Five-Star Conversation 03.02.10: WWE NXT – Next Generation or Next Channel, Please?

Friends, you know this fellow as The Old Spice guy, but I know him Isaiah, a bartender at my hang-out of choice, The Abbey. Isaiah won’t be there long, though, as this ad is completely getting him noticed, least of which by this guy named Tom Hanks. Congratulations, Isaiah!!!

WWE: NXT

The speculation has ended, the loose ends fleshed out and WWE:NXT appears to be a hit. Virtually anyone with a reason to care has sounded off and largely in favor of WWE’s newest venture, and I have to admit, I liked what I saw last Tuesday, for a number of reasons.

First of all, the biggest selling point of the overall concept, the piece of the puzzle that was missing when we first started discussing what WWE would do with the “lost hour” of programming on SyFy once ECW was mercifully killed off, the “Pros/Rookies” dynamic, is a winning one. Here’s the list:

Daniel Bryan – The Miz
Darren Young – CM Punk
David Otunga – R-Truth
Heath Slater – Christian
Justin Gabriel – Matt Hardy
Michael Tarver – Carlito
Skip Sheffield – William Regal
Wade Barrett – Chris Jericho

It is these pairings that really make the show, because having established talent involved with the “rookies” lends a lot to the audience to pique their interest. Really, for all of us “internet nerds” who are very well aware of Daniel Bryan’s well-established history on the independent scene, who among us didn’t laugh out loud when we saw that he was to paired with The Miz? The nature of that manipulation of this formula suggests to me that McMahonagement could possibly, finally be giving a nod to those of us on-line who exist outside of The WWE Universe. It was fairly obvious that the Miz/Bryan pairing was designed to outrage the marks-in-smarks-clothing on-line, and the fact that it was this duo who took the lead on the inaugural show, as well as being featured in the main event, speaks very well of WWE’s intentions towards Bryan, which makes me smile, because it implies they recognize exactly what a talent they have in him and plan not to squander this opportunity to do something meaningful with him.

Now I’m a much bigger fan of The Miz than I think the better part of The IWC. I’ve mentioned here several times how I was won over to the level of effort he was obviously investing in attempting to improve his in-ring ability while I was analyzing SmackDown! for The R’s long before he started tagging with John Morrison; as far as I’m concerned, he’s almost reached “male Trish Stratus” level in terms of where he started and where he worked to arrive. However, we all know his greatest asset is his mouthy attitude and that bravado will always eclipse his in-ring ability, but that’s why he’s a double champion and is pushed to be the star that he’s become in WWE, attitude.

All this to say, Bryan and The Miz are oil and water, the two were never meant to co-exist well, one being a mat technician, the other all about disrespect and bravado, who, incidentally, swaggers to the ring carrying no fewer than three belts to back up whatever claims he wants to throw around. McMahonagement knew exactly what it was doing in having put these two diametrically opposed performers together.

Another interesting point that came from last week’s debut installment was the heated discussion between Matt Striker and Michael Cole on pretty much the same topic, ie, the success of an established career in WWE and having honed one’s craft on the indie circuit, Cole taking the stance of the former argument, Striker, the latter. Interestingly, though not surprisingly, this relatively brief verbal altercation garnered a lot of attention from the on-line crowd, as I think, it was designed to do, as it appears WWE is looking to cater/pander (depending upon how you want to look at it) to The IWC, at least in the offset of NXT.

It should surprise no one to hear Cole crying like a flabbergasted second-grader in an intellectual tête-à-tête of “nuh-UH!”/”yuh-HUH!”, outraged that Striker should compare Bryan’s career thus far on the foreign/indie scene to having been established in WWE, as is World Champion Chris Jericho (against who Bryan was competing at the time of this exchange), as it makes perfect sense and is in complete consistency of character for Cole to be toeing the company line in such a manner. It was also completely consistent for Striker to play the role of manipulator in this case, as he plays a beautiful such heel color man, who will bust out with such instigative comments in the attempt to bait his SmackDown! partner into such fits of outrage; there’s just the fact that Todd Grisham is smarter than is Cole, who has become so used to lobbing idiotic, softball commentary with Old Man Lawler on Raw, once faced with someone with a mind and an opinion, he flies off the handle.

