What's happening folks? Obviously it's been a newsworthy week within the world. In wrestling it's been almost as newsworthy. First of all, I can't continue without giving a rest in peace salute to former WCW, WWE, MMA and NJPW star, Sean O' Haire. He passed away September 8 from an apparent suicide, as reportedly his father found him hanging by his bed post. He was also reportedly dealing with substance abuse and was in a deep state of depression at the time of his death. His accolades included being a former three-time WCW Tag Team Champion and former Rookie Of The Year in 2000. Once his wrestling career started winding down, he had brief careers in the MMA world as well as in acting. Here's to Mr. O' Haire. Very underrated and grossly misused, O' Haire could've been a bigger star than even he imagined for himself. My hope and prayer is that he finally found the peace in the afterlife that he very much wanted for himself while alive.
Now, on to the subject at hand. This past Thursday marked the third special event for WWE's developmental company, NXT. The event, entitled Takeover II: Fatal Four Way, was very much hyped to be a noteworthy event, and it lived up to its hype, yet again. Although not exactly flawless, this event was still very much worthy of being among the best events the WWE has produced all year. We saw new Tag Team Champions in the newly named Lucha Dragons of Sin Cara (shamefully not the original one that they fired earlier this year) and former indie sensation Samurai Del Sol, now known as Kallisto. They defeated the impressive duo of Viktor and Konnor, known as The Ascension. The Ascension had held the belts for near an entire year, defeating previous champions of the current NXT Champion Adrien Neville and Corey Graves. Although many would say that Viktor and Konnor had practically zero serious competition, they still held the titles for a very lengthy period.
Next up marked the debut of Baron Corbin, a 6'8', 275 pounder who was formerly a part of the NFL as he played for Arizona. He very soundly defeated CJ Parker and I suspect we will see a lot more from this guy.
Soon after, we had the much anticipated arrival of famed international star, KENTA. he signed a developmental deal with the company earlier this summer (which is ridiculous as far as I'm concerned because this is the same man that influenced the styles of the likes of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan and you send him to the minor leagues???). After an excellent introduction by new NXT GM William Regal, out comes KENTA to a much deserved standing ovation. He gave half of his promo in Japanese, however, the other half was in English, albeit choppy. He also introduced his WWE name (WTF ???), Hideo Itami, which is named after his mentor. Soon after comes The Ascension, who had just lost the tag belts earlier and they wanted to jump the Japanese legend. It was to no avail, as Hideo cleared the ring and we can look forward to a program involving these three men in the weeks to come.
The Hair Vs. Hair match was upcoming between Enzo Amore and Sylvester Lefort. I'm starting to be a fan of the pair of Amore and his seven-foot partner Collin Cassidy. Their humor is getting infectious and they're not being overtly annoying like say, Santino. At least not yet, although that 'S-A-W-F-T' will start to get old eventually to the new audiences of NXT. After about five minutes, Amore got the win over the Frenchman. Unfortunately, they weren't able to get their hands on Lefort to use the hair removal cream. They were, however, able to pour the cream on top of Lefort's partner, Marcus Louis. This was overall an okay segment, but you could easily tell this was filler for the show.
The NXT Women's Championship was next with the challenger, Bayley, facing the current champion, the daughter of Ric Flair, Charlotte. Although this match paled in comparison to the match Charlotte had to win the title against Natalya, both women performed very well, as Charlotte continues to show incredible growth in the ring. Charlotte defeated the young challenger to retain the title, with an exchange that resulted between her and ex friend and BFF member Sasha Banks.
We then witnessed a brief, although physical, battle between Mojo Rawley and impressive newcomer Bull Dempsey. Simply put, Dempsey rolled over the former NFL Defensive Lineman.
We were then ready for the main event. Adrien Neville defended the title in a Fatal Four Way Match against Sami Zayn, Tyler Breeze, and Tyson Kidd. After nearly thirty unreal minutes, Neville retained the title. Let me just say, this was easily a match of the year candidate and the truthfully the best NXT main event all year. Every single person gave A-1 performances and I would suspect all four of these young men to get called up to the main roster very soon.
This, in tow, leads me to the topic at hand. This is the third big event for NXT, and even their worst one was better than most of the main rosters pay per views. The question is: why??? This is completely back-asswards. Their first event, NXT Arrival, was very, very good. The second one, NXT Takeover, was arguably the best event that wasn't named Wrestlemania. NXT has been consistently good in their special events, even if their syndicated show isn't all of the time. Granted, I get that they would like to make stars, but for every one success like Bray Wyatt, we have Bo Dallas, Fandango, and Adam Rose that have been floundering and Vince has all but given up on them completely. For the developmental guys and girls, it's almost as if you would rather see them stay where they're at rather than see them go to the main roster and turn into subsequent failures to keep people like Orton, Cena, and others that like to hog the main event. No, I'm not forgetting about the former members of The Shield, but so far it's been Roman (the next megastar), Seth (main evener), and Dean (whom Trips claims isn't main event ready get, which is nothing more than a crock). If three of the four combatants (Tyson doesn't count because he's actually still on the main roster) get called to the big stage, they SHOULD be booked to be mid-upper card status, especially Sami. However, booking/creative is known to drop the ball on a number of occasions when it comes to talent and story angles. I digress.
We can all attest that, in spite of WWE being the industry leader, they're far from the best WRESTLING product in the world. Most are familiar with how good TNA talent can be, ROH never fails to deliver great wrestling, and other promotions like PWG, Dragon Gate, and Full Impact Pro always present some of the best action in the world. However, WWE's "minor league" promotion is in the spirit of these indie promotions that are hungry and want to get worldwide respect. It's this spirit and mind state that consistently compels them to bring the best they can, especially with special events such as Takeover. The writers of Raw and Smackdown need to seriously look at their developmental league and look at how much sense their storylines make sense. I guess it goes to the comparison of college and the pros. Many adore the heart, hunger, and the need to prove within the college-ranked levels. NXT is roughly considered the college ranks. The only catch is, this college-level ranked developmental promotion has showed up the "professional" ranks three straight times in terms of acclaim and appeal.
Next Sunday, WWE will present the Night Of Champions and although the card looks like a pretty good event overall (give or take the triple threat Divas with Nikkie Bella involved). They will have to look at the NXT event, and turn it up a notch to keep the positive momentum going. It's not a good look to have your minor league outscore your major leagues.
That's all for now, folks. See you guys and gals next week!
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