I was going to actual start with the Raw review because the shown had some promised, but it so fizzled in the end I think it's got to take a back seat to the NJPW news.
So, the story broke yesterday that Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Doc Gallows gave their notices to NJPW after the Dome Show. Let's take the story and just assume it's true and that they are all headed to WWE.
First many people might think this is bad news for NJPW. I would argue not really. Nakamura is a blow. You can imagine that he was probably headed towards an angle with Okada for the belt, but they have had matches as recent as the G1 Climax in 2015. So it's not like they haven't done that match. Also, do they really want to split the crowd after Okada was established as the ace? NJPW wouldn't have much to gain by forcing fans to pick sides, but again they would get a great match, so you deny the value in that. Nakamura losing to Okada at the Dome Show would really diminish him. Him leaving is as much him passing the torch to Okada as Tannahashi losing that match yesterday to Okada.
So, while Nakamura is a blow there wasn't really much left for him to do. AJ Styles is not that big of a loss. He's been there champ twice and had matches with the big three. He's not Japanese and that does matter. It's almost like he's done his thing there and it's time to move on. I don't think he's a loss to the overall popularity of the company and he gave them a solid run. What more can he give them and what more can they ask?
Gallows and Anderson leaving means the end of the Bullet Club. The angle has be going on for about 4 years now, so it's time. People were done with the NWO after just a year. They peaked this past year when they basically held all the belts. The major heat of the angle is gone. So again losing that angle if they choose too is not that big of a deal.
Gallows and Anderson had a two year run on top with the Tag Titles. What more can they do? It's time for a change. Do you really want to see those two pushed down the card? You can make the case that Anderson could have become a viable challenger to Okada, but I just don't think he has the juice to overcome him. So that's just going to end up going nowhere. This again is not a big loss to NJPW as they got all they could out of them.
Also, if you weren't paying attention this years WK10 was about moving on. That's what is going to keep NJPW as a top brand. Naito is probably going to be fully established as a monster heel this year. Okada is the new Ace. Tannahashi is going to be pushed down the card. There are new tag champs. They still have Ibushi to turn to down the road as well. The feeling of WK10 was that of freshness. All the above guys have been featured around the top so they have to naturally move out of the way to allow the new crop to come up.
So overall I think it wasn't the best news to NJPW, but far from anything that will really diminish the product. They will be fine.
So what does it all mean for WWE. There's a lot you could say about this, but I want to keep this to the two likely possibilities. It probably makes the most sense to send Nakamura to the main roster. He's not a guy that needs time in NXT. I don't care what the WWE program is. He's a top of top guys. That being said I have zero confidence WWE could use him correctly.
I think Nakamura would be given the RVD treatment of everyone seeing the potential, but WWE fumbling how to truly cash in. If Bryan came back obviously they could make a dream match with those two and appeal to the hardcore fanbase. Also he has a history with Brock Lesnar. Both options would really help WM32. I just doubt they bring Bryan back, but I could see the Lesnar match happening
Yet we all have to remember as long as the endless Roman Reigns push is going on the main roster is not a safe place. The WWE will work to diminish any person that can get more over than Reigns. They will quickly hit Nakamura with bad angles, and 50/50 booking. He will be cooled off just like everyone else in the company has been.
So, sure Nakamura would be great in NXT. He could have good matches with anyone and the hardcore fans would love it, but man would that be under utilizing his talent in a big way. I think it's probably what would happen, but can HHH really book a guy like that on a show that is on a smaller scale? This is one thing they could do with NXT if he were to go, but more on that in a second.
AJ Styles should also probably go to the main roster. It's almost the same scenario as Nakamura. He probably would get the same RVD treatment and the Roman Reigns endless push could get him as well. So I don't think it would end well, but again why would you not put this guy on the main roster. I don't care what HHH says about main roster spots. Nakamura and AJ are guys that can have angles without the title that will keep people's interest. The main roster is filled with guys that WWE has booked to not succeed. There are plenty of spots, but the overarching don't let anyone get more over than Roman Reigns problem isn't going away anytime soon.