Of course, I’m projecting a lot of my own personal dislike upon Cole’s commentary in that paragraph, when, in truth, we don’t really have a solid concept of just how organic that exchange was or wasn’t. Now, it has been reported since by Joey Styles, based upon his experience with Cole, that Cole was expressing his genuine feelings on this subject, that all of the “extracurricular” on-line activity that doesn’t involve WWE.com (Twitter, Facebook, “dirt sheets”), but that’s just one person’s opinion (that, BTW, was expressed on WWE.com, so take that for what it’s worth).

Quite frankly, I’d love to believe this was all a staged exchange, because it displays 1) that WWE is really thinking about an entire concept for this show, 2) that WWE is willing to stick out its’ proverbial neck and really do more than give lip service to trying to something new, 3) that WWE is willing to extend that sense of newness beyond just the concept of the show and into all facets of making it something really revolutionary and 4) that Cole might just have a little more going on than it appears he does.

So what does it say that the WWE company voice in Cole is against the whole internet experience outside of time logged on WWE.com and the big heel character in Striker all but called Cole a short-sighted fool for being so blissfully and willfully techno-ignorant? Discuss.

Elsewhere on NXT, though, an aspect of the show I enjoyed was the brief sit-down promos with the rookies. Personally, I don’t think we needed something as high-concept as NXT to have allowed this to have occurred in the recent past with some of these other failed youngsters called up from developmental; I mean, just this sort of thing was what helped to add depth to Mankind and initiate his face-turn, which took him all the way to the championship. But for now, what we’re seeing are short and sweet glimpses into the rookies’ gimmicks, that appear to be amplified extensions of their own personalities, which is a great starting-off point, as far as I’m concerned, and, pretty much, should be the way to virtually always approach a new talent. Keep it simple and close to what the guy knows himself, turn up the volume and let him see where he can take it, just allow him some kind of personality!

David Otunga made the greatest impact on me of the other rookies with whom I was previously unfamiliar. This guy really seems to be a total package (provided he’s got more in his arsenal than a Spinebuster). He seems to have a real gift for gab, especially when talking about his favorite subject (himself!), has a great physique for wrestling and is duly impressed with the level of stardom-by-proxy he’s managed to achieve already, thanks to his romantic association with singer/actress Jennifer Hudson (a damn site of a step up than trolling for the affection of New York on VH1…!!!). His nickname of “The Kanye West of WWE” seems well-suited and was pretty much what I was thinking when I saw his sit-down promo last week, so he’s coming off pretty much exactly as intended, a definite step in the right direction. (Of course, the fact that Otunga is playing a character and West is just a fucking asshole is a difference I’m not going to touch, but we all know exists…at least I hope Otunga is playing a character, although it would certainly explain that ridiculous hair!)

Speaking of ridiculous hair, it seems Darren Young lost the bet with the boys and ended up wearing Orlando Jordan’s old wig, and done got his ass beat, by the aforementioned Otunga in short order. Not much to say about Young thus far, other than the fact that things don’t seem to be starting off too well for the youngster as he doesn’t appear to be receiving much love from his mentor, CM Punk, and the rest of The Straight-Edge Society, another oil-&-water pairing that might come to serve the rookie well as heat begins to boil over between them.

I really like Michael Tarver thus far, as well. He comes in with a unique gimmick, that being, that his father was the sparring partner of Mike Tyson and a boxer himself, with Tarver carrying on that aspect of the proverbial family business. However, that’s boxing and this is wrestling. His “take out the head and the body will generally follow” philosophy holds merit, but it also sets him up as a potentially one-dimensional opponent that other wrestler wrestlers, such as Daniel Bryan, may find ways to challenge and overcome. On the other side of the coin, if a gimmick is set up by which Tarver makes his name by running a series of wins by knock-out, a captivating story could ensue as a result. It remains to be seen.

I’m not a fan of Heath Slater at this stage of the game. He seems a little too obnoxious and full of himself, and not in an amusing way, like Otunga, who strikes a fantastic Rock-like level of self-absorption. Slater has charisma, sure, but something about him just says, “Nice try, kid, you gave it a good shot,” to me. Nothing personal, he just seems to be dreaming bigger than he’ll be able to deliver. I could be very wrong, and I hope for his sake and the sake of the business that I am. First impression is all.

The other guys we’ve not realty seen too much at this point (at least, I haven’t, and I don’t think we saw much more on last week’s NXT), which, again, speaks very well to me, in that, WWE appears to be taking its’ time introducing the characters and aren’t trying to rush into anything, thereby allowing the characters to really take root in the minds of the fans, not overwhelming viewers with too much information all at once. That is wise on WWE’s part, and it’s this kind of experience I expect from a company of this stature with this kind of history of and ability to create stars.

