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


Adam Ryland

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I don't have a link to it, but he was in the CHIKARA King of Trios 2010 as part of their Rey de Valedores ("King of Flyers") mini-tournament, and was outdone by all his opponents both in pure high flying but in psychology. All he did was sloppy dives and one decent looking corner attack spot and some pedestrian at best matwork. In matches against even three other high flyers he stuck out as the slowest and least impressive guy in the bunch. He ended up getting booed out of the building.

 

Like I said, he is absolutely nothing special.

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A

I think I must be missing the point of the show. It is enjoyable to watch from an entertainment perspective but the criteria for which they assess the contestants is beyond me. Do I want to hire the guy who gets dizzy from a forward roll and admitted that he would leave if his girlfriend asked him to come home, the girl who pads her ass to run the ropes and disrespects the whole process by turning up late, or the guy who can work a good match and just needs a rew touches here and there? Seems like an easy choice to me but like I said, I must be missing the point somewhat.

 

To be upfront, I haven't watched Tough Enough (saw a little of last weeks)...but from reading this thread, it seems like there are a lot of similarities with a very similar show which is more my neck of the woods, namely The Ultimate Fighter. A lot of the issues people have with it are the same issues many MMA fans had with TUF years ago.

 

London hit the nail on the head with the highlighted phrase...Tough Enough isn't about finding the next big WWE star, otherwise the Miss World (who I'm assuming has no wrestling background) wouldn't have even made the second call back. The Afro guy who was too unfit to run across the ring would have been turfed out; he's not going to get super fit in the few weeks that it takes to film these shows.

 

All TE is there for is to provide the TV network with 12 weeks of good ratings. End of. Its the same with TUF, talented fighters are turned away from the trials and casting calls in droves in favour of TV-friendly personalities, many of whom can't fight for s**t. I've been to TUF trials and casting before and believe me, the UFC brass who are filmed watching them have basically no say whatsoever as to who makes the final cut. They don't even do full record checks until the final stages of elimination. Amir Sadollah lied about his record to get on (he was 0-0, with a couple of amateur bouts) but the Spike TV peeps wanted him in because he was a good personality.

 

Point being, so what if this Matt guy was the best wrestler on the show. The show isn't about finding the best wrestler, it's about 12 weeks of passable TV.

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That's not something to be proud of. I've never even been in a pro wrestling ring before, I'm legally blind without my glasses and I have no cardio, but I can probably work better than most of the TE crew, Matt Cross included.

 

All he does is random flippy moves, with no substance or meaning to any of them. And he's not even really THAT spectacular at doing crazy flippy moves.

 

93% of the combined rosters of Dragon Gate and CHIKARA can do what he does, only better. And the other 7% might not be as flippy but are still better overall.

 

Here you go, genius. If you can do that, I'll believe you can work better than Matt Cross

 

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So, by your logic, Ric Flair wasn't a better worker than Matt Cross because he didn't do moves like that?

 

Kenta Kobashi threw some of the nastiest suplexes ever and held crowds in the palm of his hands just by the emotion he brought into the ring, but that doesn't matter because he couldn't do impoding 630 sentons?

 

For years the Rock's moveset consisted entirely of punches, a DDT, a spinebuster and like three finishing moves, but who cares if he can't fly like Matt Cross?

 

Doing crazy flips =/= being a good worker.

 

Mind you, you can do crazy flips AND be a good worker, but you can also be a very bad worker. Matt Cross is the second of the two.

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So, by your logic, Ric Flair wasn't a better worker than Matt Cross because he didn't do moves like that?

 

Kenta Kobashi threw some of the nastiest suplexes ever and held crowds in the palm of his hands just by the emotion he brought into the ring, but that doesn't matter because he couldn't do impoding 630 sentons?

 

For years the Rock's moveset consisted entirely of punches, a DDT, a spinebuster and like three finishing moves, but who cares if he can't fly like Matt Cross?

 

Doing crazy flips =/= being a good worker.

 

Mind you, you can do crazy flips AND be a good worker, but you can also be a very bad worker. Matt Cross is the second of the two.

 

The thing is, he isn't a very bad worker. I'll grant you that he isn't one of the best, but that doesn't mean he is very bad.

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Well, the reason I don't care much for Matt Cross is I go by the idea that it's not what you can do, but how you do it.

 

I can enjoy high flying matches. But I like them when they are fluid matches with context and a flow to them. I've never seen Matt Cross do much of that... he always comes off as a guy whose just trying to get on the highlight reel.

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Here you go, genius. If you can do that, I'll believe you can work better than Matt Cross

 

 

He Botched both the push off (though the other guy helped) and came down awkwardly on his knees. It was a very athletic move, but not exactly well executed.

 

Again, I understand he can go Flippy Flippy really well. I'm looking for a bit more in my Wrestlers if they are going to move me to "ARRRGHGHG I HATE THIS SHOW NOW!!!!" levels by there departure.

 

Are there other people on there who are worse wrestlers? sure, a bunch.

 

Am I surprised he got cut based on what he showed that week? Nope.

 

Matt Cross is A above average spot monkey with little to no in ring mat skills, he's just not overly impressive to me.

 

He's like a bigger Evan Bourne Minus the Charisma.

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If Cross went to the WWE it would only be to fufill their potential need for spot monkeys. Problem for him is Mistico and Bourne are there and are doing an good job at it. Cross is a pretty good high flyer (even though most of his move set wouldn't be allowed in the WWE) but his technical and charisma work need serious help. He had an awful run in ROH which proved this.

 

We need to remind ourselves that this is the WWE. For the most part good wrestlers are bypassed for good entertainers. And aside from his flips, Cross isn't tremendously entertaining.

