Tonight, on NXT, there will be some recaps of Raw and promos for Summerslam. There'll also be some in-ring action, and maybe some competitions for redemption points. By 11:00 p.m., we'll be one week closer to figuring out who's moving on to Season 6. Will it be Darren Young, Titus O'Neil, or Derrick Bateman? Read on for my thoughts on the show as it happens.
I wonder what kind of date AJ and Hornswoggle would go on. I'm guessing somewhere where they could both order something like pancakes or chicken nuggets.
Titus is kind of a goof.
This storyline is at least something new on the show.
Striker makes a good point about votes. The past 3 seasons have all gone to faces (Season 1 didn't have fan voting).
Striker makes sense as a partner. They're running out of people to put in the ring who've actually taken bumps in their career, and he does have years of experience.
I don't think I can take too many more weeks of the dog bark.
The stuff with Facebook and Twitter's kind of cool I guess. At least both are pretty popular (as opposed to hardly anyone knowing who they are).
See, this show still has its fun (in ridiculous ways) parts. Kozlov's pretty good showing his comedic side.
Hey, they've got time to kill with only so many people on this show, so we're getting a lot of silly posturing in this match.
Remember back in the day when Hulk Hogan promos were all over wrestling shows? Times sure have changed...
Regal needs to try a Pop-Tart sometime. I remember Michael Cole didn't know what Hamburger Helper was in Season 3, which was also a bit surprising.
Kozlov's a funny guy in his own way.
Kozlov doesn't really use his Twitter page, but hopefully someone else puts that planking picture up.
That graphic of Matt Striker was pretty funny-looking.
Tyson's improving on the mic. I think he could be in the Intercontinental Title picture on Smackdown sooner rather than later.
Wow, we've really already almost made it to the main event?
Really looking forward to more of face Sheamus.
Summerslam's shaping up rather nicely so far. Still waiting on the undercard to be made. I'm hoping for Bryan vs. Barrett first of all.
D'awwww.
Even AJ's voice is adorable.
Striker's not bad. I liked him in his wrestling days.
AJ understands Hornswoggle. Why does that not surprise me?
That move into the turnbuckle was pretty cool, as was the suplex move that followed.
I think those are the shortest Chucks AJ's ever worn.
Wow, she's pretty short.
Oh, NXT, you're so random.
There wasn't all that much to evaluate the rookies on this week, but we did get some brief promos and enough in-ring action to form SOME judgment. They got some more experience in front of crowds and such, so this wasn't a total case of filling time with whatever wackiness they come up with to move the show along. I'm somewhat entertained by some of what goes on on the show, but there isn't much of it that makes me want to see the rookies compete and go on to the next season.
Anyway, on to rankings. Once more, since hardly anything's changed and there hasn't really been any new ground covered, there's not a huge difference. I'm honestly getting pretty jaded seeing the same stuff from everyone each week. It's getting harder and harder to stand out when they're facing the same opponents, etc.. But I do think there was enough to see a difference from last week. Remember that these aren't necessarily the "order" of who I want to see move on, just a general mark of whether I like them (top tier), dislike them (bottom tier), or if I'm somewhat indifferent (middle tier).
Top Tier:
Titus O'Neil (last ranked:1)- Titus is fine in the ring for a big powerful babyface who just needs to hit big moves off of a hot tag like tonight. He's not the most original or exciting competitor in the world, but that's not really the role he's going for. I'm starting to turn on him as far as mic skills go, though. I think he works best as a relatively silent protector. It'll be interesting to see how he (possibly) plays off of AJ. You can't get much more pure babyface than her, so he'll either be seen as somewhat of a gentle giant to his smaller comrades (we'll throw in non-active wrestler Striker for this too) or their big defender. Or some of both. There won't be any elimination next week, so he's got time to grow in this role if they continue the story.
Darren Young (last ranked:2)- Darren's starting to win me back. His performance tonight was nice. He pulled out some nice moves and seems to be continuing to get more comfortable as his character (or maybe I'm just getting more used to his voice). If he can tap into the wild-eyed phase where he took out Hornswoggle, and show some (more) killer instinct, he could very well have a strong upside.
Derrick Bateman (last ranked:N/A)- Bateman's not clicking with me like he used to. He stood out when he was the more off-the-wall babyface in Season 4, but now he seems kind of lost in the shuffle. He worked best when he was playing off of Daniel Bryan, but the latter hasn't been on the show recently. It always takes some time for me to get used to someone in a new character, so it'll be a while before I get a good handle on him as a heel, and I need to see more of him in the ring to make a judgment on how he works with it in this different persona.
Anyway, that's pretty much a wrap for this week's show. We've got at least 2 more left since there's no elimination next week. I'll be back for Superstars and Impact Wrestling on Thursday and a news post will be up later tonight. Thanks for reading!
