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Best Opinion


Hey Scott,
                    Longtime yada yada, yada.  Simple question for you and the blog. Of the rash of signees: Steen, KENTA, Devitt, and Willie Mack....which one(s) do you think have the best shot of reaching Punk/Bryan level (indy darling makes good) or Hero/Cabana (can't do nothing wit ya) and back to the indies??
 
Steen:  Totally depends on how they use him and if he buys into the system.  I don't know how much of a place there is for a brawler on the main roster, but variety is good and he's certainly a different worker.  He'll need a lot of time in the NXT system, though.

Hideo Itami:  They really want him to go far, for international money reasons and because this is really HHH's baby, so he'll do a bit of time in NXT and then probably get a shot on RAW.  He can absolutely do it all in the ring and if he can get his promos to an acceptable level, they'll have something there.

Prince Devitt:  He's the dark horse choice here, and as a super-asshole heel he could be really, really big.  He's another one where he's not giving up big NJPW money to rot in NXT, so expect to see him sooner rather than later.  

Willie Mack:  Never heard of him until he got signed and indy geeks started creaming over him, so I have no idea.  Couldn't even pick him out of a police lineup.  

Were I to guess I would say Devitt will be the next CM Punk level guy, but then I thought Adam Rose would work well on RAW too and they managed to fuck that up, so take any predictions with several shakers of salt.  
                     

Comments

  1. They should take a chance with New Jack. What's the worst that could happen?

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  2. I think Steen has a real good shot at being the next Mick Foley. Also a good shot, he can't keep his weight under control and he never gets out of NXT.

    I thnk Itami's floor is Tajiri, so no matter what, he ends up having a decent career.

    Devitt definitely is the safest choice for superstar level potential.

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  3. Steen doesn't have the promos of Foley though. Also, Foley portrayed himself as a never say die lunatic whereas Steen is all KILL STEEN KILL "I'm a badass".

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  4. Steen's biggest strength is his promos. Supposedly, that's what got him signed.

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  5. I didn't think KENTA spoke a word of English

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  6. There won't ever be another foley. Vince and hhh are firmly back in the white muscle freak camp.

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  7. Adam "Colorado" CurrySeptember 15, 2014 at 7:49 PM

    Steen has actually lost quite a bit of weight over the last year or so.

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  8. The reality is when Cena calls it a day we will repeat 93-95 WWE until Ambrose and Rollins step it up

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  9. Based off of what?

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  10. I know, but the next step is being able to keep the weight off.

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  11. I have never seen a Steen promo that blew me away. He's good, but nothing that screams superstar to me.

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  12. Based off the current roster

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  13. No one has the promos of Foley; that's way too high a bar. Steen has a broader range than what you're talking about. His later ROH work was like you described, but his promos with Generico started out hilarious and then went insane. He did phenomenal face promos in PWG, too.

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  14. Wall Street isn't fond of blacks and foreigners

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  15. Autocomplete in Gmail jumped the gun. I post to the blog by e-mail and the person I was sending to had an e-mail address too close to the blog address.

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  16. No idea why they even signed Steen. Totally worthless.

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  17. Sounds like a shitty start to the week. The slap challenge sounded like a decent promo though

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  18. This is right in my wheelhouse!

    Steen is awesome. He can deliver great face and heel promos. He works strong and garbage style. He's one of the best brawlers ever. He needs to learn WWE style, but he'll be fine.

    Itami: When you guys finally see what he can do, you will like him a lot. He's a wrestling savant.

    Devitt is a superstar. He MADE Bullet Club and was the best asshole heel I've ever seen. He can wrestle on the level of Shawn Michaels in his prime. He's the best bet of them all to be a huge star.

    Willie Mack is basically a black Samoa Joe. A huge fat guy who can really move and wrestle. He always puts on amazing matches. Promo wise...no idea.

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  19. He's been learning since coming to the US. He didn't before singing with the WWE, though.

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  20. Hero's problem was not that they had nothing for him. It was that he refused to adhere to the WWE's developmental nutrition, strength, conditioning and exercise regimen and openly bitched the whole time about being ready for a call up. I dunno if the dude was super depressed or what, but the fact that he put on like 30 lbs. or so in a short period of time shows that the WWE was totally on point to shitcan him.

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  21. Do you really need someone to list off all the recent signees and current stars who aren't muscle bound white dudes or would you rather pretend this never happened?

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  22. Yeah, I mean, he's alright. Totally a passable promo. I don't see what has ever made a Kevin Steen promo "must sign" quality, though.

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  23. Adam "Colorado" CurrySeptember 15, 2014 at 8:16 PM

    I think he only gained the weight because he stopped giving a fuck thanks to Cornette (he's about the same size now if not smaller than he was in 2010 before he blew up), so as long as he stays motivated he should be fine.

