BRM Reviews the 11/6/2014 NXT (DEVITT!)

[Big Red Machine]

#1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: Tyler Breeze vs. Sami Zayn- 7.25/10
Great match and some great reversals. They left me wanting another twenty minutes.

ADRIAN NEVILLE PROMO- okay

DASH WILDER vs. TYSON KIDD- extended squash
Tensai told us that he has been impressed with Dash Wilder after watching him as a tag team at the performance center with Scott Dawson. There's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

CRAZY MARCUS LOUIS BACKSTAGE- GREAT!
He came across as both crazy and dangerous here.

SAMI ZAYN PROMO- awesome! He wants a title shot next week!

CHARLOTTE & BAYLEY vs. SASHA BANKS & BECKY LYNCH- 5/10
Was Becky Lynch singing her own entrance them on the way to the ring?
If you do not believe in Sasha Banks after watching this match, then you are hopeless. She is SUCH A FANTASTIC heel!

RENEE ASKS REGAL IF WE WILL GET ZAYN VS. NEVILLE NEXT WEEK- yes. Yes we will.

THE ASCENSION vs. HIDEO ITAMI & FINN BALOR- no rating, good segment.
The announcers all mark out for Finn Balor and say "we have heard so much about Finn Balor." Well YOU might have, but most viewers haven't. You can't just throw people out here like this and expect people to be excited for them. A video package, a signing thing like they did with KENTA... SOMETHING!
Anyway it's F*CKING KENTA TEAMING UP WITH PRINCE F*CKING DEVITT!
They beat up the Ascension and the fans chant "YES!"
Great job by Itami here, too. He really showed some attitude during this; showed that he's not just your typical Japanese stereotype wrestler.


Another great episode of NXT.



STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. More of this "the hardest thing to do in sports is bat a man three times" sh*t from Alex Riley. Does he even watch WWE TV? Because that clearly contradicts everything he is saying.

2. Tensai says that TItus O'Neil is the strongest athlete he's ever been in the ring with. This coming from a man who has been in the ring MARK HENRY, the (at least at one point) LEGIT World's Strongest Man.

[Bob-O]

Edit: Double Post :-$

[Bob-O]

2. Tensai says that TItus O'Neil is the strongest athlete he's ever been in the ring with. This coming from a man who has been in the ring MARK HENRY, the (at least at one point) LEGIT World's Strongest Man.

On top of that, I seem to remember another match with a certain reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion that might have an issue with that statement...

If you do not believe in Sasha Banks after watching this match, then you are hopeless. She is SUCH A FANTASTIC heel!

Meh... still not feelin' it. I don't think it was a good time to turn Charlotte.

The announcers all mark out for Finn Balor and say "we have heard so much about Finn Balor." Well YOU might have, but most viewers haven't. You can't just throw people out here like this and expect people to be excited for them. A video package, a signing thing like they did with KENTA... SOMETHING!

I think this is why Vince sours on catering to the IWC. You CAN'T just throw people out there and expect people to get excited for them, but there's SO MUCH commentary online speculating otherwise giving WWE a bad name. It was a little awkward to watch play out, because the live crowd was not as excited as I was to see him. The announcers were! I thought they did a great job at selling it, but there was a disconnect with what I think they had in mind.

I love it when they do things like the contract signings and the big introductions like they did for KENTA, but had they gone through it all again for Devitt you run into the problem of where the line gets drawn since the JUST did the same thing for KENTA. Does Steen get the works, too? What about guys with football backgrounds? What about guys legit NOBODY has heard of?

I think the problem with it was they hyped it all night as a Mystery Partner type of thing, banking on the awareness of the IWC for the payoff. I mean, they'd been building to this for weeks with all the Ascension beatdowns, any sort of introduction prior to this would have spoiled what was somebody's carefully crafted "moment". Personally, since Itami just got the red carpet treatment, Balor should have made a run-in save while the announcers speculated who it was for a little bit before proceeding with the mark out.

[Big Red Machine]

2. Tensai says that TItus O'Neil is the strongest athlete he's ever been in the ring with. This coming from a man who has been in the ring MARK HENRY, the (at least at one point) LEGIT World's Strongest Man.

On top of that, I seem to remember another match with a certain reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion that might have an issue with that statement...

I don't remember him ever wrestling Albert.

If you do not believe in Sasha Banks after watching this match, then you are hopeless. She is SUCH A FANTASTIC heel!