All in all, it appears to be a case of so-far, so-good where NXT is concerned and that WWE has actually managed to create some innovative TV here, taking the current trend of reality-based competitive television with its’ own unique brand of tradition and storytelling, and, for once, thinking outside of the box with respect to how to present it without overcomplicating the process, all the while, laying the groundwork for creating a new generation of young stars we could be seeing for the next decade to come. Going into the second installment, I am interested, intrigued and impressed.

COMMENTPALOOZA!
Geoff I have to say everything you said about Hogan and Bisch is right, and I think it makes things intriguing. It certainly makes me want to keep watching. As for the Nasties and The Band I believe that The Band has not been that bad so far. As for the Nasties I have a fast forward button and I always watch the show late so they are of no consequence to me, except that they keep me from seeing some of the great talent that TNA has.

Anderson is doing excellently so far. This feud with Angle looks to be the most interesting thing on the roster. Little Naitch and D’Angelo Dinero should be excellent as well.

Also I like that Destination X will be an all X Division PPV. I’m afraid this may be Hogans way to show that the X Division doesn’t draw, but I hope the show is one of TNA’s best show this year.
Posted By: Carnivore

Personally, and without thinking twice, I chalked up Hogan’s “Abyss is my Cena” talk to Hogan’s brand of shameless, unabashed horseshit. Most people here in the IWC put more stock in the hot air that comes out of Hogan’s mouth than Hogan himself does. In the words of Jesse Ventura, “Hogan’s a bullshitter; it’s what he does.”

And to answer your question of whether or not Abysstopher can match Mick Foley’s subtle, multi-faceted character work: no, he cannot. I know that’s not *exactly* what you were postulating — you merely asked if Abyss shared the lovable-but-determined personality that makes people cheer for Foley — but still…

In the past six years, I have never been impressed by any depth, intensity or psychology in Abyss’ mic work. In the ring is another story, but on the mic, Abyss is straight out of an Ed Wood movie; I just don’t FEEL anything from him… except, maybe, a touch of awkwardness. He goes off into his schtick and I just keep thinking “dude, please stop squealing like that; nobody’s buying it…” Conversely, Mick Foley is probably one of the four or five cleverest, most intense and most convincing stick men in wrestling history. You can’t just go and replicate what he does/has done, any more than you can catch a fuzzy, flannel-clad lightning bolt. Abyss is no Foley — he isn’t even a Kane — and I wish he’d stop trying to be.

Abyss has his strengths, and the only one he shares with Cactus himself is the willingness to sacrifice his physical wellbeing for the sake of a good show. As much of an asset as that is to a promotion, that alone isn’t enough to make somebody a top guy in wrestling OR “sports entertainment.”

Posted By: KanyonKreist

You know, Carnivore, I just started scribbling down names of who might end up on whose side should Hogan and Bischoff end up splitting the roster down the middle into yet another game of overblown gang warfare and it looks messy to me:

TEAM HOGAN – Abyss, Kurt Angle, D’Angelo Dinero, Mick Foley, Jeff Jarrett, Samoa Joe, Sting, Eric Young, Hernandez, Rob Terry.

TEAM BISCHOFF – Kevin Nash (I have a feeling he’ll turn on EY), Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, AJ Styles, Mr. Anderson, Orlando Jordan, Desmond Wolfe, Matt Morgan (I have a hunch he’ll turn heel out of this partnership with Hernandez), Brutus Magnus, Doug Williams.

That’s ten each team, including Ric Flair backing Styles. Twenty man rumble, anyone? Hogan and Bischoff are no strangers to bloated stables and we know how much Russo loves to book faction warfare, so I can see this going down, and it would be something of an interesting twist to have Hogan and Bischoff going to war on-screen. Except that I don’t have any faith anything will be resolved in any clear, reasonable, meaningful manner, as Hogan and Bischoff are also no strangers to having few qualms of making murky waters muddier with their sloppy, meandering, pointless booking, so I have little reason to care.

Or, Hogan could just turn on Abyss in this tag match.

As far as The Band and The Nasty Boys are concerned, I think there’s a matter of principle involved, really, more than anything. Let’s face facts, I’m a fan of Hall and Waltman’s, but they’ve burned TNA so many times in the past, the only reason they’re around now (and showing up for events…sometimes Waltman is even sober…) is because of who’s running the show, they’re not actually wrestling and yet they’re involved in the top story in the company. Meanwhile, and, yes, I’m going here because this is the principle in question, guys who’ve been around and worked their asses off for the company like Daniels, Beer Money and The MCMGs are nowhere to be found or being treated like afterthoughts.

