Day: August 24, 2019

Move to USA

Some gigantic news that just broke early this past week regarding NXT is that it will be moving from the WWE Network to the USA Network beginning on September 18. It will also expand to a two-hour show instead of just one. This will provide another wrestling option to watch on Wednesday nights, since AEW has a weekly TV deal with TNT starting up in October.

NXT TV tapings will still take place at Full Sail University, so it won’t cost WWE any extra money for the venue. It will be more costly, however, because the NXT TV tapings will be every week now as opposed to about twice per month. This deal is also very lucrative because:

  • The USA Network will be paying WWE $50 million yearly to air NXT.
  • This is in addition to the $265 million they’re already getting from the same network to air Monday Night Raw.
  • And, the $205 million being received from Fox to air SmackDown.
  • In short, WWE is more lucrative than ever.

205 Live draws the unfortunate hand in this situation because it will either have to be canceled or moved to a different time slot. No one can argue that the athletes who are featured on 205 Live are extremely talented; there just may not be quite enough star power to get the attention of very many people.

Chris Jericho has been somewhat critical of NXT’s move to USA, saying that WWE is diluting their product by overexposing it. This is very reasonable and expected, however, because Jericho is now working for AEW. I still have all the respect in the world for Jericho. The efforts he has put into the wrestling industry since 1990 have significantly helped to elevate the wrestling industry as a whole to an exponentially higher level. He helped immensely in elevating NXT from its FCW days.

It was encouraging to see a couple of superstars who participated in the NXT Breakout Tournament featured on NXT so quickly. Bronson Reed had a match against Shane Thorne (who is worth keeping an eye on given that he is on a two-match win streak and victories appear to be more telling of a superstar’s future in NXT than they are on the main roster. This emphasis on wins and losses may become more of a factor in the future when Triple H and Stephanie McMahon take full control of WWE, since Triple H is in charge of NXT).

Jordan Myles should also make for an interesting challenger to Adam Cole in a couple of weeks. It seems to be almost a sure thing that he will not win, but nonetheless this is a huge opportunity for him to further his WWE career and develop a connection with the NXT universe.

Side Note: The rivalry between Matt Riddle and Killian Dain seems to absolutely be worth exploring.

Categories NXT

Buddy’s Breakout

So, Buddy Murphy didn’t “lie” when he admitted to Roman Reigns that he saw Rowan in the area of the Reigns attack. What he didn’t realize was that he saw someone who looked exactly like Rowan but was not actually him. WWE may want to seriously consider extending this storyline involving Roman Reigns attacker, having the final reveal on SmackDown’s premiere episode on the Fox network on October 4. This will provide significant suspense to this story if it is built correctly, making the debut episode of SmackDown on Fox truly epic. Perhaps for the time being leading up to that, a match between Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns could be orchestrated to take place at Clash of Champions.

The primary thing that stood out from this week’s SD Live was Buddy Murphy’s standout victory over Daniel Bryan. First of all, the former Cruiserweight Champion has to be viewed in a very favorable light by WWE management if his first two TV matches on SD Live were against two top superstars in the company: Reigns and Bryan. It’s not a bad situation to beat Daniel Bryan in your second televised match on the main roster. Buddy Murphy is a name to definitely keep an eye on because he clearly has massive star potential.

Sami Zayn is positioned in a weird spot right now. I really don’t think WWE has much of an idea what they are doing with him at this point. His solution to the losing streak he has been on for the last several months is to stop competing altogether (so he is calling it quits for right now). He is focusing on altruism by becoming a mouthpiece for Shinsuke Nakamura in another attempt by the company to get Shinsuke over (I will give WWE credit for maintaining persistence and patience with Nakamura). He also attacked The Miz so perhaps this will lead to an intercontinental Championship match between Shinsuke and Miz at Clash of Champions.

The Revival is making great strides towards becoming an entertaining tag team in WWE; they just needed a little time to get their bearings. WWE has also booked the storyline to make perfect sense for The Revival to challenge The New Day for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships at Clash of Champions because they have formed an alliance with Randy Orton. Randy is already challenging Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship. This is a great way to intertwine the story involving these six men. Also, a potential feud to keep your eye on in the future is between Apollo Crews or Andrade and Ricochet.

Slightly Slower Pace, New Tag Team Champions

The remainder of August, as well as the entirety of September and October, will be slightly slower-paced months for WWE and there will be more time given for each individual match, or segment. If one pays close attention, this is not difficult at all to see. It seems to be a very good idea for WWE to choose this time of the year to begin the King of the Ring tournament, as this event is always known for producing quality matches. Perhaps WWE may want to consider doing a tournament like this in the future for women.

