I posted on here a long while back about how great NXT was, and how the future looked extremely bright for WWE with the fantastic talent they had down in NXT. Back then I was raving about Bo Dallas, Leo Kruger, Kassius Ohno and Corey Graves, and I have to say that it's a damn shame that just one of those talents (technically) have made it to the main roster, and that's Bo Dallas. Bo Dallas is a great talent, and his knew motivational speaker/heel who thinks he's a face gimmick is starting to get him over on the main roster which is great. I really like Bo and I think he can succeed in WWE, unfortunately though I don't see him as a contender for a World title at all. His brother on the other hand (Bray Wyatt, for those of you who don't know) looks like someone who can really go down as one of the greatest characters of all time. Some of NXT's products have come up to the main roster and exploded in the right way, the likes of the Wyatt Family and Big E, however a lot of great talent has came up to the main roster and have unfortunately been on the end of either bad booking or terrible crowd reactions. Adam Rose, Emma and Xavier Woods have yet to really "get over" on the main roster because the main roster crowds don't seem to know how to react to them. This seems to be a concern among the big wigs in WWE since it came to light sometime last week that Vince himself isn't completely satisfied with a lot of the NXT stars coming in to WWE (but is Vince ever satisfied with anything?).
This concern seems to be seeping through into NXT itself and down in Florida they seem to be grooming stars for the main roster in the completely wrong way. Instead of letting their ring skills and promo skills develop, which is the entire purpose of NXT, they're working on characters that they hope to get over on Raw and SmackDown. Adam Rose is a good example of this. Adam Rose, real name Ray Leppan, was massively over down in NXT as Leo Kruger and seemed a great recipe for success once the South African Kraven the Hunter-type reached the main roster. However those in charge decided to hand Leppan a Russell Brand inspired 'party animal' gimmick, probably with the hope the kids will love it on the main roster. Funnily enough he got a fantastic reception on his re-debut down in NXT, the NXT crowd were really into him, but for some reason when his Raw debut came, that Baltimore crowd (I think it was Baltimore?) had absolutely no idea what to think of him. Unfortunately it's been that way ever since, which is a huge shame because Leppan is very talented and worked fantastically as Leo Kruger. Personally I see Adam Rose as a decent gimmick idea (not great) on the absolute wrong guy, Leppan does his best to pull it off, but unfortunately I don't find him convincing enough, and it seems that most of the main roster crowd don't either.
Also down in NXT though are some great gimmicks on the absolute right people, some examples of these are Tyler Breeze and The Ascension. The Ascension have been getting quite the push recently, they are the longest reigning NXT tag team champions in history (granted, there's only been like four) and have been appearing in dark matches for Raw and SmackDown and I think they might be the next big call up to the main roster. Personally I love the Ascension, at first I didn't like Connor O'Brian by himself as a "The Ascension" Connor O'Brian, but once Rick Victor debuted and they developed this Legion of Doom style team rather than brooding gothic types they had going before, I think they're definitely one of the best things NXT has going for them. Not forgetting Tyler Breeze though, he reminds me of a young Shawn Michaels crossed with Dolph Ziggler. He's great in the ring, has a ridiculous, yet fun gimmick that he pulls off extremely well, and he sings his own theme music! I mean, how much more like HBK could he be? I mean the HBK from just around the time he broke up with Jannetty and was being managed by Scary Sherri. I do really enjoy watching Breeze, and along with the Ascension, I think he's definitely one of those gimmicks that will succeed on the main roster, because he just has "it".
Unfortunately as cool as those guys are, I don't see them, along with the likes of Sami Zayn, Adrian Neville and Corey Graves, getting the type of push that most of the bigger guys down in NXT will. We've already seen this with Rusev, and will probably see the same with Mojo Rawley. I honestly don't think this is the right way to go, we've seen it before where the big foreign guys come in and fall to the big American guys, in the case of Rusev, and where the ex-football star comes in and dominates everybody and wins everything, in the case of Mojo. Personally I hate both of them, they have little to no ring skill (Rusev is a little smoother than Mojo but still pretty damn bad) but still end up getting the huge push. I think WWE and professional wrestling has moved on from the big guys coming in and conquering everything, since the days of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, to Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero, then CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, they have showed that, now, professional wrestling is about in-ring skill. However it seems Vince doesn't see it that way and still loves to push the big guys...ah Vince and his muscle fetish. As a fan I'm tired of seeing the big guys get over the workhorses like Ziggler and the likes, but if I was looking at it as a promoter I'd probably agree with whoever is calling the shots on pushing the big guys, simply because WWE's key demographic (children aged 4-14) are most likely to cheer for a big guy like Mojo Rawley using Naomi's moveset (ass-based offence) rather than someone rolling around on the floor using all kinds of technique like a collegiate wrestler like Ziggler.
