AEW Double or Nothing

[BomberPat]

It's a wider problem of nothing in WWE having any consequence. It seems most obvious when we talk about recent NXT call-ups, but when was the last time anything Cesaro did feel like it mattered? Or Rusev? Hell, even half the main event - when they trot out John Cena, when was the last time it mattered? Randy Orton vs Triple H just happened, Undertaker vs Goldberg just happened, neither of which will have any consequence, and neither of which they gave us any reason to care about beyond being told, over and over again, that we should care about them.

I said earlier in this thread that Dean Ambrose is a former WWE Champion, held a range of other championships, was one third of arguably the hottest act of this decade, and one of very few wrestlers of his generation to have shared the ring with The Undertaker, Triple H and Brock Lesnar, yet when he left we were still talking about him as a missed opportunity. Because nothing WWE does has any lasting consequence any more. 

[King Pitcos]

15 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

That's exactly what I'd do. Build someone up every week with a brief, digestible vignette covering their story before debuting them in the last week of the month. "NXT Rookie Of The Month" or something like that.

Of course, should really only do that with truly stand-out talent you really want to push. There's also a need for an actual lower-card and jobbers, so maybe just call up the less stand-out talent via jobber matches or battle royals or multi-man tags or something.

The problem with it is that for most of the top guys on NXT, their journey/character is “I do workrates on Takeover shows.” Then they get to the major leagues and instead of appearing on TV once every 2-3 weeks and having a 25-minute match once every two months or so that the hardcore audience is invested in, they’re having 20 minute matches every week just to fill TV time. And the main shows have already got Rollins, Reigns, Styles, Bryan etc who already have a connection to the audience and are doing similar/better workrates on these shows as well, so it’s harder for the NXT guys to catch on like that.

The acts from NXT that come up and catch on quick are the ones that provide something different to what’s already on the show - Bray Wyatt, the Shield, Enzo and Cass, Elias. An immediate superpush can help, like what Kevin Owens and Finn Balor got upon debuting.

But then there’s also novelty stuff that just works in NXT and doesn’t connect on the main roster - Adam Rose is the biggest example that comes to mind, which they’ve copied with No Way Jose to similar indifference from crowds. To an extent, Nakamura fits into this as well, as he’s got little to offer besides a fun entrance. But if he’d come in feuding with The Miz or... fuck, I don’t even remember who the decent heels were at the time. But feuding with Ziggler from the off didn’t help him, although he beat Cena and Orton in his first few months.

[Carbomb]

1 hour ago, King Pitcos said:

The problem with it is that for most of the top guys on NXT, their journey/character is “I do workrates on Takeover shows.” Then they get to the major leagues and instead of appearing on TV once every 2-3 weeks and having a 25-minute match once every two months or so that the hardcore audience is invested in, they’re having 20 minute matches every week just to fill TV time. And the main shows have already got Rollins, Reigns, Styles, Bryan etc who already have a connection to the audience and are doing similar/better workrates on these shows as well, so it’s harder for the NXT guys to catch on like that.

The acts from NXT that come up and catch on quick are the ones that provide something different to what’s already on the show - Bray Wyatt, the Shield, Enzo and Cass, Elias. An immediate superpush can help, like what Kevin Owens and Finn Balor got upon debuting.

But then there’s also novelty stuff that just works in NXT and doesn’t connect on the main roster - Adam Rose is the biggest example that comes to mind, which they’ve copied with No Way Jose to similar indifference from crowds. To an extent, Nakamura fits into this as well, as he’s got little to offer besides a fun entrance. But if he’d come in feuding with The Miz or... fuck, I don’t even remember who the decent heels were at the time. But feuding with Ziggler from the off didn’t help him, although he beat Cena and Orton in his first few months.

Well, this is it, as well - the other thing is they need to change their booking of the main shows in general, and, from the look of it, it doesn't sem like that's changing any time soon.