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  24. KENTA/Hideo Itami's segment on NXT showed me he could be money. Him standing in a disheveled suit, daring people to come and fight him was like something out of an Asian revenge film. Keep him mostly quiet and just let him kick ass and never back down and he'll get over just because it looks COOL.

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  25. What's the story there?

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  26. So of course they'll do the exact opposite once he gets called up to the main roster.

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  27. Boff, Marry, Kill:

    Steen, KENTA, Devitt?

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  28. I'm thinking they should book him like something out of Oldboy (the original) or A Bittersweet Life so they'll probably instead book him like Jackie Chan out of Shanghai Noon.

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  29. lol, yeah it's cornette's fault steen was a fat pig.

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  30. Check out New Jack's shoots and you'll get all the disgusting details.

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  31. I think they gave each other STDs

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  32. That is a very unnatural pose. He's sucking in his gut and has no pecs.

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  33. They're Indy guys so they're all fantastic!

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  34. NJPW isn't an indy.

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  35. Neither is NOAH.

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  36. Here's my concern for Devitt, though - they give him an ADR type gimmick and it sucks. His Bullet Club stuff was top-shelf heel work, and I can totally see him getting a foreign heel gimmick that gets too cartoony for what he can really do.


    If they gave Sin Cara as many chances as they did, Itami's going to get all that +50. He's going to get over through sheer force of will on HHH's behalf.


    Steen's the weird one. I love the dude (he was REALLY cool to me in New Orleans, so I'm probably biased here), but I don't know if he's a WWE type guy. He always struck me as an awesome indy worker and that's what he did well. I hope I'm wrong, though.

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  37. Yeah, he had kind of a Taijiri-like thing going on that I really dug.

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  38. I saw Hero live in his first fight after getting released. He was in incredible shape. I've never bought the fitness thing because it's a rumor and anyone who saw the guy in person around that time could see it wasn't true.

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  39. 1. Look at his posture.

    2. That is not what he looked like right before the cut. That's what he looked like when they signed him. Big difference.

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  40. If they don't give Devitt a Bullet Club like gimmick, he's going to have an extremely difficult time being successful. I have no idea what he's like as a face.

    Steen is super nice in person. So is Generico. But Steen is the real crap shoot here. I don't know if he can be successful if he changes from being a brawler. Hopefully he can, but I dunno.

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  41. You weren't a fan of the promos around the time he turned on Generico? Those are still some of my all time favorites.

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  42. I mean, by that logic WWE is an indy. I don't even really watch indy wrestling but if you're going to try to troll 'indy geeks' (whilst posting on a wrestling message board - ZUH?) you should at least make it believable, lest you just seem like a weird idiot.

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  43. LOL! Yeah right man.

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  44. Adam "Colorado" CurrySeptember 15, 2014 at 9:01 PM

    No one is talking to you, fucktard.

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  45. No asshole heel is in the level of Minoru Suzuki.

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  46. Tajiri was so awesome. And over pretty huge as I recall.

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  47. He got over barely speaking.

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  48. Totally. Dude is fat so therefore no good at anything. Plus totally hard to jerk it to a match with a fat dude in it.

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  49. Serious questions: what makes a gimmick Bullett-Club like? I know he led a stable, but what was the character of it?

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  50. What I've learned in this discussion:


    Dougie's still a worthless troll. So I've learned nothing, then. Fair enough.

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  51. Adam "Colorado" CurrySeptember 15, 2014 at 9:13 PM

    I see it's the vinegar and water hour...

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  52. He was arguably more of a badass than comedy Tajiri ever was in his WWE run.

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  53. I think all of them have huge potential. Hideo Itami is the most interesting to me. There's little doubt that he will get a solid Tajiri-like push. Is that his ceiling or would the WWE actually be willing to push a Japanese talent to main event levels?

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  54. Omg he doesn't think steen is great! What a jerkface!

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  55. There are plenty of fat guys that are good at stuff. Kevin Steen just doesn't happen to be one of them.

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  56. I'm sorry I don't worship this guy that you think is your friend.

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  57. I'll put it this way. List all of the ROH champs in order of talent. Is steen in the top half or the bottom half?

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  58. Crikey Mate Down Under AussieSeptember 15, 2014 at 10:30 PM

    Watching Itami's badassery at the NXT special gave me a lot of hope he will be more than a stereotype on the main roster.

    Spoiler:

    Apparently he's using the top rope double foot stomp as a finisher, that's decent enough I think to start with if they get it right but if Punk is truly not coming back you gotta give up the GTS.

