The War Report: What's NXT?

Well, I'm back from a bit of a workload-related hiatus, and I thought I'd cover something new in the WWE, and that's the concept of WWE NXT.  Ok first, it’s presented by Matt Striker, which is a great idea.  I can see Striker being the voice of the WWE, the way JR has been, for decades to come.  The general idea of the programme is that there are 8 rookies and 8 pros put into pairs. Apparently success or failure is voted on by the pros, where the pro cannot vote for or against his own rookie.  I haven’t seen this system in play yet, but I’m assuming it’ll happen every couple of weeks, and it seems that there is only one contract available.  Don’t kid yourself of course, if any of them are good enough then they’ll be in.  Personally I’d say Daniel Bryan’s already guaranteed a spot on the main roster.  The music for it’s not bad, Wild & Young by American Bang, bit of a slow-burner but it’s quite apt.  Of course, they plug it continuously throughout the show.

The most interesting part of the show for me is that of the 8 pairings we have, 4 of them seem to hate each other already.  Firstly you’ve got the team of The Miz and Daniel Bryan, the submission specialist who’s been on the Indy circuit for twice as long as Miz has been wrestling. Miz and Bryan (Bryan Danielson for the purists) have already had a bit of a fight, following the rookie’s loss to Jericho in the first week.  At first I thought he’d seriously botched a dive through the ropes, but on further viewing it looks like it was actually planned, and if there’s anything that’s going to impress the man upstairs (Vince, that is) then it’s doing anything to get in the company.  It’s probably a good thing this is the PG era, for the rookies at least, because otherwise they might have been asked to blade every other week...  Anyway, Miz and Bryan already have a shaky relationship, and I can see that becoming a fully-fledged feud within a few weeks.

The second pairing that don’t seem to like each other are David Otunga and R-Truth, who had a bit of a scuffle after Otunga lost his rematch with Darren Young.  Otunga’s got the ‘I’m better than you’ gimmick going, which is pretty reasonable given that he’s married to Jennifer Hudson, and it gives the commentary team of Michael Cole (who’s taking on the more heel-ish role) and Josh Matthews the chance to do a bit of name dropping.  So far they’ve thrown in Cedric the Entertainer and Barack Obama.  Otunga beat Darren Young in a squash match in the first week, which was pretty surprising, using a Faarooq-style bearhug slam.

That brings me to the third pair – Darren Young and CM Punk (with the Straight-Edge society). Darren Young’s got the party-boy gimmick going on, and the camera simply cuts to Punk being bored at ringside every so often, after he claimed that he’s already mentoring Gallows and Serena.  After being squashed in his first match I assumed he was already done, but he was reasonably good in the rematch, although I’m not convinced by his apparent finisher, which is a sort of release full nelson drop, where Otunga landed face-first, after Punk distracted him. Maybe there’s hope for that relationship after all.

The final pair that don’t get along are Skip Sheffield and William Regal.  Sheffield seems to have the Festus gimmick (without the ring bell thing) of being the corn-fed... something.  Basically, the type of gimmick that can’t really last long because there’s nothing to it.  He’s a big guy, and William Regal spent the entire match between them and Matt Hardy and Justin Gabriel (who do get along, possibly even a little too well, but I’ll get onto that) shouting at him.

Gabriel and Hardy are a good pairing, simply because they seem to be the next version of the Hardys, having pulled out at least two of their double team moves, including Poetry in Motion. Gabriel also looks to have some talent about him, and the 450 splash he used to win the match with Regal was well executed.  There’s been a bit of a lack of high-flyers in the WWE recently in my eyes, and the 450 should have been utilised long before this, particularly since R-Truth’s finisher is just... terrible, and he’s capable of a 450 splash.  If Truth’s now teaming up with Morrison, then two big aerial finishers would look good for them.

Heath Slater (mentored by Christian) is yet to impress me, but I get the feeling he’s up against Carlito next week following the apple spit to the face at the end of the show.  He’s got the rock star gimmick.  A ginger rock star?  Really?  Who’s he trying to be, Mick Hucknall?  Anyway, he looks like he’s got charisma, but to me he just seems overconfident for someone who didn’t show me anything memorable from his match with Christian Michael Tarver and Carlito in the first week.  You rarely get a chance to improve from a bad start in the WWE, but having said that, Daniel Bryan botched a springboard move against Wade Barrett this week, and hopefully he’ll get another chance.