Double that in the case of The Nasty Boys. And it’s not enough that Saggs and Knobs are brought in looking like bloated roadkill let’s hire a manager for them, as well…and why? Because of who’s running the show. And people accuse The McMahons (and I’m including HHH in this) of nepotism. At least Batista and Sheamus are in shape and can work. Hell, Sheamus is still young to boot.

And before we start this tired old debate of WWE being completely happy to push their own set of oldsters, yes, you’re right, but the older generation in WWE can still go and don’t have a job because they’ve been sucking the weaselly teat of Hulkamania for the past 25 years to make sure someone will hire them despite being ridiculously past it, so don’t even start.

Also, don’t get your hopes up too high about Destination X. I’m hearing rumors that there will be traditional X-Division-branded gimmick matches, but that those matches will be performed by regular-roster wrestlers. So, even though Bischoff is claiming he loves The X-Division, don’t expect to see it featured in too prominent a fashion. Brian Knobbs trying to climb out of the top of that big orange cage would almost be worth the price of the PPV, though.

I think Desmond Wolfe should be the Tully Blanchard to AJ’s Flair. He’s got the swagger to pull it off.

I have so much more respect (though I still don’t particularly care for it) for R-Truth, after the reaction that he got through his entire match at the house show I saw. He definitely connects with the fans

If Zack Ryder is like all your brothers, Homewrecker, then thanksgiving at the household must be a blast. WOO WOO WOO!
Posted By: Angry Bear

Now, see, there’s a great gimmick for Wolfe I can really see going down, and one that makes more sense than forcing Styles to stretch as far as he’s having to in order to make this Stylin & Profilin gimmick work, although I think it’s great that someone is taking the time to work with Styles in order to allow him to grow in terms of character development since, up to this point, working heel has been really tricky for him. Still, though, Wolfe being jobbed to hell for Abyss’ superman gimmick just seems wrong to me.

I know, I know, when The Hogan/Bischoff Regime first came to power, I was afraid for Abyss’ place on the roster and don’t get me wrong, I like the character and admire his willingness to kill himself for the fans’ enjoyment, I’m just not sure I see him as this kind of main event character. Incidentally, does it strike anyone else this is just another one of Bischoff’s formulaic angles (Goldberg)?

That’s one of the reasons it’s really important for fans to go to see house shows, Bear, because you get the chance to see talent perform in a way that, perhaps, television doesn’t allow for. It appears as if Truth is really starting to come on strong on Friday nights and I think, the more he’s allowed to connect with fans the way he has been, the more confidence he’ll have in himself and the more confidence McMahonagement will begin to display in his regard.

Forced Push Heat

To my recollection, there has only been one guy who was forced onto us (the Wuniverse) as a face and was able to stay a face – and that’s John Cena.

The forced push is happening right now with two guys – Sheamus and McIntyre. And it helps their heat because they get the residual heat coming from the forced push. Cena retains a certain level of heat – and at least some of that heat was because he was pushed/forced upon us before we felt he was ready.

So if you can’t force a face onto us – how does one become a top face in the company? Well – Vince and Co. seem to think that faces come from years of service to the company. And to some extent – he is right. It takes a long time to develop the perfect combination of wrestler, style and character to make all the fans cheer for them.

This is why you see faces pushed up and down the card. It’s because it takes a while for the crowd to accept someone as a face and as a threat to the championship.

People who are critical of having Sheamus win the title would probably have the same problem with Morrison or Kofi winning the title, but since We like them, criticism of their reigns would be lesser. And what the WWE does not want from their main event guys is apathy. Punk’s initial run was met with apathy by most fans. So was Rey Misterio’s initial run.

So – if it takes years to develop someone as a face and only a face – where do the new faces come from.

They come from the guys who fall in between. Those are your guys who start off as heels, refine that part of their character, and then break out as fan favorites. Randy Orton is doing this now. He’s becoming the “cool” heel. The Rock did this. Austin (to some extent) did this. Even HHH was perceived as a cool heel (outside of the IWC).

