REVIEW: NXT (July 29th, 2015)

Greetings to all. ZX is truly a kind individual and once again let me contribute to one of his already established blogs. I always thought that my first article about wrestling will be something grand and elaborate. An in-depth analysis why John Cena is underrated by the online wrestling community or maybe why The Undertaker shouldn’t have came back at “Battleground”. Yet, today I am writing my very first review of a wrestling show. And that show is the highly praised and beloved WWE NXT, which aired last night, July 29th. I won’t try to reinvent the wheel, so this article will be a simple match by match afterthoughts from a person who doesn’t think that she knows business better than a billion dollar company.

Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady vs. Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson

The night started with the traditionally comedic entrance of the “Jersey Shore” trifecta. I don’t know if it is just me, but Enzo’s tan always makes me cringe. But nonetheless, the gimmick is somewhat amusing and not every wrestler can make the crowd learn his entrance. Yet, I am not entirely sure that this gimmick can stay fresh for a long period of time. Especially if we’re talking about a possible call up to the main roster.

Facing the Mechanics (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson) Big Cass and Enzo really got a run for their money. Of course, the match did follow the traditional tag team outline that can be seen not only on NXT, but also on the flagship WWE programming. The heels cornered in the faces, a few hot tags, cleaning house, the Jersey natives seem ready to finish this… And the team of Wilder and Dawson, taking out Enzo after a chase around the outside of the ring, score a win with quite an impressive finisher called “Shatter Machine”.

Since the Vaudevillains are building a feud with the current champs, it is lovely to see the other teams getting a fair chance to impress and build a feud of their own. Wilder and Dawson came off as strong contenders and I am actually interested to see how will they get booked in the future.

Baron Corbin vs. Jesse Sorensen

Let the squash matches begin. Baron Corbin defeated Jesse Sorensen (a TNA alumni) in 22 seconds. Okay. I think I somewhat understand where this is supposed to be going. An arrogant and douchy jock heel is being built up as a threat and (maybe) possible rival for the beloved “Demon” Finn Balor, who currently holds the NXT Championship. But the problem is that Corbin doesn’t come off as threat by beating “unknown” jobbers in less than a minute. Of course, the idea of him coming in, not even in his ring gear, applying his “End of Days” finisher and leaving sounds good on paper. Yet, the fact that he doesn’t fight NXT regulars and two weeks in a row had squash matches takes away from any possible heel powerhouse build up. Baron Corbin now comes off as someone that WWE desperately wants to push, but only pushes him face first into mud.

Levis Valenzuela Jr. and Elias Samson vs. Chad Gable and Jason Jordan

Squash #2. But since it followed Corbin’s “Blink and you might just miss it” match, this tag team showdown seemed a lot stronger in comparison. I wasn’t too interested to watch this one, since Jordan and Gable’s trash talking promo was okay (I still have this huge problem with wrestlers cutting promos while talking sideways, with their backs to the interviewer and most possibly reading cue cards with a blank stare), but I have to give props for managing to make the match seem refreshing after Corbin’s snoozefest. Gable actually got quite a huge pop from the crowd after tagging in and the guys seem to work well with each other. There is a chance that this tag team might actually work. But Jordan, please, next time doing a promo - emote.

Charlotte vs. Dana Brooke

Now this one was a doozy. I read in a few reviews of the match that Dana should have won. But personally I think the outcome of the match was clear from the get go when the battle of the blondes was announced last week. Charlotte is a prized possession. The former NXT Women’s Champion since her debut on RAW as a part of the Divas Revolution was booked as a dominant force scoring wins right of the bat and even overshadowing “Casper the Unfriendly Ghost” Paige in the process. You can notice that she is being groomed to eventually beat either Nikki Bella or her successor for the belt. So booking her against an improving, but still very mediocre Dana Brooke had a very easily predictable outcome. Plus, we know that next week the Nature Girl is facing Bayley, who is the only contender to challenge current champ Sasha Banks. With the possibility of Bayley pulling out a win to establish herself as a future NXT Women’s champion, there was no way in hell the creatives would have given Charlotte two loses in a row on NXT. Yet this match did have potential. But since it took around 5 minutes and some of the time was lost to squeeze in Emma’s cliche distractions and some trash talking in the beginning, we had less than that to see actual wrestling. Right now I am not sure what is in store for Dana Brooke and her confidante Emma, since neither of them look like legit threats that could take the division by storm or that they are ready to be the top heels who would go against the babyface Bayley.

