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

[CQI13]

<p>NXT isn't without its faults - Aleister Black is now guy number what to go undefeated? Next big signing they get will beat him on his way to the main roster, right?</p><p> </p><p>

As for the trios, haven't seen (only watch PPVs). But hopefully they give us a little more information in the coming weeks. I will wait and see.</p>

[shawn michaels]

Creative never has anything for anyone, unless they are called Brock or Roman. And even then...

[milamber]

<p>Dave Meltzer on the Women's Call-ups:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>They brought in six new women, three for each brand. This may be loading up the women’s roster so they have enough women to do a Royal Rumble this year. Because really they should at this point. They are both in new factions. The Raw faction is Paige, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville. The Smackdown group is Ruby Riot, Liv Morgan and Sarah Bridges. It’s interesting the choices because they were far from the most pushed or most ready from the NXT roster.<p> </p><p> Rose, because of her look, and she is a very good athlete who picked things up fast, has been talked about as being fast-tracked to the main roster. From seeing her live, there was the obvious comparison with Trish Stratus in the sense you notice her look right away, but in time, you realize she performs in the ring like an athlete as well. In the Performance Center, she performed better on the athletic drills than all but a few of the women, and the ones that beat her were people like Bianca Belair who was a legit D-1 college track star. They badly wanted her to win Tough Enough, but the fan voting was legit and even though they tried their best to sway the fans, that stuff doesn’t work like it used to and the fans liked Sara Lee, who is now long gone and never amounted to much of anything. The reason Rose wasn’t used a lot on NXT TV is because they didn’t want her as part of the NXT brand. The last time I saw her at a house show I was surprised at how much she’d improved and she has a star quality about live even without being featured on television.</p><p> </p><p> Deville improved a lot in the past few months. She’s doing the MMA fighter gimmick which to me is weird when you’ve got Ronda Rousey, Shayna Baszler and Jessamyn Duke all training for an angle of MMA fighters and they are real MMA fighters who were all in UFC as opposed to someone who did some training and had a couple of amateur fights.</p><p> </p><p> Morgan wasn’t close to ready but she’s got a good look, and you can look at UFC and see what a star Paige VanZant is as there is an obvious comparison. The button she pushes is that she looks younger than the other women and perhaps can resonate with teenage boys stronger, which is a demo they have been losing ground in.</p><p> </p><p> Riot has experience and a different look, and can talk.</p><p> </p><p> Logan has a lot of indie experience as Crazy Mary Dobson. When I saw her at a house show, I was very impressed with her on things like knowing where to be, footwork and ability to make her opponents look good. I didn’t think she’d be up on the main roster because she’s a female in-ring mechanic, in the sense at ringside if you’re looking at working you’d see she’s good, but the average fan wouldn’t see it at all because she didn’t have charisma and was more about her ability to make others look good.</p><p> </p><p> Rose is 26, real name Amanda Saccomanno and competed in bikini contests in 2013 and 2014, including winning a version of the World Beauty Fitness & Fashion bikini championship. She also modeled using the name Mandy Sacs before being chosen for Tough Enough in 2015 on the USA Network, where Paige was a judge. While they didn’t point to that in the attack on TV, it may come out as part of the storyline that Paige was a judge and Rose and Deville were both contestants on that show. She was signed off the show and has been trained for two years, and was already put on Total Divas because of her look even before being used much on NXT TV, let alone not being on the main roster. Deville, 24, is Daria Berenato. She worked for Maria Menounos’ Afterbuzz network, hosting a UFC show on that network. That connection got her into Tough Enough. She was 2-1 in amateur MMA fights. She did her role well in NXT. She doesn’t have near the charisma or natural talking ability of Shayna Baszler for the same role, but she’s 13 years younger. Morgan, real name Gionna Daddio, 23, grew up in a family of wrestling fans and was in particular a big fan of Lita growing up. She was Enzo’s girlfriend in NXT. She was signed three years ago because she trained at a gym owned by Joe DeFranco, who is Paul & Stephanie’s personal trainer, and he noticed her, found out she was wanting to get into wrestling and she was really good looking. Logan is Sarah Bridges, 24, who was Crazy Mary Dobson dating back to being a teenager in the indies six years ago. She made it from signing with WWE to the main roster in 13 months and without any kind of a push in NXT. Riot, 26, is Dori Prange, best known on indies as Heidi Lovelace, who started on the indies seven years ago and worked in Japan before being signed by WWE in January, quickly started on NXT television, and had a remarkably quick turnaround to get from just signing to main roster in ten months</p><p> </p><p> With six new women characters all starting at once, that has left a lot of marginal talent nervous about spots because when there are a lot of additions there are likely some subtractions coming.</p></div></blockquote>

