The Official WWE / NXT Discussion Thread *May Contain Spoilers*

[guyver3]

Anyone else having stream problems tonight the Tag title and Women’s title matches were unwatchable for me with all the buffering and jumping around?

[CQI13]

Started late, tried to watch from the beginning and kept getting an error on my Roku. Phone works fine, so that's how it will be tonight.

[milamber]

Street Profits © vs Undisputed Era - **** 1/2

Io vs Candice - **** 3/4

Dream © vs Strong vs Dunne - **** 3/4

Mia vs Baszler © - *** 1/2

Gargano vs Cole © - *****

 

Great PPV. Io/Candice was one of the best women's matches in NXT history and Gargano/Cole was one of the best period. I would have preferred Era to win all the gold but maybe that will happen at Wargames. Shayna/Mia was the wrong type of match at the wrong time and fell a bit flat.

[Warhawk8492]

Despite feed problems I enjoyed SummerSlam. I am happy Seth won.

[Greylocke]

What do you think of Imperium? I loved the visual of those 3 guys standing guard outside the ring while WALTER powerbombed Trent over and over again.

 

Haven't been online lately, so didn't see this addressed at me earlier....

 

This is a personal thing, but I'm a little sick of seeing heel stables dominating a show, which partly explains my boredom with the North American NXT. There's also the fact that even though I love Walter, I don't think a character like that needs a stable. That said, I do like them better than Undisputed Era (and better than Gallus, too) because the members feel more distinguished from each other. As I said, big fan of Walter, and "m also liking Alexander Wolfe's character. Don't care much about the tag team guys yet, they haven't done anything that stood out to me, but it's kind of hard to when you're just playing the generic stable henchmen.

 

And yes, the beatdown of Trent, on its own, was a great segment.

[Greylocke]

Decided to take a look at Takeover Toronto yesterday after missing out a couple favourites the last time I skipped their major show. I was most looking forward to the Breakout Tournament that was apparently supposed to showcase new guys....and then I found out it was on the pre-show. :/ Way to show that you're trying to create new stars. I remember the early days when Takeover first started, almost every event will feature a newly-debuted star having his/her first Takeover match. There's a particularly noticeable lack of that when you move the one match that's supposed to showcase new guys on the pre-show.

 

That said, I've since caught the pre-show, and I do like the winner. It's actually not often these days to see wrestlers being capable of expressing more than 3 kinds of emotions and are natural with the subtle expressions and body language. Jordan Myles can do those, and he's a rarer breed than most I've seen debut on NXT in the past 2 years. I don't know if he's ever been a star in the indies, but if he wasn't it was a big missed opportunity by whomever that was booking him. Hopefully they're actually serious about this tournament and will actually give him a big match on the next Takeover.

 

Love seeing Breezango back again, but I guess they have a limited quota on colorful characters that are allowed to wrestle on the main show these days and Velveteen Dream and Street Profits already filled those spots.

 

Opening tag match on the main show was a pleasant surprise. I've always hated the way they showcased Undisputed Era as people who are tougher and can hit harder than monsters like AOP and War Raiders. These "monsters" take one chop block or knee strike and they sell it for the entire match while the puny guys take 3-4 power moves and pretty much shrug them off one minute later. They don't look like guys who should be able to trade hits with big guys and win but they keep getting booked like that, making the monsters look weak. As I said, this match was a pleasant surprise, since the UE actually sold more than they normally do and made their opponents came out looking like the better team. Nice, enjoyable start. Happy for Street Profits winning, especially with all the online speculations that they may be leaving NXT soon due to appearing on RAW so often.

 

Didn't know that Io Shirai turned heel but I think it was the right move. Was never comfortable with her as the underdog face struggling against bullying stable. Kairi Sane was perfect in that spot, and so was Dakota Kai, but Io just doesn't feel right for the role. That said, I'm not sure about this new crazed gimmick they're giving her. there doesn't seem to be much connection between her in-ring style and her new persona, either. Maybe she's still working on those. Match isn't bad, but kind of underwhelming given the competitors in the match.

