NXT 2017 Thread *SPOILERS*

Stereomaniac

He's really been good the last while. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what happens between himself and Samoa Joe next month. What do you think is going to happen?

Pentecost

Wouldn't mind too much if he lost the title possibly by Joe cheating or something. Have him furiously chasing Joe and trying to get the title back.

Stereomaniac

I don't know, I'd like to see him go over Joe, but look like he's about to lose a few times beforehand.

SureYWouldntYa

I'm really glad that this Takeover main event doesn't have an obvious result at the end. Every match since the first Zayn v Owens one has had a pretty obvious outcome.

Monokne

It seems pretty obvious Balor is taking this one, no?

SureYWouldntYa

Monokne wrote: »

It seems pretty obvious Balor is taking this one, no?

Compared to last few it's not completely obvious

Owens v Zayn 2: Zayn was injured, was never walking away with title
Owens v Balor 1: Balor was always going to win in Japan, combined with Owens starting on full roster
Owens v Balor 2: Owens was never winning back the title while on full roster
Sasha v Bayley 1: Bayley was always winning with Sasha going onto full roster
Sasha v Bayley 2: No way was Sasha winning back title while full time on main roster

Sasha v Becky in May could have gone either way, I find it hard to get into any match when there's an obvious direction, but that's why this one was so good

Joe could easily walk away champion to give Balor something to chase while in his last few months in NXT

A Primal Nut

I have to give credit to Eva Marie. She's not a great wrestler, but she's made up for it by learning to work the crowd better than almost anyone in WWE these days. And the smarks (who would probably cheer like crazy if a bad worker like Hulk Hogan showed up) fell for it hook, line and sinker. Was a really fun match to watch.

Monokne

I don't think she knows much if anything about working the crowd. They just hate her based on the perception of her as the talentless hottie the company is pushing. She's got a perfect opportunity to be a really aggressive heel and get after the people. That segment where she got on the mic and challenged Bayley for the title was a missed opportunity. She could have gotten really aggressive and gotten after the people. Instead she stood there meekly, clearly intimidated, like a deer in the headlights saying "seriously, be quiet" or something. You can tell how intimidating she finds the crowds anger toward her. If she can get confident and embrace the role, they really have something.

Stereomaniac

I think they already have something with her. That match on this week's episode was great. It wasn't great because of workrate or anything but the whole angle and doubt as to whether or not Bayley was going to come away with the championship really captivated me. Eva Marie played her part well in all of that, I think. She seems to be just being herself, at least how she comes across on Total Divas anyway. "There's a red house over yonder....."

LeeJM

My two cent on the Eva Marie situation. If WWE booked that type of match on Raw or a PPV involving either the WWE Title or Divas Title it would be shít on from a great height by pretty much everyone. But as its happened in NXT its amazing and wonderful and Eva Marie is a fantastic heel. Not for me, sorry. The match was still in slow motion. Eva just shouldnt be wrestling and Im gonna say it now either she or somebody she is working with is gonna end up getting hurt. Also, the stuff with "Corporate" wanting Eva to be champ is stupid as "Corporate" is HHH and Steph. And yet the next time HHH is on NXT he'll be the most over guy ever seen in Full Sail.

Eva is a great heel in that she has legit heat from those people in Full Sail. She has Vickie Guerrero heat. She needs to learn how to deal with that though as Monokne pointed out she still seems really flustered that she gets booed so much. Vickie started on Smackdown and had arenas with 6-10 thousand fans booing her so loud that she couldnt even be heard on the mic and yet Eva cant deal with I think its 1,000 capacity in Full Sail. It would seem that she is now going to be a manager. Probably the right move but I have no faith in WWE/NXT that she wont overshadow whoever she manages, it will still be all about her.

If i were in charge I'd give her 6 months from now to get a manager schtick down and teach her how to get others over. If she doesnt show signs of improvement I'd let her go. Horrible as it is to say but women like Eva are EVERYWHERE and she would be fairly easy to replace. There is also plenty of gorgeous women who actually enjoy wrestling and probably wouldnt leave at the first chance of a job at E!. We all know Eva has no interest in WWE and is only there to get exposure, I say let E! have her and build a new star who can actually work.