[Jaysin]

My first thought was they were trying to shoehorn as many women as they could so they could run a women and royal rumble.

 

That said, not sure this is the best approach. Could have easily just used NXT talent in the rumble and I don’t think think anyone would have batted an eye.

 

Whatever though, I’ve loved Ruby and Logan for years. Two of the sweetest and hardworking talents out there.

[shawn michaels]

My first thought was they were trying to shoehorn as many women as they could so they could run a women and royal rumble.

 

That said, not sure this is the best approach. Could have easily just used NXT talent in the rumble and I don’t think think anyone would have batted an eye.

 

Whatever though, I’ve loved Ruby and Logan for years. Two of the sweetest and hardworking talents out there.

 

I have no idea why everyone is so keen on a female Royal Rumble. Makes no sense to me. Nothing against women's wrestling, but the WWE is a promotion that has a primary focus of male wrestling and the Royal Rumble, even though there have been some bad editions, is supposed to be a once in a year thing. Not a "hey let's do one for women's too because equality and all that." Looks like simple politics to me. Like I said, nothing against women's wrestling, but there are plenty of many other ways to elevate women's wrestling in the company other than throwing a half baked female RR that no one (meaning the average audience) will even care about in the first place. Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

[milamber]

There was an NXT Battle Royale about a year and it was pretty crap. And I think they only had to go over the 2nd rope LOL. A cross-brand Women's Tag Division would be more interesting. If they want to do a gimmick match then a Women's Elimination Chamber would be sweet.

[Blackman]

<p>It's always nice to hear Meltzer talk about RAW, although he and his goon are always overly and purposely negative. He seems to like Rose and for good reason I guess, but now he was commenting that she was overly tanned and that the stable promo sucked (and by gawd it did suck: Paige and her even messed up their English).</p><p> </p><p>

Both women's division refreshments look so frickin' bland and random... I'm losing interest in the WWE programming in general. I might skip a month of subscription (or more).</p>

[milamber]

I quite enjoyed this week's Raw but you won't miss anything important between now and the Rumble.

[jjohns44]

<p>At first, I was skeptical about WWE featuring Matt's broken gimmick, just given how bad they tend to book things in recent years, but, and it was just one promo on the titantron, if they let Matt do it his way, shouldn't be a problem and I will gladly eat my words if it is made so. The pop he got was insane, I thought it would have just been too much teasing and keeping him floating in the lower card would just damage any credibility he could have, but once he was given the green light, he wasted no time jumping back into that character. Now I wonder how far they'd be willing to take it. Have Jeff be Brother Nero eventually, or just let Jeff go on to do his thing(split them up in another shake up), will they try to get Reby and Maxel? Will they keep the theme song? Will they have those big production pre filmed matches? Only time will tell but for now, Bray Wyatt is a good feud to bring him into and may actually help both of the characters..</p><p> </p><p>

So is Alexa Bliss being prepped to be a female commentator when her appeal dies down? She sure shows up a lot at the commentator desk in fact the only thing she's done since Survivor Series..</p><p>

Speaking of, I wonder if Absolution not attacking Asuka could mean there is something deeper going on where Asuka joins them. More often than not when a heel stable doesn't attack someone when they have the strength in numbers, could mean something deeper between them. Possibly have Absolution and Asuka be the 4 they need to take on the 4 horsewomen as I hear is a rumored WM match?</p>

