Smarkass Comments: NXT 09.21.10

Watching the third episode of NXT Season 3, Michelle and I both wondered what the point of this is. The quality has devolved to the point where the people watching it on TV shit on what's happening, the critics shit on what's happening, the live audience shits on what's happening, the announcers shit on what's happening, and even the performers shit on what's happening. The message is loud and clear: this show is rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreally fucking bad and the WWE knows it. So, why is it continuing on this path instead of switching to become something better? Why not try to improve things? Some have speculated that since NXT is on its way out, losing its TV deal when Smackdown switches to SyFy (the current home of NXT) next week, that the WWE is going to bury it on its way out. It didn't fail because the WWE couldn't sell it, it failed because it just didn't work no matter what they tried. I don't quite grasp the logic either, but it's hard to know what's going in Vince McMahon's head.

Personally, I don't buy that argument anyway. Why bury your show? Then again, I can't really think of a better reason for why the show is so goddamn bad. It's like they took the worst parts of the previous two NXT seasons (lame competitions/segments, unpolished/bad wrestlers) and lost the good parts (experienced/quality wrestlers, good use of the pros at times). It's baffling. While the truth behind what's going on at TNA right now would be a fascinating story, I would honestly be more interested in finding out the thinking behind NXT at this point. At least TNA tries to sell Impact as quality -- the WWE has given up on making NXT seem good. It's just a giant turd that they're stuck with for now and they've accepted that. Hell, they've embraced that and decided to let everyone know that they know.

A few random thoughts:

* CM Punk had a few good lines, but was pretty restrained.

* Um, if Aksana has been in the US since 2001, shouldn't she qualify for citizenship?

* When Michael Cole came out, I expected him to be carrying a half-empty bottle of whiskey and ranting...

* Naomi got the biggest pop of the night for calling the 'Talk the Talk' segment bullshit. And then they kept going.

* AJ dominated the night with two competition wins plus a victory in the ring. Considering she's the one with talent, best to just back her now.

* The musical chairs bit was pretty bad, especially since, yesterday, we happened to get to the point on disc three of The Best of Raw 15th Anniversary DVD where Eugene forced a bunch of people to play musical chairs to earn a title shot. That version at least had some storytelling with no one except Stacey Keibler and Jerry Lawler (wanting to follow Stacey and stare at her ass) participating at first... until the music stopped and everyone stood there for beat before making a mad dash for the chairs. Then, there was the green mist in Coach's face, Lawler sitting on Stacey's lap, Ric Flair shoving Stacey out of the way and then strutting only to miss a chance to sit in a chair. It also finished well with Chris Jericho grabbing the chair when Tomko tried to sit in it, hitting him with the chair, and then sitting in it himself to win. Yeah, it was kind of lame, but they at least tried to make it entertaining. Not so much this time.

Really, though, a bad show. And I don't know why it has to be that way.

Smarkass Comments: NXT 09.07.10

A few days late, but that's fine with me. Season three of NXT kicked off this week under somewhat strange cirumstances. Brief history lesson: NXT, which airs in the US on SyFy, is the replacement for ECW, the former 'third brand' of the WWE, which shrank in ratings as it went on, because no one gave a fuck. NXT is similar to ECW in that the point is to give younger talents a chance to perform on TV and improve their skills, against one another and veterans. ECW did this by acting like a regular wrestling show; NXT does it by being a competition. Start with eight rookies, pair them each up with a 'pro' and let them go, doing inane challenges, working in short matches, getting voted off one-by-one until one rookie is left as the winner, complete with a move to either Raw or Smackdown and a title shot on a PPV. The results have been mixed and the ratings not the improvement that SyFy wanted. So, SyFy will beginning airing Smackdown in October as the WWE flees the dying MyNetworkTV -- and doesn't want NXT anymore. Season two ended last week and that leaves a gap of five weeks, so the WWE did the smart, logical thing: they paired down the number of contestants to six and made it a show featuring women rookies. Yes, they appear to be trying to kill it off.

Now, the idea of NXT being women-only appealed to me quite a bit. I thought, prior to ECW ending but when its demise was heavily rumoured, that changing ECW to an all-Divas (as women wrestlers are called in the WWE) show would be interesting. Divas are, by and large, not good wrestlers. Their matches are thought of as a chance to go get some food, use the bathroom, whatever so long as it doesn't involve watching them wrestle. Part of this is the result of hiring women for their looks rather than their skills, but another part is that none of them are ever given a good chance to improve or get over with the audience. Each weekly TV show usually has one Diva segment at most, while numerous PPVs will go by with no Divas matches. That's not an environment where someone will improve and get over with the audience. But, an hour-long weekly show devoted exclusively to the Divas where they could all have stories and feuds, and get a chance to wrestle more? That sounded good to me. Probably a horrible business decision, but definitely interesting.