Monokne

LeeJM wrote: »

My two cent on the Eva Marie situation. If WWE booked that type of match on Raw or a PPV involving either the WWE Title or Divas Title it would be shít on from a great height by pretty much everyone. But as its happened in NXT its amazing and wonderful and Eva Marie is a fantastic heel. Not for me, sorry. The match was still in slow motion. Eva just shouldnt be wrestling and Im gonna say it now either she or somebody she is working with is gonna end up getting hurt. Also, the stuff with "Corporate" wanting Eva to be champ is stupid as "Corporate" is HHH and Steph. And yet the next time HHH is on NXT he'll be the most over guy ever seen in Full Sail.

Eva is a great heel in that she has legit heat from those people in Full Sail. She has Vickie Guerrero heat. She needs to learn how to deal with that though as Monokne pointed out she still seems really flustered that she gets booed so much. Vickie started on Smackdown and had arenas with 6-10 thousand fans booing her so loud that she couldnt even be heard on the mic and yet Eva cant deal with I think its 1,000 capacity in Full Sail. It would seem that she is now going to be a manager. Probably the right move but I have no faith in WWE/NXT that she wont overshadow whoever she manages, it will still be all about her.

If i were in charge I'd give her 6 months from now to get a manager schtick down and teach her how to get others over. If she doesnt show signs of improvement I'd let her go. Horrible as it is to say but women like Eva are EVERYWHERE and she would be fairly easy to replace. There is also plenty of gorgeous women who actually enjoy wrestling and probably wouldnt leave at the first chance of a job at E!. We all know Eva has no interest in WWE and is only there to get exposure, I say let E! have her and build a new star who can actually work.

I'd never heard her say she had no interest in WWE, interesting. Where was it she said this? Flies in the face of what Kendrick said about her:
"Eva went to the higher-ups and asked to learn and train and they said that there is a school in Los Angeles so that way she can still do all of her appearances and so they can keep her in LA.". Odd that she asked them to let her wrestle even though she has no interest. Totally contradictory.

CastorTroy

I think the whole idea of trying to have Eva win, including sending Charles Robinson in to help, came out of nowhere. After the big deal being made about Bayley and Sasha in the Ironman match, they're now suddenly trying to screw Bayley out of the title? There was no reason for that. It wasn't like Bayley had confronted Steph, HHH or Regal. Or are we to believe it's all Cole's doing?

Virtanen

CastorTroy wrote: »

I think the whole idea of trying to have Eva win, including sending Charles Robinson in to help, came out of nowhere. After the big deal being made about Bayley and Sasha in the Ironman match, they're now suddenly trying to screw Bayley out of the title? There was no reason for that. It wasn't like Bayley had confronted Steph, HHH or Regal. Or are we to believe it's all Cole's doing?

I thought it was clever, really. Everyone knows the WWE want Eva to be a top Diva, so they scripted the story to reflect real life, by trying to push her to the top without having deserved it

Stereomaniac

I'd second that. It was reflective of what people are reading online, no doubt and the live crowd and from the sounds of things, people here as well, bought into it. It was very entertaining.

Monokne

It was absolutely perfect for the audience the show is aimed at. The 400,000 people who log on to the network and watch NXT each week are on the Observer site or boards like this. They know the company is determined to make Eva a star and they probably know that Meltzer was reporting only recently that Eva was going to be the one to take the title from Bayley, eventually. So they played off that. It was perfect. The audience responded to Eva the way the ECW crowd viewed Cena at One Night Stand, only they'd even less respect for Eva. Great TV.

Stereomaniac

I think people who are getting up in arms about this thing are maybe reading into things a bit too much. Bayley is still definitely the star of the show for the moment, with Asuka close behind her. If Eva Marie matches can be as entertaining as they were last week, I have no issue with her being in high profile matches, provided every single one isn't the same.

sky88

Stereomaniac wrote: »

I think people who are getting up in arms about this thing are maybe reading into things a bit too much. Bayley is still definitely the star of the show for the moment, with Asuka close behind her. If Eva Marie matches can be as entertaining as they were last week, I have no issue with her being in high profile matches, provided every single one isn't the same.

i think with eva marie when its just a match she works so slow i cant enjoy it. Reminds me of kelly kelly a lot her matches seemed like she concentrated on not efffin anything up more then the match.

although the whole story of the match was done brilliantly i thought making it look like the screwjob was going to happen. they displayed bayley like the underdog she has always been. thats the difference in storytelling between the main roster and nxt were there trying to display reigns as an underdog but he has never been and its just manufactured.

