The Sami Zayn match was a mess. Cena is no good at carrying opponents, he looked like Curly trying to sell Zayn’s moves, and it was ridiculously over-scripted. This match should have been ended short. I know they want to get something from the Canadian guy in his home turf but it all blew up and looked bad. They got no pride in their work anymore.
The Bride of Frankenstein Tamina is back, probably a sign of a tougher Divas division arising. The women up and coming in wrestling are bigger and tougher than the traditional Divas, which is going to be a good thing for wrestling.
The rest of the show was crap.
Booker T is a lot better at his job than when he started, but he’s got nothing to work with. He can play around with JBL a little, but they need a new lead announce man that makes the color commentators less noticeable. But I don’t think anybody can make these boring predictable matches easier to watch.
Sami Zayn is getting an MRI today because of issues with his left shoulder.
I’m getting an MRI tonight because of issues with my neck and left shoulder.
As utterly godawful as that would have been, I almost kinda wish it had happened, as a lesson to future generations of wrestling promoters and writers if nothing else.
OK, I thought Chimera Zayn’s injury was kayfabe. It was so typical of him to become instant underdog to a supposedly superior opponent and milk the suffering for all he’s worth. I was still skeptical. It’s too abzerd.
Then the above article about Justin Barbie appeared before my eyes. To WWE, absurd is normal. Anything they say is true because lies cannot be more absurd. I must rinse my brain of urine now.
It was quite good and showcased Adam Rose, Corey Graves, and Xavier Woods. My main takeaway from it is: Man I feel for Adam Rose! I really want him to do well now because he has to support his disabled son and it seems like he is really trying out there.
If you go online you can find 6 minute shorts featuring Tyler Breeze and Big Cass
What is John Cena’s gimmick? Ok, he started as a rapper, but he’s pretty much “John Cena” now, there is no “gimmick”.
What is Big Show’s gimmick? Randy Orton’s gimmick? Daniel Bryan’s gimmick?
See, the main eventers don’t really have gimmicks. They have catch phrases and special names they’re called and they may do a couple of unique things, but they really don’t even bother with the gimmicks on them anymore. Hell, they don’t even bother with Kane anymore.
Conclusion: Gimmicks are for mid-carders. So when you stick an Adam Rose with a stupid gimmick, who in the WWE Universe would ever see him as anything other than an undercard player?
Gimmicks can be stupid, but they at least make some kind of impression on the audience to build on later.
Big Show is large and somehow athletic, so that’s his identity.
Randy Orton’s gimmick is that he’s Cowboy Bob Orton’s son irl, so that was his way in.
Daniel Bryan already had an indy reputation, and they also had him adopt a sanctimonious heel gimmick at first, reflecting his vegan lifestyle. He and Kane also made a brilliant dysfunctional tag team with the Anger Management angle. His in-ring talent eventually won him over with the mainstream audience, and his past identities are now long forgotten.
Dolph Ziggler’s gimmick was that he was a douchebag who slept around with all the Divas, and AJ Lee became the infuriated psycho stalker ex. That got them in the spotlight, and they eventually abandoned those gimmicks.
I have no idea what can help Adam Rose at this point. He doesn’t really do anything amazing in the ring, probably because he only has a couple minutes. Who knows? Maybe South Africa will cure cancer some day and he can capitalize on his nationality.
I, for one, would be tickled pink if one day he just showed up as Leo Kruger again, wearing a bunny-skin cape with no explanation of where it came from.
To this point, and what you guys have been saying, they really haven’t pushed his gimmick in a while and are honestly cycling it back.
Other than still having the party entourage he doesn’t really talk much anymore, and has lost his flair. He’s mostly just black with the eyeliner so maybe they’re slooooooowly dropping his gimmick and trying to just make him british and weird
I was a bit surprised by how down on the Leo Kruger persona the creative room was. I’ve only seen a little of the old LK stuff, but I thought it was a great, creepy heel, with a nice vicious move set. And obviously the Internet loves and pines for the return of Kruger. Maybe I’ll do some “research” and watch a few of his matches.
I finally found something about LU I don’t like, and it’s Hernandez. I remember him from TNA and he was really good there, but in LU, he’s some random thug who just gets in the way. It’s like they’re not entirely sure what to do with him. First he helps out Prince Puma, then he screws things up for him, then he’s booked to take on PP, then he has to face the Patron/Mundo winner, then they pair him up with PP and he turns on him. They didn’t hire Vince Russo while nobody was looking, did they?