Michael Tarver, the MMA specialist, is teamed with Carlito, and already has a pretty cool taunt under his belt.  He seems like the kind of guy the WWE would want on board, with their focus seeming to move away from pure wrestling and more towards the bigger guys who can hit hard, trying to capitalise on that growing MMA market.  The taunt is simple but effective, creating a T with his forearms, and he looks like he can strike well.  Still, he wasn’t overly impressive in his first match, but I’d give him more time than I would Slater.

Finally, Wade Barrett, mentored by the best mentor you could possibly get in Chris Jericho, is an English bare-knuckle fighter.  They had a bit of discrepancy in his height, so he might be anywhere between 6’ 5” and 6’ 7” but either way he’s big, and defeated the injured Daniel Bryan on Tuesday, using almost an Attitude Adjustment-style finisher, just with the throw being forwards and down rather than up and over to the side.  He’s got a slightly strange attire when he’s not wrestling though, with a massive flower on his lapel that just doesn’t seem to fit with his look.  Still, he looks pretty solid in the ring, and working with Jericho will make anyone look good.

I also want to talk about a few of the opportunities that the WWE’s missed with this programme. The most obvious is pairing one of the rookies with Finlay.  Finlay has been massively under-used since he left ECW and he’d have been a great mentor to anyone, and might have allowed him to switch to being a heel again, the one who just likes to fight.  It might even have given him a bit of a push towards winning a title again before he retires.

On the releases front, the first four of many have been Maria, The Hurricane, Charlie Haas and Paul Burchill.  Personally I think that all of these are mistakes in their own way, although The Hurricane was always going to be in trouble once ECW finished after his arrest.  Maria... well she can’t wrestle but looked pretty good, wouldn’t have minded keeping her around as eye candy. Paul Burchill I always felt was incredibly underrated as a competitor, he was very agile for a big guy, quick thinking in the ring (I still remember one time when he bailed out Yoshi Tatsu when he messed up his springboard spinning wheel kick) and was one of the best jobbers in the WWE. Charlie Haas was undoubtedly a very talented wrestler who they simply couldn’t come up with a gimmick or personality for, and unlike Shelton Benjamin he isn’t quite the spot monkey when it comes to ladder matches.  However, the Haas of Pain was a great finisher that he doesn’t seem to have used for years, and he’ll certainly be joining the TNA revolution, as it’s widely known that Kurt Angle’s still an admirer, after all, the World’s Greatest Tag Team were there in support of Angle in the WWE back in the day.

The main problem I feel with NXT is that they’ve committed to having the same roster.  ECW was a proving ground for new superstars and in the past few years they’ve brought through the likes of Morrison, Miz, Bourne, Swagger, Sheamus and Punk and they’ve revamped Ryder and Henry from guys with virtually nothing going for them into at least lower-mid card guys. Meanwhile they’ve given air-time to the likes of The Hart Dynasty and Barretta and Croft.  On a side note, I found it really funny that they’re supposed to be ‘childhood friends’ when Croft’s 6 years older than Barretta.  Anyway, unless they’re planning on turning RAW into a 3-hour show every week, then they’ve simply cut out a lot of air time for new superstars.  It also means that jobber squash matches are going to be moved to RAW and Smackdown, although it’s possible that they’ll use the likes of Santino, Yang and Slam Master J (until the last two are released).

Another problem with it is that they’ve given away another title, meaning that now there are only 5 sets of titles between the brands to fight for, and only one of those is cross-brand (tag team titles).  So if you’re not in the race for the top two titles, which accounts for the majority of both rosters, and don’t have a feud going, then you simply don’t have any reason for wrestling.  It must be tough to motivate the superstars to be on top form when they know that they’re not wrestling towards anything.  My solution:  Cruiserweight and European titles should be reinstated.  Imagine this scenario, post-draft assuming only the lower-card are traded (when they’re not in tag divisions)

RAW

WWE Title – Orton, Cena, Triple H, Batista, Big Show, DiBiase

US Title – Miz, Kingston, Christian, MVP, Henry, Rhodes, Sheamus

European Title – Ryder, Masters, Carlito, Swagger, Finlay, Regal, Knox, Hardy, Santino

Smackdown

Heavyweight Title – Edge, Jericho, Mysterio, Undertaker, Morrison

Intercontinental Title – McIntyre, Ziggler, Kane, Jackson, Benjamin, Punk, Gallows

Cruiserweight Title – Bourne, JTG, Kidd, Yang, Primo, Chavo, Baretta, Croft, Tatsu

And you could have some tag specialists like Goldust, Shad and DH Smith floating around, with a couple of the NXT guys waiting in the wings.