Angron

sky88 wrote: »

i think with eva marie when its just a match she works so slow i cant enjoy it. Reminds me of kelly kelly a lot her matches seemed like she concentrated on not efffin anything up more then the match.

although the whole story of the match was done brilliantly i thought making it look like the screwjob was going to happen. they displayed bayley like the underdog she has always been. thats the difference in storytelling between the main roster and nxt were there trying to display reigns as an underdog but he has never been and its just manufactured.

Feels like a pretty good summary tbh. Trying so hard not to screw up technically, that it completely wrecks any pacing.

Stereomaniac

sky88 wrote: »

i think with eva marie when its just a match she works so slow i cant enjoy it. Reminds me of kelly kelly a lot her matches seemed like she concentrated on not efffin anything up more then the match.

although the whole story of the match was done brilliantly i thought making it look like the screwjob was going to happen. they displayed bayley like the underdog she has always been. thats the difference in storytelling between the main roster and nxt were there trying to display reigns as an underdog but he has never been and its just manufactured.

I thought that each of the interruptions covered up Eva Marie's shortcomings well.

A Primal Nut

sky88 wrote: »

i think with eva marie when its just a match she works so slow i cant enjoy it. Reminds me of kelly kelly a lot her matches seemed like she concentrated on not efffin anything up more then the match.

although the whole story of the match was done brilliantly i thought making it look like the screwjob was going to happen. they displayed bayley like the underdog she has always been. thats the difference in storytelling between the main roster and nxt were there trying to display reigns as an underdog but he has never been and its just manufactured.

I'm not saying Eva did this intentionally but it used to be heels worked a slower style intentionally to get heat. In that sense this whole story is like old-school booking.

Let's face it, with the fans the way they are these days it's hard to get heel heat. Kevin Owens insults whole cities and stills get cheered. Pretty much the only way to get heel heat these days is to be bad in the ring. It's a good way to get the babyface over and it made Bayley more of a star in my opinion. Babyfaces having a few of these kinds of matches from time to time isn't a bad thing. Let's face it, it's one episode of NXT, not a ppv main event.

A Primal Nut

Monokne wrote: »

I don't think she knows much if anything about working the crowd. They just hate her based on the perception of her as the talentless hottie the company is pushing

There was plenty of times she stopped and taunted the crowd or blew kisses at them. It's a simple thing but most heels these days don't or aren't allowed to do that.

Monokne

She probably did, truthfully I don't remember. I think she's got something but I also don't think she has the confidence yet to exploit it as much as she *could*

sky88

Monokne wrote: »

She probably did, truthfully I don't remember. I think she's got something but I also don't think she has the confidence yet to exploit it as much as she *could*

i think there is a great heel there as people do seem to hate her naturally as well.

i think she would do well as a kind of manager for nia jax and occasional wrestler.

DM_7

The main event was booked really well. It's the first Eva match I watched on NXT and her ring presence has improved a huge amount. Well done to her. I don't see any reason her technical skill can't continue to improve with more match time.

I still think it looks like Bo Dallas heat, in that full sail don't like the person/idea of them but a less aware audience may not react at all.

gerrybbadd

Chad Gable whipping out a German Suplex in this amateur match, is awesome

https://youtu.be/jYn12-FSvxM

The Ayatolla

gerrybbadd wrote: »

Chad Gable whipping out a German Suplex in this amateur match, is awesome

https://youtu.be/jYn12-FSvxM

Around the 2min5 mark. Class.

Palo Alto

My dream is to see him v Zack Sabre Jnr.

Itssoeasy

Just watching this weeks episode and so the vaudevillians are heels now and Simon gotch looked like he was banged up after the match against Jordan and gable(who are so ****ing slick in the ring)

Emma is a good example of how nxt can be a way for someone who is being mishandled on the main roster to tweek their character. I love asuka. Love her.

CastorTroy

Blue Pants back with new music.

Watching Jordan and Gable reminded me more of Angle than World's Greatest Tag Team.

Sami back at Takeover or after?

Monokne

The buildup would certainly lead you to believe he redebuts at Takeover. He is on that tour.