Good insight this week as well. I definitely agree that Titus has been lacking the mic ability to entertain the crowd. It just seems to me that he is just getting plain and his weak mic ability is kind of overshadowed when he panders to the crowd at the end of his promos to try to save some face.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the fact that things won't change in terms of the WWE Management's decisions with wins/losses, but I just wish the fans would see the match in terms of the performances in them and not the actual results. Someone could perform 20X better in a loss (like today with Darren) than someone in a win (Titus), but the fans often tend to see whoever wins as the better performer, which is unfair. I hope the fans look past that, because there is a reason why Daniel Bryan was ranked No. 1 when he was what? 0-10? (the pros know how rigid WWE mgt can be).
I also agree about Bateman. Great point. He still has that charisma, but it just seems like he's not fitting into the "heel" persona like Young is; it's relatively new to him. I think that could hurt him, because there isn't endless time.
Young seems to be getting into the groove: His in-ring ability was always there and his promos have been been very good and very accurate as well. I think his point about Titus pandering to the crowd and his comment about Striker and NXT's contests being ridiculous everyone can agree with lol. I can't name one thing he has said so far in these 21 weeks that hasn't been true (maybe besides the Chavo comments).
One big thing I noticed this week was that they set up Titus to get a big reaction in that tag match. A lot of the match was two bad guys beating up a host who hasn't wrestled in 4 years, so Titus was a hero for tagging in to save him.
ReplyDeleteHornswoggle's one of those characters that pretty much anyone can get a reaction from playing off of, like Miz, Michael Cole, and Vickie Guerrero. So, that could really factor in Titus' favor when the fans vote, like presumably feuding with Vickie worked in Kaitlyn's favor in Season 3.
I don't necessarily think fans look solely at wins and losses (unless there's a "streak" angle). Like for instance, having a good showing in a loss against John Cena or Big Show would mean more than beating, say, Hornswoggle. The most famous example of this I can think of is WrestleMania 13, where Stone Cold passed out in Bret Hart's Sharpshooter. It's usually about that final impression.
I'd be somewhat surprised if Bateman hasn't been a heel at some point before NXT. It just doesn't stand out as much as when he was presumably an exaggerated version of himself. He might have made the switch because it'd be difficult to compete with the positive reaction Titus and Hornswoggle get.
I liked what I saw of Young ringwork-wise when he was working on Superstars. I wish he'd bring back that gutbuster finisher he used then (if he's able to).
And I kind of cut them some slack on the challenges, because there's only so much they can come up with for them to do.
That leads me back to my point in that the WWE's decision to continue to make Titus win matches when he doesn't deserve it doesn't give Young the chance to do that gut-buster move, which is unfair. It just seems to take the light away from Young a lot.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the Titus/Hornswoggle pairing would help Titus as much as the Kaitlyn/Guerrero pairing, because that was an actual feud that showed how Kaitlyn would react if in a real fued-situation. In Titus' case, I really agree with what Lucky said before in that riding his coattails will only get him so far and I truly think it should get him about as far as the next elimination, in which he should be eliminated.
What I don't understand is why they keep trying to make Titus so invincible. A huge point is that in past seasons the "face" characters (Kaval, Bryan, Curtis, Bateman) all had bad records because of the fact that WWE MGT already knew they would get the fan vote, so they would give the "heels" (Clay, Barrett, Otunga, Riley) more victories to try to even it out a bit.
In this case, it is a quandry why they make Young lose then and make Titus win. He already basically wins Redemption Points by default for sucking up to the crowd, which is unfair to Young and Bateman, because most of the time, they objecyively deserve those points and not Titus. It unfairly and unjustifyingly builds up Titus' authority. My biggest point is that Young (objectively) is the most talented and experienced, so why make him out to be a loser almost every match?
To shift gears a bit, do you think Young's promos have been the best out of the three? I think he is really hitting his stride and his promos have been impactful, true, and smart. That is something he didn't do in Season 1. Titus seems boring to me in his promos and it just seems to me that he just panders to the crowd at the end to save face. Bateman's have been okay, but it just seems that what he is saying just repeats Young's past promos. I feel that can be a big disadvantage for him down the stretch. I just think Young has gotten comfortable in his persona and has shown his true personality. I don't think this persona of Bateman is really something he is comfortable in.
ReplyDeleteI miss obvious little things some times. Of course he doesn't get to use his finisher when he doesn't win the match.
ReplyDeleteI see your point about the pairing not helping him as much as hers. It would be interesting to see how differently he'd do with a different Pro. I definitely don't think he'd connect as well without Hornswoggle. He's better than he was in Season 2, but he's still relatively plain.
That's a pretty good point about Titus usually winning. There isn't much of a story when the good guy gets the win (or at least "stands tall") more often than not. It's definitely not even. I don't really have a solid answer for that other than that's just where they want to take the story. The "why" is kind of unknown.
I think Redemption Points for fan vote-based competitions should be based on who gets the biggest reaction, negative or positive, but they might think that's too complex (they tried it once in Season 3 and the audience got somewhat confused). Bateman and Young pretty much throw the challenges, so sometimes Titus doesn't even need to get a strong reaction.
As for the promos comment, I'm generally not one to go for something like "best" because they're usually pretty different from each other. That being said, he definitely seems more of a fit in his role than Bateman. Titus' monotone voice isn't all that exciting, I agree, which is why I think he should be a man of few words. So, there's definitely an argument for Young as the best promo-cutter.