The face of 1,000 pains
Tonight's show seemed like a fantastic example of how the NXT booking is better than just 'good', the fans are worse than just 'embarrassing' and the talent are still a mixed bag, but a respectable mixed bag nonetheless.
Starting with Enzo & Cass honestly made me excited for the two seconds before I realised we were getting yet another Carmella match. It's sad really, two of the best talents (and the undeniable best tag team on NXT and possibly on the entire roster right now) taking a back-seat to another talent to get them over without really progressing their own storyline at all.
I'm not against the grouping of Enzo & Cass with Carmella, because they all play their roles very well, but so far it has been months of Enzo getting pushed away by Carmella, and nothing has changed but Carmella's attitude becoming increasingly bitchy and heelish, as it should.
The match was nothing special as expected, but I still think Carmella has shown infinite more promise than Bliss did in her first few matches, though one of them was jobbing and the other is pushed seemingly as a STAR ATTRACTION.
WHAT'S NEXT? A match that was spoilt three or more weeks in advance because people can't keep their fuckern mouths shut - Corbin vs. Neville.
Again, nothing particularly special about the match, but Corbin showed more promise than I honestly expected. There were a lot of little things that Corbin did that I personally, with my enlightening wrestling knowledge, wouldn't think would be 'good' for such a monster character.
We all know Corbin was undefeated up until this match (since his official debut), and knowing that he was going to lose one way or another (yes, by interference) made me keep an eye on what Corbin would do in the match. I noticed a lot of short, fast bursts of speed from Corbin which I don't think are exactly characteristic of him, as he has been at an average if not slow speed for the entirety of his NXT run so far. Not exactly a bad thing, but not good either.
What I thought was more problematic was him going for early covers over Neville and Neville inevitably kicking out, especially after the hard Irish whip to the corner. It was an awkward situation and I really think it made Corbin look weaker than he probably should have in the match.
It was as if he wasn't just having problems putting Neville away, which isn't problematic by itself as Neville is statistically the most dominant NXT star in history, but it was also as if Corbin was both desperate to finish Neville off, and panicking when he couldn't. This could also be attributed strongly to Corbin seeming to be lost in the midst of the match, since he had the upper hand for most of it, and may not have known what to do.
The "PISS BREAK" match! Bayley vs. Becky!
I actually like both of these gals and I hate the idea of calling a women's match a 'piss break' just because I may not be entertained by it. It's an awful meme and isn't even fundamentally funny in any way at all either. Anyway, I digress. The reason I said it was because the crowd was either tired... or just didn't care about Bayley all of a sudden. Maybe they were confused because of what she did to Charlotte a while beforehand? Maybe they HATE Bayley now?! I don't know, but people seemed to be disinterested in the match for some reason (yet hyped as fuck for the main event...).
When it got to the match though, I couldn't blame them. I haven't any doubt about Becky being a capable wrestler overall, but she has yet to really impress me in the ring. Outside of it, sure, but inside of it, she seems awkward, slow, and incapable of working either as a heel or a face in the so-called "WWE style".
Sadly Bayley's knee selling was a little bit inconsistent too. At least it wasn't Charlotte-esque where she magically healed her leg/back injuries to WIN THE TITLE!
And lastly... this BLOODY FUCKING main event. Hideo "most of my fans don't know who I am bar the fact I used Punk's and Bryan's finishers before they were cool" Itami vs. Finn "most of my fans don't know who I am bar the fact I am from NJPW and have fancy fucking body paint" Balor with his goddamn accented 'e'.
If anyone reading this also reads my posts on the www.wrestlingforum.com, which I hope 100% of you do as 100% of the few people that would ever read this should be from there, you'd understand my disdain of the fame and attention these guys get just for being who they are, especially from these pretentious try-hards that populate the full-sail arena primarily on the televised side.
The match itself was a solid attempt at the so-called "WWE style" by two foreign talents who have only started wrestling that "style" in recent months. It's as if someone backstage told them that WWE matches involve rest-holds as a staple so they decided to make a match where about two thirds of the match was actually rest-holds, which kinda sucked in a way because, though I'm no fan of the Puroresu strong style with big ol' kicks, chops, etc, I wanted to see a nice blend of both, but it seemed as if the only strong style influence in the match was just a remnant of their past career and wrestling habits.
My main gripe, as per usual, were the aforementioned pretentious try-hards that populate the full-sail arena. As soon as both of these guys - who combined have been on the NXT roster for less time than a recess break - stepped in the ring, and the music ended, the geeks in the crowd just had to chant "this is awesome". Before probably late 2013, I'd agree with almost every chant of "this is awesome", but since then, I've noticed that the chant is just filler for marks marking for wrestlers they like about three quarters of the time.
But to make matters even fucking worse, these geeks chanted "we're not worthy".
..."we're not worthy".
That was actually a real chant. Sadly, it's not the first time it has been used on NXT.
I understand the concept of having fun, but you really don't need to make the average wrestling fan feel alienated because they're not obsessive creepy nerdy marks like you are. You have to stop this shit. It's like if you're a fan of comic books and you walk into a comic book store just to pick up a new comic book and you have an overwhelming feeling of embarrassment because you realise you're grouped with those four guys in the corner literally circle-jerking over Black Widow or some shit.
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