I've been away from the column for longer than I should so lots to share today. NXT kicks off the Kevin Owens era the right way and Lucha Underground continues to blow the doors off. I've also got some thoughts on Reigns/Bryan, Samoa Joe, and more.
Lucha Underground delivered another stellar show last night, but for the first time I have a minor criticism. The matches on a whole were very short and I think we only got bell to bell about 15 minutes of in ring action out of a roughly 45 minute show. I was ok with it for two reasons. Each match had a reason for it's length as I will get too and the backstage vignettes that ate up the show were off the charts good.
Our opening match between and Mil and Chavo has some heat, but it's hard to get to excited considering they are both heels. The finish saw Catrina distract Mil while Chavo used a chair on him to no avail. Some might be upset that Chavo got DQ'd and it was a dusty finish, but really it doesn't matter. They were just setting up the Fenix stuff. The Mil Catrina interaction before Fenix made the save was really well done. I don't trust that Catrina is actually leaving Mil and I think that's the long term play, but do they really need to trap Fenix? He doesn't hold the title or anything they can take from him. They could just beat him in a match.
Not knowing the answer to that question keeps me intrigued by this angle. That's where I have to give Lucha so much credit. Each week they are pushing something new that will make you watch next week.
Dario puts over the crew and has them booked against Pimpy, the little guy, and Sexy Star. Dario is beyond good. Any Dario time is time well spent on this show. It's pretty obvious Big Ryck will be returning during that match.
Ivelesse takes on Angelico. Ivelesse has great confidence on the mic and her baddest bitch in the building line is pretty cool. Soon they will have to aim her against Sexy Star in a feud that matters because that would probably be pretty good. Angelico is a total star. I thought he was kind of just some guy when he debuted, but the guy looks like a taller Dean Ambrose that can actually do even more. He also worked the mic post match with great confidence and didn't take the loss to heart at all.
I want to point out how that is excellent booking. You put a female over a male, but you let the male get the last laugh and not just act dejected by losing. I hope the WWE is taking notes.
The Black Lotus eventually finds that caged up guy and then gets a bag put over her head. This played out over a few segments. When it was over I was like man I want to know who this guy is. I want to see where this goes. I'm thinking they are going to use the Great Khali in this role because I can't think of a more imposing huge guy, but hopefully they surprise me. Dario's key to that cage the guy is in is more over than the Authority right now.
Dario and Cage have an interaction where Cage gets a non-title match with Puma next week. That's probably the second best match Lucha can book and we are getting it for the second time. Again they are giving you a simple reason to watch next week and it's not happening in the last five minutes of the show. Chavo also came to Dario's office, and quit the company. I think this is not the end of Chavo, but a way to give him a new direction.
Texano takes on Superfly. Before the match gets underway they show an interview with Texano and give you some back story on him and his feud with Alberto. Well done here as you feel more connected with this guy and why he hates Alberto. This guy is the classic looking wrestling villain. He reminds me of Stan Hansen. The difference is he wrestles a modern style and does it very well. The Alberto attack post match is no surprise and they sent the crew out there to break them up before Alberto go too much the best of him. Very well done. Texano is built up very well here. Alberto radiates charisma that WWE never tapped into.
Just a quick aside. It's pretty clear to me that WWE looked at Del Rio and thought heel rich Mexican guy. They made very little effort to be creative with him. I thought Del Rio pulled the gimmick off well, but it also boxed him in. Just more poor booking by WWE.
Our main event is the six man tag. The crew dispatch Pimpy and the little guy quickly and are set to pound out Sexy Star. She fights them off for a time, which was good. At a point I forgot she was a female it was so convincing. Eventually the numbers game starts to catch up to her, but Big Ryck enters the Temple, which allows Sexy to get the well placed (for once) distraction roll up for the upset win. The Crew scurry away.
Very solid show. I was entertained the whole time. Lucha continues to prove that you don't have to have a show that features the champion every week or pushes that story line to open and close the show. Cage was on for under 2 minutes to setup his match with Puma. That was in the middle of the show. This focus on other things raises the quality of everything that is happening on the show. Remember these guys have five times less air time than WWE does right now.