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  59. I like Willie Mack's chances just due to the fact that he's actually of a decent size and he's not as sloppy looking as Steen.



    I'll REALLY like his chances if he shows HHH his "commitment to THIS. BUSINESS." by dropping some weight while in developmental.

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  60. The character was like a really super asshole Jericho. Devitt was the "Real Rock n Rolla" and acted like he was totally above everyone in NJPW because he wasn't Japanese. He wouldn't take any match-up seriously and would talk shit about everyone in English. He also rarely won clean. He was really just this insanely infuriating heel, if you were cheering for the faces.

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  61. Yeah...that's very true. I totally forgot about Suzuki. He's ridiculous.

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  62. I have never heard of Willie Mack, but watching a video of him tells me that he's a freak athlete. Also, he won't be hurt by random name generator since Willie Mack is nothing worth saving.

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  63. It will be funny if he does use the Go 2 Sleep as a finisher and people get up in arms about it, even though it's originally KENTA's move

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  64. Attempted murder...? Thats the least that could happen actually

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  65. His moveset is the issue - its an AWESOME moveset to use, but half of his moves won't be allowed (i would mark out if HHH let him use the package piledriver though).



    I hope he can adjust that.

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  66. With Heath Slater as the Owen Wilson character.

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  67. I hadn't seen much of Itami before he showed up in NXT, but what struck me right away was how he carried himself like a legit badass. (And to be fair, some of that was probably how he was booked.)


    He kicks the shit out of the freshly ex-tag champs, and he's not all smiles and celebrations. He slides out, grabs the chair, and then slides back in. The Ascension don't want any piece of that, so unfolds the chair, sits down, and gives them the "come get some" hand motions with a sneer creeping across his face.


    That's not what we see from a slightly smallish Japanese babyface. Especially in WWE.
    That's the sort of thing Austin did.
    And it's nice to see someone new--who doesn't look like John Cena--show that kind of swagger.

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  68. There's no way he's better than Ki, strong, Edwards, Aries, Davey or Black. Homicide isn't in the top half either.

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  69. Yokozuna!! (I know, i know...)

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  70. His debut match was great, and 90% of it was Regal's facial reactions. Where he went from "Tajiri is my loyal servant" to "HOLY ****, this guy is a machine, and he works for me!!"

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  71. Cause WWE sucks and never does anything right ever, amirite? LULZ

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  72. To do Terri, totally worth it.

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  73. "but then I thought Adam Rose would work well on RAW too and they managed to fuck that up"


    It was dead before it ever got to RAW man. It just wasn't going to work on a larger stage.

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  74. If KENTA just started speaking English recently, then his NXT appearance was pretty damn impressive. He already speaks better English than most southerners. Good for him!


    Also, he looked pretty awesome. I loved his mannerisms in the ring.

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  75. Once he gets to "Main roster status" I fully expect them to give KENTA the GTS finisher as a big middle finger to Punk anyway. I mean, I would be really, really shocked if they didn't have JBL or someone casually mention that KENTA/Itami was "former friends" with Punk, and that Punk had been ripping Itami off for years. If they'll bury Swagger on commentary, and he's an active wrestler, why WOULDN'T they bury No Show Punk?

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  76. So lemme get this straight: Fat Steen makes the cut and sticks around, but Chubby Hero is cut and ridiculed to hell and back? Is that right?

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  77. Or Hirohito. Depends on which side of the "WWII racist caricature" bed that Vince wakes up on that day.

    "Oh my GOD! Itami just Pearl Harbored John Cena!"

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  78. Devitt easily has the best shot. He's one of the best heels in the business already, and his work style already translates well to WWE. It's really going to come down to him getting a decent gimmick and being written well.


    KENTA, I think it's too much of an uphill climb for a Nippon guy to be taken seriously in WWE. Especially one that's just learning English now. HHH will back him hard, but I doubt he's anything more than a midcard JTTS that's a solid hand in the ring for a couple years, then makes more $$$ elsewhere.


    Steen, I remain shocked they signed him. I'm with Dougie on Steen, I don't understand any of the love he gets. Decent talker at best, and he gets the most attention for brutal matches. Plus, he's fat and will need to basically start from scratch in development, and his character in ROH needs to be scrapped. And he comes across as an outspoken guy, I don't see WWE having as much patience for that crap as Punk got.



    Willie Mack, I've only seen a couple of his matches. But, he's a chubby black guy with a face made for a comedy character. Not getting my hopes up.

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  79. Mass Transit.

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  80. He looks like shit now. He can still go, though.

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  81. Chris Hero can't cut a promo.

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  82. Their history of booking Asian wrestlers hardly gives one much hope.

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