTUNGA: Great on-air personality. Definitely willing to take a beating like when Randy Orton beat the absolute hell out of him that time on Smackdown.SKIP: Caught on after a mega-push. His face push was more a victim of bad timing -- Punk was on an epic run and was being built up to put The Rock over. The Rock was over against Cena. Ryback's really starting to come alive as a good bully heel. He's far from done.

BARRETT: He was the best guy on NXT, even beyond Bryan. They gave him a huge main event push right out of the gate. I was such a mark for him -- the most ruthless, smug j-o who ever graced a wrestling ring. I loved his "leader of men" gimmick and he conveyed the rush and corruption of power like no other. He's very solid in-ring, too. Victim of injury and poor-timing. He's a guy who is always capable of being a really good upper mid-card villain once he gets some momentum.

BRYAN: I hate that dude.

 

This is fun, and we should probably do a projection with the current crop of guys too.

 

Young: With the reemrgence of the tag team division, he could could be around for a long time.  Not exactly going to set the world on fire, but solid tag worker.

Slater:  I'd like to see them do more with him.  He plays his role well, but him and McIntyre are pretty good in the ring, and they need a heel tag team with the PTPs turning face this week.  (While McIntyre is on my mind, how big of an ass does Del Rio have to be for McIntyre to give the World Champion a black eye and end up on TV the next Raw?)

Gabriel:  I think he is probably the biggest missed opportunity of the entire list.  I'm even more sad about the injury with Tyson Kidd, because Kidd and Gabriel was a good underdog face team.  Would anyone be mad if they teamed Gabriel and Adrian Neville?  They have an opportunity to have a really good tag division, and Gabriel is a talented guy who just needs a partner.

Otunga:  He is close to useless as an in-ring talent, but could be really good in a managerial role.  He is actually a lawyer, he is married to a celebrity, and he is pretty good on the mic.  He seems perfect for the role of a guy who is the manager to a never ending parade of goofs.  He could be the Jimmy Hart to Heyman's Bobby the Brain. 

Skip:  They kind of dropped the ball on Ryback by jobbing him too early, but Ryback helped them by not improving.  He isn't a complete lost cause, but it will be a while before we believe he is a monster. 

Barrett:  I was on a wrestling hiatus during the whole Nexus era, so I don't really get the Barrett love.  He is capable in every aspect, but his finisher sucks, and I don't think the fans give a rat's ass about anything he does any more.

Bryan:  Best guy on the roster. Most over guy on the roster.  Everything you could possibly want(other than size if that is your thing).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thoughts on the latest show

 

- Bayley vs AJ told a cool story but the match itself was a little awkward.

- The Ascension squash was fun

- I loved the announcers being totally baffled by Parker.

- Renee Young's reactions to the Parker/Breeze confrontation were great.  She's really good at being the normal person surrounded by weirdos.

-  Russev vs Ziggler got better as it went on.  I dig Russev as the Bulgarian Savage.

- Cersaro vs Sami was awesome, with some great moments by both guys.

Russev looked good, he moved really well and didn't put a foot wrong. Can't wait to see him splash somebody.

 

The main was indeed awesome, everyone should go out of their way to see it.

 

And we got a fleeting appearance by TNA Senior Official Rudy Charles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He's nuts (though I agreed with Rob on most of the G1). That main was very good bordering on great. Cesaro is my second favorite guy to watch in the company after my boi D-Bry.

 

Is there anywhere to see the full main event eventually? I needs more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just watched it and even assuming as much was cut as is said it was a really amazing match in a lot of ways.  I'll grant that the build was slow, but it had a subtle sort of greatness to it that is not terribly common in WWE matches, especially WWE tv matches.  The build to the big spots and the way the chinlock was used throughout the whole match was really excellent.  Cesaro is the best base in wrestling and probably still my working number one guy in the world (though Casas, Rush and Bryan are right there)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watched a 17 minute version just now that I assume is full. It had a commercial break spot but otherwise seemed intact. I was linked to one that cut out a bit of the second fall.

