I Love The Miz And You Should Too

Welcome back to my weekly plea for everyone to revere The Social Outcasts. That’s actually not the point of this piece, but I definitely do quite a bit of shilling for Heath Slater and his friends. The actual point of this weekly opinion article is for me to celebrate all of the things in wrestling that currently make me happy that I’m a fan of this sport and that’s precisely what I intend on doing right now.

There’s some praise to be had for everyone’s favorite Hollywood A-Lister and his smugness toward a certain wrestling darling. Also, a rumored cruiserweight tournament that might pop up on the WWE Network is also something to get excited about. Even TNA even gets some love with a new stable of misfits. And yes, I even have a reason to sneak in a brief bit of giddyness for the most recent actions of The Social Outcasts.

Whether you agree with me or think I’m crazy (with only one z), I’m kicking off this week with massive kudos directed toward The Miz.

The Miz Is Awesome

The Miz and AJ Styles faced off against each other on SmackDown all because of the way the new WWE signee was treated on Raw. Styles took part in a lengthy Miz TV interview segment that offered him virtually no opportunity to speak. The Miz worked himself into a frenzy before he was physically assaulted by AJ. It was great.

As much as I loved this segment, I realize that not many people shared my sentiment. Of the reviews and podcasts that I typically listen to, some out right panned it. They thought this was way too much of someone they didn’t want to see and definitely not enough of someone they did want to see. Another worry was that AJ’s lack of mic time might indicate that WWE has no confidence in him as a talker. I would worry as well if that were the case, but it’s hard to rule that judgment after only one instance.

The ‘lack of confidence’ worries weren’t on my mind when I first viewed this because I was too busy being entertained by Miz’s slimy interview skills. He talked about his own accomplishments and even went back to the schtick where he credits himself for Daniel Bryan’s rise to super-stardom. He verbally insulted Styles by calling him a rookie redneck, which I thought was great. It’s just enough to tick off smart wrestling fans and it fits in with Miz’s grandiose persona.

Don’t get me wrong, I love AJ. He’s a gem in the ring, but he gets plenty of love. I just feel like Miz is underrated as a heel sometimes.

Miz still has many years of being capable of wrestling inside the ring but his career will extend far beyond that. He knows how to make an arena full of people despise him. Whenever he calls it a day in the ring he won’t have to stray too far for his new profession. That man will be a heel manager for years to come.

I’m Liking Crazzy Steve

The title of this sub-section is something I would’ve never imagined admitting to. I’ve seen the goofy clown gimmick he did over the past few months and just kind of shrugged my shoulders at it. I wasn’t sure what he was going for, but whatever…I simply assumed that it wasn’t for me.

Then, Crazzy Steve rounded up a posse of what looked like an undead Harley Quinn and Abyss. Rosemary is the lady’s name and she might be my favorite part of this new stable. They call themselves The Decay, which is a cool name.

The Decay are currently messing with the TNA Tag Team Champions, The Wolves. Rosemary even attempted a zombie bite a few Impacts ago while Crazzy Steve applied a chicken wing – it was a strange but effective double team maneuver.

All of this is toeing the line of being just a tad too much but I’ll give it a chance to see what they do with it. I’m very intrigued.

A Possible Cruiserweight Tournament

As I write this column, one of the big rumors floating around is that there might be something resembling a cruiserweight tournament in the near future for the WWE Network. There are several ideas floating around about how it might be implemented, including that it could be a 10 week event and that it might help launch the WWE career of La Sombra. This speculation originates from the Wrestling Observer and I hope it’s true.

My thoughts on this is that I hope they take an NXT approach and recruit talent from all over the world to come and compete. Guys like James storm and Corey Hollis have appeared on NXT programming without extended deals. Wrestlers recruited for something like this won’t all need long-term contracts and could serve as a tryout of sorts for many.

I also like the idea that this might become a Battle of Los Angeles-style yearly event that fans can look forward to. This could become a prestigious accolade for rising stars. If WWE really wanted to get behind this idea they could even grant the winner an NXT Championship Match at a TakeOver event.

Obviously, I’m jumping the gun with the potential I see for something like this. Whatever this evolves into could be a big deal – just don’t turn it into a copy of the modern King of the Ring. They don’t really try to make that worthwhile anymore.

Is It My Birthday? Did Christmas Come Early?

My column last week for this site was entirely devoted to potential feuds for The Social Outcasts. I do tend to bring them up often because I think they’re funny and I want to see them go far. They could be so much more than just the next incarnation of 3MB. The final feud that I pitched in that piece was a stable battle with the current WWE Tag Team Champions, The New Day. If you caught SmackDown then you’ll know that this idea actually came into fruition.

After viewing this dream scenario of mine, I believe that The Social Outcasts played off of New Day successfully. Curtis Axel was funny when he tried his best to pronounce the word ‘rhinoceros’ and the stable as a whole did an effective job at making “Now Trending” into a catchphrase of theirs. The match itself was pretty entertaining, too. The sneaky foot-on-the-ropes-for-leverage tactic that Kofi used when he pinned Axel gives me hope that this is more than just a one-time matchup.

Now, I’m not so much of an egomaniac that I think WWE booked this after reading my article. I can dream all I want that big daddy Vince was enlightened when he opened up the newest Mitch Nickelson write-up at 411Mania, but there’s no evidence whatsoever that any WWE bigwig reads my stuff. Still, I’m just happy that some lower card guys that I really like are being given the chance to shine. Especially since they’re knocking it out of the park.

One Thing To Complain About

I was originally going to complain about the roster cuts that impacted NXT but then my wife and I Redboxed The Condemned 2 starring Randy Orton. Wow, that was a bad movie. Orton’s not a bad actor or anything, it’s just that the plot was extremely weak. Here’s some advice for wannabe bounty hunters who are on probation for manslaughter and also just killed a member of your old bounty team who out the blue tried to murder you: don’t trust the other former member of your old bounty team who coincidentally shows up at your door not even an hour after the last death.

What the heck, here’s Bull Demsey’s very classy tweet after he was released anyways. He seems like a genuinely good dude…

It's been real @WWENXT. Amazing group of coaches & coworkers & a helluva boss. Thank you for the opportunity @TripleH. See ya down the road!

— Bull James (@BullDempseyWWE) February 5, 2016

Good luck to you, Mr. Dempsey. Let’s hope that we haven’t seen the last of you.

Final Ramblings And Plugs

I realize I don’t address Lucha Underground any in this article. Typically, I don’t watch that show until later in the week. This is mostly written by the time I’m starting to turn it on. I will mention briefly that Season 2 has been on fire so far. Their uppercard, which seems to be occupied at the moment by Mil Muertes, Prince Puma, and Pentagon Jr., is so good. Pentagon, Jr. especially is a star. Having him break Mil’s arm at the end of the first episode planted seeds for a title match that I’m jonesing to see.

I’ve been mostly spoiled on what the next NXT TakeOver card will be and I’m stoked. No spoilers from me in this article, so don’t worry about that. NXT’s got a fire list of matches ahead, so look forward to that.

You can follow me on Twitter @MitchNickelson. You should also check out the podcast that I do weekly with my wife. It’s called Wrestling Date Night. This week, we got to talk about our favorite wrestling theme songs. If you want to listen, either look us up on iTunes or simply press Play on the embedded player below…