Meh... still not feelin' it. I don't think it was a good time to turn Charlotte.

Really? She's such an awesome chicken-sh*t!
As for the Charlotte turn, I don't think they should have turned her yet, either, but they did, and I think she has handled it well.

The announcers all mark out for Finn Balor and say "we have heard so much about Finn Balor." Well YOU might have, but most viewers haven't. You can't just throw people out here like this and expect people to be excited for them. A video package, a signing thing like they did with KENTA... SOMETHING!

I think this is why Vince sours on catering to the IWC. You CAN'T just throw people out there and expect people to get excited for them, but there's SO MUCH commentary online speculating otherwise giving WWE a bad name. It was a little awkward to watch play out, because the live crowd was not as excited as I was to see him. The announcers were! I thought they did a great job at selling it, but there was a disconnect with what I think they had in mind.

I love it when they do things like the contract signings and the big introductions like they did for KENTA, but had they gone through it all again for Devitt you run into the problem of where the line gets drawn since the JUST did the same thing for KENTA. Does Steen get the works, too? What about guys with football backgrounds? What about guys legit NOBODY has heard of?

I think the problem with it was they hyped it all night as a Mystery Partner type of thing, banking on the awareness of the IWC for the payoff. I mean, they'd been building to this for weeks with all the Ascension beatdowns, any sort of introduction prior to this would have spoiled what was somebody's carefully crafted "moment". Personally, since Itami just got the red carpet treatment, Balor should have made a run-in save while the announcers speculated who it was for a little bit before proceeding with the mark out.

I don't think it's catering to the IWC. If you want the guy to be seen as important when he first shows up, you need to do someting to show us that he is important.

[Big Red Machine]

I love it when they do things like the contract signings and the big introductions like they did for KENTA, but had they gone through it all again for Devitt you run into the problem of where the line gets drawn since the JUST did the same thing for KENTA. Does Steen get the works, too? What about guys with football backgrounds? What about guys legit NOBODY has heard of?

As for who gets it and who doesn't, it all depends on the way you want to introduce the guy. If you want us to be excited upon first seeing him wrestle, you need to do things to make us excited.

[Bob-O]

I don't remember him ever wrestling Albert.

Oh man! He almost broke Abert's neck! Just nasty looking...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkAxjDRSgh8

Really? She's such an awesome chicken-sh*t!
As for the Charlotte turn, I don't think they should have turned her yet, either, but they did, and I think she has handled it well.

Don't get me wrong, Charlotte's phenominal in either role! But her turn leaves a hole on the heel side of things that I don't think Sasha is the one to fill. She's just... ~sigh~... I think she's funny looking. There. I said it. Not even ugly, I could deal with ugly, she's just FUNNY looking, I can't think of a better way to describe it. It makes me uncomfortable that they plaster so much makeup on her in an effort to hide it while presenting her like one of the hot girls. She's like a burn victim, and I feel bad for staring. It transcends anything and everything they have her do, I just can't get past it. I'm not trying to be shallow here, I just think she's miscast. I mean, I don't think Baily's pretty either, but they made her attractive through good casting.

It looks like she's wearing a latex mask. And, her head is basically a triangle
with Mr Potato Head lips installed. Look at it... LOOK AT IT I SAID!!!

If you want the guy to be seen as important when he first shows up, you need to do someting to show us that he is important.

How do you do that and keep it a surprise?

[Big Red Machine]

I don't remember him ever wrestling Albert.

Oh man! He almost broke Abert's neck! Just nasty looking...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkAxjDRSgh8

I stand corrected.

Really? She's such an awesome chicken-sh*t!
As for the Charlotte turn, I don't think they should have turned her yet, either, but they did, and I think she has handled it well.

Don't get me wrong, Charlotte's phenominal in either role! But her turn leaves a hole on the heel side of things that I don't think Sasha is the one to fill. She's just... ~sigh~... I think she's funny looking. There. I said it. Not even ugly, I could deal with ugly, she's just FUNNY looking, I can't think of a better way to describe it. It makes me uncomfortable that they plaster so much makeup on her in an effort to hide it while presenting her like one of the hot girls. She's like a burn victim, and I feel bad for staring. It transcends anything and everything they have her do, I just can't get past it. I'm not trying to be shallow here, I just think she's miscast. I mean, I don't think Baily's pretty either, but they made her attractive through good casting.

It looks like she's wearing a latex mask. And, her head is basically a triangle
with Mr Potato Head lips installed. Look at it... LOOK AT IT I SAID!!!