Kevin Owens in Action

Since Dana got squashed in her match, I’ll let myself call this Squash #4. After last week’s contract signing for a main event (this kind of event was even mocked on RAW before Battleground by Paul Heyman) Owens had his first in ring appearance on NXT after losing the belt at “Beast in the East”. I don’t know what black cat walked between Owens and the bookers at WWE, but since “Battleground” all of his momentum has gone down the drain. With every show Owens looks weaker and tonight’s match seemed like a big step back from what we had at after his debut on the main roster. His match against “jobber” Martin Stone gave nothing, because just like with Corbin, Owens stomped on an unknown wrestler. And that takes away from the validity of the match. Sure, he did attack him afterwards and mocked Balor on the entrance ramp, but that didn’t make him look even half as dominant as he was that night when he debuted against John Cena. I think it is high time to let Owens go, let Balor retain at TakeOver and see if KO can stand tall against the Swiss Superman, Cesaro. His time here is simply up.

NXT Tag Team Title Match: The Vaudevillains vs. Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake

Hands down the strongest match of the evening. And not that it was that good. There was nothing better on the card. Well, maybe except for the opener tag match, which was on a similar level. The Vaudevillains dominated the ring and looked stronger than the reigning champions. I still don’t really get Blake & Murphy and what are they supposed to be. Adding Alexa Bliss as their manager didn’t help either. In my diletant opinion the team lacks chemistry. But that’s just me. The Vaudevillains are actually quite entertaining and their in ring abilities are more than impressive. I think that Gotch has a chance to shine in singles competition as well. Blake and Murphy act like typical heels, nothing new or that you could call “their own”. Well, at least the crowd had fun chanting “C’mon, Barbie, let’s go party!” at Blake’s ravishing bleach blond locks and bright pink tights. But that is pretty much where the fun stops as Alexa Bliss pulled on English’s legs, quick roll up and the match ended with Barbie Glam Squad retaining. I do hope that at TakeOver The Vaudevillains will get a rematch and will become Tag Team Champions. Gotch and English not only have quite the unique gimmick, but also are cemented as a strong tag team and look dominating in the ring. To me they seem better and more deserving title holders.

P.S. A note for the lovely Alexa Bliss. I do understand that she was once a cheerleader and they are supposed to paint their faces for the back row. But this is High Definition television. I noticed more than once that her makeup is waaaay too heavy and reminds of drag, when she is an insanely beautiful young woman. Just toning it down a couple of notches would be stellar.

All in all, I honestly think that this NXT was one of the more disappointing wrestling programs I have seen. 4 squash matches, 3 of them leading to nowhere, a title defense, with the outline that we know by heart and some stiff promos…. Yeah… Back to watching “Lucha Underground”.

OPINION -- #GiveDivasAChance Transforms into a NXT Divas Revolution on Monday Night RAW

Monday Night RAW (July 13, 2015) saw what many WWE Diva fans are calling a “revolution” as many fans got what they have been begging for months on end as the NXT Divas made their debuts to tip the scales in the WWE Divas’ battle against Team Bella (Current WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella, Alicia Fox, and Brie Bella). This segment started with Nikki Bella “addressing” the Divas division with a promo about her show of force over the division and her dominance over every challenge that has stood in her way. In typical fashion, Stephanie McMahon (oddly announced as the “Principal Owner of WWE” - since when?) came out to put Nikki Bella in her place. Most fans will remember that Stephanie did the same thing during the Kaitlyn and AJ Lee feud in 2013 and last summer at the heights of both of the AJ Lee and Paige feud and the cringeworthy rivalry between the Bella Twins. Stephanie has a knack for putting their Divas in their places when they seem to step far out of line - I honestly see this as a metaphorical “glass ceiling” when she injects herself into these segments as it’s obvious that WWE doesn’t want any other Diva to be as big of an on-air personality as her.

Stephanie enters the ring and talks about how women are creating revolutions all over the world today, not just in sports - even name drops Ronda Rousey in UFC (I guess she didn’t get enough at WrestleMania) - and decrees that it’s time that the WWE Divas do the same, hinting that there are women on the roster who are clawing and scratching at the opportunity to take things to the next level. That brings Paige into the conversation, who which Stephanie acknowledges that one person can’t fight this battle alone, so she evens the scales by introducing and aligning both Becky Lynch and Charlotte to Paige’s aid. Stephanie is then interrupted by Tamina Snuka and Naomi, who demand a part of this as they have unfinished business with Paige and the Bella Twins. Stephanie McMahon gladly agrees with them and introduces current reigning NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks (oddly without said title) to the main roster, who quickly aligns herself with Naomi and Tamina.

Pleased with herself, Stephanie leaves the ring with Team Bella surrounded by the two new Diva factions. An inevitable brawl breaks out between the Divas, with the highlight of this skirmish was the image of Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks having all of the members of Team Bella trapped in the middle of the ring with their signature submission holds (Figure Eight, Seated Fujiwara Armbar, and the Banks Statement) before the members of Team Paige and Team BAD (Naomi, Tamina, Sasha) stared down as RAW went to commercial break.

