Read on for my thoughts on last night's NXT and ROH.
NXT:
It's a shame they're presumably not going to have Enzo and Cass take the tag titles in Brooklyn. The upside is that frees them up to the main roster instead.
Enzo's a great character. He's got the "it" factor and the NXT crowd already knows whether the fans can teach that.
- Enzo/Cass vs. Mechanics:
I like the Mechanics' mentality of just being tough wrestlers without needing to have fancy moves. That's lost on way too many young wrestlers.
Good stuff so far. Enzo and Cass work together smoothly.
Dawson and Wilder are showing some good strategy here. I wish more indie teams did things as simple as trying to prevent their opponents from tagging. But I guess beating your opponent isn't as important as showing how many moves you can do.
Good stuff to set up Enzo going to the top rope.
THAT FINISHER!!!! Really good stuff. Those two made a statement.
A lot of tag team stuff tonight.
That wasn't bad at all from Jordan and Gable. Their characters are meshing together well. There's potential there.
Nice video package on Dana/Charlotte. I'm warming up to Dana.
WHAT?? I didn't expect to see Sorensen in NXT after TNA doctors wouldn't clear him.
- Corbin vs. Sorensen:
Corbin needs to cut promos or something to make this less repetitive. His character's going nowhere.
Jesus, go ahead and announce Breeze's opponent. It should be a big deal.
- Jordan/Gable vs. Samson/Valenzuela:
I like Valenzuela already. He stands out from the pack.
Jack Swagger "coaching" Jordan and Gable is a story that writes itself. It's not like he's doing a lot on the main roster.
Gable is DAMN good as an amateur. Very impressive.
Jordan's no slouch as an athlete, either.
Nice showing by the mat wrestlers. I like where this team is going.
Dana was better in her promo there. Not great, but improving.
The obvious answer to Bull's problem is to get Taz to get him back into shape, but I'd rather see Scott Steiner constantly berate him.
Not a fan of the Bull video package. I hope there's an end in mind for this.
- Dana vs. Charlotte:
This match has some real heat going into it. Charlotte's fired up already.
I do think Dana's pretty good with being vocal in the ring. That's kind of a lost art, too.
Well, that was quick. I had hoped Dana would put up more of a fight. She's going to need to be one of the top players in the division with the recent callups.
Joe vs. Rhyno is main roster worthy, but it will be good for NXT, too.
I kind of forget Owens is still "an NXT guy" for the next few weeks given how big of a part he is on TV.
Meh promo from Eva Marie. Still a work in progress. It is good she's down here training instead of being way out of her league on the main roster.
Kevin Owens is an efficient wrestling machine. I hope we're in for a long career from him.
I'm going to miss seeing Owens in NXT.
Rhyno in his prime was a lot of fun to watch. He was a perfect fit for WWE's Ruthless Aggression phase.
- Blake/Murphy vs. Vaudevillains:
I like what I'm seeing from Gotch here.
There's still something missing with Blake and Murphy. Blake changing his hair so people can tell them apart is good, but they're still pretty bland other than having Alexa with them.
Gotch has a pretty good base of wrestling ability. It's good work.
Blehhhhh. Blake and Murphy would benefit from working with an experienced team from the main roster so they can up their game. WWE should bring Los Matadores or Axel and Sandow to the next tapings for that purpose.
Gotch and English holding the ropes for Alexa was a good move. No need to tease male-on-female violence from babyfaces.
I suddenly want to see Gotch and English recruit one of the new crop of NXT Divas as their flapper valet to counter Alexa.
ROH:
- Taven/Bennett vs. Hollis/Gresham:
Good to see The Kingdom looking to kick ass. You know, like they actually care about the match and not the performance of it.
I think Bennett might have potential as a serious heel. Taven's too flippy to look like someone actually trying to make a statement and win a match.
So-so match overall. Too many cutesy spots like the double superkick. They need to watch some old school teams to learn how to do a real beatdown.
- Coleman vs. Young vs. Moose vs. Castle vs. Cheeseburger vs. Brutal Bob:
As much as a clustermess as this match is set up to be, at least there are feuds involved.
Brutal Bob at least feels like a real heel.
Young is pretty good at that, too. The last real man in ROH, indeed.
It'd be fine if ROH had some guys who were the plucky, quick babyfaces. Instead it feels like 3/4 of the roster (including the supposed heels).
Young is quickly becoming one of my favorites in ROH because he actually feels like a wrestler.
I like Moose as the dominant powerhouse. He adds some much-needed variety to ROH.
I was impressed by the flip dive, but I don't think Moose needs to worry about being that agile to be good at his role.
I wish they'd use Moose as their Goldberg and have him run through a lot of these vanilla flippy guys. Pretty good match overall.
BJ Whitmer is a god-tier heel, at least by modern ROH standards. This is great.
That was a really solid segment. I haven't cared as much about Corino vs. Whitmer for anything since ROH's DA debut. This is definitely more compelling than "that man has some leather and metal around his belt and I want to have a five-star match so I can wear it instead."
- ACH vs. Fish:
And we're already back into stupid territory. I think I'd rather see two people fight in their backyard with staple guns and thumbtacks than this silly flippy shit.
ACH is amazingly athletic. I'll give him that. He's impressive in that sense.
Fish focusing on the knee is a nice change of pace.
Ridiculous big move to end the match, but it was fitting for ROH.
More wrestling coming up.
No comments:
Post a Comment