So you want your next generation of wrestlers…

Heels – Sheamus, McIntyre, Punk, Jericho
Faces – Orton, DiBiase, Cena, Kingston

Not a bad mix of guys to have at the top for the next 10 years. And who knows, maybe guys like Swagger, Miz, Morrison, Christian and Benjamin will find that right combination to vault them to the top, but if they don’t – the world always needs mid-carders.
Posted By: SpankyHamm

Good call, Spanky, and even in Cena’s case, he saw some truly shaky moments there before Vince changed the direction of his product toward children, ie, a completely more malleable audience, such that he can manipulate them into cheering how he wants them to cheer instead of those pesky fans who have the audacity to think for themselves.

(Incidentally, and we’ve discussed this here before, there are a lot of theories as to why a certain chunk of the WWE audience turned on Cena the way it did, and it’s my belief that it’s a combination of McMahonagement altering the gimmick with it initially connected from edgy rapper to fine, upstanding, patriotic superman and the fact that there’s a certain contingent that doesn’t believe in or want a modern-day superman as their top face. That’s my guess.)

I don’t mind Sheamus and McIntyre being pushed the way they’re being pushed at the moment. I mean, how can I? I come out here every week and cry like every other IWC writer that WWE isn’t giving its’ young talent a fair shot at succeeding…what kind of a hypocrite would I be if I sat here and shat on these guys just because they’re getting a mega-push? Otherwise, I’d just be all, “Oh, well, I didn’t mean that young talent…” Then it just becomes a point of wanting to see pushed who I want to see pushed and, in the grand scheme, perhaps that’s not the best thing for business.

Now granted, I see your point, that these two guys are pretty much the United Kingdom versions of Vince’s Approved Type (and it doesn’t hurt to have them in a prominent role once those European tours roll around, either), but I, for one, have enjoyed to a certain extent what I’ve seen from them so far, and I was decidedly not sold on McIntyre the first time around and was dubious of him when he resurfaced. I said it last week and I’ll echo it this week, the guy looks like a Randy Orton-type wrestler, but he’s a brawler. That throws me and forces me to renegotiate my own perception of him, and that’s on me, not him. It seems to me that McIntyre is starting to come into focus, so to speak, even though I do NOT agree with how his undefeated streak abruptly came to an end last week, but that’s something I hope to get into more next week.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Sheamus would really benefit from having a manager. I criticized Sheamus for looking like a complete fish out of water when he stood in the ring to challenge for The WWET, Cena and Jesse Ventura cutting promos around him, but he got his feet quickly and was improving weekly – – maybe not to the extent that he deserved to be speaking for himself that high up the card, but again, that’s why he could have used a manager. A polished mouthpiece could have really made the whole concussion thing last week on Monday transition a whole lot more smoothly, too, but, again, that’s something about which I hope to discuss more next week.

What you want, ideally, if you’re running a professional wrestling company is to introduce a character and have the fans latch onto him themselves and tell you how they want to see him booked, the way Steve Austin happened. The Rock, too, to a certain extent, although I really think Vince had a good hand in manipulating us to want to see him pushed and then yanked the rug out from underneath us at Survivor Series when he turned on Mankind, proving to be sided with McMahon. If Vince would get his head out of his ass and stop telling himself what a genius he is, he’d realize that fans want to see Christian pushed to the moon, but Vince is too busy telling himself that he knows what we want more than we do ourselves.

I have to disagree with you about Punk’s first reign. Remember, that wasn’t supposed to be Punk’s reign, it was Jeff Hardy’s, but he Wellness’ed himself out of WrestleMania, thus clearing the way for McMahonagement to experiment. Punk was still largely untested at the time, so, here again, do we see McMahonagement rolling the dice. Granted, Punk was treated much as if he didn’t belong at the top of the card, but what was going on there was that he was being booked to win over the fans, and, by the time he lost the belt, fans were decidedly in his corner, enough such that there was an outcry when he was “demoted” into a tag team with Kofi Kingston, giving Kingston his first real rub by tagging with a former WWE Champion.

This was also McMahonagement going back to the drawing board in Punk’s case, because now they knew they had a top-level draw on their hands, so they pulled him back and built him slowly in their own way, allowing him a tag reign with Kofi, then a run with The ICT before putting him back at the top, this time with a solid fan base, not one he had to earn and prove he could maintain. (They did the same thing this time after he lost The WT to Taker, only as a heel who is currently helping to bring around Luke Gallows and Serena.)

I really wanted to get to more than this, but I’m out of time! I gotta submit this sukka! Thanks for reading!
Happy birthday, Larrold!

RESPEEEECK!!!