Open WWE/NXT/Pro Wrestling thread

[party_animal]

Holy crap what a good show from NXT again. Aries and nakamura tore it down. The tag match was excellent as well.

[Still Brooklyn]

See ya later, Alpha and Balor. May the main roster treat you three well.

[teeray]

Another fantastic Takeover in the books.

Tag match was just amazing. Jordan has the best hot tag in the biz.  And it was a genuine surprise to me having Revival get the titles back.

 Nakamura vs Aries was fantastic as expected 

Nia and Asuka had a really good match.  I was curious how their styles would mesh but they did a great job.  Nia looked really good in defeat 

Finn vs Joe was really good but not great.  They are incapable of having a bad match but that was probably their least good of all their Takeover matches

Cien vs Dillinger was good but short.  I have become a fan of Dillinger, and Cien showed just enough, but he also saved some of his best stuff for a later date

Just fantastic all the way around 

 

[party_animal]

La Sombra's new entrance attire was ridiculous looking.

[party_animal]

Also I laughed at an audience of smarks chanting who are you at precious paul ellering.

[lightsout]

Caught up on a lot of NXT stuff and I feel like a kid again. I was a HUGE Stone Cold fan (still am. Will literally watch or listen to him no matter where or what it is on), but Finn Balor just has me. As long as they can book him right, he's going to be a huge. My ability to mark out just returned.

[teeray]

5 hours ago, lightsout said:

Caught up on a lot of NXT stuff and I feel like a kid again. I was a HUGE Stone Cold fan (still am. Will literally watch or listen to him no matter where or what it is on), but Finn Balor just has me. As long as they can book him right, he's going to be a huge. My ability to mark out just returned.

If you want the full NXT experience you have to start at Takeover: Fatal 4 Way in September 2014 and watch all of it through Takeover:  Brooklyn in August 2015

That was the golden year for NXT and took it from a niche developmental show to its own worldwide brand.

It is still good, but they are in transition and have moved more toward a touring brand and away from developmental so they have brought in a lot of indy veterans so it has lost a little bit of it's charm, but it is now basically an indy supershow that is stockpiling proven veterans that they know can sell tickets for their tours.

It is still the best thing WWE has going on, so i am not trashing it.  It is just transitioning to something new and bigger.

 

PS - I am a HUGE Stone Cold fan too, and Balor is indeed awesome.  And anyone who frequents this thread will tell you I have become a mega mark for Bayley and Sasha Banks in a similar way that you have to Balor.  NXT is great for that reason alone.

[lightsout]

7 hours ago, teeray said:

If you want the full NXT experience you have to start at Takeover: Fatal 4 Way in September 2014 and watch all of it through Takeover:  Brooklyn in August 2015

That was the golden year for NXT and took it from a niche developmental show to its own worldwide brand.

It is still good, but they are in transition and have moved more toward a touring brand and away from developmental so they have brought in a lot of indy veterans so it has lost a little bit of it's charm, but it is now basically an indy supershow that is stockpiling proven veterans that they know can sell tickets for their tours.

It is still the best thing WWE has going on, so i am not trashing it.  It is just transitioning to something new and bigger.

 

PS - I am a HUGE Stone Cold fan too, and Balor is indeed awesome.  And anyone who frequents this thread will tell you I have become a mega mark for Bayley and Sasha Banks in a similar way that you have to Balor.  NXT is great for that reason alone.

Bayley is great. Saw where she mimicked Balor's intro and then he returned the favor. Oh man I laughed.

[Still Brooklyn]

HHH said last night in an interview that of course NXT is not ending, that The End was mainly about Balor/Joe, but also ... as seen in the show intro, the end of the current era of NXT. But what was interesting as that he said the next era is going to be different. No longer will NXT be a training ground. He says it's going to be a full product in the WWE family. My guess? They're wary of smarks scaring off mainstream fans (see Magnus' interview on Wrestlezone), chants getting out of control, and having their hand-picked hero booed. I think their goal is to get the smarks to ditch RAW/Smackdown for NXT in terms of devotion. Yes, they'll still watch the others but it will no longer be important to them. NXT will, and NXT will deliver the exact product the smarks want.

