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NXT 2015 THREAD


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Loved the main event.  My non-wrestling fan roommate was REALLY uncomfortable after that springboard moonsault bump. Zayn is a master.

 

I'd give the main event match of the night, but Balor/Neville and the Sasha Banks show were both damn near as good.

 

Balor is a few little tweaks away from making all the $$.  The thought process is there, but he needs to do a little more to separate face paint Balor from normal Balor.  Cut down on the entrance when not in face paint, while continuing to play it up during the specials would be a good start.  I dug the wacko mannerisms/twitches during the Neville match, but he needs to go one step farther towards the dark side when painted up.  No more damn handshakes while in paint. come on!

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Agree about Balor needing to work a little different when in the paint, but I thought he held up his end against a guy who's really come into his own as a great worker lately. At this point Neville could probably have a good match with anybody on the main roster(except maybe Kane lol).

 

I don't know why people would be surprised at Owens getting some chants. I mean half the crowd is wearing his t-shirt. Owens has been presented as a take no shit badass who will do anything to feed his family so of course he's going to be liked by some adult males. Sami's brilliant selling probably made those people cheering Owens feel like jerks anyway.

 

I would've liked to see Breeze get the win there if they weren't going to let Itami hit a GTS.

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Of course the woman who jumped on Breeze was a plant. I don't care if Breeze is the most methody method actor ever, if you're a heel wrestler and someone jumps on your back during your entrance, your reaction is not to stand there smiling into your selfie stick. Survival instinct alone would kick in there.

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I liked the show a lot.

Itami/Breeze was a lot of fun. I think Breeze doesn't come close to getting his due. He hangs with these international/indie stars regularly and does so with a silly gimmick that's more WWE (and I mean that as a compliment). The new additions have to really learn from that. Obviously, they shouldn't be male models or cartoon characters, but they have to play up to the crowd a lot more than they do. Itami's actually very good in that department.

Corbin/Dempsey was alright. It was what I'd expect. Both those guys are really green. I liked that they were trying a stiff brawl but they're not experienced enough to really get that over.

The tag match was awful. It felt like the worst stuff at an indie show in 2000. The Lucha Dragon guys should have known better than to put Blake/Murphy into a battle of roll-ups. That's not what Blake/Murphy should be doing. Oh well. Live and learn.

The woman's match was great. Becky Lynch owes Corey Graves a huge debt because he's doing such a good job explaining her as a lame poser a rocker with integrity like himself can't stand. I'm done comparing the NXT women to the WWE shows -- They're all better and more fun and etc. It's time to just compare them against each other. This was a fun 4-way with non-stop action and a bunch of good, goofy spots. Sasha winning was the right call. She's an absolute star. She's improved about 50000000% from the debut of the BFFs. She went from being a decent hand as a face to one of the best workers in the WWE in about 18 months. She's nailed -- NAILED -- how to wrestle as her character.

That was my favorite Finn match so far. Neville's so quietly great right now. He's improved 100 fold in terms of getting down what his character is -- Confident, expert aerialist who appreciates a good fight. Bator's entrance and histrionics work with the face paint. The dramatic pauses in the music work when he's dressed up. It's absolute garbage when he's wrestling without that stuff. He needs a lot more separation between normal Finn and paint Finn. If they really want to go a lot of separation -- the Jeckyl/Hyde thing, complete with memory losses when he's in the paint and him struggling to keep the demon at bay and etc. -- they should go over the top. If they really make Deman Finn over-the-top compared to Regular Finn... then it's a great character.

I liked the main event. But some of Owens not being over as a heel is on him and/or whoever handles promos with him. He's got to up the sleazebag factor. "I did this in two months. No one else in the locker room is smart enough or has the balls to do what I accomplished in two months. I did this to feed my family. NONE of you in this arena or at home would do this to feed your families. I'm more of a man than you. And it's why my wife now drives a luxury car and my son goes to a preschool that costs more than the tuition here at Full Sail!" He's not just giving his family a better life. He's giving his family a life that's better than yours. That's the hook.

I mean, his best friend went through over a year of a title chase and went on a personal redemption tour AND put his career on the line to get the NXT Title. He came in and planned to sabotage that from the start. He has bragged about taking the title in just two months. But he has to really rub that in everyone' face. The rest of the roster has to comment on how inherently unfair that is. Finn had to go through a tournament against the best competitors in the company to get to the number one spot.