 

That finish was fucking wild, but yeah...I mean...this was filmed, what, five weeks ago? There's been so much fucking good wrestling since then between G1 and like every Daniel Bryan match that it didn't measure up to the upper-tier stuff. But yeah, great match but not WWE MOTY by any stretch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just got back from the NXT tapings and they had a Swagger vs Zayn match that was outstanding. I haven't seen Zayn/Cesaro yet but It will have to do a lot to top Swagger/Zayn for me. Best Swagger match since the Christian series. Also Tyler Breeze is way over the the crowd. Almost Emma like with his reactions. I also had to sit through 3 Ascension matches and 4 Sylverster Lefort or whatever his names is appearances. It was hell but it was worth it to see Swagger/Zayn in person. Oh and there was a Sami Zayn/Bo Dallas/Zeb Coulter interview segment that should air in 2 weeks that was great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man, Sami/Antonio was awesome. Anyone who dogs on this match needs to stop. If you took the same feud with the same build on Raw and had the same match on SummerSlam, we'd be talking about it on at least the same par as ADR/Christian.The psychology in this was perfect. Sami went in with the game plan knowing he could catch Cesaro off guard with his aerial moves (see his previous matches) and stole the first fall. He kept at it until Cesaro got control with his freakish strength. I loved how they kept on working the reverse chinlock as an actually dangerous move -- Cesaro is SO good at making that move look awesome, and they've also really pushed the hell out of it being dangerous in previous weeks (especially Regal). Cesaro swinging Zayn around with it before the tap out looked so incredibly nasty.

The third fall ending with both guys throwing bombs -- that's how third falls pretty much have to end. This was really breathtaking. I haven't seen too much Generico stuff before -- that corner/swinging DDT on the floor was easily the best spot of the year and something I totally marked for. It had a total 1997 ECW/WCW vibe to it where Rey or Juvi or someone would bust out some crazy deal that you never would imagine was possible. And, even better, there was a really good reason for how the spot was set up and Sami would naturally want to use a little bit of a shield when trying to hit a big move on someone with the insane strength to counter absolutely anything like Cesaro. And I loved Sami waiting and hoping it was a ten count -- winning on a countout like that is even more impressive than a pinfall in a way, and Cesaro scampering back in last second was a great save.The final sequence was great. It worked better in how awkward it was -- not being clean shows Cesaro's athleticism and strength more than anything else.There were also a ton of really small things on this that I loved. I loved Cesaro's little King Dick stuff --- grabbing Sami off the apron by his ear, feeling the need to trash talk him, his pantomime of kicking dirt in his face after his win. And Sami's reach for the ropes while wiggling his fingers was great. Loved Cesaro going for the chinlock again but Sami using it against him getting a near fall.

 

This match lived up to the hype. Awesome, great stuff. A well-told story with excellent execution. It combined simple moves like reverse chinlocks an Sami's crazy-ass dives seemlessly.Oh yeah, it's also the third or fourth best match of the week. That's how crazy good things are right now.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great review.  Honestly I liked this as much as any match from the G1.  Here is my review

 

This was slow building and I agree that some of the front end control segments weren't necessarily dynamic, but I thought this had a sort of subtle greatness to it that is incredibly rare in WWE matches, especially WWE tv matches. Generico is so much better as Zayn it's kind of hysterical. Almost all of his bad habits are gone, the guy has good facial expressions and being tempered by the WWE style makes his more spectacular spots ten times more impressive. Cesaro is Cesaro. Along with Rush, Casas and Bryan I think he has pretty much lapped the rest of the field this year and this is another notch in his belt. I liked the explosive finish on the opening fall and I actually loved the second fall finish as well for two reasons - 1. they have done a ton to build that as a set up for Cesaro's finish and 2. on all the previous attempts Zayn had squeezed his hand in between Cesaro's arm to cut off the pressure which further got over the danger of the hold and also made it feel more credible as a finish then it otherwise might have. The strikes in the second fall looked really good, I really enjoyed Zayn's hope spots, Cesaro's offense looked awesome as always, et. Third fall was the only fall that I thought felt PWGish at all, but I thought the lay out of it was actually genius. The whole sequence with the massive apron in suplex from Cesaro, through the deadlift out of the Zayn small package escape, into Zayn trying to beat him with a schoolboy (which Zayn won the first fall with), into Cesaro getting on a grounded chinlock (which he won the second fall with), to Sami escaping with the Bret Hart style reverse roll near fall, was definitely up tempo, but excellent. Then we got the two biggest Zayn spots of the match, the Code Red style sunset flip as a counter which looked excellent and the through the ropes DDT on the floor which led to a great teased double countout moment and also looked great. And finally Sami shows some mild arrogance, telegraphs his big finish, gets decimated in a true "holy shit" spot on the uppercut and loses to a huge looking neutralizer. This match had great pacing, some excellent but well timed highspots and very strong psychology. Cesaro is the god of all wrestling bases and there were tons of little things he did in this match that I didn't even mention. This probably suffers some from coming on the heels of such a great Summerslam, but I thought this was a great match.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I honestly can't believe Sami ever worked under a hood. I'm sure he made some money selling gimmicks but the guy knows how to use his face to convey emotions. He's also a very good interview with a unique style and charisma.I really hope they're setting him up to be the backstage guy who finally stands up to Ryback (as I believe someone suggested elsewhere). He'd be absolutely perfect for the spot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any other notable matches on the taping Tim?