The reception of this segment was monumental in the arena and across social media as my Twitter and Facebook timelines were blowing up with reactions from this segment. It’s rare for the main roster Divas to be the highlight of Monday Night RAW and I'm glad to see people talking about women’s wrestling (at least in WWE’s regard) in a positive light.

As a fan and proud advocate of women’s wrestling (ALL forms, not just limited to WWE/NXT Divas - yes, that includes TNA/Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Lucha Underground, and the independent/international scenes), I thoroughly enjoyed this segment, but at the same time, I’m not as gullible as the bulk of the fans from what I’m noticing from the comments and reactions on social media.

Remember WWE has pull this before. Fans have demanded change in the Divas division and they gave us Paige to shut us up last year to end AJ Lee’s reign of dominance. It kills me that fans fall for WWE’s ploy every single time. We complain and voice our opinions about how they are ruining their own product and they do that ONE small thing to cave to our demands. Everyone goes crazy that they got that one small thing that they wanted and instantly forgets about how much of a mess WWE creative is currently while other companies, namely Impact Wrestling, constantly get shafted by the IWC (internet wrestling community) just because they don’t cave like how WWE does to their demands. Don’t worry, I plan on writing an article on that matter at a later date.

WWE tosses their fanbase a bone for we can quit barking, only to go back to what they were doing prior to their fanbase getting vocal about their opinion and demands. Contrary to popular belief, but ONE segment isn’t going to change the state of the Divas division. I would love to be insanely optimistic like the bulk of the WWE Universe, but WWE has let me down more than made my hopes and wishes come true so it’s better to NOT buy into false hype of anything as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve seen people commenting on social media that this was the first time that “THIS IS AWESOME” was chanted during a main roster Divas segment/match ever. Whoa, nelly, hold your horses. Rewind back to AJ Lee and Paige’s first in-ring encounter after WrestleMania XXIX, it’s painfully apparent during that segment and I’m sure that it was chanted during a few of those great PPV matches during her title reign that following year. Don’t get so jaded in your “marking out” over your favorites getting one HELL of an opportunity to be personally endorsed and introduced by Stephanie McMahon herself in their debuts on the main roster that you forget what company is this.

This is the same company that is still holding African-American/black wrestlers underneath a glass ceiling, despite what people may think of the New Day and Primetime Players being showcased at the top of the WWE Tag Team Division at the moment. Then don’t get me started on JBL’s comments towards R-Truth being the “King of Motel 6”... #GiveDivasAChance? How about #GiveBlackWrestlersAChance, WWE?

The point of the matter is that Naomi has been shoved back to the back of the line towards the Divas Championship for well over a year now. She was a fierce competitor for Paige back when Paige was a rookie on the main roster in AJ Lee’s absence and Naomi is still a solid talent today. Why WWE hasn’t given her or Alicia Fox another run with the title is mind boggling for me. Instead, both women have been saddled with being set on the backburner. Sasha Banks’ future didn’t look too bright as they banded her right with Naomi and Tamina Snuka, while Alicia Fox is still the odd woman out on Team Bella (I would love to know how and why she ended up with the Bella Twins as their third member) - why not use Summer Rae or “Evil” Emma in that spot? Seriously, it’s an improvement over what they are doing otherwise on the main roster or on NXT. Even better idea, use Natalya since she needs something to do while Tyson Kidd is sidelined for possibly the rest of the year. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to have another veteran ring general in there to keep the match in order other than Tamina.

Back on point, it would have made a lot more sense to team Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks on one single team (the last few NXT tapings already went out of their way to sell Sasha Banks as a babyface in recent weeks - and to be quite honest, I REALLY hate that they went that route with her character because she works SOOO much better as a heel) against Team Bella while Paige, Naomi, and Tamina could have teamed up after feeling like they were “overlooked” after these NXT Divas’ debuts.

Regardless of how WWE managed to shift the teams around, I loved this segment up to the point where all nine of the Divas started brawling. It quickly turned into a mess. I felt that they lost the magic of the excitement that they were all garnering here from the anticipation of what the future of the Divas’ division could create. After a lot of sloppy executed moves and poor selling, the three of the “Four Horsewomen of NXT” managed to pull a memorable moment during this skirmish with all of Team Bella in their submission holds. If they were ALL on the same team it would have made sense to end the segment right here with Team Bella in full retreat mode (notice that Paige had to hand off the Divas title to Nikki who clearly forgot about it), but nope. WWE had that moment of HUGE awkwardness where both Team Paige and Team BAD (Best at Dominating) stared down before the commercial break. It didn’t help the fact that the cameras panned back to Stephanie McMahon standing at the top of the entrance ramp while Michael Cole was talking about HER instead of the Divas on commentary as they went on commercial break.

