Metalhead’s Riff: NXT Illusion?

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NXT Takeover:Unstoppable is in the books and earned almost universal acclaim. A good, solid card  of action, topped by the debut of Samoa Joe, on the surface it seems NXT is still on a roll. In fact, it seems it can do little wring in the eyes of most observers. And yet, when I watched it, I couldn’t help having an ambiguous feeling about the whole thing. yes, it looks great. But what happens once you start scratching away the shiny exterior? How much content and depth does NXT really have? This is not a new feeling, I’ve been struggling with it for some weeks now, but Unstoppable, as good as it seemed to be, actually increased my skepticism about the product.

Let me see if I can explain this to you. Let’s take a look at the current Main Event scene, starting with the Number 1 contender match. Sure, it was good, the contrast between the entrances was great, Breeze has hugely improved as a performer in recent months, kudos to him and Balor has entered a typical Balor performance. And there you have it. Your first problem. A typical Balor performance is still a toned down version of a typical Prince Devitt performance. In fact name me one distinguishing feature of the Finn Balor character aside from his “special occasion only” entrance. You can’t? that’s because there isn’t. In fact Balor has been rather average on the mike and totally bereft of story-lines or character building ever since January. Well, except for the number 1 contender status he won at Rival. But did he really mean that much in the long run? After Rival, I remember having a discussion with FD Swayze about whether the whole Rival finish between Zayn and Owens was good or not (on a side note, little shout out at FD whom I haven’t seen in the comments for awhile now. Hope you’re well Mr Swayze).  Swayze hated it because it, in reality, didn’t make much sense in his opinion. I rather liked it because I thought NXT sold me on the whole thing. One of the reasons I liked it was the fact that with Balor in Number 1 contender position and Zayn having a strong case for a rematch, I thought this would herald a lengthy three way feud at the top. But it didn’t really happened like that, did it? In fact, while the eventual Balor/Owens pay off did produce a good match, it still played second fiddle to the expected Owens/Zayn war, which, at the time, was kept in reserve. So you had Finn and Owens tip-toeing around each-other for months while Zayn was kinda hovering out of sight, followed by a match that was marred by the obvious fact that Owens had to win in order to make his re-match with Zayn mean anything followed by whatever happened at Unstoppable. Great booking? I’m not so sure anymore.

In fact, one could argue Balor is at exactly the same spot as he was after Rival, only, instead of playing second fiddle, his number one contender position is actually playing third fiddle (if there is such a thing). Because NXT refused to give a proper pay-off to the Zayn/Owens feud, ending it in a no-contest of sorts, Zayn is back in his hovering role and now, you have Samoa Joe who is presenting a clear threat to Owens’ reign of terror. That’s great you will say, but, where does that leave Balor? Does his contender position really mean anything by now? Or is he, once again, just there to provide the quality intermezzo before the real feuds start happening (or finally conclude)? The point is, if you’re gonna have you competitive contender matches take a back step to the drama every time, why even bother with them then? Meanwhile the increasingly popular Tyler Breeze seems to be dead in the water right now, after having lost a (once again) a match for a (once again) irrelevant contender spot, which is a shame.

Let’s talk about Zayn for a minute. What is his role now? Crash-test dummy for the Cena’s and Owens’ of this world? Sure he’s a great seller, but he can be so much more than that if they (WWE) allow him to be. Even at Rival, someone (don’t remember who, sorry) correctly noted that they couldn’t do the “injured Zayn fighting on despite the odds” thing too often before it became redundant. Well that’s exactly how Zayn has been portrayed since then. The risk with that is that it might soon (if it hasn’t already) become repetitive and stop any chance Zayn has of becoming a bona-fide superstars. Heroic losers are all very fun, but there comes a point where people (especially in America) grow bored with them. In the end, wrestling fans (or any fan) wants to root for winners, not perpetual losers. Especially if said  losses don’t really mean anything in the long run. Case in point, what was the purpose of the Unstoppable match? To portray Owens as a ruthless bully? He is that already. To showcase the courage (and lack of common sense) of Zayn? We got that already. To introduce Samoa Joe? Ah yes, now you’re getting somewhere, but that also means the heavily anticipated Owens/Zayn rematch lost all meaning since the match, ultimately, was about something else than the Owens/Zayn war. Yes, Joe appearing was great and fun and all you want, but it also indirectly implied that Zayn wasn’t really the main challenge for Owens anymore, and even that he, in fact, never really was. In short, it made Sami look weak. Sorry that’s not great booking in my mind, especially since, because of the lack of a definite result, Zayn is still expected to come back, once more, and defy the odds, once more, and probably play crash-test dummy, once more.