It will be very interesting to see how WWE goes about creating conflict between Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman; they will surely get the Raw Tag Team Championships involved. It’s been quite a while since WWE chose to make its premier champion, and the challenger to it, tag team champions (the last pair of superstars I can remember who were placed in this role were John Cena and Shawn Michaels back in 2007). This will be a great change of pace, and Braun Strowman looks to be moving at full speed again. He doesn’t look hindered in the slightest as he did about a month ago. It should be very interesting to see how the match goes between Rollins and Strowman due to the size discrepancy, but Seth can make anything work. If I were running things, however, I would look to build this story for a month or two and maybe have the two men clash in October’s Hell in a Cell.

Believe it or not, this is Strowman’s first legitimate title reign on the main roster since his debut about three years ago (no, I’m not counting his tag team championship victory with 10-year-old Nicholas at WrestleMania 34).

Roman Reigns should definitely be given credit for his indispensable versatility in the ring which enables him to have a great match with almost anyone. This ability should never be undervalued, and this is definitely one of the major reasons why Vince McMahon values Reigns so highly.

The Fiend attacked Jerry “The King” Lawler (another legend). A pattern is now starting to develop with Bray Wyatt, first attacking Mick Foley and stealing his Mandible Claw, and now Jerry Lawler. In reality, this was excellent planning by WWE to give King a plausible reason to be off TV for the night and to give Vic Joseph an opportunity to do commentary for Monday Night Raw (which he took full advantage of). The body of work he has put together on 205 Live and NXT UK has been quite impressive.

Becky Lynch also seemed to make more of an emotional speech and statement with her promo on Raw that resonated more with the crowd than Sasha Banks did. This very well could be different next week, as both women are excellent on the mic.

Side Note: It is very encouraging to see that Randy Orton is well on his way to accomplishing his goal in his rivalry with Kofi Kingston. His main goal is clearly to provide some credibility to Kofi’s WWE Championship reign so he will be taken seriously in the main event scene. It is extremely unselfish of Orton to be willing to do this, and this should be appreciated (of course Kofi absolutely deserves it). It’s also very encouraging that WWE is prioritizing The Revival by including them in the Orton-Kingston feud by orchestrating an alliance between them and Orton. This alliance is working well too because it’s generating a decent amount of heat.

One other thing to mention is that WWE will have some work to do in the coming weeks in terms of finding suitable challengers to Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross for the Women’s Tag Team Championships since Bliss and Cross have pretty much exhausted all competition in a matter of just two weeks.

Categories RAW

Balor and Styles Alliance?

Could Finn Balor possibly form an alliance with AJ Styles and the OC in a few months when he returns from his sabbatical to “recharge.” AJ has publicly stated that Balor will always have an open invitation to join the OC. It’s quite frankly surprising that WWE has never chosen to orchestrate more run-ins between Balor and Styles considering they have obvious chemistry in the ring (as was shown in their October 2017 match morning AJ filled in at the last minute for Bray Wyatt due to illness).

They also have a storied history in Japan because both men were leaders of the famous Bullet Club. WWE doesn’t usually get too into acknowledging other wrestling companies (even if they are on the other side of the world). Balor joining the OC is a very interesting possibility, as he could make the group even more dominant than they already are.

Reigns Extension

Roman Reigns has officially signed a new multi-year deal with WWE which is obviously huge for the company from a business perspective. Despite the fact that Roman does not currently hold a major title, he is still considered WWE’s top dog. Let’s look at a few other contenders in the current universe in addition to Roman:

  • Seth Rollins can be thrown into that same mix considering he is the current Universal Champion and has beaten Brock Lesnar on two separate occasions.
  • Kevin Owens could also be included in that conversation in the future. While I feel his push to get him to that status is still in its embryonic stages, after WrestleMania next year in Tampa, we could be talking about Kevin Owens as one of the top guys. Speaking of Kevin Owens, he’s still under contract with the company for a few more years.
  • I still don’t quite view Kofi Kingston as being in that conversation, even though he has done surprisingly well as WWE Champion and the WWE universe is receiving his title reign along with The New Day with open arms. If his popularity continues into ‘Mania season next year (combined with his strong booking), however, he may have to be thrown into the discussion (which I would love by the way). I have always had a real appreciation for the quality of work that Kofi Kingston puts in each night).

Back to Roman: He is without a doubt, more than deserving of at least one (probably two or three) extended title runs; with him signing a brand-new deal, WWE will have a few years, if needed, to build a story that fans can wrap their arms around.

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