Lucha is not putting all their eggs in one basket. Puma has not been on the show in three weeks. He's like the Brock Lesnar of Lucha...lol. That being said it keeps him fresh just like it keeps everyone else fresh on this roster.
What they are doing is really investing you in multiple angles. It's not just about the title or Dario. It's about an interesting story that sets up a match that delivers a pay off. This show is money right now and I'm looking for to next week.
NXT returned to the airwaves for the first time since the big title change. I had some spoilers on this show, so I knew what was coming, but not everything and thankfully I knew nothing about that main event. Again a minor criticism that could become a bigger issue for them if not addressed. Some of the promo's on the show were lacking big time.
A word on promo's. I think the proper way for a promo to be cut is around talking points. I don't mean minimal ones like tell the crowd how much you hate Seth Rollins. I think they need to be creative thoughts that give the talent a direction and a few lines they can create out of an idea. The Finn Balor promo was dreadful. Here's a guy capable of so much more, but he's so used to being a heel and hasn't been established as a face on the mic he really has nothing creative to say.
You can tell that Finn was not comfortable and so the promo didn't establish much. It's got to be more and it should be happening in the ring and not back stage when your talking to the new #1 contender. Allow him to get comfortable in front of the bright lights.
Rhyno debuted and then teased something between him and Balor. A lot of guys have been solo acts in NXT so far. Adding Rhyno to a Kevin Owens crew would not be a bad idea. That hasn't been the MO of NXT, but I don't think it's a bad direction at all.
An aside here. The rumor is Samoa Joe is possibly going to get a tryout in NXT. Why he would need to try out is beyond me. I think HHH has to know what he's getting at this point as the guy is on TV every week and decide whether he can do anything or not. Brian Kendrick also will be returning. I think what HHH is doing by bringing in these guys is building a foundation of guys that don't have to go main roster, but can help him fill the gaps.
NXT's problem is that they are trying to develop talent. They can't feed everyone jobbers, but they also can't make everyone a .500 wrestlers. The tag match last night demonstrated that. The Vaudevillians have a good gimmick, but they wanted to put Enzo and Cass over. That's fine, but the Villians take their third TV loss in a row. They have done nothing, but be very good, but when you beat them all the time they heat comes off of them.
By adding in guys that they don't have to necessarily worry about putting over, but who are also great workers HHH is filling in the gaps. He can make great matches with all three guys. Specifically Joe and Kendrick are capable of great in ring work. I'm not saying they should be glorified jobbers, but you can use them with less concern about the outcome. This helps protect guys like the Villains from having to put over Enzo. (BTW, I'm not saying that Kendrick and Joe would have put over Enzo last night just guys along those lines. Good in ring workers that are not going to move up in theory.)
I suggested a few years back that WWE should bring in middling talents that are great in ring workers off the indy scene and out of TNA. Guys that never have to cut promo's or be over, but can sell and put on compelling matches. That way almost no pushed talent ever has to lose on Raw or Smackdown in anything less than a main event. By doing this you preserve the top workers to only lose on PPV, so the match out comes are harder to figure out and the PPV's have more value. The TV shows still have great in ring quality.
This is how WWE used to function. Only PPV's and specials actually featured matches where top guys lost. The difference being though that they used jobbers to put guys over. Fans are passed squash jobber. That's why you have to bring in good mechanics. They sort of use R Truth in this roll. In my opinion you need a lot of them so that they aren't losing on TV every week and you can mix it up. There's a place for these guys in today's 5 hour a week WWE.
Some would say this strategy is flawed because of the predictable outcomes, but I counter that with even the way the show is booked now with top talents constantly battling it's pretty clear who's coming out on top unless they are going to get screwed in each match. If you give good match quality and let guys get their moves in and look good more often then you would have a better overall product.