[milamber]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="jjohns44" data-cite="jjohns44" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>At first, I was skeptical about WWE featuring Matt's broken gimmick, just given how bad they tend to book things in recent years, but, and it was just one promo on the titantron, if they let Matt do it his way, shouldn't be a problem and I will gladly eat my words if it is made so. The pop he got was insane, I thought it would have just been too much teasing and keeping him floating in the lower card would just damage any credibility he could have, but once he was given the green light, he wasted no time jumping back into that character. Now I wonder how far they'd be willing to take it. Have Jeff be Brother Nero eventually, or just let Jeff go on to do his thing(split them up in another shake up), will they try to get Reby and Maxel? Will they keep the theme song? Will they have those big production pre filmed matches? Only time will tell but for now, Bray Wyatt is a good feud to bring him into and may actually help both of the characters..<p> </p><p> So is Alexa Bliss being prepped to be a female commentator when her appeal dies down? She sure shows up a lot at the commentator desk in fact the only thing she's done since Survivor Series..</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> The Woken Matt segment was full of TNA cheese and it was delightful!</p><p> </p><p> Bliss has taken a backseat because they are building Asuka and Absolution. 2 women's stories is all they have time for.</p><p> </p><p> I might be the only one but I'm really enjoying the slow Jordan heel turn. His matches are always good and the delusional gimmick is working for him, IMO. I'd be happy if it led to Angle vs Jordan at Wrestlemania.</p>

[Rayelek]

The Woken Matt segment was full of TNA cheese and it was delightful!

 

Bliss has taken a backseat because they are building Asuka and Absolution. 2 women's stories is all they have time for.

 

I might be the only one but I'm really enjoying the slow Jordan heel turn. His matches are always good and the delusional gimmick is working for him, IMO. I'd be happy if it led to Angle vs Jordan at Wrestlemania.

 

I think they could have something better for Angle at Wrestlemania, otherwise I'd be pretty happy with that. An Angle/Jordan feud would be great though.

[milamber]

Smackdown was skippable but the twist at the end set up some nice stakes for Clash of Champions. The Shane/Bryan conflict is interesting.

[shawn michaels]

<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>Smackdown was skippable but the twist at the end set up some nice stakes for Clash of Champions. The Shane/Bryan conflict is interesting.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Brian is letting his hair and beard grow. That man is getting ready to wrestle. But probably out of the WWE, when his contract expires next year. I doubt the E will ever clear him, if for anything else, fear of him overshadowing Reigns again. Not to mention the potential for PR disaster if something was to happen to him.</p>

[Mootinie]

Of course Jinder Mahal lost to Triple H in India hahahahaha.

[cappyboy]

Hey guys, need a little help here please. Friend posted an Elf ON The Shelf picture on my Facebook wall earlier where the elf was all bundled up on a makeshift hand truck with candy cane handles. So I make a joke about Jesse & Festus and the time they were bundling up jobbers on Smackdown and sending them to the show's new network. But she's not a wrestling fan so I was looking for the clips on YouTube. That way I could link her to what I talking about. But I couldn't find them by searching Jesse & Festus directly. Anybody remember who the jobbers were and who they were facing when they were packed up? Seems like one would have been Brad Maddox but I can't be sure.

[The Dynamite Sid]

People on here still love Jinder or did that not exactly work out?

