Pro Wrestling discussion topic--WWE, AEW, ROH, Impact, New Japan, indies

I'm an NXT mark as much as the next guy, but this show wasn't any better than any of the previous ones (by a damn long shot). The main event ending was awesome though. Very well done.

I think the false finish is being abused too much, and it's damaging some of the enjoyment.. at least for my sake, anyway. The Balor/Neville match was good, but should have ended on the failed top rope move by Neville followed by the roll-up/school boy. The gut stomp is pretty fucking weak as a finisher, especially for a guy like Balor.

 
It was a good event and it was nice to see Sasha Banks finally get the Women's Title. I honestly thought that she has been at it a lot longer than 4 years, but the internets says she's only 23 and started wrestling 4 years ago.

I may be wrong, but it looks like Sami, Neville and Charlotte are getting called up.
 
The four-way NXT women's title match was really enjoyable, too. Not sure why, but I really dig the women's division in NXT, whereas I am bored shitless by the WWE deeeee-vahs division.

Owens/Zayn started off slow, but, yeah, the finish was really really good. I think the medical dudes spent way too long hovered over Zayn at the end, doing virtually nothing - and that kinda hindered the finish (if Zayn needed the match stopped for him, get a fucking stretcher out there, man). The visual at the end, with Owens standing over Zayn with the medical dudes stoically posed like they're in a fucking christmas nativity scene - that's clearly what they were going for.

The finish goes way back to Backlund's WWF Title loss to Iron Sheik, where Arnold Skaaland (?) threw in the towel and the title changed hands. I think they also did that with Bret and Owen in the mid-90's, too. It's done rarely enough that it's hella effective, though.

I suppose one of these guys is getting called up? Finn Balor is the #1 contender, but there's serious, fire-burning heat b/w Owens and Zayn. So they have three guys to build, protect, and put against each other. Which is an embarrassment of riches for the program, but a difficult thing to properly book a resolution to (where everyone looks stronger at the end, and matches make sense).

Balor/Neville was solid, solid, solid - it's Ring of Honor style match booking, with big spots and a million false finishes, though. Once a show is cool by me.

The final match notwithstanding, it was not NXT's best show. Maybe our standards are set too high, now that we've seen what they can do?

Lucha Dragons were the drizzling shits last night though. Sorry, fellas.

 
Last night was the first time I have watched anything from NXT, and I have to say I was greatly impressed.

Except for that tag match. WTF was that shit? Is it some unwritten rule somewhere in the WWE that Masked Latino wrestlers have to suck to high hell and botch a minimum 5 times per match? I was high as fuck during that match and even that could not save it.....

 
I liked the tag match much more than Dragons/Vaudevillains 2 months ago, despite the fact that the Dragons botched 2 or 3 spots. Bull Dempsey throwing himself over the top rope was easily the worst botch of the night.
 
HydroX said:
I'm an NXT mark as much as the next guy, but this show wasn't any better than any of the previous ones (by a damn long shot). The main event ending was awesome though. Very well done.

I think the false finish is being abused too much, and it's damaging some of the enjoyment.. at least for my sake, anyway. The Balor/Neville match was good, but should have ended on the failed top rope move by Neville followed by the roll-up/school boy. The gut stomp is pretty fucking weak as a finisher, especially for a guy like Balor.
Click to expand...
I agree, I hate that Balor's finisher is the double foot stomp from the top rope. I like the move, but really think he should use Bloody Sunday as his finisher in WWE. Same with Owens too, he has a brutal power bomb, but I want to see the package piledriver. I was hoping that he was going to hit it last night on Sami. Hideo also needs to use the GTS, he made the move famous and Punk is long gone.

I really enjoyed the show though and while I don't think it was as spectacular as R:Evolution, but it was still light years better than anything currently on the main roster.

 
Last night was my first time watching an NXT event but certainly wont be the last. My brother watches it regularly and has been trying to get me to check it out so I finally did last night. With the exception of that no DQ match, I was entertained throughout the entirety of the show. I don't remember the last time I said that about a Raw or Smackdown.

Balor's entrance was awesome. My all-time favorite wrestler is MVP and that was because of his early entrances with WWE so Balor may be an early favorite if I decide to watch this regularly. I'm an entrance kinda guy and I like how crowd engaging his is.

I was also impressed with Kevin Owens' mobility for being his size. That main event was, albeit about 5 mins too long, a great ending to the show.