Of the current crop of NXT guys, the only ones I can realistically see making it so far are Daniel Bryan and Justin Gabriel, and both need to step up their game.  David Otunga, Michael Tarver and Wade Barrett both have a chance, but are yet to really impress me.  Heath Slater, Skip Sheffield and Darren Young wouldn’t be missed at all if they were out of the WWE tomorrow.

The concept of NXT is an interesting one, being basically the public version of Tough Enough, with slightly more established wrestlers, but is starting with 8 guys who all need to try to convince us of their talent and gimmick really the best way to go about it?  It might be more interesting that ECW was towards the end, but how long will that last?  Another important question to ask is ‘Where will the ratings come from?’ because it’s tough to see who out of the rookies would be able to draw a crowd comparable to that of an Extreme Rules match between Christian and Tommy Dreamer, or who could put on a match at a PPV the calibre of Christian vs. Shelton Benjamin in a ladder match.  These guys have to start proving they’re good enough very quickly to make NXT a success.

Comments

1. Comment #1

   I think that NXT was a good idea, but why did they have to get rid of ECW.

   Posted by Tyler Tolbert on Monday, March 08, 2010

2. Comment #2

   emm just a few things emm
   cruiserwight title shouldnt come back cuz its 2 under-rated mayb mak somethin lik the x-divsion title mainly cruiserwights but some heavyweights to would b gd
   also i think hardy nd swagger should b u.s title at least
   christian nd shamus WWE title
   punk hello world title man nd mayb mcintyre world title in a while
   but apart from tht i agree with u on everythin else nd gd calls with the rookies i agree with u 100% there
   

   Posted by Jaydizzle on Monday, March 08, 2010

3. Comment #3

   good article...
   i just dont think that morrison or dibiase are ready for the top titles now... maybe they could get a feud with a high rated superstar... and then they could be ready, but now i think that they dont have the popularity needed to go for WWE or WH titles...

   Posted by Caio "Lo Mestre" on Monday, March 08, 2010

4. Comment #4

   What is it with WWE and opening shows with whiny wuss alt rock songs?

   Posted by OctoberRaven on Tuesday, March 09, 2010

5. Comment #5

   just wanted to say that Bryan Danielson's springboard maneuver was a planned botch be cause they wanted him to sell the rib injury.

   Posted by The Messiah on Tuesday, March 09, 2010

6. Comment #6

   NXT is a good concept. BUT they could've brought in some more high-flyers (dont tell me with WWE's ability they cant find any) as rookies.
   
   For the past 5-6 years WWE had been so obsessed with 'powerguys' who can hit hard. This aint ENTERTAINING anymore.
   On a side note, TNA now being run by Hogan and Bischoff, neglected the X division, and they too started to suck. They prefer big guys like nasty boyz and Abyss.

   Posted by 1221 on Tuesday, March 09, 2010

7. Comment #7

   1221, that's not entirely true. The X-Division used to define TNA, but with big names coming in who were not high-flyers, they had to change their "gameplan". In 2004, they had Sabu, Amazing Red (yes, he was there before), A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, Shark Boy (where the hell did he go???), Eric Young, CM Punk (for those of you who don't know, he was in TNA before the WWE), Jeff Hardy, Kid Kash, Konnan, Homicide, and countless others. Now, that many high-flyers are set to return (RVD, Sabu, Hardy, Moore, and possibly Charlie Haas),their gameplan will change again.

   Posted by Johnny Insano on Tuesday, March 09, 2010

8. Comment #8

   wow u spent alot of time on this good good job man

   Posted by daadsasddas on Tuesday, March 09, 2010

9. Comment #9

   I agree with you on almost everything.
   But I think you got some places wrong.DiBiase and Sheamus must trade places,I mean .. a big iris-man,delivering great kick and good lookin' crucifix powerbomb ... now thaths a WWE championship material.DiBiase maybe after some time.
   WWE should rly bring back some of the old titles.
   For NXT ... I think we needed more rockies.From theese I like Barrett and Gabriel but ... I needed more.

   Posted by KaelMacSeoras on Thursday, March 11, 2010

10. Comment #10

    I think the guy I think is going to do it is Justin Gabriel because beside bourne,mysterio are the only ones that acutally shows high flyer skills and if he is in WWE his would be a major high fyer in WWE

    Posted by ON on Sunday, March 14, 2010

11. Comment #11

    There should definitely be a Jr. Heavyweight title added cause I'm tired of seeing good smaller guys like Primo and Bourne be subjected to squash matches on Superstars or Raw.

    Posted by A Reader on Tuesday, March 23, 2010

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