Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted January 26, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 26, 2017 The Drifter needs to win the NXT belt. The heat would be amazing. Even more so if it was from a Nakamura/Strong/internet guy.Ā Ā I'm not enjoying the NXT women's division at all right now. Asuka is good, Ember is decent, but I don't see anything at all in the rest. Although Peyton Royce does have a lovely midriff. Ā The Takeover card does look weak, but I think Roode/Nakamura, DIY/AoP and Strong/Andrade all have the potential to be great matches. Dillinger vs Young should be pretty fun too. The fat bloke in Sanity is a massive improvement over the guy he replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted January 27, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 27, 2017 It's a niggly litle thing, but I didn't like Phillips just listing the members of Sanity and ending with "...and Killian Dain" when before they've acknowledged that he's "Damo". Ā Surely it's the easiest thing in the world to do with this type of angle to tell us that Eric Young has rechristened him upon his induction to Sanity, rather than asking us to forget he's been given a name in his previous 3 or 4 appearances? Ā Is it my imagination, or have they tweaked Elias Samson's gimmick to be more of an "annoying folky/rock singer" rather than an actual Drifter? They're still using the name, but the guitar's got much nicer, he's now using a head mic much more, and he's added what as far as I can see is a blatant take-off of "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash" to announce himself to the stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members PunkStep Posted January 27, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 27, 2017 Maybe they realised that they can't get away with calling him a drifter anymore, as he just turns up at the same place in Florida every week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted January 27, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 27, 2017 Yes, I've always hated that. Ā I think I may have said earlier in the thread - why on earth did they tell us he'd been injured to explain his absence, when they could have just said he'd actually been drifting? Ā Maybe all ties back in to my original point - they've brought him back under a slightly tweaked gimmick. IIRC his "The Return" vignettes were a bit on the rock star side, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted January 27, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 27, 2017 I'm pretty sure Graves explained on commentary once that he's not actually a drifter, he's just an hipster who thinks of himself as a drifter as it makes him sound more unique. It was a while ago he mentioned it though. Or I might have even made it up myself. Not sure. Either way, I love him. The 'Hello, I'm Johnny Cash' ripoff is fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted January 27, 2017 Awards Moderator Share Posted January 27, 2017 (edited) I'm feeling a bit flat on NXT at the moment, it's all a bit directionless. Triple H said the same in a recent conference call: Ā A massive amount of NXT talent getting called up reshifted that brand. We're rebuilding off that still to this day. It's still a process, I'm not happy with where it is right now by far. I want it to be much better than it is. But it's a rebuilding process, and all these things going on make changes in the ecosystem. Edited January 27, 2017 by Onyx2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members PunkStep Posted January 27, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 27, 2017 I'm probably in a minority, but I really like the Women's title angle at the moment. I thought the skit that closed this week's episode was good, further proving the Aussie girls are sneaky cowards and the face-offs between Nikki & Asuka were good. Both of them beating the shit out of security (especially Asuka) was done really well I thought, and Nikki going mental and diving on them all was a good way to cap it off. It's a good angle to give three new girls time to shine in the title picture until they have a one-on-one feud for Asuka big enough to warrant a series of big matches. Ā The most negative thing in NXT at the moment is Roderick Strong. He might as well be the shit one from TMnumbers. Does nothing for me- hasn't wowed me yet in the ring and he seems devoid of any charisma. They've wasted a spot by giving him a Takeover match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Arch Stanton Posted January 27, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 27, 2017 Strong is absolutely shite, I was gutted when I heard they had signed him. The worst kind of indy workrate dullard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted January 27, 2017 Awards Moderator Share Posted January 27, 2017 He's been put on Takeover to lose decisively to Andrade though, right? Give him a good win over an ROH guy to move him up the ranks in fans' minds a bit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJM Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 I'm feeling a bit flat on NXT at the moment, it's all a bit directionless. Triple H said the same in a recent conference call: Ā A massive amount of NXT talent getting called up reshifted that brand. We're rebuilding off that still to this day. It's still a process, I'm not happy with where it is right now by far. I want it to be much better than it is. But it's a rebuilding process, and all these things going on make changes in the ecosystem. Ā A massive amount more of the NXT talent should be on the main roster. The likes of Joe, Nakamura, Roode, Revival, DIY, Asuka are really needed on the main roster (probably moreso than NXT). I realise that moving all those up to the main shows would gut the NXT roster, but they should have been building up/signing new people to take their places for the last year or so since Zayn, Bayley, Enzo/Cass etc. were called up. They do have options for if the above were moved to the main roster over the next 6 months or so though I guess, with the signing of Hero and if they pushed Sanity, Ember Moon and AOP as the new main stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 AOP as main stars? They're okay for what they are but very limited. I'd love to see them get better but I haven't seen much progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted January 27, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 27, 2017 I think part of the problem is they seem to be selecting some of the wrong guys to move at a particular time. When Enzo, Cass, Corbin and Crews moved up they jumped ahead of guys who were a lot farther ahead than they were in terms of their all round development. Ā Corbin has really came into his own from he got the nod, but at the time he was a perfect example of what NXT should be used for. They are trying to strike a weird balance between a developmental league and an individual third touring brand. It's sort of ended up as a jack of all trades but certainly a master of none, as it's both a money loser and poor at developing talent from scratch into main roster additions. Ā It's benefits are less quantitative in that it helps WWE appeal to the indyriffic interests of many of today's hardcore fans, those who think they are anti-establishment, and get money from them down the line, via the mechandising of those NXT darlings who transition from there to the main roster. Ā It allows them to sign talent even when they don't technically have space for them, to prevent them going elsewhere and at the same time these guys and girls can tweak their gimmicks, try new things and possibly have a smoother transition period than if they had came straight from the outside, up to Raw, and possibly not make the best impression on a day when Vince might not be feeling particularly enthusiastic about allowing for second impressions. If they have a body of work from NXT to fall back on then that would be a benefit for showing what they can do in the WWE setting to any doubters in power positions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJM Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 AOP as main stars? They're okay for what they are but very limited. I'd love to see them get better but I haven't seen much progress. NXT does not have many teams and those were the first that came to mind (thanks probably to the fact they are challenging DIY for the titles on Saturday). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Bus Surfer Posted January 27, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 27, 2017 They've kind of made a rod for their own back with NXT and the way they do 'developmental' these days, You've got guys that should probably be up on the main roster but seemingly being kept there in order to stop NXT from floundering from a lack of star power, which seems the complete opposite of what it's there to do in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonworden Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 Not everyone should leave nxt to the main roster with massive fanfare though and the roster will need some nxt Midgard types here and there. They could get better at shifting people slowly having them work both for 6 months getting g them used to big TV but using them at nxt too. Seems they've stopped doing that now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts