NXT Takeover: The END...Paul Ellering?

Because of church, not complaining about church, but because of Wednesday Night Bible Study and going out to eat afterwards, I missed watching NXT Takeover: The End live, but I did watch the replay. Solid wrestling back to back. To me, NXT is making wrestling fun again on the main stream level.

First match was the Tye Dillenger vs the debut of Andrade "Cien" Almas. Great match, and spots. Andrade has a great showing. I think the guy is money. Character may need a little tuning. The whole pimp hat white suspenders thing...besides that, I enjoyed Andrade's work in the ring. Tye Dillenger also had a good showing, showed some new moves. I hear the name Tye Dillenger I think of that old security guy from the WCW days Doug Dellinger. Remember that guy? Am I the only one that thinks that?

Anyway, the NXT Tag-Team title match. Great to see a great tag-team wrestling match without any gimmicks again. The Revival is a great old school, Hart Foundation type, team. I love the work. American Alpha, Team Angle 2 I call them, is a great team as well. I may be looking too into this, but it seemed to be a lot of teases of Kurt Angle making a come back and American Alpha joining him. With the Angle lock and the crowd chanting their names to the Kurt Angle WWE theme...ehh? Revival goes over wins the titles again. American Alpha selling the loss, and then two big dudes come in and attack. Then as the two big dudes are handling business, Paul Ellering makes an appearance. Now the NXT crowd is supposed to be a smark crowd, but even they were chanting, "Who are you?" Seriously? The manager of the Road Warriors. Google, kids. Paul Heyman is not the only Paul that can has managed in wrestling history. Don't call it a comeback...get your money Mr. Ellering.

Shinsuke Nakamura and Austin Aries. Nakamura and Sami Zayn tore the house down at NXT Takeover: Dallas. In my opinion, this match didn't disappoint. Nakamura is the definition of flamboyant. Austin Aries had a strong showing too with his impression of DDP with taped ribs. Great match. The crowd singing the theme song to Nakamura was magical. The chants during this match was loud, which is a good thing. Shinsuke went over.

The Women's Title match. Asuka vs Nia Jax. This could have been bad, but with Asuka being as great as she is and Nia Jax playing the monster in the ring that can sell, we got a pretty solid match. I think Nia Jax needs a manager as a mouth piece. A new finisher would be good too, just my opinion. Great match though. Asuka goes over. Didn't expect a spot fest of a match cause it didn't need it. It was it was supposed to be. I thought Asuka was going over before the show cause she needed to go over to set up the rematch between her and Bayley. Nia is not going anywhere tho. Also a clean finish with no old timer manager interfering? What a concept. If only the main roster allowed...let's hope Vince will take notice.

Now the main event. The first steel cage match in NXT history. Samoa Joe vs Finn Balor. What a show these two wrestlers put on. Some old timers would be mad that no blood was shed, but seriously, it's a new era. Great spots in this match. Some jaw dropping moments as well. That finish was crazy. The muscle buster from the top rope was insane. Loved every minute of this match. Finn Balor may be heading up to the main roster, I don't know. Obviously he should be involved in the Club angle if he is called up. We'll see...

Over all like most of the NXT Takeover shows, this was a 5 star show. From commentary to the matches. Also, I have to mentioned Bobby Roooo. Finally signed with NXT. It's about time. This should be great for this new era of NXT. Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode for the title? YES PLEASE!

~Daniel Richerson

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH AND IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE!

So I was contemplating getting a WWE Network Gift Card to watch WWE Fastlane and to get back to watching NXT again. Well, when I went to the grocery store, I didn't see the card, and I didn't feel like driving to Wal-Mart just to get a simple gift card, so I made the decision not to get one. When I woke up, seeing Roman Reigns is booked to face Triple H at WrestleMania and the IWC is irate. Using the hashtag #cancelwwenetwork, and all that. It seems like WWE really messed things up. This kinds reminds me of the Wrestlemania when Daniel Bryan ended up winning the whole thing. If you remember, Daniel Bryan wasn't originally supposed to be in the main event. If I remember right, he was booked to have another match with Sheamus. But due to the reaction of Batista vs Randy Orton, WWE had to make a change.

