NXT - Post NXT Takeover discussion in progress

[Onyx2]

Is August 2013 the best month for wrestling matches, ever?

 

That Cesaro v Zayn match was insanely good. So compact and well told for a 14 (?) min match. So many highspots!

 

When Zayn and Cesaro were outside the ring and Sami was gesturing at him from the other side of the ringpost, I didn't have a clue what he was going to do. What an incredible DDT. And I gasped at the flapjack - European uppercut combo, so well thought out.

 

I feel how I did after the Hardyz v Edge & Christian No Mercy 99 ladder match, with talent emerging from just that one bout. Those two are future top-level talent for sure.

 

--

 

CJ Parker was boring. A 45 year old gimmick, well done.

 

I really like the look of Rusev. Looks sloppy as hell but a real monster. Perfect WWE big guy.

[Arch Stanton]

I absolutely loved the crowd reaction to the finish of the Cesaro match. The excitement built as Cesaro staggered around the ring trying to lift Zayn into the air. There was an audible 'oooooh'. Great stuff.

 

I'm still confused as to why WWE would let CJ Parker use that name. Surely there's only one CJ Parker to most people?

[aaron]

During Tyler Breeze's in-ring thing with CJ Parker, I turned to my wife and said "In his head, is he doing an impression of Ben Stiller?".

She said she was thinking the same thing.

 

So following on from what others have said, he's definitely being Zoolander and that's not a bad thing.

 

 

CJ Parker is fucking awful.

 

Sami Zayn is still the best babyface in the world and Cesaro is amazing.

[Dirty Eddie]

I assume that CJ Parker's only experience of "hippies" in his entire life consists of hippies as depicted by Government Health videos and other such "high quality" pieces of fiction. That might have been the worst "tripped-out cool dude" impression I have ever seen. Fucking awful. Gotta love all the crowd shots they cut to of people looking bored or embarrassed by it too - good job all involved. One match and one promo and I want him to fuck off forever. That's some re-debut.

 

Sami and AC was gold however. When you see how great Cesaro can be (like against Bryan the other week from RAW and with this match) it seems a waste that he's stuck in the rather silly (and quite boring) Anti-Immigrants team with very boring Swagger. The bloke is such an amazingly strong and talented wrestler - I just love watching him wrestle. Great NXT overall.

[Arch Stanton]

Sami and AC was gold however. When you see how great Cesaro can be (like against Bryan the other week from RAW and with this match) it seems a waste that he's stuck in the rather silly (and quite boring) Anti-Immigrants team with very boring Swagger. The bloke is such an amazingly strong and talented wrestler - I just love watching him wrestle. Great NXT overall.

The reason Cesaro is in that team is because they threw a million pieces of shit at the wall for him before that and none of them stuck. He's a great wrestler but let's not pretend that he's not boring as fuck. He was given chance after chance to get over as a singles guy on the main shows and failed every time. Aside from the NXT feud with Sami, his current run with Swagger and Zeb is the best thing he's been a part of.

[aaron]

I thought he was getting somewhere... and then they had him start Yodelling.

[SpiritOfTheForest]

They were silly separating him and Aksana so quickly. Those two worked well together and the five languages thing pretty entertaining.

[Froggivizal_Version1.0]

They were silly separating him and Aksana so quickly. Those two worked well together and the five languages thing pretty entertaining.

 

Cesaro dumping Aksana in 5 languages should have sent him soaring up the card, but they wasted it on SmackDown! so no-one cared. Give it an extra few months, and he'd have been golden.

 

I always thought Cesaro was on the rise when he was picking up Khali and the fans were about to buy into him, but then they stuck him with The Miz, who seems to be killing everyone's momentum these days.

[d-d-d-dAz]

They could stick Cesaro with Cena and he'd just be 'the boring bloke that's having great matches with John Cena'.

Edited August 24, 2013 by d-d-d-dAz

[Onyx2]

Someone has compiled every match between Sami Zayn and Antonio Cesaro up to this NXT match:

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

 

2005.09.24 - Alex Shelley, Claudio Castagnoli, Joey Ryan & Super Dragon vs Brandon Thomaselli, El Generico, Nate Webb & Puma - IWA-MS: Ted Petty Invitational 2005, Night 2

2006.05.06 - The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) & Arrogance (Chris Bosh & Scott Lost) vs Cape Fear (El Generico & Quicksilver), Kevin Steen & Super Dragon - PWG: (Please Don't Call it) The O.C.