Divas that can wrestle? Gimme those 4 girls over the likes of Rosa, Summer Rae, Alicia Fox and Cameron any day of the week.

Those are my first impressions of the brand based off the 1 show that I've seen. A question I have from it: Is this normally the quality of NXT shows or did I happen to stumble upon one of the better shows?

 
kdiddy1989 said:
Last night was my first time watching an NXT event but certainly wont be the last. My brother watches it regularly and has been trying to get me to check it out so I finally did last night. With the exception of that no DQ match, I was entertained throughout the entirety of the show. I don't remember the last time I said that about a Raw or Smackdown.

Balor's entrance was awesome. My all-time favorite wrestler is MVP and that was because of his early entrances with WWE so Balor may be an early favorite if I decide to watch this regularly. I'm an entrance kinda guy and I like how crowd engaging his is.

I was also impressed with Kevin Owens' mobility for being his size. That main event was, albeit about 5 mins too long, a great ending to the show.

Divas that can wrestle? Gimme those 4 girls over the likes of Rosa, Summer Rae, Alicia Fox and Cameron any day of the week.

Those are my first impressions of the brand based off the 1 show that I've seen. A question I have from it: Is this normally the quality of NXT shows or did I happen to stumble upon one of the better shows?
Click to expand...
It's actually one of the more average shows they've had. Check out the last special, "R-Evolution", you will be absolutely blown away. Probably the best wrestling show I've ever seen.

 
It was a live, "pay per view" show that they were building towards for the last 4-6 weeks. Their shows are usually 1 hour and taped in advance. The match quality is typically not as good (but you can't have filet mignon for every meal, I suppose) - but the week over week booking and execution are far more soothing to my wrestling palate.

I mean, you're not going to get Owens vs Balor and/or Zayn until their next live marquee show - but the way they've been booking up until now, it will be a quite enjoyable month or two.

Besides, if you have access to the network, might as well dive in and watch an episode or two. Sami Callahan's (re?)debut is next week.

Also: maybe I'm alone, but I fucking adore Tyler Breeze's gimmick. Modern day "The Model" Rick Martel. I don't know that it will work on a grand scale unless they pair him up with whomever is the "hottest diva" on WWE now (AJ? I dunno who half of them are, all of them if blonde) and make the crowd hella envious of him.

 
mykevermin said:
Also: maybe I'm alone, but I fucking adore Tyler Breeze's gimmick. Modern day "The Model" Rick Martel. I don't know that it will work on a grand scale unless they pair him up with whomever is the "hottest diva" on WWE now (AJ? I dunno who half of them are, all of them if blonde) and make the crowd hella envious of him.
Click to expand...
Agree whole-heartedly. I was unreasonably stoked for the selfie stick debut, it would really make a perfect heel weapon. The "fan" rushing him last was great too.

 
NXT was great, but I wasn't able to watch the last match due to my internet cutting out suddenly. Right before the match too. Couldn't watch it until the morning. :( The match was great though!

 
Matt Young said:
Bull Dempsey throwing himself over the top rope was easily the worst botch of the night.
Click to expand...
I give it a solid 8 on the Monty Brown Scale.

But Yeah NXTTakeoverRivals was a really great show. The ending to the main event worked so well because you almost never see that sort of thing. Speaking of which, I absolutely loved Owens's motivations for wanting the title: being the champ means more money, and more money means he can take better care of his family. Heel or no, it's hard to hate a guy with reasoning like that.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
KillerRamen said:
WWE Network is now a cable TV channel.

...In North Africa and the Middle East.
Click to expand...
North Africa and the Middle East just got slidecage'd.

Sigma said:
I agree, I hate that Balor's finisher is the double foot stomp from the top rope. I like the move, but really think he should use Bloody Sunday as his finisher in WWE.
Click to expand...
I'm actually a big fan of the stomp regardless if it's Low-Ki, Davey Richards or Devitt playing the character of Balor (smarmy indy comment alert! ;) ). The thing I like about it is that there's really no way to go light with it, it's pretty much all or nothing. If I were a wrestler, it would be probably be the top move that I would dread taking, because it has to hurt like crazy.

 
If there's one thing I really appreciate being a new NJPW fan, it's that they realize the importance of Tag Team wrestling. This ReDragon/Young Bucks/Time Splitters match is super fun to watch.

EDIT: Oh yeah, Rivals was good but wasn't as good as R-Evolution was. The women's 4 way stole the show imo, despite Neville/Balor being amazing and Owens decimating Zayn being a really great way to show a monster being a monster without making the babyface look weak. Really smart booking, and is a great lead up to having Sami get called up so Owens can go after him and renew the feud at a later time. Itami and Breeze work together well, but holy fuck does Bull seem to lack any sort of in ring charisma with anyone.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
What was Monty's big botch? I can't seem to recall.

Also, I kinda miss that dude. Great look, good charisma. Not the best wrestler, but he had what he needed otherwise.

 
tangytangerine said:
If it's the one I'm thinking, it's from his time in TNA where he was supposed to be eliminated with Jeff Hardy. Only he screwed up and had to eliminate himself.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZGlqowDG50[/youtube]
Click to expand...
Haha, I remember this!

I actually thought Monty Brown had a lot of promise despite being super green. I liked his look and thought he had a lot of charisma, it's a shame he didn't go far in the WWE as Marcus Cor Von.

 
To be fair, I think that was always a figment of my imagination - that he *should* have spelled it that way.

I still remember seeing him in the opening match of a Tuesday night warehouse show for Les Thatcher's HWA in 2000-2001ish, thinking this goofy, tiny dude wearing a heinz ketchup t-shirt and derping around to Jurassic 5 was not gonna be anything. Seven minutes later, my jaw was on the floor and I had zero choice but to admit being completely wrong.

 
I would mark out pretty hard if Rhyno made a return to WWE, especially with Paul Heyman being as awesome as he is right now.

THEE Brian Kendrick?! Man, that guy would fit perfectly as a partner or opponent for Ziggler.

 
Paintover test for our arena.

SJWEW8C.jpg


 
I know most of you guys probably don't watch Smackdown, but I quite enjoyed the Tag Team Turmoil match with Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns. It's probably the most character I've ever seen out of Reigns. Giving them half the show really worked out well, I just wish they would have been confident enough in them to do something like that on Raw.

 
LOVED LOVED LOVED the Cena-Rusev opening. They made the US Title seem important and I'm totally fine with Cena winning it at Fast Lane. Does it mean as much for Rusev to have his first loss there compared to WM? No - but it means he can regain the title quickly at WM, and traditionally, they've had the guy who should win at WM lose there and then win on a B-show. They're doing it in reverse here, and that's good for building the future. Rusev not only stands to "beat Cena on WWE's grandest stage", but also do so for a title that can mean more throughout 2015 than it has throughout its WWE run.

Ambrose's Weekend Update was not exactly good - the highlight was the bad suit. Ambrose-Harper was okay, but nothing too special. Loved Dusty's promo - it was subdued, but effective. It was too short though. Dusts vs. The Dead Push was a match. I liked the return of whatever Cody's finish was called to turn on him instead of Stardust's bad flatliner, even though that move is better out of the fake hug bit.  Roman and Byron exchanged Generic WWE Words. Roman's a dick.

Roman-Kane was nothing, but Bryan made this whole thing work by being great on commentary. Setup for Paige's dress getup was stupid, but she was hilarious. She beat Summer and was just perfect in this girly dress playing the whole thing for laughs. Seth-Dolph was okay, but got exciting until the finish, which was a fuck finish done PERFECTLY. Hopefully, it leads to Seth-Dolph on PPV and not just a wacky six-man tag with Seth and the goons against the mid-card Survivors.

The HHH-Sting hype video made HHH out to be a hell of a babyface, and then HHH said HE'S FIGHTING FOR WWE against WCW, here in 2015 - 14 years after WCW died. This led to more of HHH being put over, Flair coming out and HHH putting him over while Flair put him over. Then HHH shoved Flair down for warning him and HHH said NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WWE BUT HIS KIDS AND HIS WIFE. He's the heel here, in theory. D-Young and Generic SmackDown CAW with black trunks and tattoos were beaten up by the Ascension until Titus came down for a PTP reunion - good, they're great together and largely mediocre apart.

