wrestling / Columns
411 Fact or Fiction Wrestling: Is Shayna Baszler Main Roster Ready?
Welcome back to 411 Fact or Fiction, Wrestling Edition! Stuff happened, people loved/hated it and let everyone else know. I pick through the interesting/not so interesting tidbits and then make 411 staff members discuss them for your pleasure. Battling this week are 411’s Kevin Pantoja & Len Archibald.
1. The Undisputed Era are the best tag team in wrestling.
Kevin Pantoja: FACT – This one is pretty easy. No tag team is even sniffing them in terms of consistent quality matches. From the AOP stuff at the start of the year to the incredible series with Mustache Mountain, they’re on another level. And honestly, other than Mustache Mountain, who else is even in competition. The Young Bucks had two or three really good to great matches this year but lack consistency. The Golden Lovers don’t team enough. EVIL and SANADA only had a few matches together. The Grizzled Young Vets are good, not great. The Revival, Bar, Usos, and New Day don’t have a big catalog. It’s Undisputed by a wide margin.
Len Archibald: FICTION – I can’t make a case for The UE as the best tag tandem in wrestling. They are excellent, having great matches – I can never get enough of Kyle O’Reilly’s Hollywood Hogan belt-guitar shredding cosplay along with Roderick Strong’s 2k18 Tully Blanchard workhorse cosplay, but in all of wrestling? Not with The Young Bucks around. Not with The Usos or even The Bar. To be honest, I think this is because of the NXT format – because of their weekly hour-long block, the Undisputed Era are not overexposed so we don’t see them enough (or “enough” in regards to the rushed pacing of wrestling) to provide enough competition and different styles for the UE to clash against. Give the UE another year, run through War Machine, the Street Profits, The Mighty, and eventually The Usos and The Bar and I am pretty sure my feelings will change. It is too early I believe to make such a statement at this point.
2. You’re not surprised that Matt Riddle’s WWE deal came after NJPW offered him a deal.
Kevin Pantoja: FACT – I don’t really think they go hand in hand. I can’t imagine that WWE was worried about Riddle in NJPW. It just doesn’t move the needle enough to scare them or anything. Riddle got signed because he’s a hell of a prospect and HHH has quite the eye for talent. The fact that the move came after NJPW offered him a deal was probably just a coincidence.
Len Archibald: FACT – New Japan is taking great pains to expand to a global company, and as such, they need as much star power as possible to be viewed as a viable alternative to WWE. Matt Riddle is the hottest independent prospect, with a demeanor that is very anti-WWE. He has a wrestling style that would very much be at home in New Japan. There are match ups that are promising in NJPW against Kenny Omega, Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Ibushi, Okada, etc. Why wouldn’t they make a play for him? It’s the smart move. Now with that, the wrestling business is a business and it should be no surprise that WWE would swoop in and make a counter (see: more lucrative) offer. WWE does not want to see Riddle in the hands of another promotion to watch him grow into another global star for a brand that isn’t their own. They made that mistake with The Bucks and Omega. They saw what AJ Styles could do when left to his own devices in New Japan. I would not be surprised that the NXT agents are kicking themselves not holding onto Juice Robinson and allowed him greater opportunities to shine. WWE wants Riddle to be perceived as their prospect and their talent alone – offering more money or leverage to Riddle after a New Japan attempt – again, only makes sense.
3. Considering the Aleister Black injury, NXT made the best of a bad situation with Gargano vs. Ciampa III.
Kevin Pantoja: FACT – It feels like they didn’t want to do Gargano/Ciampa III, at least not yet. However, it was an easy situation to fix once Aleister Black went down. Gargano/Ciampa is a loaded storyline, one of the best in history already, and their matches are stellar. I literally had their three matches rated as ****3/4, *****, and ****1/2. You can’t go wrong with that. Giving them another main event was the right move and it led to another banger that could’ve closed the door on the feud, while also leaving it open just enough to revisit it.
Len Archibald: FACT – What else could they do? Injuries happen. The WrestleMania 23 main event was supposed to be a WM 22 rematch between John Cena and Triple H, but Triple H’s injury dramatically altered that. It was planned that John Cena’s championship run in 2006-2007 was supposed to be historic with him going in as champ into WrestleMania 24 into 2008, but a bicep injury put a kink in those plans. While Aleister Black’s injury was unfortunate and untimely, NXT could do what they only could – move forward. Gargano/Ciampa III, while the weakest of their bouts together, was still a banger and simply added another layer to their already heated feud. Ciampa winning keeps the rivalry open, and Gargano’s injury (“injury” if it is storyline) is a great way to keep them apart for the foreseeable future, until Gargano returns to work his way back up to lock horns with his arch nemesis. Black…honestly was overshadowed in the middle of all that. I also believe that Black’s injury may be a blessing in disguise and will parallel Drew McIntyre’s time in NXT, where Black’s days as an NXT mainstay is over and he will be on the main roster in 2019.