So I feel due to the reaction of Roman vs Hunter, WWE has to make a change. Wrestlemania is supposed to be the wrestling event of the year. It's supposed to be booked as the best wrestling show. Let's be real, WWE has failed to reach that mark on several occasions. So what is Vince going to do? I don't think Vince is going to let another Wrestlemania go down the drain. I think Vince is the type of guy that if he has to bring the grand wizard Hulk Hogan himself back and get another title run, he'd do it for the ratings. Maybe some how or another Vince can give Dean Ambrose that Daniel Bryan push, and have Dean Ambrose close out the show. Could work. AJ Styles could work, but I doubt that Vince is going to give the fans what they want this early, but I do think and see AJ Styles being a main event player in the next couple of years at Wrestlemania with Samoa Joe.

CM Punk rumors have been debunked, but that would've been an open heaven. Think about it. The backstage feud that CM Punk and HHH apparently had. Would've made all the sense in the world of wrestling, to have CM Punk come back and beat HHH for the title. But since CM Punk is apparently not returning, that won't happen.

How bout finally giving Dolph Ziggler a chance? I don't know. Maybe that would work. Dolph Ziggler has been performing his but off for years, I mean his time has to come soon, right?

In all seriousness, Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn, and the WWE has to do something. This is bad. This probably worse than the Batista/Orton thing. What ever they're going to do, they need to do it now. To quote the late great Owen Hart, "Enough is enough and it's time for a change!"

~Daniel Richerson

The Main Roster is still the Main Roster...

I hear a lot of fellow smarks, yes you're a smark embrace it, say that going to the main roster is a downgrade as far as going from NXT to Raw. Ok, I understand that the main roster has been none too good lately. I understand that NXT has had the better product lately. Now that that's out the way. NXT is on the WWE network. Not everybody has the WWE Network. Raw is on USA. Raw gives you more exposure than NXT. Raw gives you more money. I'm pretty sure they don't come to NXT to stay at NXT. I'm pretty sure if you sign a contract with WWE, your goal should be on the main show, right?

We want Raw to be better. We want Raw to create better stars. You can't create better stars if the NXT stars stay in NXT. Samoa Joe will never have an opportunity to main event a WrestleMania if he stays in NXT. Like it or not, Wrestlemania is a main roster show. Royal Rumble is a main roster show. AJ Styles is on the main roster. AJ Styles is on RAW like it or not. He's not in NXT. He's on RAW. In my opinion, Samoa Joe should be on the main show right now. But the only problem with the main roster is the bad booking. That was my main problem with the Royal Rumble 2015. It was a poorly book Royal Rumble match that year. I feel it was more than the fact Roman Reigns won, it was how he won. My opinion, Big Show and Kane ruined that match.

But back to the topic at hand. The main roster is still the main roster. No matter how bad the show is. It's still the main roster. I know we all want the main roster to be better, but to say that moving to the main roster is a down grade. It's still the main roster. One of the problems with the main roster is like the "it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission" mentality is none existent. When DX was just the Kliq, they did stuff that got them in trouble every week. HBK is now in the Hall of Fame, and HHH is basically Vince's right hand man.

So yes, NXT is the better product in most people's eyes. You tune in to NXT expecting the great, and you tune in to Raw expecting the worse. I get that, but that doesn't change the fact that Raw is still Raw. There's a lot of people that think Football is not as good as it once was, yet people still tune in. Some people don't think the NBA is as good as it once was but people still tune in. I think Raw will get better. Vince still micro-manages the product, which is a major issue that no one talks about. I feel that as soon as Vince lets go of the reigns, not a shot at Roman,  a little bit, that's when the product will get better.

Daniel Richerson