Hey Scott.
Just a quick question about the title of the live NXT show (which by the way I thought was outstanding, although I guess that's almost a foregone conclusion at this point. Did anyone not like that show?).
The way they designed the logo, they emphasize the letters "rival" (the best I can replicate it here would be "ArRIVAL"). I haven't seen anyone else comment on this, but is this a subtle hint that an invasion storyline is in the long term plans? That NXT is going to be more than just "guys who are not quite ready", but actually a completely separate stable that they book as a true rival to the main shows?
Maybe I'm just dreaming, but I could see this being like what I wanted the original brand split to be. Raw (and now Smackdown with it) as the "sports entertainment" shows, with NXT being the "wrestling" show, building slightly different audiences for each, and giving people a reason to actually have a favorite between the two. That way when they have a cross-promotional show or "invasion", you have people genuinely rooting for each side, and which side "wins" actually matters.
No one ever gave a shit that Smackdown would win the annual cross-promotional tag match, securing the hideous trophy that was then locked away never to be seen or talked about until the next year's cross-promotional show. There were no WCW fans left to root for the "B+ Players" they had on their side during the Invasion. And WCW were on the right track with the "young wrestlers vs. the dinosaurs who'll only give you a rub when you claw it out of their cold dead hands" storyline, but of course the dinosaurs had to play the faces, meaning we were supposed to root for them to crush the young upstarts (see previous "cold dead hands" comment).
So am I crazy, or could NXT be the next "NWO"? And with the added benefit of actually having their own separate show, imagine the possibilities! "Can we trust Roman Reigns to stay WWE in this fight, or will his old NXT buddies pull him back over"? "Will Daniel Bryan go back to NXT, having been burned by the WWE's lack of faith in him"? "Is Adrian Nevel really content to be NXT champion, or could he betray his friends in order to get a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match"?
I said this was just a quick question, didn't I? Geez I like the sound of my own voice.
Anyway, thanks as always!
-Robby
Your idea of guys from NXT staging a huge invasion sounds vaguely familiar somehow. Almost as though it's something that's been done and screwed up once already.
I will say that 90% of the people on NXT are not ready for TV yet, Neville included. It's a developmental show for a reason. So no, I wouldn't read anything at all into the title.
See, what you do is, you have Ring of Honour invade at the same time. And then you combine them into a, lets call it, an 'Alliance'. Then you stop using NXT or Ring of Honour as names and refer to them only as The Alliance. But only 2nd tier guys from each faction are allowed to be a part. Build the angle up until you have WWE squash them at a ppv devoted to this Invasion.
ReplyDeleteSometimes people read way too much into shit.
ReplyDeleteI mean, yeah, the 'rival' part of arrival was emphasize, but that's probably because most if not all the matches featured long standing rivals.
Has there ever been a good "ending" to an invasion angle?
ReplyDeleteNexus...nope
Invasion...nope
Nwo...nope
You forgot the part where Stephanie McMahon runs Ring of Honor.
ReplyDeleteIs Robby's last name Baker?
ReplyDeletenot even that. it's marketing, that's all. the same reason it's "iPad" und not "Ipad".
ReplyDeleteThe Invasion angle didn't have a good beginning or middle either.
ReplyDeleteThat role will be played by Brad Maddox today. Steph's too important to the WWE.
ReplyDeleteThe original invasion failed because the WCW guys they were able to hire/keep were all second tier wrestlers with the compounded problem that they were booked to look second tier to the WWE guys. Which in essence made them 3rd tier guys. Then you had their 3 leaders be 2 McMahon's and ECW's Paul Heyman. No bloody wonder it failed. It wasn't really WCW.
ReplyDeleteI always thought it was hilarious that everyone would put aside their differences at Bragging Rights so they could win a stupid trophy. A trophy that was so important to them that it was never mentioned again. Not to mention the they acted like Smackdown and Raw had totally separate fan bases, so you had the totally illogical booking of wrestlers acting like heels on one show and faces on the other show. It really was a low point, creatively speaking.
ReplyDeleteYou'd get the same situation here...if fans aren't sure who to cheer for, they'll cheer for no one.
It's called ArRIVAL because WWE is WWE's only rival.
ReplyDeleteSo, aside from Zayn, who do we all think is ready? I would say Paige and The Ascension for sure.
ReplyDeleteRusev has been getting weekly vignettes on Raw, so I'd imagine we'll see him sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteI'd hate to see them get the Xavier Woods treatment, where there was clearly no reason to call him up since he hasn't done a thing since.
The submission that Paige used was pretty badass.
ReplyDeleteNope. You may be able to guess it based on my user name, but I prefer to just go by Robby, or maybe Robhuck.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I originally thought, and it's certainly a possibility that some lame marketing person said "Hey, shouldn't we make some of the letters larger? You know, for kids?".
ReplyDeleteBut this one still sticks in my craw, as it were. It's not a short string of meaningless letters with one randomly larger letter (like making the "X" larger in "nXt"), It's an actual word, with the first "r" shrunk down to de-emphasize it. That leaves "A Rival". And I can certainly accept the possibility that it's just to emphasize the idea that these wrestlers are all "Rivals", but then why not call it "ArRIVALS" with an "S", so it sounds like there's more than one rivalry?
I just can't get over reading it as "A Rival", or even just "Rival" (singular), both of which read to me either as a singular threat (one wrestler singled out as the "Rival", with possibly Sami Zane being that person, since he clearly had the most personal feud on the show), or the whole promotion taken overall as "A Rival" (presumedly to the main shows).
Not that any of this confirms an Invasion storyline, I just thought that if they are thinking of NXT as a "rival" then maybe (very long term) it could potentially set one up, if they continue keeping NXT as a separate brand with a different presentation style and more emphasis on wrestling. If it's popularity grows, there COULD be a lot of potential there. But like I said, just putting it out there as a chance that this could be the very first clue that they might be thinking of Invasion possibilities in the long term.
And Scott is right that the current roster isn't ready for it, but given some time for the top guys to improve, and assuming they have some defections from the more recent WWE wrestlers (Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose after the Shield kicks him to the curb, Cesaro etc…), I'm sure they could put together a pretty entertaining faction.
Or, here's a worst-case scenario for you: Maybe they mean that NXT is now a rival to all the Indie shows out there, and that HHH is going to do to the Indies what McMahon did to the territories. ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY WWE, AND DESPAIR! BE CONTENT THAT WE HAVE LEFT YOU FANS A SMALL SPACE FOR YOU UNDER OUR BOOT HEEL!
-Robby
Again, geez, I guess I like the sound of my own voice. I'll try to keep post shorter in the future.
ReplyDelete-Robby