Characteristic of LU, once feuds are done, they’re done. Texano Jr was billed to be Alberto’s archenemy, but after their couple of matches, they now have him in a feud with Les Grossman, I mean Davari. Davari’s being billed as a rich playboy dilettante who likes violence, and I think he’s supposed to be a face, but I’m not sure. It’s possible he and Texano will switch face and heel roles, to play off class warfare memes.
Son of Havoc and Angelico lost against The Crew, but Angelico got off a couple Holy Shit! moments. I like this guy. It’s like he doesn’t realize he’s amazing.
Alberto vs Mundo was pretty good, but for some reason they don’t seem to “gel.” I can’t put my finger on it. I think it’s because Alberto is really a heel at heart, and his moveset is designed to make the opponent look like he’s suffering. Mundo’s not really the suffering type.
Black Widow/Orchid/Dahlia/whatever finally took the pebble out of Green Mask guy’s hand, so I suspect we’ll be seeing her in action soon. Is Malanza a radioactive mutant? A lich/ghoul/zombie/vampire? A manimal? What hath the gods of LU unleashed?
I can’t remember if I’ve made this point in this thread before, but I’m watching NXT right now where Maggle is interviewing Kevin Owens and trying to act like a hard-hitting, serious journalist.
Before he ended up with WWE, Michael Cole actually was a serious journalist who traveled with Clinton’s presidential campaign in 1992 and reported live on the scene of the Waco siege.
I wonder if, in his dreams, Journalist-Cole ever comes to Sports-Entertainer-Cole and yells “How did you let me turn into you?”
Also: Rhyno vs. Bull Dempsey is my new favorite rivalry, seeing as the former is basically what the latter will be 20 years from now.
Since I missed the edit window, and to preemptively cut off anyone who was wondering;
The new guy who signed a contract with William Regal but wasn’t referred to by name is Uhaa Nation (real name Sasugh Uhaa), a fairly recent signing by WWE - he reportedly only arrived at the Performance Center last month, about two weeks before this episode was filmed. To date he’s best known for his work in Dragon Gate, a Japanese promotion founded by Ultimo Dragon that mainly features Mexican lucha libre-style wrestling , and Dragon Gate USA, its semi-independent American affiliate. He’s a former tag team champion in Japan and is known for being a high-flyer, so he should definitely bring something unique to NXT when he makes his TV debut.
I tried typing this a couple hours ago, then it got deleted and I was too frustrated to continue. So let’s try again.
STC’s NXT round up. My shitty memory doesn’t work for chronolocially, so I’m just gonna split it into “actual matches” and “promos and other crap”
Actual Matches:
Emma vs Charlotte: What’s Charlotte even doing now? Just chilling until she gets called up? Because of this I would have liked to see Emma win here, show she can still bring it and give more gravitas for her thing with Bayley. But instead Emma looks weak, Bayley looks weaker because of it. Also I never saw Emma wrestle before she was promoted to WWE, but I am not impressed with her…she looks slow and clunky.
Rhyno vs Bull! Bull!: For being (IIRC) a part timer they are sure making Rhyno look strong! I think it’s fun they’re building him up to take on Corbin. If Rhyno wins then he’s strong and I’m happy, if Corbin wins then he took down a beast, looks strong, and I am happy. This is a win-win for me.
Fake Bushwackers vs Um…hello? Anyone?: They’re turning the superhappyfungroup heel? Interesting move…
Hideo vs Tyler Breeze (with a special appearance by Finn Balor: Not a bad match. Breeze did heel things, Hideo did Japanese ninja things, they kicked Finn…it was a decent story. A decent story featuring a kick that is supposed to make Finn mad when they HAVE FUCKING VIDEO OF IT BEING A MISTAKE. I hate that trope in wrestling almost as much as a rollup victory
Promos n shit:
Becky Lynch’s accent pisses me off. Not irish enough to be irish, not american enough to be american, it just kinda bounces back and forth. She is getting slightly better at talking though I’ll give her that.
Sasha is fine as always
Dana Brooks’s face looks like Spongebob doing a weird face. She’s ugly and annoying and ugly and needs to go away
KO was good by sticking to his story. I almost believe him when he says “I keep saying it’s not personal why is everyone asking me?!?” because he’s asked the same questions every time. It’s a good way of telling his story
Ms. Cups said that Sami Zayn and KO have the same mannerisms when they talk. I didn’t really notice one way or the other, but interesting to think about
She just looks…cartoonish. Like all her body parts don’t belong together. And the way she held her hands during the promo and her body style kept making me think of a person with Dwarfism that just happened to be normal height.