 

Matt Riddle cut a promo and he actually doesn't sound stoned for once. Good start. Killian Dain back on NXT is a good thing. Sanity really shouldn't have moved to the main show at all. If they're really set on having a heel stable dominate NXT at least Sanity would be a much more flavourful one.

 

I expected the 3-way to be great, and it was. Still don't get why they keep bringing back Pete Dunn just to put over the secondary champion of the show, though. Way to label UK as the inferior brand. If the biggest babyface of the brand has to job, it should be to the NXT Champion only. Love Velveteen's glitzy entrances. Also love how he chose to jump the referee instead of just breaking up the pinfall the usual way. It's little nuances like that which makes a character more distinguished from others.

 

Wasn't sure what to expect from the women's title match going in. MMA-crossover people tend to be rather hit-or-miss with me. Thing is, most of the time I love their characters, whether it's Brock Lesnar, Shayna Bazler, Shinya Aoki, etc.....but whenever they put on an "MMA-style" type of match (fortunately they don't always do) my mind zones out and stops paying attention. The style just turns me off. I was actually surprised to have enjoyed most of Ronda Rousey's matches.

 

Sometimes, if they're facing characters that I'm invested in (Nikki Cross and Kairi both did), it can help sustain my interest, but Mia Yim isn't one of those, and the hype video hasn't helped in that regard.

 

Shayna: "She's got a nice story....."

 

Me: "What, isn't that the exact same story for 90% of the babyfaces that've ever gotten title shots on NXT in the past 3 years?"

 

Mia: "Has she even won anything on her own?"

 

Me: "Uh....yes. She won her first NXT Women's title before any of her Horsewomen stablemates debuted. She's won more on NXT on her own than you have."

 

Matt Riddle being dressed up as one of the masked guys for Mia's entrance was funny, though (at least I think it's him).

 

There's actually a nice, consistent story for the match itself revolving around Shayna's injured arm, and some nice selling by the champ. I'm afraid I'm not seeing any of the hype about Mia or why she's so beloved. Shayna not only had a stronger character, she plainly outworked Mia in the ring, too, at least for this match. Happy to see her win.

 

Tuned out before the main event, but I did watch the hype video, and it was pretty amusing to see the consistently ass-backward booking for these 2 "top guys". The heel chose a straight wrestling match because he's so confident he can out-wrestle Johnny Wrestling. The premise was that that he bragged about how he won the first fall in the last 2/3 falls and therefore would have won a normal 1-fall match...and then went on to prove his point by actually winning the title in a 1-fall match. So, just to hammer home on the fact that the good guy can't win a normal match with normal rules against the bad guy, the babyface decides to NOT try and prove him wrong by asking for another straight wrestling match. Instead, he stupidly asked for a Street Fight, knowing full well that his heel opponent has no less than 3 lackeys who can legally interfere in any kind of matches with no-DQ stip. I don't know if Undisputed Era ended up interfering in this match, but there's been no mention of any stipulations that ban them from ringside, so if they don't then they are bigger idiots than Gargano. And if Gargano loses then he truly is Johnny Failure. Jericho can fill up his entire List just watching this match. i don't have a List to fill, so I won't.

[milamber]

IIconics vs Bliss/Cross © - ***

Nattie vs Becky © - ****

Ziggler vs Goldberg - Fun squash

Ricochet vs AJ © - **** 1/4

Ember vs Bayley © - *** 3/4

Shane vs Owens - *** 1/2

Charlotte vs Trish - *** 3/4

Orton vs Kofi © - *** 3/4

Finn vs The Fiend - Creepy entrance and good squash

Rollins vs Brock © - *** 3/4

 

Solid, nicely-paced show but lacking great matches.