 

Sami Zayn and Curt Hawkins had a good 10+ minute match on the last taping. Curt got a lot more offfense in than I thought he would. The last match of the night with Breeze/Ascension/Kruger vs Woods/Parker/Neville/Graves was alright but after seeing those guys multiple times, it got tiring. The finish was good. I also liked Paige/Sasha Banks and Emma/Summer. I thought Summer would be done with NXT but I guess not since she's coming with Fandango on the 12th along with RVD.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just signed up for HuluPlus and was wondering how far back should I go into the NXT seasons?

 

The never ending Redemption season is awesome, the Divas season is worth a watch for the sheer lunacy of it.

 

I am becoming the biggest Tyler Breeze fan, such a great character. "Ruining my entire liiiiiiiife!" And Renee made that interview with CJ and Tyler. I don't know if the gimmick will translate on the big shows, but it's perfect for NXT.

 

Also, his theme song has such a solid beat.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Other stuff from the episode:1) Fun competent match between AJ and Bailey. They're REALLY drilling the whole "wrestle as your persona" character into the NXT kids. Bailey does starstruck really well. I loved AJ getting the win by using Bailey's kindness against her. AJ also hit a really stiff elbow and her Shining Wizard looked great. AJ's at the point now where she can carry someone without a lot of seasoning to a perfectly acceptable 5 minute show opener.

 

2) 'You're ruining my life." That Tyler Breeze segment was really good self-involved heeling. Asking some random girl for a picture of himself, discovering the photoombing, and getting sad. Obviously Tyler Breeze is overcompensating.

 

3) I skipped The Ascension match.

 

4) CJ Parker's "Aging Phish fan at Phish side project show" ring entrance is really dumb and good. He's really bad in the ring. His interview with Renee Young was pretty great bad wrestling acting. If they want to get the shtick over, they need to update him a little bit -- less 60s flower child and more of the granola aspect of the Occupy movement. Tyler Breeze's whining and pouting was great. He's also sorta right about CJP.

 

5) A Bulgarian Muy Thai dude who wrestles barefoot, dresses in raggeddy clothes stolen from some Gladiator LARP thing, breaks wooden boards over his knee and makes a lot of snarls is pretty much exactly why I watch this stuff.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3) I skipped The Ascension match.

 

I tend to blank out during their matches. It's a shame too, because it should be right up my alley. As a total Demolition mark, the wrestling world needs more asskicking tag teams in questionable bondage inspired gear and this is really just an updated, less metal, more Amon Tobin version of that. But it comes across as so phony. Maybe they need paint?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really enjoyed the Zayn/Cesaro match but to say it was as good as any G1 match is complete hipster bull.  Not even close.  It's not even close to a MOTYC.  It was really fun, don't get me wrong.  Great nearfalls, great execution, some cool subtle things, but not near on the level of an actual MOTYC, not this year for sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, that main event was pretty awesome...and that wasn't even the best Cesaro vs. Zayn match I've seen!

That honor goes to a Claudio/Generico match in PWG but still...those two cannot have a less than great match with each other.

 

So glad Zayn is doing so well in WWE. I'm a total fanboy for the guy since 2004.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really enjoyed the Zayn/Cesaro match but to say it was as good as any G1 match is complete hipster bull.  Not even close.  It's not even close to a MOTYC.  It was really fun, don't get me wrong.  Great nearfalls, great execution, some cool subtle things, but not near on the level of an actual MOTYC, not this year for sure.

This is probably the stupidest statement in the history of this board, not because I can't see how a diehard New Japan fan would say they liked several G1 matches more, but because masturbatory devotion to NJPW is probably the closest thing to modern wrestling hipsterdom this side of Chikara.

 

 I liked the G1 WAY more than I thought I would especially since I hate  or are bored by half of the guys who were in the thing, but there were exactly two matches from the whole tourney that I think were even borderline MOTYC's - Ishii/Shibata and Nakamura/Ibushi.  Nothing else was even close to MOTY level in my view.  Cesaro/Zayn was structured in a way that is much more in line with what I want a wrestling match to be, though I think it's a peripheral MOTYC at best also.  I'd rate all three of those matches around the same level.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...