So, NXT season three being Divas only? Yeah, I'd give that a try. The results were... pretty fucking terrible. Former play-by-play man and current WWE.com ruler Joey Styles said that it was definitely more 'E' than 'W' (entertainment than wrestling, both parts of 'WWE') and I can see where he'd take that approach, except for one thing: it wasn't entertaining. It was kind of brutal to watch these six women, only a couple of which showed any skills that would suggest putting them on TV as women wrestlers. Their promo abilities? Shit. Stuck in a dance competition? The fuck? The longest match had the two rookies wrestle some more after it was over and try to go for a pin! The other match was thankfully short -- blink and you missed it.

Not sure if I'll tune in next week, but... then again, if it's only on TV for the next few weeks, it may be worth watching while I can. Though, what happens after its run ends on SyFy is still not certain. It may become a web-exclusive show or be incorporated into Raw and/or Smackdown. We'll see. The first episode, though, was really bad. When Michelle is scoffing and joining in my mockery, you know it's shit, because she's more inclined to either not care if it doesn't interest her or, well, just be a nicer person than I am. When she joins in, you're in trouble.

Smarkass Comments: WWE NXT 07.13.10

Oh, NXT, why are you so mediocre? For one thing, half of the episode seems to be killed with introductions and recaps of other stuff. Honestly, is there anyone watching NXT that doesn't watch Raw and/or Smackdown? (The correct answer is no... excluding any family/friends of people on NXT only, but they don't count/care about what's going on elsewhere.) So, once you get rid of the long, pointless introductions and entire segments that are nothing but recaps, you don't have a lot of time to really showcase people. This episode had one mixed tag match and it was... well, whatever. It confirmed for me that "Lucky" Cannon won't be going anywhere any time soon, something I already knew.

That left the "Showtime" Percy Watson Show/battle royal... both of which were underwhelming. Watson was nervous and didn't get much time to do anything. He speaks a little too quickly, but is entertaining. Him and the NXT rookies turning on MVP was lame since the pros were right there. They didn't take it in the natural place it was meant to, which was to then have the Nexus assist the rookies in taking down the pros. Instead, we had the pointless battle royal that was much too long without anything too interesting aside from the Miz eliminating himself to stay fresh for Money in the Bank. The Nexus beat people up... and then did it again. Somehow, they stopped the match when all of the Nexus remained and simply declared the group the winner of the match despite it being a fucking battle royal that wasn't a team match.

I have decided that I want Triple H to be the man behind Nexus and also be the anonymous Raw General Manager. His own little powerplay to take over the McMahon empire. Possibly with Stephanie at his side. Maybe him behind Nexus, her as the GM... Yes, that is what I want.

NXT this week... utterly forgettable and not very good.

Smarkass Comments: WWE NXT 06.22.10

Because of the NBA draft tomorrow night, the Score aired NXT a day early this week. Because of watching some Babylon 5 with Michelle, I came in fifteen minutes late. And, because of writing a comic review, I only payed attention to the matches really -- and the final segment since I finished the review. Something about NXT just doesn't capture my interest. Maybe it's knowing for sure that at least half of these guys will go nowhere. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Some brief random thoughts:

* Man, watching the Kaval/Eli Cottonwood match was like watching an argument for everything that's wrong with the WWE style of booking matches and wrestlers. On one hand, we have Kaval who fills matches with stunning offence that's innovative and fun to watch. On the other, we have a slow, plodding big man who doesn't do much except not fall down and do simplistic power moves like punches, chops, and slams. Kaval carried the match and gets the loss. I know, I know, wins and losses don't matter really, but, fuck, would it kill them to push the guy who can actually fucking wrestle? Is that too much to ask?

* Joe Hennig is solid in the ring. Not as good as Kaval, but definitely someone to keep an eye on.

* Cody Rhodes going over Luck Cannon made total sense. Cannon didn't look that good in there at all.

* The final segment was pretty solid with each rookie given 45 seconds to sell themselves to the fans and pros. Alex Riley was good. Kaval was okay. Titus O'Neil had some good passion. Hennig was short and sweet. Cottonwood seems genuinely creepy. Showtime was just funny. Cannon was dull. Husky Harris's attack on Striker worked with what Rhodes did last week.

It's odd to see rookie types wrestle WWE style in successive matches, because, fuck, that's a boring style when done by lesser talents. Kaval stood out this week. Hennig is solid. The rest, I don't know. As I said to Michelle tonight, I could really take or leave this show.