So, I hope HHH is following this game plan for NXT. That way he can keep guys hotter, and he's building around guys that can help his up and coming talents. If he does bring Joe I say put him with Owens as well. Rhyno and Joe could be the two hired guns that roadblock Zayn from Owens and make the chase even better.
For all the bad promo's cut on the show CJ Parker did an excellent job of showing that he's developing well on the mic. Yet, he was squashed by the debuting Solomon Crowe. I get that Parker's gimmick is not that great, but he's a good worker and can work the mic. Find him a new gimmick and stop making him the squash guy.
Crowe is a live wire. I know he can work. I would have thought you could have allowed him to have a bit more mic time to establish his character, but he was impressive.
The Banks promo was one that I found lacking. It didn't establish anything and the match she had was scary main roster style short. They didn't establish the next feud for her, which seemed odd. Bayley and Lynch established they were going to take on each other, but again very bland promos.
Enzo and Cass got the win over the Villains and apparently Blake and Murphy went heel. As stated earlier I hated that the Villains had to lose, but I liked the direction of this fresh feud. Enzo and Cass could probably get that intro over in the main roster, but they couldn't get beat every other week and stay hot...sorry had to say it.
Our main event was a non-title match between Owens and Neville. It was pretty clear that Owens was going over, but this match was a display of a couple of things. One that Owens and Neville are masters of knowing how to work a match that keeps the crowd on the edge of their seat. Owens is absolutely a massive star and this match helped him get even more established. Both guys are probably better than 95% of the main roster right now.
This match had an indy feel to it. I'm not sure if that is good or bad, but it didn't feel like a match where they were going through the motions like you often see in a big Raw main event. They did new things and Owens was allowed to show heel fighting spirit by kicking out of some crazy spots.
Dare I say that I enjoyed that match as much as the Zayn one? I think it's time Neville moved up.and hope Owens doesn't stay too long as well...or maybe I hope they both stay.
I think WWE has to consider building NXT into a bigger thing. Stop talking like it's developmental and start acting like it's a brand. For now it is exclusive on WWE Network, which obviously doesn't allow everyone to see it (I realize it's on Hulu as well), but I think I would look to replace Smackdown with NXT eventually. How do you do this and not piss off the execs at Syfy?
Simple. Have the next Takeover special be a live two hour event on Syfy. Just say airing in the place of Smackdown is NXT for this week only. See how it goes. Maybe do it once a month. If the ratings start popping and reaction is good you convince Syfy that it will now be NXT Smackdown. If it doesn't work then you just stay the course with regular old Smackdown and keep NXT small and on the network.
If it did get over you have to do it right and keep running it the same way it has been. Many might claim that you are adding that extra hour and that might put too much strain on the product, but because it's regular TV the commercials would eat into the time. So you would probably only be adding 30 minutes. The commercials on WWE network are only taking away 10 minutes a week tops.
Also, it would allow some matches and segments to stretch a little. If it worked it would be a huge win win for WWE. You could would slice 2 hours of main roster TV time, which would probably make the 3 hour Raw's a lot easier to book. If you gave NXT 6 specials a year then every two months then you are giving people 6 more reasons to subscribe. Especially the new fans that would logically start watching with the show on regular TV.
Also, with NXT I would start booking small Arena's for the Takeover events. Similar to how ECW did PPV back in the day. 3 or 4 thousand max. I probably would keep the regular show to Full Sail, but those bigger events should get a little big crowd. A big secret to NXT is the Full Sail smart crowd. If they continue to put people over then viewership would better accept characters. Adam Rose would have been over in Raw if NXT was a show more people could watch. Instead fans were confused by the gimmick that never got fully explained or allowed to breathe. WWE basically said hey you should like this because of the weak vignettes we showed you and it bombed.
I think NXT could become that second brand that WWE tried to develop with Smackdown years back. It would probably work better this time because you are presenting a different product altogether that is being directed by different people, but you have that WWE production quality. A big reason for the Heyman success with Smackdown was that he developed a different product from Raw.