[teeray]

1 hour ago, Still Brooklyn said:

HHH said last night in an interview that of course NXT is not ending, that The End was mainly about Balor/Joe, but also ... as seen in the show intro, the end of the current era of NXT. But what was interesting as that he said the next era is going to be different. No longer will NXT be a training ground. He says it's going to be a full product in the WWE family. My guess? They're wary of smarks scaring off mainstream fans (see Magnus' interview on Wrestlezone), chants getting out of control, and having their hand-picked hero booed. I think their goal is to get the smarks to ditch RAW/Smackdown for NXT in terms of devotion. Yes, they'll still watch the others but it will no longer be important to them. NXT will, and NXT will deliver the exact product the smarks want.

I doubt they are trying to get smarks to completely dump RAW and Smackdown.  One of the main reasons Smackdown is going live is to boost Smackdown ratings.

Because until NXT has a TV contract it isnt making money on it's own.  It contributes to WWE network revenue, but all they are taking in are gates, and with the level of production going into NXT I bet they operate at a loss.

I personally wish after the brand split they took that 10:00-11:00 Monday night hour which always struggles in the ratings, and created a 1 hour NXT show in that time slot, and reduced actual RAW show to just 2 hours.

[lightsout]

13 minutes ago, teeray said:

I doubt they are trying to get smarks to completely dump RAW and Smackdown.  One of the main reasons Smackdown is going live is to boost Smackdown ratings.

Because until NXT has a TV contract it isnt making money on it's own.  It contributes to WWE network revenue, but all they are taking in are gates, and with the level of production going into NXT I bet they operate at a loss.

I personally wish after the brand split they took that 10:00-11:00 Monday night hour which always struggles in the ratings, and created a 1 hour NXT show in that time slot, and reduced actual RAW show to just 2 hours.

 

Can't remember where I heard it, but I heard that idea was kicked around briefly. Ultimately decided against it because they want to keep Raw at 3 hours. Not sure why. That extra hour only causes segments that should run 7-9 minutes run for 15 minutes. So they have a lot of dead-air and awkward moments trying to stretch the time. Cut Raw to 2 hours, have NXT take the late hour on Spike. If the goal is to make NXT a third brand and not a training ground, then this will be a good test for it. If it survives, then in a year or so, if you want it to stand on it's own and get a TV deal, you have something to pitch a network and now you have WWE live programming on networks 3 nights out of the week. This decidedly ends all competition on TV.

[Still Brooklyn]

I'm just glad I have Hulu. I don't have or ever will have the Network. But Hulu puts up NXT shows, including Takeovers, the day after they air. And they have the entire collection to boot.

[Still Brooklyn]

They finally revealed all 32 names for the upcoming WWE Cruiserweight Classic!

Kota Ibushi (Japan)

Tajiri (Japan)

Gran Metalik (Mexico)

Zack Sabre Jr. (England)

Noam Dar (Isarel)

Da Mack (Germany)

Zumbi (Brazil)

Clement Petiot (France)

Harv Sihra (Canada)

Gurv Sihra (Canada)

Fabian Aichner (Italy)

Brian Kendrick (USA)

Rich Swann (USA)

Cedric Alexander (USA)

Akira Tozawa (Japan)

Jack Gallagher (England)

Tony Nese (USA)

Johnny Gargano (USA)

Tommaso Ciampa (USA)

Ho Ho Lun (China)

TJ Perkins (USA)

Drew Gulak (USA)

Anthony Bennett (USA)

Tyson Dux (Canada)

Lince Dorado (Puerto Rico)

Sean Maluta (USA)

Raul Mendoza (Mexico)

Kenneth Johnson (???)

Alejandro Saez (???)

Damien Slater (Australia)

Ariya Daivari (USA)

Jason Lee (USA)

 

[teeray]

NXT Brooklyn II sold out already