So, you probably are safer putting AJ in NXT. Again that's not a bad thing because AJ has a built in story with Finn Balor that could make for some hot shows and great matches. So where Nakamura would be just inserted in as a new guy AJ would have a built in story that could draw. That's not a bad thing.
Gallows and Anderson should probably go to NXT first to build up there reputation with the WWE crowd. I think a hot run that could also be focused on Balor ditching them is in order. Balor was the previous leader of the Bullet Club when he left for NXT. I don't think they will be presented as the Bullet Club. I'm sure NJPW owns part of that gimmick and that's not really a PG name or presentation. I think they come in with a fresh name. That scares me though.
I can't see WWE changing Gallows or AJ's name, but if they try to change Nakamura??? He's a much bigger star than Kenta so hopefully the resist. Anderson can't be the Machine Gun anymore I'm sure, but hopefully they stay with Karl Anderson.
I think an important note is that just like Finn Balor these guys are no spring chickens. They are all over the age of 30 with AJ and Nakamura being closer to 40. Can you really put these guys in NXT to waste away? There is one way that you can.
If WWE truly pulls the trigger in 2016 and says hey, we are getting heat like hell from the fans about the campiness of our main roster product. NXT is getting a lot of love from the hardcore fans. We are selling out NXT shows like wild fire. Why don't we give this NXT a shot. Let's make it into a product that is geared towards the hardcore fan on a bigger scale than what it has been. Let's expand the weekly content by an hour or maybe with another show and let's start touring more aggressively with the bigger names and leave the developmental guys in Orlando more. Let's have all the PPV's be at big arena's and see if we can sell them out.
I would suggest what WWE should do is realize that the Network can only grow if WWE has different universes and they could go all in with NXT as a way to push people to the Network and get some hate off of the main roster product. Instead of looking at NXT as the place to grow guys make it into it's own thing where they actually have a chance to become a real touring brand that can draw money and make the Network more successful.
I think that's what HHH would like to do, but it's hard to look past the Wrestlemania brand as not being what WWE is all about. Also, just like ECW the bigger it gets the more involved Vince will want to be. I can also see Raw slipping even more and that doesn't help WWE. So it's not an ideal idea for them, but one I think Hardcore fans would embrace. If you aren't going to give us what we want on Monday's just give us our own brand and we will shut up.
The WWE has to do something. If they keep NXT small and add these guys them the move they are making here won't be as big a deal as it should be. Right now there real issue is direction and creative. No amount of talent is going to be able overcome the 50/50 booking that they are using to protect Roman Reigns. Until that changes they could hire any number of stars and it won't matter.
Raw Review
I thought the opening promo from Roman was not that bad, but it just shows that he's never going to be able to help himself that much with the mic. Unless he starts wrestling like a beast and not just punching his way through everyone I fail to see how he's going to become a monster star that they think he could be.
Like I said to open this piece I was feeling that this was going to be an interesting night on Raw and maybe it would outshine the NJPW exits, but then after the promo I realized it was going to be 2.5 hours of waiting for anything interesting to happen.
There were a few mid card dealings that were worth talking about. Ambrose got to really stretch his wings by smashing Owens. That only further made me believe that he's a big star, but I think the WWE plans to clip his wings on Smackdown and give Owen's back the IC title. That is the right move after all to protect Roman's push.
They did a good job getting heat on Charlotte over Becky. That was well played, but they booked the match between these two for Smackdown. Ugh, why not wait for the Rumble? Why not give them promo time to develop this a little and build it up? There's some good directions they could go here.
Jericho came back and I was cool with it beyond the Rooty tooty...ugh...who cares. It was almost like they wanted to hold down Jericho from getting to hot. He's a good addition to the Rumble though.
Ziggler lost to Heath Slater. It's good to see they are trying with the new Social Outcast group, but this gimmick is doomed to fail. The problem is all presentation as it is with every thing they have done lately. I hope Dolph is getting paid a lot of money to waste away in WWE like he is.