And then there is Kevin Owens. On the plus side he continues to portray his character in a very convincing way and is given much room to pull it off by the booking. On the minus side, there was his RAW introduction. Yes I know, everybody thought it was great, but, was it really? Were we all too blinded by the blast it was to see Owens on RAW to notice there was actually little substance to it? I mean anyone who is familiar with Kevin Steen’s pre-NXT work must have noticed that Kevin Owens’ Raw appearance was a heavily toned down version of what he can usually do when it comes to working the crow. In fact the lion-share of crowd working was carried by Super Boyscout John Cena. What does that tell you? In fact, Neville and Zayn have already hit the Cena brick wall, in my opinion, so did Owens despite the fact he was allowed to destroy Cena (somewhat). I mean it doesn’t really matters that Neville and Zayn were allowed much offense and got to kick out of the AA  (on a side note, the more Cena’s opponents are doing that, the less relevant it becomes), because the whole Cena US Open Challenge is meaningless UNTIL someone actually pulls it off. Until then it’s still “Spoiler: Cena Wins” and don’t tell me that will help make anyone a star. Cena’s star making potential was never really proved in any case so why even go there? It’s like Hogan in the 80’s and 90’s all over again or even Taker’s long procession of opponents in the early 90’s. The NXT guys are just like that, just another opponent that are there to give the real star another match or challenge. With the difference that the NXT guys are much more talented than the 80’s “monster of the month”of course, so THEY are the one who make Cena look good, not the other way around. Never fool yourself into believing otherwise. Owens did kick Cena’s ass, but the fact that a sizable part of the crowd didn’t really know who he was says it all really. IF there is a pay-off to this, Cena will win. he’s the star. Not Owens.  So what’s the point? Wouldn’t it have been better to build up  this confrontation, with the help of vignettes, or even with WWE commentators acknowledging the controversy of Owens methods and style? And then have Owens come out and destroy Cena? Everyone keeps telling me everyone in the WWE Universe knows who the NXT guys are, I’m still not convinced. Hell they even acknowledged that fact during the segment. Vince Russo tells us this was a bad way to do business, and you know what? He was right (for the wrong reasons but still right).

Compare all this, because it isn’t all bad of course, to the way the female NXT stars are booked. Constantly 7 or 8 performers who are in a position to challenge the champion, or start feuds with one another (hell even Blue Pants could become a upset champion the way they have been booking her) and that’s without even counting the excellent Jessie McKay and KC Cassidy. Good, sensible and logical booking. Match with a clear, definite winner AND with a loser that still gets a lot of respect and actually gains momentum from that loss. Some are actually comparing this batch of NXT female stars to the golden days of All Japan Woman in Japan. Bon, I still wouldn’t go quite that far, but you know what? They’re edging closer and closer. That’s because they have a talented group of girls who are actually used to their strengths and not burdened with overly complicated drama and overbooking. If they can do this for the girls, why not doing it for their Main Event scene? is it really THAT complicated? The front runners here are clearly Sasha banks and Becky Lynch (Sorry Charlotte, you’re a great athlete but unless you grow a personality you’re still behind those two), but even they won’t make a dent in WWE programming unless the head honchos allow them the same respect on RAW as they are allowed on NXT and that my friends, is a fact.

NXT, in some case, suffers from the same booking illnesses that plague RAW and Smackdown. But the fact that it is a much smaller stage, with less air-time to fill makes them less noticeable. This is worrisome because WWE has real gold on their hands and a amazing pool of talents, both male and female. But, until they are allowed to shine on the big stage with booking and story-lines that plays to their strengths and not just as wannabes to the Bella’s or Cena’s of this world then the whole NXT thing will, in the end, be nothing more than smoke and mirrors. nice looking ones, I’ll grant you, but ultimately meaningless.

In closing, my usual match of the week, and this week’s choice is to illustrate my toned down version point. I take you back to final battle 2009 tag match between Kevin Steen and El Generico and The young Bucks. I’m not gonna tell too much about it, keep the surprises intact but, believe me, this is well worth 28 minutes of your time and will probably help illustrate some of the things I’ve been speaking about. Enjoy!

 

That’s all from me this week, expect reviews on War of the Worlds Day 1, Stardom Gold and a Best of super Junior presentation in the coming days. In the meantime, have fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been following wrestling for almost 30 years now, and the metal scene for even longer. And let's just say that all that head-banging has left me with some weird ideas that i will share with you from time to time. Aren't you glad?