The NXT Discussion Thread

[Nick James]

Never saw the hype at all with Kushida. You can blame creative for a lot of that, but the guy was boring as fuck in the ring too. The most interesting thing he ever did was be the reason for Alex Shelley to pop up in NXT.

His cards were numbered once NXT changed type away from the workrate brigade, even though he had some type of time travelling gimmick that 3 years later I'm still non the wiser on, other than I presume he enjoyed Back to the Future.

[TildeGuy~!]

33 minutes ago, Nick James said:

Never saw the hype at all with Kushida. You can blame creative for a lot of that, but the guy was boring as fuck in the ring too. The most interesting thing he ever did was be the reason for Alex Shelley to pop up in NXT.

His cards were numbered once NXT changed type away from the workrate brigade, even though he had some type of time travelling gimmick that 3 years later I'm still non the wiser on, other than I presume he enjoyed Back to the Future.

He was a solid hand in New Japan, always good in ring, Triple H was a huge fan of his too, but yea he just didn’t connect in NXT like everyone thought he would, after he got put in the comedy tag team gimmick with Ikeman Jiro you could tell he wouldn’t be there much longer, Jiro was a comedy character in Japan so it suits him tons more.

Best Of The Super Juniors is coming up in Japan so I’m guessing he’ll be back in time for that.

Edited April 19, 2022 by TildeGuy~!

[The King Of Swing]

Problem is being a good wrestler will only get you so far when surrounded by loads of other really good or even better wrestlers.

As far as Japanese wrestlers go Io, Asuka, Nakamura, etc. all brought something to WWE outside of being just being really good wrestlers. 

If her current gimmick doesn't take off I can see also Sarray being out the door sooner rather than later. 

.

[Loki]

Sarray should leave, she brings nothing to the table.

 Being Big In Japan has never worked in WWE.  The only person who made it work was Nakamura by sheer force of personality, and to some extent Io Shirai who completely overhauled her look and character.

Kushida joins the long list of top Japanese workers who never really got what WWE needs.  Bring able to have a technically sound match is not enough, and looking at your watch isn’t enough either.

 Show was ok this week - I’m not huge on Gacey but he’s just Bron fodder for the next PPV.  

Grizzled Young Vets are back, but still jobbing and they’ve lost their tag team name, so they might be in the way out of NXT it feels.  Pity - they’re ace.

 The men’s division feels a bit light since the call ups, which unfortunately means more tv time for Von Wagner.  Where’s Odyssey Jones? At least he’s fun.

 

 

[Devon Malcolm]

Maybe we should consider the possibility that Japanese wrestling is crap.

[BomberPat]

I think it's more worth considering the possibility that WWE have been terrible at getting anyone over for years, so it's hardly a "Japanese wrestler" problem. 

[Devon Malcolm]

2 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I think it's more worth considering the possibility that WWE have been terrible at getting anyone over for years, so it's hardly a "Japanese wrestler" problem. 

I don't necessarily disagree with the first point, but what wrestler have they brought over from being 'good in Japan' and hasn't been a complete letdown, failure or just outright shit? It can't just be a WWE thing when they've had plenty of non-Japanese stars and ex-gaijins do some interesting stuff.

[BomberPat]

In recent years - Asuka, Kairi Hojo, Io Shirai and Shinsuke Nakamura all come to mind, and historically, The Great Sasuke, Kaientai, plenty of others. Finn Balor and AJ Styles were both brought in largely as a result of their time in New Japan.

I'd say the balance is much more in the other direction, where it's a select few - The Good Brothers and Lord Tensai - that turn out to be bobbins in spite of WWE investing heavily in them.

For Kushida, I'd basically clocked out of NXT for most of his run, but he seemed to spend a significant chunk of it injured, or not doing anything to get him on the big shows. Without getting into Vince McMahon "grasp the brass ring" territory, I don't think many wrestlers would have had much luck with what he was given.

[WyattSheepMask]

The big question is will they ever get that ‘Sleeps with the Fishes’ reference right?

Edited April 21, 2022 by WyattSheepMask

[Vamp]

I'm not sure Kushida wouldn't have been an after thought in NJPW at the time anyway. He was clearly being surpassed by Hiromu and (ugh) Ospreay. He'd also done everything there was to do in the Junior division and probably didn't reckon on a push to the heavyweight division at the time. 

[air_raid]

Kushida got over big time as a babyface in Japan because it’s near 100% about how you draw sympathy getting beaten up, then how much they get behind your fiery comebacks. He was very good at all that, but it doesn’t translate great to WWE where the character has a much bigger stake in people caring than bell to bell.

Heels have a much better chance when there’s a language barrier, people spot a dickhead in the ring pretty easily. If they’d let KENTA/Hideo be a heel straight from the off, I think he’d have been a superstar.

[Merzbow]

Wow, no posts since April? It's that dull?

Anyway, Trips is maybe back in some way.

 

[gmoney]

Was he talking about Michael Jordan? 

 

[Nick James]

Stephanie as Interim CEO and now HHH back at NXT? I wonder where the story about Vince was leaked from.

[Merzbow]

A coup is the ultimate fantasy booking of real life but I'm here for it.