I want to close this column with my thoughts on Reigns/Bryan. I may not have a chance to share my thoughts before the PPV, so I want to get some stuff out there. I was looking forward to this match for weeks. I didn't buy into the belief that many experts had that Reigns was going over. I think WWE wanted to feel out that decision over the past few weeks.
They have basically pushed both guys more heel than face. I think they are trying to gauge how the fans feel about that. Also, it's not what you would expect, which is typical WWE. Do something that is different from what they normally do. That doesn't often go well.
I think it's a big waste. I think I would have played this to be a face face situation all the way until that last Raw where they could have had the same blow up. I wouldn't have done things that hurt Bryan or Reigns in the eyes of some fans. If they would have stayed face face with this and had these guys get along until they had a mishap in the ring to set them off then fans might have better accepted a Reigns clean win and gotten off his case.
I think WWE will put Reigns over Bryan or setup a triple threat match at Mania. I think that both are huge mistakes. I think that the Bryan fans will eat Reigns up for the entire run up to WM31 and during the match itself, which is problematic. I also don't have any faith Reigns and Brock can pull off an entertaining match especially if it leaks that Brock is leaving. You will have WM20 all over again with Brock.
If they go triple threat it feels like a vain attempt to appease fans. It saves the match quality, but it's not the epic match we all want. That would also require some kind of a dusty finish at Fastlane, which won't endear them to anyone. I say go clean or go home. They just had Brock in a triple threat and it renders the last few weeks as just a big swerve. I would have rather they made it a triple threat match already and just said the last one was so good let's put out another.
You could go this direction. Brock is pissed it's another triple threat, so he tells HHH that he's leaving the company post WM31 and he's taking the belt with him. That gets some of the hate off Brock for leaving if he is. That's how they could have used that appearance they wasted a few weeks back. The Fastlane main event could still be Bryan and Reigns in a grudge match. For those who say who cares about that I say the freaking PPV is free this month so WWE isn't obligated to go all out. They simply need to hype WM31 main event with it.
They missed their chance and now they have major pressure on themselves for this weekend.
Here's what I would do at Fastlane, but knowing WWE it likely won't happen. I would have Bryan go over clean against Reigns at Fastlane. Post match Bryan goes for the code of honor handshake. Reigns attacks him. He rips off the flack jacket, which he needs to stop wearing, and goes to town on Bryan. Reigns is established as a super heel. Bryan is out injured and misses the Raw the next night.
Reigns goes heel the next night and Ambrose tries to reason with him. He gets attacked by Reigns as well. In the coming weeks Rollins tries to befriend Reigns again, but finds that Reigns wants no part of his friendship, but does want his briefcase. He accuses Rollins of being a coward and never cashing in because he was afraid of Lesnar. He gets him to put the case on the line at WM31. Rollins ego allows him to agree. Later Ambrose returns and gets involved in the match as well. All the Shield marks get a logical reason why the Shield will meet at WM31 in a triple threat and Reigns wins.
Bryan returns to Raw and highlights that he was really banged up by the Reigns attack. He is not cleared to wrestle yet. Lesnar and Heyman pounce and talk up Bryan's frailty. That's played up for weeks instead of the typical you attack me I attack you BS they love to do. Bryan promises he will be at WM31 whether he's 100% of not. The stuff writes itself, but Bryan becomes an even bigger underdog.
Bryan goes over at WM31 in the best match of his career. Think Angle Lesnar WM19 for those who don't think it could happen. Reigns comes out post match, but due to an injury he suffered earlier in the night he will not cash in. The show ends with a stare down between the new champ and Reigns. This is ok because the previous year Bryan really got that celebration moment. Cole says I think we are looking at the future of WWE.
I'll save where I go from there for another time, but I think that's the biggest money WWE can draw. That helps Reigns go on this path to becoming a mega star and gives Bryan his run with the title that the WWE could really squeeze for everything it's worth while they can. Hey it's what most fans want. I fear that they damaged Bryan with the heel tactics and he's going to have lost some of the crowd in Tulsa because of it thought. They need the Reigns flip to endear Bryan again and slingshot him to the top baby again.
Until next time....
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