I agree about Sasha not being very attractive, but I figured that was more my personal taste. I've always thought she looked plastic-faced... but I don't think that should stop her in her role. It's fun to chant "Sasha's ratched" at her for exactly that reason. It's just more heat to me, that she thinks she is hot when she is so artificial-looking. Like when someone keeps telling you how smart they are when they are really stupid and you just want to shout it at them.

If you want the guy to be seen as important when he first shows up, you need to do someting to show us that he is important.

How do you do that and keep it a surprise?

Simple as pie: A mystery partner, just like they did here. If you didn't know the results beforehand, would you have guessed that it would be Devitt? Normally when they have done something like this in the past, it was a main roster guy who was used in spots like this.

[cero2k]

The announcers all mark out for Finn Balor and say "we have heard so much about Finn Balor." Well YOU might have, but most viewers haven't. You can't just throw people out here like this and expect people to be excited for them. A video package, a signing thing like they did with KENTA... SOMETHING!

I think this is why Vince sours on catering to the IWC. You CAN'T just throw people out there and expect people to get excited for them, but there's SO MUCH commentary online speculating otherwise giving WWE a bad name. It was a little awkward to watch play out, because the live crowd was not as excited as I was to see him. The announcers were! I thought they did a great job at selling it, but there was a disconnect with what I think they had in mind.

I love it when they do things like the contract signings and the big introductions like they did for KENTA, but had they gone through it all again for Devitt you run into the problem of where the line gets drawn since the JUST did the same thing for KENTA. Does Steen get the works, too? What about guys with football backgrounds? What about guys legit NOBODY has heard of?

I think the problem with it was they hyped it all night as a Mystery Partner type of thing, banking on the awareness of the IWC for the payoff. I mean, they'd been building to this for weeks with all the Ascension beatdowns, any sort of introduction prior to this would have spoiled what was somebody's carefully crafted "moment". Personally, since Itami just got the red carpet treatment, Balor should have made a run-in save while the announcers speculated who it was for a little bit before proceeding with the mark out.

I don't think it's catering to the IWC. If you want the guy to be seen as important when he first shows up, you need to do someting to show us that he is important.

i disagree with you guys so much, this is the reasons that ALL debuts in WWE feel underwhelmed. There is no need to instruct the fans on a debut, especially when it someone like Devitt who is world known and WWE had already posted a bunch of articles about his signing, THAT should be more than enough to debut someone like him. Back in the day you would never get an intro on who Rhino or The Radicalz were, they would just debut, announcers mark the shit out, the wrestler kicks some ass, and THEN you can do the intro video next week. Also, you're not always supposed to pop at the first glance of someone, sometimes you need to make the fans wonder who the hell is this guy and where he came from.

Prince Devitt's debut was how it needed to be. He came out and his kick-assery spoke for itself. For those who didn't know him by then, they need to get up their asses and google his name. WWE is making its fans waaay to lazy and comfortable.

[Big Red Machine]

I think this is why Vince sours on catering to the IWC. You CAN'T just throw people out there and expect people to get excited for them, but there's SO MUCH commentary online speculating otherwise giving WWE a bad name. It was a little awkward to watch play out, because the live crowd was not as excited as I was to see him. The announcers were! I thought they did a great job at selling it, but there was a disconnect with what I think they had in mind.

I love it when they do things like the contract signings and the big introductions like they did for KENTA, but had they gone through it all again for Devitt you run into the problem of where the line gets drawn since the JUST did the same thing for KENTA. Does Steen get the works, too? What about guys with football backgrounds? What about guys legit NOBODY has heard of?

I think the problem with it was they hyped it all night as a Mystery Partner type of thing, banking on the awareness of the IWC for the payoff. I mean, they'd been building to this for weeks with all the Ascension beatdowns, any sort of introduction prior to this would have spoiled what was somebody's carefully crafted "moment". Personally, since Itami just got the red carpet treatment, Balor should have made a run-in save while the announcers speculated who it was for a little bit before proceeding with the mark out.

I don't think it's catering to the IWC. If you want the guy to be seen as important when he first shows up, you need to do someting to show us that he is important.

i disagree with you guys so much, this is the reasons that ALL debuts in WWE feel underwhelmed. There is no need to instruct the fans on a debut, especially when it someone like Devitt who is world known and WWE had already posted a bunch of articles about his signing, THAT should be more than enough to debut someone like him. Back in the day you would never get an intro on who Rhino or The Radicalz were, they would just debut, announcers mark the shit out, the wrestler kicks some ass, and THEN you can do the intro video next week. Also, you're not always supposed to pop at the first glance of someone, sometimes you need to make the fans wonder who the hell is this guy and where he came from.