I did love that match, though. Owens' stall stuff works so well with his Master Manipulator b.s. I wish Corey talked about knocking Sami out months before or at least bringing up Sami's history with concussions. But great, brutal stuff. I wish Owens just did one dastardly thing after winning to really cement him being NXT's biggest dickhead.

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My wife watched the main with me, and she was firmly behind Sami based on how much he was bumping for KO in a 'this is fake fighting' sort of way and then desperate for them to stop letting KO powerbomb him after being positive that Zayn was legit hurt and that they were calling an audible. 

 

My lady actually said 'calling an audible.' The only Valentine's present I need this year. 

 

Calling it now: Bull gets paired with Mojo as a motivational speaking tag team and they become to the most over act on the board.

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I'm not sure what to add to what you guys already talked about.

  • Hideo vs Breeze: I liked this enough. I'm still surprised that the crowd gets that excited for the GTS.
  • Baron vs Bull: This was like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde match. There were parts that I felt were really good and hard hitting. Then there were other parts that were sloppy as hell. Like that clothesline over the top rope that one or both guys fucked up on and Bull then threw himself out anyway, causing the crowd to boo them. At least Baron won.
  • BAM vs Lucha Dragons: The end of the match was OK. Not sure what else to add.
  • 4-way for the NXT Women's Title: Wow. This was something else. One of the best 4-way matches I've seen. All 4 girls really gave it their all. I'm a big softy so I found myself getting teary eyed for Sasha winning and Charlotte losing. Loved the hug at the end and then Sasha pushing Charlotte away.
  • Neville vs Balor: Holy fucking shit. It's rare where I'm jumping off my couch and going crazy for a match. The last 5 minutes of this match left me exhausted. I completely dug the slow build with Neville trying to ground Balor before they turned it up to 11. Balor and Neville were just killing themselves for us. The end was totally and completely satisfying. If WWE doesn't make a shitton of money off of Balor, then they're fucked.
  • KO vs SZ: Holy fucking shit part 2. I loved everything about this. It was like that first Vader vs Sting match, but about 10 minutes longer. I'm also a complete sucker for a, uh, KO finish. If this were a Fire Pro match, Owens would have CRITICAL'ed Zayn about 13 times. I'm hoping they keep Zayn on the shelf for awhile to let the KO era have some time to breathe. Owens crying at the end got me all teary eyed too. 

And that's where it hit me...There is so much emotion involved with NXT and so little with the main roster. NXT is just so fucking raw. It's the best promotion and show in the US, if not the whole world.

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Does Bull Dempsey get the Mojo treatment now? Do they try building him back up? I don't think he can really offer more than what he's already done so I'm okay if we don't see him again unless he somehow improves massively in training. Give his TV time to Crowe. 

 

I actually think a good solution is finally getting Tyler Breeze that bodyguard that he needs (and since they had the woman jump the guardrail last night, now he has a logical in-universe reason to have him get one).

 

Dempsey can wear a suit and sunglasses and ditch the King Kong Bundy tribute attire. It continues to help freshen Breeze up (along with the selfie stick) and gives Dempsey a good spot to be in after the Corbin matches.

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Then Tyler Breeze can finally compete for the tag team titles!

 

This came up in a promo once...

 

When he had to team with CJ Parker...

 

William Regal was there maybe?

 

I'm the worst.

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I also agree with Gregg. The reason that so many fans (males, you could tell by the depth of the voices) cheer Owens is because "using my fists to feed my family" is a stereotypical masculine fantasy. Of course the dudes in the crowd will cheer for a guy who risks his body in violent confrontations to feed, clothe, and house his wife and kids.

 

Owens being more of a sneering dick about that would really help. Him telling the men in the crowd not to live through him because they don't have the balls to get punched in the face, and besides, none of those basement-dwellers even have wives would go a long way in cutting off some of the cheers from the guys. 

 

Just watched this again, and the two ladies with their hands covering their faces and the dude in the GAP cap with his hands to his head both were amazing reaction shots to Zayn getting murdered. 

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I also agree with Gregg. The reason that so many fans (males, you could tell by the depth of the voices) cheer Owens is because "using my fists to feed my family" is a stereotypical masculine fantasy. Of course the dudes in the crowd will cheer for a guy who risks his body in violent confrontations to feed, clothe, and house his wife and kids.