To make matters worse, this segment did NOTHING to sell what’s to come at Battleground on Sunday. Stephanie McMahon didn’t announce a match nor express that the WWE Divas Championship would be on the line - if at all - during the PPV in less than 6 days. I’m currently writing this article BEFORE the WWE Smackdown! tapings tonight, so who knows what they have in mind. You can’t have everyone challenge for the belt at once, nor can you set up one of those clusterfuck huge Diva tag team matches or battle royals because everyone has had their fill of those at this rate.

In my eyes, WWE has only backed themselves into a corner and only made the situation even worse for the Divas division. The main roster Divas division currently includes Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Alicia Fox, Naomi, Tamina Snuka, Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Paige, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Summer Rae, Lana, Layla El, Rosa Mendes, Emma, and Cameron while the NXT Divas division includes Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Carmella, Cassie (KC Cassidy), Dana Brooke, Eva Marie, Jasmin, Jessie (Jessie McKay).

That’s a LOT of names, isn’t it? Both divisions are rather crowded. Now with the additions of Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks, I have to say that the main roster as a whole is overcrowded with a lot of individuals that WWE clearly doesn’t know what to do with. The inconsistencies in the main event scene for WWE World Heavyweight Championship is proof enough of that, along with the piss poor booking of almost everyone not named Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, or John Cena.

Now that they have taken more of Triple H's precious "NXT children" under their wing, I can't imagine how WWE will be able to manage to keep booking those women as strongly as they were depicted on the NXT brand. If the treatment of Paige, Emma, and Summer Rae weren't any signals of what we could be potentially expecting in the near-future, then you need to go back and review the state of those three former NXT females' careers.

Paige and Emma went from putting on a 5-Star match to crown the first ever NXT Women's Champion one of the premiere Takeover NXT live-events on the WWE Network to becoming shells of their former selves. Emma became a dancing baffoon on the main roster when her dancing antics didn't carry over to the main roster's crowd and quickly found herself as an enhancement talent to put over some of the other Divas in lackluster matches (there's a few gems worth hunting for though...) on RAW, Main Event, Superstars, and Smackdown! before finding herself repackaged back on the NXT roster with a heel gimmick. So far she's merely acting as Dana Brooke's "sidekick" as NXT is obviously trying to market her (Dana) as the next "big thing" to come out of brand in terms of women's wrestling. Paige, on the other hand, garnered a lot of success in her debut year on the main roster - winning the Divas Championship TWICE (being the lone wolf who managed to end the tyranny of AJ Lee) and even a Survivor Series bout, but those successes became the problem. Paige was pushed to the moon right out of the gate and she has little more to aspire for on the main roster, despite being so young. Most of her fanbase has turned on her as she has become boring and "comfortable" in her position in the company. Her lackluster feud with the Bella Twins haven't done nothing to change this opinion from the WWE Universe. In my personal opinion, Paige is trying too hard to fill in the gap that AJ Lee left in the division in her departure. There's nothing wrong with being different (#FreaksAndGeeks) but at the same time, she doesn't have to be a carbon copy of AJ Lee - who was essentially a copy of Lita before her. Last but not least, we have Summer Rae - a woman who I had high hopes for on the main roster to bring a fresh new natural heel to the Divas division. Sure, she's a ripoff of Maryse Ouellet, but I'll take what I can get in her absence. From the moment that Summer Rae was brought up to the main roster from NXT, she was doomed to failure when she was stuck with the gimmick of being the dancing partner to Fandango. Look where Fandango is - nowhere. His brief run of popularity wore off and she was dropped like a bad habit after WWE tried to pair him with Layla only to have the idea of a potential lesbian make-out session made those two Divas more popular than Fandango himself. That buzz of popularity was short-lived as Summer Rae found herself in cringe worthy angles, again and again. That brings us to present day, where she is acting as the storyline replacement for Lana to Rusev after their onscreen break-up in an angle that took the Divas division back 30-40 years instead of moving it forward.

I want to be optimistic about WWE treating Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks properly on the main roster but with WWE's track record thus far I can't do nothing but fear the worst. I want their addition to mean something more for the WWE Divas. I want their division to be taken seriously again. I want the Divas to have longer, blockbuster matches that everyone can be proud of. I want the WWE Divas to be contributors to the high degree of athleticism that we come to expect from the WWE product. I want the WWE Universe to see ALL of the Divas, not just the NXT Divas as assets to the roster and not just pretty faces. C'mon people. Impact Wrestling can't keep women's wrestling alive in the mainstream product of professional wrestling on their own. It's LONG past due for WWE to contribute - big time. The NXT Divas took the first steps, and now is the time for the rest of the Divas division to take things to the next level or it's all for nothing in this revolution towards progress.

I ask ALL of you who love women's wrestling as much as I do one thing. Don't let #GiveDivasAChance stop your demands for wanting more for the WWE Divas after ONE segment. Let WWE know that you want to see this type of change continue. They aren't going to make the division better until we voice our opinions as a whole.