2006.07.16 - The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) vs Cape Fear (El Generico & Quicksilver) - PWG: Threemendous

2007.04.29 - Atsushi Aoki, El Generico & Martin Stone vs Trent Acid & Swiss Money Holding (Ares & Claudio Castagnoli) - King of Europe Cup 2007, Night 2

2007.07.28 - Claudio Castagnoli vs El Generico - ROH: Race to the Top Tournament, Night 2

2008.01.26 - El Generico vs Claudio Castagnoli - ROH: Without Remorse

2008.04.18 - Claudio Castagnoli & Nigel McGuinness vs El Generico & Kevin Steen - ROH: Tag Wars 2008

2009.03.04 - Claudio Castagnoli vs Blue Demon Jr. vs Brent Albright vs El Generico - ROH: Supercard of Honor IV

2009.09.25 - Claudio Castagnoli vs Chris Hero vs El Generico vs Petey Williams - ROH: The Final Countdown Tour, Night 3

2010.08.30 - The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) vs Colt Cabana & El Generico - ROH: HDNet #72

2010.09.10 - The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) © vs Colt Cabana & El Generico - ROH: Fade to Black

2010.12.11 - Peligro Abejas (El Generico & Paul London) © vs The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) - PWG: Cyanide, a Loving Tribute to Poison

2011.01.14 - Davey Richards, El Generico & The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) vs Christopher Daniels, Roderick Strong & The King of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) - ROH: Champions vs All-Stars

2011.01.29 - Claudio Castagnoli © vs El Generico - PWG: Kurt Russellreunion 2: The Reunioning

2011.08.20 - El Generico vs Claudio Castagnoli - PWG: Battle of Los Angeles 2011

2013.05.22 - Sami Zayn vs Antonio Cesaro - NXT

2013.06.12 - Antonio Cesaro vs Sami Zayn - NXT

2013.07.17 - Leo Kruger vs Antonio Cesaro vs Sami Zayn - NXT

2013.07.31 - Antonio Cesaro & Leo Kruger vs Bo Dallas & Sami Zayn - NXT

2013.08.21 - Antonio Cesaro vs Sami Zayn - 2/3 Falls - NXT

 

 

[close spoiler]

");document.close();

 

8 years worth of matches! Really surprising to me.

[DJM]

On the subject of Cesaro, what if they put him in the New Corporation as one of their heavies (along with The Shield)? At the worst it would lead to another Cesaro/Bryan match down the road, which would not be a bad thing.

 

It looks like we are going to see Bryan going against members of the Shield for the next month or two, why not add Cesaro as another road block on the way to fighting Orton? (Other than that leading to splitting up The Real Americans).

[Arch Stanton]

Cesaro's fine where he is. They seem to be putting a little effort into building up the tag team division and you would imagine that the Real Americans team will be the obvious opponents for Los Matadores when they debut, so there will be plenty of good undercard stuff to keep him busy for the rest of the year.

[Onyx2]

Am I the only one who finds The Ascension just ridiculous? There's something in the eyes of those two that I just don't think they believe it, particularly Brandon DiCamillo or whoever he is. I'm aware this is wrestling we're talking about but it's too hokey even for NXT.

 

The finisher's good, ironically enough for the topic subtitle it's the one that my action figure tag team champions used to do.

 

I'm still confused as to why WWE would let CJ Parker use that name. Surely there's only one CJ Parker to most people?

 

I just Googled it; I never saw Baywatch so it went over my head. Could it possibly be an elaborate long joke?

Edited August 24, 2013 by Black2

[Dirty Eddie]

Sami and AC was gold however. When you see how great Cesaro can be (like against Bryan the other week from RAW and with this match) it seems a waste that he's stuck in the rather silly (and quite boring) Anti-Immigrants team with very boring Swagger. The bloke is such an amazingly strong and talented wrestler - I just love watching him wrestle. Great NXT overall.

The reason Cesaro is in that team is because they threw a million pieces of shit at the wall for him before that and none of them stuck. He's a great wrestler but let's not pretend that he's not boring as fuck. He was given chance after chance to get over as a singles guy on the main shows and failed every time. Aside from the NXT feud with Sami, his current run with Swagger and Zeb is the best thing he's been a part of.

 

I think that's a bit harsh. He was bogged down in the awful "cycle of Smackdown" where people trade wins and nothing matters. He had the 5 languages thing and the Aksana/Teddy deal. What were the other millions of things? Don't get me wrong, he was bland as shit as a character for much of his time before this tag team with Swagger, but then so was most of Smackdown's regular undercard lot last year. He had feuds with R-Truth and Miz who are rubbish faces these days and the Aksana thing lead nowhere and helped no-one. I didn't find him any more boring as a character than Barrett, Miz, Swagger, Cody or Del Rio but he was often having much more interesting matches.

 

I think he'll find his groove character-wise and do well for himself. Might take a while though and working with Zeb is certainly a good thing.

[gold76]

Cesaro is a great go-to guy for them.

 

Someone who you can set your watch to, that they can trust to have a first class match with anyone.

 

Perfect for the mid card, respected by the fans.

 

His blandness as a character is a mere aside for me..