 

Owens being more of a sneering dick about that would really help. Him telling the men in the crowd not to live through him because they don't have the balls to get punched in the face, and besides, none of those basement-dwellers even have wives would go a long way in cutting off some of the cheers from the guys. 

 

Just watched this again, and the two ladies with their hands covering their faces and the dude in the GAP cap with his hands to his head both were amazing reaction shots to Zayn getting murdered. 

 

I disagree. The reason the fans cheer Owens is because, "holy crap, Kevin Steen is in Nxt!!"

 

It's exciting to see one of your guys get his shot.  If they were cheering for a different reason then why would they be chanting "Kill Owens Kill."

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I don't think they want Owens shitting on the fans buying his merch, and putting money in their pockets. I like that his character just does what he does he's not trying to manipulate a certain reaction from the crowd he's just doing his thing. It's the most organic character in WWE right now there's nothing fake about him, and that's how they should keep it. Balor will be over huge when he challenges Owens, and then Zayn will be red hot when he gets his rematch. So what if 20% of the crowd cheers Owens it's better than making his character do forced cliché heel work.

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Look Owens/Zayn is gonna get talked about,but can we talk about how smartly that 4 way was put together, because that was one of my favorite 4 ways ever.

It seems that every time there's an intricate women's match, Drake is the referee and you can tell he plays a big part in helping direct/cue the wrestlers up. I wonder if Drake is working closely with the gals and Del Rey to help set up the matches.

 

Good call!  I noticed Drake refs a lot of the women's matches but never really considered the reason.

 

The PWG fan in me wishes Drake had gotten a NXT run as a wrestler at least for a while.

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I disagree with both JohnnyJ and JCM, respectfully of course.

 

Re: JohnnyJ: I think there might be an element of that on a small level, but as smart as these fans are, they still get sucked into the characters. See how they got sucked in to Zayn getting knocked out and badly hurt last night as an example. I am convinced that MOST of their cheering is because of how KO is presented to specifically appeal to them.

 

 

I don't think they want Owens shitting on the fans buying his merch, and putting money in their pockets. I like that his character just does what he does he's not trying to manipulate a certain reaction from the crowd he's just doing his thing. It's the most organic character in WWE right now there's nothing fake about him, and that's how they should keep it. Balor will be over huge when he challenges Owens, and then Zayn will be red hot when he gets his rematch. So what if 20% of the crowd cheers Owens it's better than making his character do forced cliché heel work.

 

Well, here's the problem. Heels can't be really shitty people anymore because it might mess with merch money. I wouldn't call being an unlikable dick "forced cliche heel work" either. 

 

If that's the case, then working the feud as "valiant babyface is brutalized by shifty, villainous heel" doesn't work since half the crowd is rooting for the heel, thus fucking up the whole dynamic. 

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Owens isn't being presented as an unlikeable dick he's being presented as a guy that will do anything to make a better life for his family even if it means stepping on his best friends neck. He has unlikeable qualities, but he also has qualities that are admirable like most real people. I see no need to change his character to "villainous heel" when his current one feels so real and fresh.

 

Sami saying their relationship changed when Owens got married and had kids kind of makes Sami sound like a dick.

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Owens isn't being presented as an unlikeable dick he's being presented as a guy that will do anything to make a better life for his family even if it means stepping on his best friends neck. He has unlikeable qualities, but he also has qualities that are admirable like most real people. I see no need to change his character to "villainous heel" when his current one feels so real and fresh.

 

Sami saying their relationship changed when Owens got married and had kids kind of makes Sami sound like a dick.

 

Sami pointing out that their relationship changed when Owens got married sounds like every relationship between friends ever. I have no idea how it makes Sami sound like a dick in any way.

 

Owens being presented as that guy means that they can't run this feud where you have to have all the sympathy on the babyface, or it comes off poorly in some ways as Matt D pointed out. I like Owens, actually, because everything he does goes back to providing for his family. That makes him a face. An anti-hero, sure, but a face. 

 

So running essentially a face vs. face feud with a story that needs someone to be a clear HEEL to make it work is a poor idea. I can accept that Owens is a face, but they should present him like one on commentary/in video packages, then.

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