I honestly do see the sense in it, but I am a firm believer that the key demographic for a wrestling company should never be kids, because it just waters the product down and weakens it for the so-called "old school" fans. NXT is certainly not the quality wrestling product it used to be, and it's down to dumbass gimmicks like the Vaudevillians (did you see those guys? wtf?) and the fact that they shove Mojo Rawley down our throats. I don't hate it, but it's definitely not what it used to be.
Maybe that's just me...maybe I've just started disliking it because it got popular, but anyway, that's my opinion.
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Ok, so what the hell is going on? First we have what I like to call the "dog shit era" (2007-2011) where absolutely nothing about WWE is watchable at all, like seriously, possible the worst era in wrestling history. Then business picks up when Punk takes off in 2011 with Money in the Bank and his feud with Laurinaitis and all that, things start to look up, then BOOM! Dog shit era 2.0 (2012-2014). But 2014 man, it started off in the usual godawful way that we've been used to since Vince went completely senile back in 2006 when he started mocking God, but then WrestleMania XXX rolled around and we were filled with a huge amount of hope...FINALLY! SOME FUCKING HOPE!!
Let's just take a moment and think of what they gave us. First off THE single most underrated and mistreated guy in the company finally got a push because the fans were sick to fucking death of Triple H's buddies being shoved down their throats (myself included). Daniel Bryan single handedly started his own little revolution, he got himself massively over simply by being amazing in the ring. He showed that this is a wrestling business and not Vince's own entertainment brand. Bryan wins the title at WrestleMania like he was destined to do since the Royal Rumble when the crowd royally shafted Batista and Triple H shit himself. Bryan began to show that he was what the company needed all along, before his injury he was the guy who the fans just wanted to see succeed. But then of course in typical WWE fan style, once the guy they wanted to see succeed actually does succeed, they want someone new...I swear, ya'll are a bunch of fucking hipsters.
Enter Cesaro. Cesaro of course also got massively over with the "WWE Universe" (anybody else really despise that nickname btw?) simply because he could swing people around in a fucking circle, had cool theme music...oh, and he was in Ring of Honor like Bryan and Punk before him. No, but I'll admit, Cesaro is a cool dude and I really hope he walks out of Money in the Bank as champion. He got massively over around the WrestleMania period and became another of WWE's top potential stars. The night after WrestleMania however he turned on the Real Americans and was revealed to be a Paul Heyman "guy", the crowd popped big time, I marked the fuck out, it was insane. But then unfortunately WWE and Paul Heyman did what WWE and Paul Heyman do and fuck it up by making it all about somebody else. Cesaro is a great wrestler, and was getting massively over all by himself, but sticking him with Heyman has managed to destroy that huge momentum he had. I don't know why Heyman is spouting about Lesnar beating Taker's streak every fucking week when he's managing Cesaro, it's literally taking all the attention off Cesaro. Now what looked to be a promising year for Cesaro has now fizzled down to mid-card destiny. Shame.
Ahh The Shield. Who didn't love The Shield? They were the best thing going in WWE and now they're gone. I'm not going to lie, I loved them as a team and didn't want them to break up, but I really can't wait to see what they do next now they're branching out as singles wrestlers. It should be an exciting time but now it seems the monkeys in WWE's creative department haven't got a damn clue what to do with them. Reigns is feuding with Orton for some reason, Ambrose is trying to feud with Rollins, and Rollins is Triple H's golden boy who looks to be feuding with Ambrose but doesn't seem to be taking the huge chance he was handed when he really should have became the new member of Evolution, therefore restoring Evolution to it's original format, the past (Triple H), the present (Orton), and the future (Rollins). I honestly have no idea where they're going with any of it.
Speaking of the monkeys in WWE's creative department... Has anyone heard of Paige? You know, the Divas champion, debuted to a huge pop, won the title, looked to be massively over immediately then has been stuck in mediocre matches with no one deserving of even a match with her at the moment? Yeah her. When she came in the complexion of the Divas division changed, and looked like it was finally going to go back to being a "women's wrestling" division, but then AJ fucked off and now Paige is left with no real worthy opponents except maybe Natalya, but of course she's wrapped up in the piss yourself, dildo fest that is Total Divas...or so WWE would have you believe. Apparently no one in WWE watches NXT because if they did they'd have seen the quality matches Paige had with Summer Rae and Emma and others in NXT. Therefore giving her formidable opponents worthy of a title...instead of Alicia Fox every week. Of course with AJ leaving Paige hasn't had that gripping feud to set her on fire yet, and she's never going to get that with Alicia Fox, or Tamina or fucking Slutadactyle Cameron...even Naomi. It's sad that WWE doesn't seem to recognise talent when they have it. Especially in Cesaro and Paige.
I'll be back tomorrow to rant further about the clusterfuck that is WWE's programming...and a small special on NXT and their persistence to put Mojo Rawley on my screen who I strongly dislike. Thanks for reading, drop me a line if you enjoyed it on Twitter.
Thanks again.