[shawn michaels]

<p>I'd say with all the stakes involved, as well as the circumstances, the main event was the MOTN of Summerslam, in my opinion. Lesnar did not phone it in and both guys delivered on telling a good story. Lesnar wrestling an actual long match was a welcomed surprise. 3 out of 4 possible tv appearances in 4 weeks and 1 long ppv match. Heyman influence maybe? Seth winning was the right move and I was glad that a world title (would have been perfect if the focus of the ppv went to the actual main world title once, but meh.) was the centric point of a big ppv with a decent story to it. In terms of WWE, that's positive evolution right there.</p><p> </p><p>

Curious to see where exactly are they going with the Roman story and surprised he did not have a match at an A ppv. I'd say Ember vs. Bailey, despite being a solid match, did not have any crowd interest at all. Bailey needs more than tweaks, a full gimmick change could help a lot. Curious to see if Banks returns this week or not.</p><p> </p><p>

It was a solid PPV, perhaps as Milamber said, a couple of great matches in there would have made it even better, the only qualm being the rushed booking of storylines. As they seem to be improving on the long term planning, I'm guessing that will also improve in the future. WWE tv is becoming watchable again. Lets see if it lasts or even improves.</p>

[Jaysin]

Kofi vs Orton was trash. It’s 2019, Orton should have lost cleanly.

[Dawn]

It was a pretty good SummerSlam. Wyatt looked like a million bucks and should never lose again but I give them until 'Mania to stop the push dead. I hope I'm wrong. Kofi vs. Orton was definitely underwhelming, MOTN was the main event. I was shocked, as I assumed they would just swap the world title brands to get Brock on SmackDown. I was disappointed with AJ vs. Ricochet being cut short and Bayley vs. Ember felt like it didn't belong, plus no actual angle to advance the Reigns story, but still a good show.

 

7/10.

[milamber]

Raw was fun.

 

[shawn michaels]

Kofi vs Orton was trash. It’s 2019, Orton should have lost cleanly.

 

Yeah, this was the major downer of the PPV. Not a deal breaker for the entire event, but a very odd decision. If they felt the storyline needed more time before an actual win (and therefore an actual match, or a decisive win) they should have started sooner. While I see the potential in extending the feud and not giving a decisive winner, there were still better ways to do it. The only logical scenario would have been for this feud to start much sooner and to conclude with a Kofi decisive win at a big PPV like Summerslam. But obviously they rushed the storyline and now want to milk it as much as they can.

[fullMETAL]

Anybody ELSE think SummerSlam was a stealth TEW event?

[Warhawk8492]

Anybody ELSE think SummerSlam was a stealth TEW event?

 

Now that is an awesome post

[milamber]

Smackdown was good as well. Murphy and Reigns had a good match. Daniel Bryan should be running promo classes at the PC.

[shawn michaels]

Now that is an awesome post

 

Indeed. This reminds me of all those diaries where people were repeatedly called out for unrealistic premises as WWE full of indie darlings or retired legends like HBK, The Rock, or Goldberg, among others, always returning at some point in time. This is why I always laugh when someone says playing TEW in RW mods is "limited". Yeah right...anything can happen in real life. And whatever didn't happened could have happened, could have come to happen, could still happen in some way, and so on. But i will bet that at some point in time, either that show or something very similar was booked on TEW's history at some point. Even EWR's.

 

Smackdown was good as well. Murphy and Reigns had a good match. Daniel Bryan should be running promo classes at the PC.

 

I enjoyed SD, I think the quality of the product is slowly improving. I hope they use some of the talent that is usually at catering to give us some more new exciting match ups. Murphy sold really well for Reigns, made him look strong, made himself look good and we got a very good match out of it.

 

The whole Kofi can't beat Orton was pretty much the direction we all expected, but we've also been expecting it for a decade, so it sells itself. I still think it should have started sooner and concluded at Summerslam, but it did not come to be, so I'll take it for what it is and hope they book it well. I don't know if they can stretch it out to November, so it's a shame if it concludes in a B PPV. Still curious to see how they handle it.

 

The who did it to Reigns is getting a long buildup. Extremely curious to see where they take this next week. Overall there are starting to be some points to be curious about to tune in in the coming weeks. If they keep it in that direction and improve from there, it would be great. But the new Stone Cold, a new version of I did it for The Rock, and so on... They seem to be reaching for their bag of old hits. May turn out to be fun, as some have been played out long ago and in time to be revisited. May not. As always, depends on the booking. We'll see.