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If Cross went to the WWE it would only be to fufill their potential need for spot monkeys. Problem for him is Mistico and Bourne are there and are doing an good job at it. Cross is a pretty good high flyer (even though most of his move set wouldn't be allowed in the WWE) but his technical and charisma work need serious help. He had an awful run in ROH which proved this.

 

We need to remind ourselves that this is the WWE. For the most part good wrestlers are bypassed for good entertainers. And aside from his flips, Cross isn't tremendously entertaining.

 

Took the words right out of my mouth! Loved Matty from his Yard Tard days but WWE ain't really for him. Oh well.

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Well, the reason I don't care much for Matt Cross is I go by the idea that it's not what you can do, but how you do it.

 

I can enjoy high flying matches. But I like them when they are fluid matches with context and a flow to them. I've never seen Matt Cross do much of that... he always comes off as a guy whose just trying to get on the highlight reel.

 

Much like our resident John Morrison.

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Matt Cross' audition video

 

http://www.usanetwork.com/series/toughenough/video/#v1319499

 

 

Where was that character?

 

I think that's the problem, I didn't see that character. I seen the video's linked, and I like them (I understand other's opinions, but I still see something that "could be"). I like this one the best, but.... You know there is a big difference between standing by yourself with a friend holding a camera, or filming yourself talking, and standing in front of strangers doing the same thing, Holding a mic (Just speaking in a microphone can be a challenge, then without one... Meaning, some people have no problem talking to a huge group of people at one time without a mic, but put a mic in their hand and all the sudden it's really soft spoken, comes off sounding scared-and in reality, they are). I seen the footage, and outside of a few yells here and there..... I can't help to think the guy is mic shy, which can come off as a few different things (some good, some bad).

 

In any case, would have liked to see him stick it out longer, but I have to still say that we didn't get to see any of this stuff... and he ticked off Austin. IMO I don't think Austin was ready for him to go yet, but somehow he struck a nerve, and Austin's like... "What are you waiting for?!?" and he's like "Permission to speak sir." I cringed and so did everyone else watching at the time with me... I mean litterally this is what you heard while I was watching that exact point "Goodbye, nice seeing ya." "I can't believe he just said that." "Well, I guess that's it for you." "Come on dude, get in his face!" I was watching with six friends, and everyone had something to say... so much that I had to ask someone to turn up the volume, so I could here what was coming (which it was obvious).

 

Was he the worse? No. Was he the worse at that particular instance? Ya, I'm afraid he was just sounding like a kiss butt there at the end, and I could tell he wanted to cry/was amazed this was happening. It looked like it come off as High and Mighty to Austin though, which is why I think he ultimately was chosen..... "I'm totally awesome, just waiting for the right time to shine!" "Yeah, well what if I waited for the right time to shine? I mean look at me, I knew the Ringmaster gimmick sucked, but it was a foot in. I took that foot and made something happen. What if I just layed back and didn't? Do you think I would have had any success?" etc. He said all that so Matt would have a better answer, and he said "Permission to speak" after a long rant about Taking charge of a situation and Doing what you know you can do. He should have told Austin "Look, now that you put it that way (or something similar), I messed up. I should have showed more then I have, and I'm going to do that right now!" Then did anything at all to show him he meant "right now!" AND forevermore (just like Raven, see what I did there).

 

Instead he says "I promise you I can, I'm just waiting...." After a long rant about NOT waiting... I knew, everyone I was watching it knew, He was gone from that point on. LISTEN, take the advice, and do what is obvious.

 

It's like at a job, your boss comes up and says "Hey, I need you to do better with "Z", it's not up to my standards." You say "No problem, I'll take care of that." NOT "Well, I didn't realise that was part of my job." or "I'm not the one that was working on that." etc... All excuses to the boss. He just wants to here "Taken care of" and it's no skin off your back, because he's not BLAMING you for it, just hopes you can take care of it. NOW, if he said "YOU aren't doing the job right." and talks about alot of stuff you couldn't have done anything about, then yeah... you let him know. But if the boss just wants a job handled, "I'm on it!" is what will let people know you get the job done.

 

That's all Matt had to do really. Not "If you just hold off, I'll show you, I promise." No, why wait? "Do it now!". I personally believe that if Matt would have jumped up and started doing stuff as soon as Austin said something to him about not doing anything... He would still be in the competition...

 

Example: "You haven't shown us anything? For all purposes, Miss USA has done everything you've done. What have you got?" and Matt immediately got on the ropes and did something, or even on the matt.... Whatever, I believe Austin would have gone "That's what I'm talking about you stupid ... .. . .....! Alright, alright, get back over here. Moving on, what about you, Mr. Potential!?!"

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With Edge gone, WWE is now paying for not establishing anyone. See now on Smackdown you have Del Rio, Christian, Rhodes, Mysterio, Big Show, Barrett, Kingston and Kane. Guys who are good but not have had that main event push(except Kane, Show and Barrett for like four months).

 

However, this is the time to really start push Kingston, Barrett, Rhodes and others gradually.

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When is Zack Ryder gonna get his push? Appearantly he is making lots of friends backstage with his youtube show (episode 9 is crazy good, check it out) and some in high places.

 

He could feud with Christian in the fall if Christian wins the World title, drops it around July to ADR, and is done with Del Rio going into the Fall season. He could be built up during that time and it could be great both with their history with Edge.

 

Ryder needs to get over ASAP....

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Internet popularity doesn't equal WWE success.

 

Ryder already was doing a webshow directly on wwe.com a while back and that didn't give him any pushes. Sure it gave him the woo woo woo character but outside of a short fued with Christian on ECW, he's been nothing but a jobber with untapped potential.

 

But trust me, I would LOVE a push for Ryder. He is one of my favorites along with Christian, Santino, and now Sin Cara.

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