Nattie and Tyson vs. an Uso and Naomi was a match. Loved Tyson showing Nattie how to win with the sharpshooter instead of being cradled by it. YAY IT'S THE BIG DAWG out to do commentary. Nope - he's seated next to the commentators, so they don't trust him with a mic. Bryan tried to have a great match with Show and was having a good one while Roman took selfies and stretched. They had a damn good match even with this angle hurting things.They've really  hurt Bryan and Roman. The former's character has been really hurt badly, while Roman's character never really got established and has just been killed by this writing. I liked the show-closing brawl overall, but they gave A LOT away here. 

http://jayreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2015/02/wwe-raw-2-16-15.html

Screens -



"I'm the Titty Master, and you're not!"









THE VIGILANTE WAI TING!



Loved this shot







 

Steph Already Inducted Macho


http://www.imagebam.com/gallery/4dexolzuuklt6vl9vayvx69t382806y5

 
I love the Bullet Club, they are excellent. AJ Styles has been one of my favorite wrestlers for years now, I first saw AJ when he was wrestling a lot with NWA WildSide, which I believe is long gone now. I was immediately hooked after seeing one match. AJ is truly phenomenal and will likely go down as one of the greatest wrestlers to never work for the WWE (his jobber appearances don't count). I think the Young Bucks will eventually end up WWE though, they are way too young and way too good. When the right offer comes along I could see them joining the WWE, but not anytime soon as they are killing it in NJPW and the indies. 

 
Haha, NWA Wildside. I remember reading their show results in PWI and related magazines. Wasn't that where AJ started teaming with Air Paris, leading to their extremely brief WCW run?
 
That's big news. Being reduced to a henchman for a faction does that to you, I guess. This makes him the hottest free agent since...AJ Styles. We should start a pool to see where his first post-TNA match will be. I'd like to see him do a series of matches around various promotions before signing anything long-term. ROH, NJPW, PWG, maybe a couple of others. I'm going to the ROH show this Saturday in Atlanta and I'd flip out if he showed up there. It's not a TV taping so it is a possibility unless his TNA contract had a pretty severe non-compete clause (or maybe he's been working on a per-appearance basis which would mean he should be free and clear).

Matt Young said:
Haha, NWA Wildside. I remember reading their show results in PWI and related magazines. Wasn't that where AJ started teaming with Air Paris, leading to their extremely brief WCW run?
Click to expand...
You got it.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Man, I really, really want Impact to become a good promotion.

But they just stink, top to bottom.

We'll always have Scott Steiner's incomprehensible promos from there, though.

 
mykevermin said:
Man, I really, really want Impact to become a good promotion.

But they just stink, top to bottom.

We'll always have Scott Steiner's incomprehensible promos from there, though.
Click to expand...
I couldn't ask for a better set-up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fe92m7nF7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ccog02xSIo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3_cUxzLBSQ

 
Matt Young said:
Impact has been really good since last summer.
Click to expand...
I lean more towards this opinion. They seem to have found a niche within the restriction they have of recording multiple episodes within a period of a few days. They seem to be keeping their story continuity in line quite well and they've managed to have the majority of their matches be good despite the reduced size of their roster. Overall, I think it's been a consistently well-produced show.

 
Matt Young said:
Haha, NWA Wildside. I remember reading their show results in PWI and related magazines. Wasn't that where AJ started teaming with Air Paris, leading to their extremely brief WCW run?
Click to expand...
Yes sir, Air Paris wasn't too bad either, but it was always clear that AJ was the true star out of those two. Abyss also wrestled in NWA Wildside as Justice before ever wearing the mask. I'd love to see that short WCW run with AJ Styles in the cruiserweight tag-team division on the Network sometime soon.

 
For what it's worth, I just searched "AJ Styles and Air Paris" on YouTube and saw most of their WCW matches listed, and even a Wildside match or two.
 
I was watching "The Best of TNA" countdown on Destination America the other day and it was pretty awful.  Brooke Hogan getting married.  Empty arena match.  Bad bad stuff.  I hope the show itself is better.  I used to be a huge TNA fan back in the day. Even bought the episodes from itunes when I didn't have cable.  

 
Matt Young said:
For what it's worth, I just searched "AJ Styles and Air Paris" on YouTube and saw most of their WCW matches listed, and even a Wildside match or two.
Click to expand...
I've seen a few of them on there. I actually have a DVD full of AJ Styles matches from NWA Wildside and various other indie promotions from around that time.

 
Scott Steiner should be hired for the promo trainer at NXT. Just imagine, if you wheeeeel, Roman Reigns dropping a promo in Steiner fashion. Instant gold.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top