[milamber]

[CQI13]

So is SummerSlam now the "family issues" PPV?

 

-Rey vs Eddie for Dominic in a Ladder Match

-Samoa Joe vs AJ Style with AJ's wife and daughter involved in the storyline

-Kofi Kingston's family harassed by Orton

 

I know 3 of 30 some odd years is hardly a trend. But I don't remember much as far as non wrestling extended family involvement in other main shows.

[milamber]

Raw was great. Don't usually get so many good matches on the one show.

[Warhawk8492]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="milamber" data-cite="milamber" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Raw was great. Don't usually get so many good matches on the one show.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I concur, almost as good as RAW was back in the day.</p>

[TheMightyDontKneel]

<p>Was a very enjoyable three hours.</p><p> </p><p>

They've got clear goals going forward here and it could make for an interesting few months:</p><p> </p><p>

Sasha back being her best self is refreshing as anything. The whole premise of the boss was that she was better than everyone and everyone was beneath her, the whole face turn was nice and she got to play up that you can be a tough person and yourself, but Becky plays that role so much better and Sasha really can just nail down that princess 'fear me, worship me' gimmick.</p><p> </p><p>

Alexa Bliss and Nicki Cross are faces/heels? Who really cares. The dynamic of the team is getting stronger, you know it'll eventually lead to Bliss just using someone again for her own gain but the way the psychology of the match played out last night you'd almost say Deville was the face in there and Cross has started more and more to fight dirtier to get what she wants. There doesn't seem to be a team in theory that can take the belts from them, bar the Kabuki Warriors or an eventual split of that team with Io coming up from NXT and teaming with a heel Asuka sick of Kairi always taking the fall. </p><p> </p><p>

The Fiend is the best part of wrestling in 2019. Jerry Lawler still knows how to work a crowd, the whole trying to get out of dodge to still get caught was brilliant. </p><p> </p><p>

Sami Zayns meltdowns and Dolph Zigglers insanity is eventually going to make a great team. </p><p> </p><p>

There doesn't seem to be a purpose for Strowman/Rollins unless one of them is turning heel. If they lose the belts it's because one is turning on the other, or they get screwed out of it and naturally both should want to take it back. But there isn't a team theoretically good enough to pin either the universal champion or a monster without needing help or getting it from their partner. Unless we're going TNA Angle days and having Strowman win the belt off AJ and then a winner takes all at Clash of Champions before vacating everything but the Universal as Heyman takes over creative control, you're either looking at turning Rollins heel with no real face challengers bar Reigns (technically SmackDown) Strowman (who would beat him in one match so screw job finishes for months) or the OC playing anti authority figures who knew Seth was a coward all along.</p>

[Jaysin]

NXT is officially moving to USA Network and it's going to be live for two hours.

[TheMightyDontKneel]

<p>Does this say much about how they view AEW?</p><p> </p><p>

In some senses they're already staging a war against them from show 1 essentially, but they're doing it with their C/D brand, the one that has a lot of the "work rate" guys in and a lot of guys AEW would have loved to have signed if they weren't tied down to contracts.</p><p> </p><p>

If they'd gone in with a SmackDown you could sense fear from WWE, but this almost just screams, hey we don't mind losing a bit of revenue from the Network if it means we can put you to bed quickly.</p>

[Jaysin]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="TheMightyDontKneel" data-cite="TheMightyDontKneel" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Does this say much about how they view AEW?<p> </p><p> In some senses they're already staging a war against them from show 1 essentially, but they're doing it with their C/D brand, the one that has a lot of the "work rate" guys in and a lot of guys AEW would have loved to have signed if they weren't tied down to contracts.</p><p> </p><p> If they'd gone in with a SmackDown you could sense fear from WWE, but this almost just screams, hey we don't mind losing a bit of revenue from the Network if it means we can put you to bed quickly.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> NXT is still going on the Network, it's just on a 24 hour delay</p>

[CQI13]

24 hour delay is acceptable. I hardly ever watch it live. Just no time.

 

I may be in the minority, but Sasha does nothing for me. She peaked at the TakeOver Brooklyn with Bayley.