SWITCH!
4. Shayna Baszler is main roster ready.
Len Archibald: FACT – BOW DOWN TO THE QUEEN OF SPADES YOU FILTHY DOGS. Shayna Baszler gets it. The moment she made her debut that last year’s Mae Young Classic, I was enthralled. She has a presence that IMO, rivals and maybe in some ways, surpasses Ronda Rousey. I think it’s Rousey’s happy-go-lucky shtick, but contrasted with Baszler’s take no shit, MURDERDEATHKILL attitude and WWE has another MMA-turned-wrestler star on their hands. She is one of the best heels on the entire WWE roster, talking shit with the best of them and has an intensity in the ring that makes some of the other women look stupendously inferior. Of course, this is all subjective to me, but I want Baszler against Banks, Bayley, Charlotte, Becky, Askua, Moon and Rousey. I want to see her OBLITERATE Carmella and Bliss. I want to see her break jobbers in half on her way to a righteous showdown with one of the other female stars. I feel she is more ready than Alexa Bliss was at the time she was called up. Have her finish her feud with Kairi Sane and let Baszler make her main roster debut at Evolution. DO IT! BOW DOWN, BITCHES. Yeah, I’m a Baszler fanboi and proud of it.
Kevin Pantoja: FACT – With Asuka doing a lot of nothing since tapping to LADY BIG DOG at Mania, Becky Lynch being underutilized, Toni Storm not having a 2018 as incredible as 2017, and Ronda Rousey having just a handful of matches under her belt, the women’s wrestler of the year award goes to Shayna Baszler so far. She’s absolutely main roster ready. When the year started, I didn’t see the big deal with her. She turned it around big time. She just gets her character and her ring work matches it. Shayna is basically everything Brock Lesnar should be. Honestly, I love how she and Ronda have this MMA background, yet are booked as kind of opposites. They’d make great opponents.
5. EC3 will be called up to the main roster by the end of 2018.
Len Archibald: FICTION – EC3 is grossly miscast and, in some ways, misplaced in NXT. He already has a big enough personality that is main roster ready and trying to go the tweener route with him in NXT just isn’t working for me. With that said, the main roster is bloated (obvious statement is obvious) and would be lost in the shuffle debuting by the end of the year. I will not be surprised to see him pop up as a Royal Rumble entry to gauge crowd reaction, with perhaps a main roster debut immediately after WrestleMania. The roster just does not have enough room or a suitable place for him at this time. (Of course, I am hoping that WWE is trying to work a deal to bring Dixie Carter in as his manager on the main roster. I am a sick person.)
Kevin Pantoja: FACT – This is a tough one. I could see him sticking around for a while because he only just got to NXT a few months ago. On the other hand, he’s been through developmental before and has a main roster ready look. Plus, he’s worked TV a bunch, so he knows how to do that stuff. Despite that, the main reason I see him getting called up is simply because there’s not a ton for him to do in NXT. I can’t see him winning the NXT Title, he’s not in a tag team, and the North American Title seems kind of wrapped up for now. Call him up.
6. Ricochet winning the North American title was the right call.
Len Archibald: FACT – Adam Cole is bigger than the NA Title. I said it. I am not saying he wasn’t a good champion or didn’t carry the title well, but the NA Title is already being established as the “workhorse” title. Cole has bigger fish to fry and the NXT Title is the ultimate goal. Ricochet winning the NA Title works because he can showcase it weekly/bi-weekly as a fighting champion and build up the credibility of the title through great matches and a bevy of different challengers. I can see Ricochet holding the title for a while, just to solidify a foundation of lineage before dropping it in a big match (Velveteen Dream? Matt Riddle?) Barring any unfortunate injury, I can see Ricochet having a very successful and entertaining run with the title to give him time to truly acclimate himself to the WWE style, work on his character and promo skills and become a complete, well-rounded performer. Ricochet is a SUPERSTAR and if WWE doesn’t know what they have on their hands with him to cultivate him properly, he could go down as one of the worst examples of “what ifs” in WWE in a long time.
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THAT Jackie Gayda Match. Thanks for watching!
Kevin Pantoja: FACT – I didn’t care much for Adam Cole before coming to NXT. I was clearly unhappy with him closing out TakeOver Brooklyn last year. However, he won me over big time and is a weekly highlight of NXT. That being said, making the move to put the title on Ricochet was the right move. Ricochet has come in hot and though he can be generic, has had some strong performances since day one. Let’s see what he does as champion. Cole will remain way over and has his stable to help him do some interesting stuff until it’s call up time.