[Mootinie]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="The Dynamite Sid" data-cite="The Dynamite Sid" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>People on here still love Jinder or did that not exactly work out?</div></blockquote><p> I respect and appreciate that he does/did everything in his power to make it work.</p>

[milamber]

<p>2 Raws in a row where they put on a few good matches and had some decent feud progression. Props to Sheamus for wrestling with Spinal Stenosis.</p><p> </p><p>

Shame they ruined "Woken" Matt Hardy already. I liked how they tied the God that uses him as a vessel to Sister Abigail. That was some straight up cool mythology. But the quick cuts and the 2 minute laughing montage are already annoying.</p>

[Dawn]

<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>2 Raws in a row where they put on a few good matches and had some decent feud progression. Props to Sheamus for wrestling with Spinal Stenosis.<p> </p><p> Shame they ruined "Woken" Matt Hardy already. I liked how they tied the God that uses him as a vessel to Sister Abigail. That was some straight up cool mythology. But the quick cuts and the 2 minute laughing montage are already annoying.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I'd say we could wait a bit more to decide if it's really ruined. Worst part was definitely that ''Woken'' graphic that would show up at every cut to Matt.</p>

[CQI13]

And the cheesy Bray crap they've been doing forever isn't? Jump cuts in the middle of segments that lead to a Bray promo about whatever...his magical appearances in matches he's not in (but he can't win a feud). Why not magically appear in the Rumble and have everyone already outside? or Appear at the top of the ladder in MITB matches to just grab the briefcase?

[K-Nection]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="The Dynamite Sid" data-cite="The Dynamite Sid" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>People on here still love Jinder or did that not exactly work out?</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Here is my thought on the whole situation. If he was given a few months for the fans to buy in to him with a string of wins and a winning fued over a gatekeeper that title push would have been way easier to swallow. I was really torn that I knew he was solid in the ring but was never given much of a reason to care for him outside of how NXT booked him.</p><p> </p><p> All in all while I don't watch with any consistency these days but I don't think he was ever going to get that to fully work unless he had a year undefeated streak. (And probably then if they weren't telling compelling stories about 8 months in he would have had Authority go away heat)</p>

[CQI13]

Here is a take on Jinder I had not considered:

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2749085-the-singh-brothers-remain-most-intriguing-element-of-jinder-mahals-character

[milamber]

And the cheesy Bray crap they've been doing forever isn't? Jump cuts in the middle of segments that lead to a Bray promo about whatever...his magical appearances in matches he's not in (but he can't win a feud). Why not magically appear in the Rumble and have everyone already outside? or Appear at the top of the ladder in MITB matches to just grab the briefcase?

 

The Bray stuff is gimmicky for sure but the Matt/Bray segment looked like a poorly edited fan video with the quick cuts. It worked the 1st time for shock value but annoyed me the 2nd time. Adding the Woken graphic between cuts and 2 minutes of laughing made it cringey. They need to try something different next week.

 

Your idea about Bray actually using his powers to do something more useful than a sneak attack is cool but too logical so it will never happen.

[CQI13]

<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>The Bray stuff is gimmicky for sure but the Matt/Bray segment looked like a poorly edited fan video with the quick cuts. It worked the 1st time for shock value but annoyed me the 2nd time. Adding the Woken graphic between cuts and 2 minutes of laughing made it cringey. They need to try something different next week.<p> </p><p> Your idea about Bray actually using his powers to do something more useful than a sneak attack is cool but too logical so it will never happen.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Milamber, I haven't seen the Matt/Bray stuff - just saw they wrestled, Bray won and that is starting Matt's descent I guess. I'll see the clips when they have a RAW PPV (or the Rumble if that's the next time). That's the (good?) thing about only following the PPVs and random Network shows - I see the highly edited segments. And those promo videos are usually top notch.</p>

[BHK1978]

Not actually a wrestling comment but it would impact the WWE so I shall post it here.

 

I have read that Vince wants to restart the XFL. I guess because it worked out so well for him the first time. It is laughable that he thinks he can create a league from scratch that could compete with the NFL. Yes the ratings have been down for the NFL, but any league that has ever competed against the NFL has failed (Well the AFL was absorbed so that was not a failure and AAFC sent three teams to the NFL). Heck even the CFL failed with their American teams.

 

Vince should just stick to what he is good at and that is wrestling (Even that is debatable after having watched the current day product). He should stop trying to make football leagues, bodybuilding federations, and he should definitely stay away from making those crappy movies. I wonder who actually watches those Marine movies.