Smarkass Comments: WWE NXT 06.15.10

Actually caught all of NXT this week with its 8 pm Thursday airing on the Score here in Canada. Some thoughts:

* MVP's delivery of the explanation to the rookies for last week's beatdown was quite strong. Sometimes, I forget how good MVP is on the mic and, then, he's given a chance to speak. Not as bombastic or jokey as he usually does, this was just straight talk. The beatdown was a lesson/warning/initiation/challenge.

* The Kaval/Alex Riley match was alright, but lacking. Considering Kaval's skill level and Riley being FCW champion, I expected a lot from this one. Kaval wasn't moving too quick, while Riley never got past the most basic of 'I'm bigger than my opponent so I'll just hit him a lot' moves. LayCool on commentary was funny. Not sure about the decision to give Riley the win. Like Danielson last 'season,' Kaval has been paired with pros that make us wonder what the fuck is going on and he's made to lose despite his obvious accomplishments in the ring. There's a theory that since he's so good/respected, he can put others over -- but I'd rather just see a guy who is built up as great in the ring just be great in the ring and win. Kaval's personality isn't as likable as Danielson's -- it lends itself better to the violent heel that dominates his opponents. Plus, this match had the awful finish of Guy A beats the shit out of Guy B until Guy B hits finishing move out of nowhere for the win. I'd rather just a fluke roll-up or small package. Guys just hitting finishers out of nowhere makes you wonder why they waited so long.

* The pros comments after that first match where awful. Morrison seems to be losing his mic skills as he goes, while Ryder was... meh. I don't get the love for him.

* The mixed pro/rookie tag match was alright, but the difference between "Lucky" Cannon and Joe Hennig in the ring is so obvious that it made this hard to take too seriously. Cody Rhodes's tear down of Cannon after the match was spot-on. Though, I did like Mark Henry sticking up for his rookie even if he did use the word 'lucky' about two hundred times.

I like the format of the show, especially with the pros watching matches and taking notes. Kaval and Riley underwhelmed a bit, but the stuff with LayCool was funny. Joe Hennig looked strong, while Cannon was forgettable. A solid show.

Smarkass Comments: WWE NXT 06.08.10

Beginning with the second 'season' of NXT, the Score here in Canada is showing it on Thursday nights at 8 pm, meaning I could have three hours of wrestling on Thursdays if I chose with TNA Impact on at nine. I tend to tape and watch Impact on Friday during the day, but maybe I'll begin subjecting Michelle to its pure fucking awfulness...

For those who don't know, NXT is a little different from Raw and Smackdown. It replaced the C-show/brand in the WWE, ECW, earlier this year. It's meant to be part typical wrestling show, part reality show... kind of. There are eight 'rookies' paired with eight pros where, by the end of the 'season,' one rookie will win and be given a WWE contract and title shot at a PPV. Last week, Chris Jericho's rookie Wade Barrett won the first round of competition, but, on Raw this week, all of the first group of eight rookies attacked John Cena, CM Punk, and everyone ringside, destroying the ring and some of the surrounding barriers, so this episode had that hanging over its head.

But, from what I've read, not much was done with that.

Anyway...

I came in partway through a match between MVP & Percy Watston and Cody Rhodes & Husky Harris. It didn't wow me, but it was only two or three minutes at the end of a match.

After, we got a promo video for Mike McGillicutty aka Joe Hennig, the son of Mr. Perfect (Curt Hennig). The choice to not have Hennig arrive with his real name is mystifying since that's something that can be traded upon and was one of the big reasons why he was signed to begin with. The WWE had a big hard-on for second- and third-generation wrestlers, often using their family names to get them over. A goofy name like Mike McGillicutty makes little sense. Husky Harris is another third-generation star and his name seems to be a message: you're fat. Oh, Vince...

This season of NXT makes me laugh since at least the first season had some veteran pros like Chris Jericho, William Regal, Christian, CM Punk, and Matt Hardy. This season has Mark Henry and, then... MVP? Definitely a step down as far as the 'pros' go. I mean, Zack Ryder? He's barely around as it is let alone enough to be worth believing as a pro who can advise a rookie. And that's not meant as a slight against Ryder since I like his work and he's obviously a pro, but it's not just about literally being a pro, it's about having that veteran appearance.

Before the final segment of the show, they replayed the attack from Raw and... I love it every time I see it. Especially Bryan Daniel yelling "You are not better than me!" over and over to the beaten and broken John Cena. He really isn't. And a little kid yelling "Mr. King!" at Jerry Lawler. So good.

The episode ended with this season's pros beating up their rookies to send a message. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get new information on last season's NXT gang, but this established the new group and had a... somewhat appropriate response. Nothing impressed me, but we'll see what happens with next week's episode, which I plan to watch in full.