So on to the main event. Vince looked trim and it was quite funny to come back from commercial with Vince flexing his pecs at the camera. If you think about how much he controls regarding the wrestling business it was really funny to see him standing there doing that. For me it will be the most memorable moment of this match.
What really caught my attention was when Roman came out. The crowd basically did nothing beyond stand up. Few people had there arms in the air and there wasn't any kind of pop. This guy is your Champion headed to the ring for a main event title match with Vince McMahon as the ref and he gets no pop??? How could Vince not sense that maybe this whole thing is just not going to work as he was standing in the ring. Just to confirm they weren't wild for Roman, when Lillian introduced him moments later he got very little reaction as well.
The match was a forgettable affair and was nothing special. Vince slow counted Roman a few times, but it all seemed silly. As they worked down to the end execution became a huge problem. Roman had had enough of Vince working against him so he Superman punched him and then speared Sheamus. He covered Sheamus, but there was obviously no one to count. Who did Roman think would count after just two seconds earlier he had knocked Vince out?
Roman dispatched Sheamus to the outside and tossed him over the announce table. He then headed back in the ring to deal with Vince. This made little sense, but I think WWE thought they would get a huge pop for Roman attacking Vince, but the fans didn't go all that crazy. I think largely because Roman is not that over and what was happening seemed so awkward and forced.
Stephanie came out to save her Dad. As she stood on the ropes yelling at Roman, Vince got tossed on the ropes and caused Stephanie to fall in the ring. The crowd did pop for this thinking that something was going to happen to Stephanie, but she quickly got out of the ring. Again this was poorly executed. Roman then turned his attention back to Vince, but Sheamus came out of nowhere and hit Roman with two Brogue kicks.
It seemed impossible that Roman could kick out if Vince just counted, but Vince awkwardly signaled for another ref from the back. Why? He could signal for the ref, but not give a count? The execution was so poor here. Finally Scott Armstrong who we haven't seen in months, appeared. He has famously been a heel ref for the Authority in the past. Roman kicked out of the count. Sheamus made Armstrong pick up Roman and hold him in place for another Brogue kick! HUH? That made no sense.
Roman ducked and Armstrong ate the kick leading to Roman hitting the spear and another ref coming down to count Sheamus out. Vince then punched out that ref and grabbed a mic. He announced that Roman would now have to defend his title in the Royal Rumble match against 29 other men. So basically the winner of the Rumble gets the WWE title.
They could have easily held the title up on the basis of Roman striking an official twice, but I think the WWE wants to avoid having no Champion after having to do that in 2014 and 2015. So for that I don't blame them, but this is basically the same thing as the 1992 Rumble. I like that twist because it makes the Rumble different this year, but it didn't save the awkwardness and poor execution of the end of this show. If WWE hasn't decided what to do with Roman this show should have told them. There was not crowd reaction for him beating up a 70 year old and really why would there be!
Roman is not the guy, but I realize it will be a while before WWE truly accepts they botched this whole thing and did damage to the product in doing so. I don't know if the Rumble is soon enough for them to start righting the wrongs, but it gives them an easy out.
Roman could simply be cost the Rumble match by HHH setting up Roman and HHH at WM32. That's a great spot for Roman and I think he would win praise for beating HHH. I don't think WWE can have a title match between those two. Roman isn't hot enough and HHH would be seen as a likely winner at all. So I think that match has to be a grudge match to make it compelling.
The WWE has the out, but will they take. Raw was not a bad watch and with the intrigue raised and Lesnar being back next week has some appeal to it. If Raw was two hours tonight the show would have been really good. They could have opened with the Steph Roman Promo, done the Neville Owens match, then went to the Becky Charlotte match, put in those backstage Vince promo's, executed the Jericho return, had the New Day match and then went into the main event. If you think about it that's not a bad show, but gap in the middle is too great.
If you follow people tweeting about the show. They all start out strong sending out a lot of good thoughts, but they fade as the show drags on. Just like beating the Roman Reigns endless push dead horse the 3 hour Raw issue is kind of the same thing.
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