Prince Devitt's debut was how it needed to be. He came out and his kick-assery spoke for itself. For those who didn't know him by then, they need to get up their asses and google his name. WWE is making its fans waaay to lazy and comfortable.

In general, I agree with what you are saying. There are a few different ways to debut a guy:
1. You can do a big elaborate thing like WWE did with KENTA, then make him look like a big deal right out of the gate
2. You can just have them show up in the ring one day, tell us "this is Joe Smith, a new wrestler in the promotion" and maybe give us a bit of backstory to give us a reason to care about him (WWE did this with Randy Orton very well, IMO).
3. You can do a big surprise thing where everyone is supposed to mark out, either for the wrestler in question (what you described) or the situation ("who the hell are these guys and what are they doing here? Oh my G-d! They just beat up half the roster!")

And I do think that you should change them up as needed for the angle so as not to overuse any of them.

The thing with the guys you listed from "back in the day" was that they were already stars on national TV for years. If WWE were to sign Samoa Joe or Beer Money or Ronda Rousey, then you could do that and it would work. If WWE were to do that with Adam Cole or Ricochet, it wouldn't work because most fans wouldn't have any idea who these guys are.

If you went up to the average WWE fan and said "Finn Balor is going to be on NXT tonight!" what do you think the reaction would be? I'll bet you there will be a hell of a lot less people who say "PRINCE DEVITT! COOL!" than people who say "Who is that?" Yeah, they might have even read about him in an article, but are they really going to remember that article they read three months ago when his name might well have still been "Prince Devitt" in the article?
Yes. Devitt kicked ass tonight, and that was great, but it would have been a lot better if we had been getting some sort of hype for him.

[cero2k]

In general, I agree with what you are saying. There are a few different ways to debut a guy:
1. You can do a big elaborate thing like WWE did with KENTA, then make him look like a big deal right out of the gate
2. You can just have them show up in the ring one day, tell us "this is Joe Smith, a new wrestler in the promotion" and maybe give us a bit of backstory to give us a reason to care about him (WWE did this with Randy Orton very well, IMO).
3. You can do a big surprise thing where everyone is supposed to mark out, either for the wrestler in question (what you described) or the situation ("who the hell are these guys and what are they doing here? Oh my G-d! They just beat up half the roster!")

And I do think that you should change them up as needed for the angle so as not to overuse any of them.

The thing with the guys you listed from "back in the day" was that they were already stars on national TV for years. If WWE were to sign Samoa Joe or Beer Money or Ronda Rousey, then you could do that and it would work. If WWE were to do that with Adam Cole or Ricochet, it wouldn't work because most fans wouldn't have any idea who these guys are.

If you went up to the average WWE fan and said "Finn Balor is going to be on NXT tonight!" what do you think the reaction would be? I'll bet you there will be a hell of a lot less people who say "PRINCE DEVITT! COOL!" than people who say "Who is that?" Yeah, they might have even read about him in an article, but are they really going to remember that article they read three months ago when his name might well have still been "Prince Devitt" in the article?
Yes. Devitt kicked ass tonight, and that was great, but it would have been a lot better if we had been getting some sort of hype for him.

If you hype him up then it's not a surprise debut. And yeah, if you walk up to the average WWE fan and ask about Finn Balor they won't know, but then again, they won't know who Ezekiel Jackson, Mason Ryan, or Curt Hawkins are either. They may not even know what NXT is. Those fans pay regardless what shit you give them, you don't need to smarten them up because it doesn't make a difference. All the rest of the fans, might have heard of Devitt at some point, and even if you don't know him, you have an idea that this dude had been talked about here and there, while they may not mark out, they'll pay attention, that all that is needed. His debut was well executed, the only thing that WWE could have done better was to first show the name Prince Devitt on the screen and change it to Finn Balor like they did with KENTA.

also, there is really no difference between Rhino, Joe, Steen, or Cole if you think about it, they're all in lesser known territorial/independent companies (compared to WWE), all have had national TV/PPV exposure, all champions in their companies. WWE should be able to debut any of them as they did with Rhino, especially at a small place like NXT.